Residents, who mostly live in Bethesda and Potomac, oppose plans to close the existing school on Seven Locks Road and build a much larger one on Kendale Road.

On Aug. 2, the associations appealed to the state school board, arguing that they were excluded from the process and that the county school board violated its own policies on getting community input. The appeal came after the county board's July 6 decision to hire an architect for the project.

Originally, the school system wanted to modernize Seven Locks Elementary with a new gymnasium and a 10-room addition. That changed May 6 when Superintendent Jerry D. Weast proposed replacing the school with a larger building on the Kendale site, about a mile west of the existing school on Seven Locks Road.

The County Council approved a new school at the Kendale site on May 14; the new school is scheduled to open in September 2007. It will cost $11.5 million as opposed to $17.7 million estimated for renovating 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.

Those objecting to the board's actions include Kendale Neighborhood Coalition, Seven Locks Civic Association, and West Bradley, West Montgomery County, Congressional Forest and Deerfield-Weathered Oak citizens associations.

"We're somewhat concerned that the Board of Education isn't really certain with what they want to do," said Jerry Garson, co-chairman of the Seven Locks Civic Association.

Residents are concerned, he said, that the board is willing to tear down Seven Locks Elementary at a time when other students in the Winston Churchill cluster are studying in portable classrooms.

Potomac, Wayside and Bells Mill elementary schools are at capacity, Garson said. The school board should consider future demographics and use the existing site to ease overcrowding in nearby schools, he said.

The protesters are asking the state school board to suspend any contracts relating to the new school, including those that involve architects, engineers and construction contractors, and conduct a hearing to consider their appeals.

They argue that the county board awarded an $817,500 contract to the architect and created a "feasibility study" without notifying the Seven Locks PTA or the surrounding community. In addition, the protesting residents say that the board violated its own procurement rules and regulations.

But Joseph Lavorgna, the school system's planning director, told The Gazette last month that because the architect originally contracted to renovate the existing school was hired to design the replacement school, no more community comment was required.

The neighborhood groups are also asking the state board to order the county board to turn over documents relating to the decisions, proposals, contracts or recommendations regarding the project.

"Once you get rid of a school, you'll never be able to get it back," Garson said.

- Staff Writer Peggy Vaughn contributed to this report.