The Anne Arundel County Board of Education voted unanimously on Jan. 18 to approve the construction agreement between the Board of Education and PR II Arundel Gateway Land, LLC.

The agreement allows the developer to hire a general contractor and award a contract to build the additional classrooms.

Construction is scheduled to begin in June and completed by July 2013.

The two-story, 12-room addition will be located on the west side of the school. A small connecting corridor to the school will be added.

The additional classrooms will provide 255 more seats at the school, which has a current enrollment of 2,285 students.

Given the design and space layout, the state says the facility currently can properly service, educate and house 2,208 students.

The classrooms are being built in anticipation of an increase in student enrollment that will occur when the proposed Arundel Gateway Project is completed.

The Arundel Gateway Project is an effort to accommodate the employees who are expected to fill thousands of jobs that will come to Fort Meade as a result of the Base Realignment and Closure process, which came to an end in September 2011.

The project is scheduled to be comprised of 1,850 residential units; 100,000 square feet of office space; 150,000 square feet of retail space; and a possible hotel near Route 198 in Laurel, east of the Baltimore-Washington Parkway.

Anne Arundel County Public Schools Chief Operating Officer Alex L. Szachnowicz said the estimated cost to design, construct and fully outfit the classrooms at Meade High is $4.5 million.

"The developers will hire, purchase, contract and pay all the invoices directly with no funds ever going to or through the county schools," Szachnowicz said.

A general contractor has not been yet been hired and a contract has not been awarded.

Donna Sills, executive vice president and general counsel of regional developer Greenberg Gibbons Commercial, said PR II Arundel Gateway, LLC will make a submission sometime this month for a building permit from the Anne Arundel County Office of Planning and Zoning to construct the classrooms.

Szachnowicz anticipates minimal disruption to the existing building.