For months, members of local PTAs had looked to the meeting as endgame, when Board of Education members were scheduled to vote on whether to relinquish unused school sites, including two in Potomac, to the county as "workforce housing" for teachers, police officers and others who might not be able to afford Montgomery's high housing prices.

Concerned parents had lobbied County Council members, started letter-writing campaigns and testified at public hearings about their opposition to the plan, which they said would eliminate school sites that could be needed by an ever-growing student population.

But when Monday night's meeting finally arrived -- with PTA presidents, school principals and parents packing the meeting room -- that vote never came and board members hardly discussed affordable housing at all.

Instead, the Board of Education voted in favor of a proposal by Superintendent Jerry D. Weast to build a new Seven Locks Elementary School on one of the properties previously suggested for housing, a 9.9-acre property on Kendale Road in Potomac.

The Kendale Road property is one of three unused school sites in Montgomery County being considered as potential sites for affordable housing. The other locations include 20 acres on Brickyard Road in Potomac, which had been set aside for a middle school, and 1.75 acres on Edson Lane in North Bethesda adjacent to Tilden Middle School.

County Executive Douglas M. Duncan had asked the Board of Education in October to declare the properties as no longer needed for school purposes. Duncan asked that the school board transfer the property to Montgomery County as space for affordable housing.

Weast had supported that idea and argued that the housing would not only help county employees buy homes locally, but would also offset a projected budget shortfall for Montgomery County Public Schools.

But on Monday night, Weast changed his stance and instead said further study is needed to determine the best use for these properties.

"I am not asking the Board of Education to declare any of the three aforementioned properties surplus to the needs of the school system at this time," Weast said.

Weast said he had revised his recommendation following an emotional public hearing earlier this month during which families argued that selling off school property was not in the best interests of their children.

Instead, he asked board members Monday to authorize Montgomery County Public Schools to explore opportunities to increase its assets and better serve the needs of its growing student population.

The board also agreed with Weast's recommendation that Montgomery County Public Schools and the county should examine whether developing the third unused school property on Edson Lane in North Bethesda through a public/private partnership would help fund other school projects including the Seven Locks school.

Seven Locks Elementary School is scheduled to undergo several building projects starting next year with the construction of a 10-room addition. Montgomery County Public Schools plans to complete a new gymnasium at the school by early 2007 and Seven Locks is scheduled to undergo an 18-month modernization beginning in 2009.

But Weast said constructing a new Seven Locks Elementary School on the Kendale property is more cost effective and less disruptive than the currently planned series of additions.

"It is less expensive to build a new facility at a new site rather than phasing construction at an existing facility over a number of years," Weast said. "Also, we would avoid the considerable expense that would be required to improve the access to the current Seven Locks Elementary School site."

A new, larger Seven Locks Elementary School would render the current school building unnecessary, he said. If additional research shows that "sufficient value can be generated," Weast said he would recommend that Edson Lane and the current Seven Locks property be declared surplus, and turned over to the county or be developed through a public/private partnership.

If a new school is needed years from now, the Board of Education could reclaim the former Tuckerman Elementary School on Lochinver Lane in Potomac, Weast said. The school is now leased by McLean School of Maryland, which enlarged the original building to accommodate its high school.

Weast also said he found it preferable to find a new location for a middle school or elementary school within the Thomas S. Wootton Cluster rather than developing the Brickyard Road site. He said he would wait to see if a more suitable site was found before revisiting the issue.

Falls Road Local Park, approximately 20 acres at Falls Road and Falls Chapel Way, is a former school site within the Wootton cluster that now includes baseball diamonds, soccer fields and Hadley's Park -- an area containing play equipment for physically challenged children and their able-bodied peers.

Rick D'Arienzo, a project manager for the park division of the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, said the county acquired the land in 1986, but that there is a provision for allowing the school system to reclaim it.

School board President Sharon Cox said on Tuesday that she thought the affordable or "work-force" housing issue would be revisited.