About 27,000 public school students on Aug. 9 will answer their first roll call for the new academic year, several hundred more than the year before.

The increase in students reflects overall county population growth which is projected to reach 320,000 residents by 2017, forcing infrastructure and personnel increases to the forefront of the Baldwin County School System, according to spokesperson Terry Wilhite.

“There’s lots of work for us to do,” Wilhite recently told a gathering at a North Baldwin Chamber of Commerce breakfast meeting.

Wilhite cited the 14-1 student-teacher ratio for the coming year, a reduction of more than 100 portable classrooms from the previous year and initiating comprehensive changes in attendance zones as positive factors in dealing with the growth.

The BOE’s main planning tool is is a software program designed as a growth-projection tool which eventually will provide comprehensive information ranging from comparing student grades and high-crime area to the location of fire hydrants on campuses.

Daphne East Elementary School was chosen several months ago by the BOE as a pilot project due to rapid area growth and the relatively small number of jurisdictions — two school board districts and the city of Daphne.

The data eventually will be utilized by law enforcement, municipalities and the Baldwin County Commission to address growth and long-term planning issues.

The program is described as a marriage between data and maps which will assist in planning school facilities, bus routing, walk-zone identification, school safety and emergency planning and real estate research for new school construction.

“We used to base growth on live birth rates,” Wilhite said. “This is the first time we can plot where every student lives. We can see what is there today and what is planned to be built in the next few years because the cities and county government are including their plans in the database.”

Data entry is continuing to map fire hydrant locations, photos of classroom locations, doors, windows and gates, line-of-sight information and locations of fire stations and response time, as well as demographics.

The system will be capable of generating three-dimensional sub-surface maps and details on topography, soil types, size of tracts needed, off ramps and flood zones, all of which will be utilized for planning school expansion projects.

The data, which is being supplied by BOE and county personnel, will be shared with municipalities. David Pimperl, director of the county’s computer information services, said Eastern Shore and coastal municipalities already are using the data package for planning purposes.

The Commission plans to use the system as a tool for assessing infrastructural needs to address area of growth, including transportation, health care and utilities.