The neighborhood associations surrounding Seven Locks Elementary School want their say about a plan to close the school and construct a replacement on nearby Kendale Road.

Neighborhood leaders called for public hearings on the future of the school at a community meeting they hosted on June 9.

"As taxpayers and citizens, we have a right to be heard on issues affecting the quality of our children's education and the quality of life of our neighborhoods," said Howard Milchberg, president of the Kendale Neighborhood Citizens Coalition, to an audience of about 100 residents.

The group is united only in its demand for hearings, not by any mutually supported alternative plan.

"The fact we're jointly sponsoring this does not mean we're on the same page," Milchberg said. "We respect diversity of opinion."

But the community's demand for public hearings may have come too late.

"The horse is out of the barn," said Joseph Lavorgna, director of planning and capital programs for Montgomery County Public Schools, during a phone interview. "The County Council has decided to build a new Seven Locks school. We are not closing the school, we are rebuilding it at the Kendale site."

While the decision is set to build the new school on the Kendale site, there will be opportunity for neighborhood input in the next phase, said Ken Hartman, chief of staff for County Councilman Howard A. Denis (R-Dist.1) of Chevy Chase, during a phone interview Tuesday.

"The bulldozers are not coming for some time, as there's a two-year planning process in building a new school," he said. "There's going to be extensive work in the community on the design of the new school and the decision as to what will happen to the old school."

Still neighborhood associations, such as West Bradley and the Deerfield-Weathered Oak citizens associations, said they want public hearings before any further action is taken.

They are now circulating a petition calling for open hearings, started a letter and e-mail campaign and have set up an informational Web site at www.save7locksschool.org.

In a letter sent to the County Council on June 2, they questioned the decision-making process and requested public meetings to address concerns about building a new school. Their questions include the budget constraints behind the plan and uses for the original school site if it is deemed surplus.

"Generally, we do not get involved in school issues," said Sandy Vogelgesang, West Bradley Citizens Association board member. "We are frustrated by the lack of, or conflicting, information and want to make more information available to the community."

The county should have made an effort to bring surrounding neighborhood associations into a decision that impacts them all, Milchberg said.

"The affected neighborhoods, unlike the PTA, were never contacted by anybody except by PTA parents that live in the neighborhood," he said. "We argue there should be more hearings on this -- the process moves way too fast."

But residents were fully involved in the decision via the Seven Locks PTA participation in hearings held in early spring, said school board President Sharon W. Cox (At large) of Germantown, in a telephone interview.

"The school community was well aware of it because they testified at hearings," she said. "Naturally, if the school community is involved, homeowners should be aware of what is happening."

In fact, the impetus behind the decision to relocate the school in lieu of renovating it was largely based on input from the school community, Lavorgna said.

A signed petition from the Seven Locks PTA questioned the wisdom of surplusing the Kendale site, an option that was then under consideration, because it might be needed for school construction. It also mentioned the undue strain the existing school's students would face due to renovation plans, and the impact the school's expansion would have on the "dangerous" intersection of Seven Locks Road and Bradley Boulevard.

Regardless, citizens association leaders believe they should have had direct input into the decision process.

"[Montgomery County schools Superintendent] Jerry Weast says he received input from the community," said Cyril Draffin, president of the Deerfield Weathered Oak Citizens Association. "But the county only spoke with people with properties contiguous to the Kendale property, not the old neighborhoods adjacent to the school."

Plans for the school have been under discussion for the past three years.

Originally, the county planned to modernize it with a new gymnasium and a10-room addition. That changed on May 6 when Weast suggested amending the Capital Improvements Program (CIP) for 2005 and replacing the school with a larger building on Kendale Road.

He said building a replacement school on the Kendale site, about a mile west of the existing school, would cost $14.7 million as opposed to $17.7 million for the renovation.

The replacement school would accommodate 550 to 600 students, but with a total capacity for 740 students. The existing school, one of the smallest in the county, has 263 enrolled students and a capacity for 294.

The Montgomery County Council approved construction of a new school on May 14. It is tentatively scheduled to open in September 2007, about three years earlier than the estimated time to complete the existing school's renovation.

Despite meetings and phone calls with county officials, association leaders said they remain confused and frustrated.

"It's been a little bit of a shell game," Draffin said. "I've talked to planning people in the county school system, talked to the County Council, talked to the school board. I get conflicting stories and there's no one person to go to where you get straight information."