Four of the 10 new projects in the county school system’s capital budget are in the Bethesda-Chevy Chase cluster, where crowded schools are giving officials some of their biggest headaches.

In his first budget proposal since taking over the state’s largest school system, Montgomery County Public Schools Superintendent Joshua P. Starr bucked a request by County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) to reduce capital expenditures, although some projects for middle and high schools were delayed by one year.

Starr is seeking $1.49 billion over six years to build schools and renovate buildings — about $130 million more than the previous six-year capital spending plan. The 10 new projects total $154 million in new construction.

Starr recommended additions at three elementary schools (Bethesda, North Chevy Chase and Rosemary Hills), in addition to a new middle school for Bethesda, although none of the projects would be finished until August 2015. All the schools in that cluster are projected to be over 100 percent capacity through the 2014-2015 school year.

In the recommendation he made Friday to the Board of Education, Starr also included two elementary school additions over the next six years in the Downcounty Consortium, which serves Silver Spring and Takoma Park, as well as a middle school addition and an elementary school in the Richard Montgomery cluster.

With the additions, the Downcounty Consortium has the most capital projects in the plan with 13. The Bethesda-Chevy Chase cluster has 10 projects in the pipeline, the second-most.

Starr also recommended delaying modernizations for middle and high schools, citing limited funding.

In his memo to the school board, Starr indicated he understood the desire from Leggett to borrow less money for capital projects. But he wrote that “the desire to maintain the AAA bond rating needs to be balanced with the fact that we must provide sufficient space for our students to learn.”

The school system’s enrollment is more than 146,000 this year, and is projected to grow by another 10,000 by 2017. Of the system’s 25 high school feeder clusters, 14 are at more than 100 percent capacity, and four, including Bethesda-Chevy Chase and Richard Montgomery, are more than 120 percent.

Normally, when a cluster goes over 120 percent of enrollment capacity, development in the area goes into a moratorium. But Bethesda-Chevy Chase, Northwest and Northwood have “placeholder” projects for the future that allow development to proceed.

Nine out of the 10 projects Starr added to the capital plan are designed to prevent Bethesda-Chevy Chase, Northwest and Northwood clusters from going into moratorium.

Asked to put a price tag on all the school system’s total needs, school system Chief Operating Officer Larry Bowers replied, “I couldn’t even give you that number it’s so big.”

Leggett had asked all agencies to trim their capital budget requests; for the school system, that would have been about $34 million.

“Given that we’ve called for a reduction, if they’re calling for an increase, something would seem to be out of whack,” said Patrick K. Lacefield, a spokesman for Leggett.

Councilman Craig L. Rice (D-Dist. 2) of Germantown said he expects that if the school board approves Starr’s request, it will be cut by the County Council.

While he said he was pleased with the overall spending in Starr’s plan, Steve Augustino of the Montgomery County Council of Parent-Teacher Associations said his group was unhappy the secondary school modernizations were being delayed.

“They’re not [Americans with Disabilities Act]-compliant,” Augustino, the chairman of council’s Capital Improvements Program Committee, said of some schools. “They weren’t designed for the level of technology that we have in there. There’s only so much you can do with the shell of the building.”

The Board of Education will conduct public hearings on the capital budget Nov. 10 and Nov. 14. The school board will make a recommendation on Nov. 17.

Leggett will use that recommendation when he considers the county’s capital spending plan, which will be presented to the council in January.

ecunningham@gazette.net, aujifusa@gazette.net