The soonest either project will take place is 2009, but Seven Locks parents say the switch will limit disruptions and inconveniences to their children.

"We're one of the first schools to ask to move back," said Chris Rigaux, Seven Locks' PTA president.

The swap would not affect the two-year, back-to-back construction projects of a 10-room addition and gymnasium scheduled to begin at Seven Locks in 2005, Rigaux said. But, she added, it would save students at the Bethesda school from being subjected to three years of construction planned within four years.

The three Seven Locks projects are part of Montgomery County Public Schools' recommended $1 billion construction budget, which the Board of Education approved Thursday.

Before Thursday's vote, according to Rigaux, who attended the meeting, Board of Education President Pat O'Neill read a resolution from Seven Locks parents asking board members to consider planning construction of Seven Locks' addition and gymnasium to coincide with a later planned modernization.

It also cited Seven Locks' preference for students to attend the closer Radnor Center holding school in Bethesda instead of North Lake holding school in Rockville. Seven Locks families would prefer to have their children at Radnor because it is approximately four miles from Seven Locks while North Lake is more than nine miles away, Rigaux said.

O'Neill could not be reached for comment, but Rigaux said while board members did not agree to the first request, they were not adverse to the possibility of moving the students from North Lake to Radnor, as was requested in the resolution, if Farmland was agreeable to the switch. If the holding schools are traded, the modernization dates would also be swapped.

"Farmland would have to move up its modernization by one year. ... If we were willing to switch with Farmland, [the Board of Education] was open to that arrangement. I was very pleased," Rigaux said.

He said he was waiting to hear from Toni Karlin, PTA president at Farmland, about whether Farmland parents would be amenable to busing Farmland students to North Lake rather than Radnor.

Karlin told The Gazette Monday she was willing to consider the suggestion as long as it did not delay construction at Farmland.

Like Seven Locks, Farmland is also scheduled to begin back-to-back construction for an addition and a gymnasium in 2005. But unlike Seven Locks, Farmland is already overcrowded. Karlin said the school was built for 435 students, has an enrollment of 575, and makes do with nine portable classrooms.

"I'm willing to be bumped up, not back. We've waited a long time," Karlin said. "As long as it doesn't affect our gym or addition, I'd be willing to work with them."

Seven Locks, which has 253 students, is getting the addition so that approximately 200 to 250 children can be reassigned to it from Potomac Elementary School, which is also overcrowded. Originally planned for 488 students, Potomac houses 596 students today.

Montgomery County Public Schools administrators are following a 2001 directive from the County Council to build an addition at Seven Locks and redistrict Potomac Elementary before the modernization.

The later modernization date would also make it possible for Seven Locks students to be bused to the closer Radnor Center holding school in Bethesda instead of North Lake holding school in Rockville.

Radnor is set to receive Farmland Elementary School students in 2011 when the North Bethesda school begins 18 months of modernization. By then, Seven Locks students would be nearing the end of their 18-month stay at North Lake.

Rigaux said the distance from both Farmland to Radnor and from Farmland to North Lake is approximately six miles so the North Bethesda school loses nothing in transportation by agreeing to change holding schools. It gains by getting its modernization taken care of sooner, while the benefits Seven Locks obtains by delaying modernization outweigh the negatives, Rigaux said.