Wake County elementary students could be forced to go to year-round schools or attend split sessions even if school leaders get all the money they want for new schools from voters in November.

School administrators said Monday that they might not be able to obtain the land and find enough contractors to keep up with $400 million to $500 million a year in construction if the largest proposed bond issue passes.

They warned that many of the new schools might not be ready until 2009. That would lead to unpopular short-term solutions such as mandatory year-round assignments and splitting schools into morning and afternoon sessions.

Wake needs the new schools to cope with growth that is expected to bring 40,000 more students by 2010.

Mike Burriss, Wake's assistant superintendent for facilities, said he's uncertain how many schools could be built in a year. "I don't know what the market can bear or not bear," Burriss said. "I just know that when I put more out there, I strain the market."

Bonds and buildings

Any delay in relief of the crowding in schools might make it more difficult to muster support in November for a bond issue that could exceed $1 billion. It was already expected to face a major challenge because repaying the bonds would require a property-tax increase.

Under the most expensive of three spending options that the district presented Monday to the school board, by 2010, Wake would build 42 elementary schools for which it doesn't own land yet. Administrators hope to recommend some sites next week.

"It's a tight real-estate market and a challenge we need to overcome," Burriss said.

Tom Anhut, a divisional president for the home-building company Toll Brothers, said the school district ought to acquire the land it needs before residential development comes to an area.

"If you wait for development, the cost is already above what the public sector can pay," he said.

Anhut added that it's impractical for the school district to count on developers to sell land at a discount. Only very large developments such as Wakefield in North Raleigh or Heritage in Wake Forest can afford to sell land for less than it's worth, he said.

Wake has bought land in both Wakefield and Heritage.

Anhut said buying land years in advance is not that risky in Wake because the real-estate market has been so strong. Such purchases also would give developers an idea of where schools will be built.

"They can start dictating, to a degree, where the growth will be," Anhut said.

In 2004, Wake school administrators proposed buying sites well in advance of building schools, but the school board decided it didn't have the money for that.

"If we had more money, we could have bought more land and built more new schools," said board member Ron Margiotta, co-chairman of the facilities committee. "If we had it, we'd be in a better position today."

Dave Simpson, the North Carolina building director for Carolinas AGC, a trade group for general contractors in the Carolinas, said finding land for schools will only get more expensive.

Simpson added that administrators also might be right about the potential shortage of contractors and subcontractors to handle all the work.

Burriss said the school district always considers the construction market. "You have to pace yourself to get a reasonable price and meet your schedule," he said.

But a building program of $400 million to $500 million a year would swamp the estimated $150 million the district now spends. The Triangle construction market now amounts to about $500 million a quarter.

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