MCPS expects Whitman to be 270 students over capacity by 2018, a representative from facilities management told principal Alan Goodwin in late October. The school will need another five to seven classrooms to accommodate the extra students, Goodwin said.

The county will decide how to handle the growth after completing a facilities study next year, he said. About ten schools, including Whitman, will be studied.

The current 1,929-student population is about 90 students over capacity, Goodwin said. While the slight crowding makes scheduling tight, using classrooms in Whittier Woods makes the situation manageable, he said.

The biggest scheduling difficulty overcapacity has created is a lack of space, counselor Kenneth Putt said.

“A lot of teachers don’t have their own room,” he said. “They’re floating, so they must move from one room to another during periods, which is really hard.”

The county can hopefully provide additional space to accommodate expansion in the interim before an eventual addition to the building, Goodwin said.

“The worry would be in the transition time, before new classrooms are built,” he said. “But it isn’t going to be a sudden acceleration of enrollment. Portable classrooms, or relocatables, are a possibility to tide us over.”

The county isn’t currently discussing district boundary changes, although it may in the future. Expanding enrollment is less of a problem than shrinking enrollment, Goodwin said.

“As long as we get more space, expansion is easier because we get new staff and more resources and that’s all helpful,” he said. “It also helps with course offerings.”