Millions more was spent on additions and renovations, but dozens of projects added new administrative offices, counseling suites, updated libraries, labs and fine arts rooms, teachers' lounges and parking lots.

"That's not something that my administration can wash its hands of, " said Octavio Visiedo, superintendent from 1990 to 1996.

Visiedo said the board made specific promises during the bond campaign for additions such as art and music suites. More classrooms were needed, he said, but if plans changed, parents complained.

District staff also say the state has a say in where and when school systems can add new classrooms. And they say millions of dollars had to be spent upgrading existing schools and adding essentials such as new roofs and modern technology.

Parents say the district should have spent more money on new classrooms. Citrus Grove Elementary has a new administrative suite, a computer lab and some resource rooms, all part of the bond program.

But the school, built in the 1950s, has 13 portable classrooms. Several are so old, the wood frames have rotted. The media center can barely accommodate two classes. The stage is used for storage.

"What we really needed were classrooms, " School Board member Marta Pérez said.

OPENING TO CROWDS

New schools didn't fare much better - a majority were sideswiped by crowding as early as opening day.

In western Miami-Dade, Braddock High opened in 1990 with about 3,800 students, 800 more than the school's building capacity. North of Miami Lakes, Joella Good Elementary opened in 1990 at 350 students over capacity. Near west Kendall, Howard Doolin Middle opened with about 400 students too many.

Education experts are increasingly pushing for smaller schools, but some parents say the School Board should have built campuses that matched the needs of a growing community.

In the bustling neighborhoods of northwest Miami-Dade, Christopher McCarthy spent six years squeezed into Palm Springs North Elementary. He studied state capitols in a cramped portable classroom, took gym in a backyard without a ball field and shared a computer in a lab often too small for his class. Middle school was supposed to be different. Lawton Chiles Middle School opened three years ago on a sprawling campus without a single portable.

But more than 1,400 students showed up for class that year, about 100 more than the school's building capacity. By the second year, enrollment surged to almost 1,900 - 600 over capacity. Students crammed into storage rooms and offices, and 12-year-old Christopher in the first days of school sprinted to his packed civics class in case he couldn't find a desk.

"This school opened overcrowded. There should have been portables sitting there before the school opened up, " said Christopher's mother, Diana. "Somebody dropped the ball." Last June, the board voted to build bigger schools: elementary schools for 1,500 students, middle schools for 2,100 and high schools for 3,600.

Pérez said she doesn't like the idea but she voted for it because she wants to quickly ease crowding.

"We're put in a very difficult position, because this isn't ideal, " she says. "But [the district staff] comes to us and and tells us this is all because of the mistakes of the past and that this is the best we can do for students. . . . It's always like an urgency and an emergency."

The Legislature this year started requiring smaller schools, but Miami-Dade has permission to build larger campuses, and later break them up into smaller schools. "Even though the concept of smaller schools is great, Okaloosa County can do that, not Dade, Broward, Orange and other high-growth counties, " said Victor Alonso, with the district's planning office.