In November, parents of students at Seven Locks Elementary School in Bethesda suggested to parents at Farmland Elementary School in Rockville that the two schools swap their modernization dates. The proposal was brought to the county Board of Education on Nov. 20. The change, Seven Locks parents argued, would benefit Farmland since it would push its scheduled 18-month modernization up from 2010 to 2009.

And the switch would also benefit Seven Locks, whose parents do not want their children to have to travel to a Rockville holding school -- Radnor Center in Bethesda would be available should the change go through -- that is located five miles further than Radnor, which is four miles from Seven Locks. Both holding schools are equidistant from Farmland, according to Chris Rigaux, PTA president at Seven Locks.

Seven Locks parents also argue the delay would allow students to benefit from a new10-classroom addition and new gymnasium for at least two school years before leaving for a holding school while the modernization takes place. Students do not leave school while additions are built.

The addition is needed at Seven Locks to accommodate about 250 students who are being reassigned in 2006 from overcrowded Potomac Elementary School.

At the time Seven Locks first proposed the swap, school board members said it was up to Farmland to get the ball rolling, Rigaux said.

"The Board says it can't do anything until they hear from Farmland," Rigaux said.

Last week, Sharon Cox, Board of Education president, said in a telephone interview that if there is to be a change in the modernization schedule, the request needs to come from Farmland as well as from Seven Locks.

Cox also said the board needs assurance that families other than those who currently have children attending the schools want the change.

"We need to see documentation of outreach and that the community is interested in making the switch," Cox said. "It is so far in the future that we want to be sure the current community isn't committing a future parent community ... who truly will be affected by it."

Meanwhile, while some Farmland parents say they are amenable to the idea, they want to hear it from a school official -- the Board of Education or Montgomery County Public Schools.

"We don't have a piece of paper from somebody in authority," said Toni Karlin, PTA president at Farmland. "That's where it needs to come from."

She said parents are not necessarily taking the proposal seriously since it has not come from an official, which is unlikely to come.

Joseph Lavorgna, director of planning and capital programming for Montgomery County Public Schools, said the Board of Education is not likely to focus attention now on modernization dates that are years away.

"If both [schools] would support the idea, I don't think anyone would have difficulty with it, [but] this idea has such a long time to come to pass," Lavorgna said. "This is not something the Board needs to take up until the CIP (Capital Improvements Program), or the CIP after that."

In November, school officials said swapping modernization dates had never been allowed, but a school seeking to delay the process had never approached them.

Some Farmland parents do have reservations about changing the schedule, Karlin said, because Farmland, unlike Seven Locks, has been overcrowded for years -- currently 140 students over capacity. There are nine portable classrooms for the students.

Farmland is scheduled to receive an eight-room addition during the 2005-06 school year followed by a gymnasium in the 2006-07 school year.

"Parents are concerned we'll get our addition finally -- our gym finally -- and then we'll move out," Karlin said. "Our kids won't benefit."

Karlin also said Farmland families are concerned that the school's modernization, whether it's in 2009 or 2010 might not even happen because of funding issues.