Plans to build a new Seven Locks Elementary School in Potomac rather than renovate the current building and construct an addition and a gymnasium received high marks from a County Council committee last week.

But some area parents question the change in plans after three years of work in the community and wonder if they have any say in the matter.

"There has been no presentation of this proposal to the community," said Janis Sartucci, a Churchill Cluster coordinator who represents PTAs of about 6,600 students in eight schools "There has been no opportunity to think it through, respond, ask logical questions."

Montgomery Superintendent Jerry D. Weast said that the new plan is largely based on community input. The Board of Education decided to make the switch after receiving public comments on the county's previous plan to use the open Kendale site for affordable housing.

"The CIP (Capital Improvements Program) had the 10-room addition," Weast said. "This is an amendment to it. The reason there is an amendment to it is that we were listening to the community...And we will continue to keep our ears open for new ideas."

The Montgomery County Council's Education Committee unanimously recommended that the council accept the amended plan, part of Montgomery County Public Schools' Capital Improvements Program (CIP) for 2005. While the County Council is scheduled to vote on the school budget Friday, the design process for the individual projects does not begin until later this summer.

Under the new proposal, the county would build a larger school at the nearby property on Kendale Road near Kentsdale Drive, about a mile west of Seven Locks Elementary School. Building a new school instead of the addition would have an approved capacity of about 550 to 600 students, with a core capacity that could accommodate up to 740 students in the future. The school, built to accommodate 294, currently has an enrollment of 263 students.

The total cost of building a replacement on the Kendale site is estimated to be about $14.7 million, while the previous plan for renovating Seven Locks and building an addition and a gymnasium would cost about $17.7 million. If approved, the new school would open in September 2007, a year later than the addition and gymnasium would have been completed, but three years before the renovations would have been finished.

"Overall, building a replacement facility would be the preferable way to go," said Joseph Lavorgna, director of planning and capital programs for Montgomery County Public Schools, adding that the new school would offer greater capacity and reduce the cost.

Weast said building a bigger school on the Kendale site also would ease overcrowding at Potomac Elementary School and Seven Locks, while balancing elementary school enrollments in the cluster at 500 to 600 students per school.

"Potomac [Elementary School] has got too many of the mobile units on it that are eating up their second playground," Weast said. "It is too far down the road for re-modernization, in my opinion, like all of our schools are. And Seven Locks is more of a hazard for long-term use."

Another benefit of building a replacement is that the construction can occur without disrupting school operations or displace students.

While school officials view the new site as an improvement, the sudden change in plans has puzzled some community members, many of whom were involved in the original plans for expanding Seven Locks.

Sartucci said she did not know about the change until she saw it on the Education Committee's agenda. She believes the community has been cut out of the process.

"In four months we have thrown out three years of planning," Sartucci said. "This is millions and millions of our tax payer dollars. I don't want to be confused. I want to know exactly what's being planned and exactly what's being built."

Seven Locks Elementary School is holding an emergency PTA meeting to discuss the issue at 7:30 tonight at the school, 9500 Seven Locks Road.

School officials said Thursday that there will be plenty of time for public input and plan remains flexible.

"The current process allows a couple of different opportunities for the board to hear from concerned citizens about any issue in the CIP without setting up separate hearings on individual issues," said Sharon Cox (At large) of Germantown, president of the Montgomery County Board of Education.

The board will take comments from the PTAs later this summer, Lavorgna said, followed by recommendations from the superintendent in the fall and a public hearing in November, at which point the board may alter the scope of the Seven Locks replacement or any other project.