Neighborhood associations and PTA representatives objecting to the construction of a new Seven Locks Elementary School thought they had won their first battle with school officials last week as a request for a meeting about the project was granted.

But just hours before the meeting was to take place, the school board approved an architect for the project, which stunned residents who oppose closing the existing school on Seven Locks Road and building a much larger school on Kendale Road.

"We were dismayed that the very day we finally get to meet with school board staff to discuss our concerns about the closing, the board selects an architect to build the new school," said Sandy Vogelgesang, a West Bradley Citizen's Association board member, during a phone interview. "Why did they have to rush into this? We spoke out at the board meeting and said their actions were precipitate."

In addition to her group, Vogelgesang said the Kendale Neighborhood Citizens Coalition and the Deerfield-Weathered Oak, Seven Locks and West Montgomery citizen associations plan to contest the school board's selection of an architect.

"There's a 30-day appeal process, and we plan to pursue that. We're also exploring other legal actions," she said.

School officials said they are not rushing the process and that residents are either misinterpreting, or taking out of context, county guidelines and regulations related to the replacement of a school.

"I think there is confusion, which is unfortunate, resulting in assertions from the community that the process is not being followed," said Joseph Lavorgna, Montgomery County Public Schools director of planning and capital programs, in a telephone interview after the meeting.

Plans for the school have been under discussion for the past three years, but controversy began mounting in late spring.

Originally, the county wanted to modernize the school with a new gymnasium and a 10-room addition.

That changed on May 6 when Montgomery County Public Schools Superintendent Jerry D. Weast proposed replacing it with a larger building on the Kendale site, about a mile west of the existing school on Seven Locks Road.

That proposal was made largely from community input, Weast said at the time.

Part of that community input included a signed petition from the Seven Locks PTA in February that questioned the wisdom of plans to surplus the Kendale site for affordable housing, an option that had been under consideration, since it might be needed for school construction.

The County Council approved the construction budget for a new school at the Kendale site on May 14 and it is now scheduled to open in September 2007. It will cost $11.5 million as opposed to $17.7 million estimated for the renovation of the existing school.

The replacement school will have a core capacity for 740 students, while the existing school, one of the smallest in the county, has 263 enrolled students and a capacity for 294.

In June, a number of neighborhood associations surrounding the existing school demanded public hearings before further action was taken.

Weast agreed to the July 6 meeting and sent school officials, including Lavorgna, to speak to about 20 neighborhood representatives.

School officials viewed the meeting as an opportunity to answer questions about the process for building the new school, not to debate plans about whether the school will actually be built.

The decision to replace the school with a larger building is settled, Lavorgna said.

"The County Council has approved a budget and now the architect's been selected," he said. "We're moving forward."

The July 6 appointment of an architect simply confirmed the community's belief that it is being excluded from what they perceive as a skewed process, said Janis Sartucci, PTA cluster coordinator for the Winston Churchill High School cluster, which includes Seven Locks Elementary.

"They've skipped ahead...to appointing an architect, all without community input," Sartucci said. "I've sent a letter to Weast and the Board of Education asking them to remand [the decision]."

Lavorgna said that since the same architect originally contracted to renovate the existing school is being used to design the replacement school, no further community input was required.

PTA and neighborhood associations also object that a site survey and feasibility study were not conducted for the replacement school, Sartucci said.

Lavorgna said those concerns were misplaced.

"Policy does not require site selection for replacement schools," he said. "Secondly, there is no requirement for community input into a feasibility study. We did conduct a feasibility study to see if it was feasible to build on the Kendale site -- and it is -- in late February or early March."