Architects presented three different designs for a new school on Kendale Road that is slated to replace the existing Seven Locks Elementary School.

The facility advisory committee, which comprises county planners, architects, residents and a handful of Seven Locks teachers, reviewed the site schemes during a meeting Thursday to develop a clearer idea of what they want in the proposed 59,000-square-foot structure.

The school is scheduled to open in September 2007, cost an estimated $14 million and hold a core capacity of 740 students. The existing school has a capacity of 294 students and would cost an estimated $17.7 million to expand and renovate.

"We're in the schematic design phase, about halfway through the [design] process," said Jim Tokar, Montgomery County Public Schools project manager.

All agreed that the school should have the media center as its focal point, kindergarten classes opening directly into a play area and traffic patterns that allow parents to safely drop-off and pick-up students.

Attendees also asked that landscaping buffer the school from Kendale Road, that periodic flooding along the road be addressed and that the school appear less institutional by using sloping roofs.

But even as two more committee meetings are scheduled for Dec. 2 and 16 to finalize the design of the new school, there are moves afoot to derail the construction.

Ever since a May 14 decision by the Montgomery County Council to drop plans to expand and modernize the existing school on Seven Locks Road in favor of building a replacement on Kendale Road, neighborhood leaders have fought the plan.

The Save Seven Locks Coalition, which comprises six neighborhood civic associations, appealed the State Board of Education to overturn the decision in August.

They objected to what they describe as a lack of community input into the decision, a lack of transparency in the county's decision making process and county plans to surplus the existing school property.

"The community is energized over this issue, and it is not going to go away," said Sandy Vogelgesang, a coalition leader and longtime neighborhood resident.

After a recent review of a revised Montgomery schools feasibility plan for the project, however, the state board decided in favor of the new school -- if money can be found to pay for it.

"We will support a replacement school provided the project is justified by other factors, such as enrollment figures and the appropriateness of the site," said David Lever, the board's executive director of the interagency committee on school construction. "But in terms of state funding, this is number 39 of 57 [school] projects and has a very low priority."

And a battle between the state and county over state money to build new schools may further derail plans.

With the county requesting $126.2 million in state funds for school construction next year, and the state pledging just $100 million to be used state-wide, the county should not approve any new construction, said Councilman Howard A. Denis (R-Dist. 1) of Chevy Chase.

"The education committee is forwarding a recommendation to the council that we not forward fund any [school] capacity projects," Denis said in a phone interview Monday. "That would put projects like Seven Locks into limbo."

The coalition hopes that budget constraints may force county officials to consider an alternative to building a new school.

"We'd like to see a 10-classroom addition and gym added to Seven Locks Elementary that would accommodate about 250 more students," Vogelgesang said. "We don't need to modernize the school as originally planned. The addition would relieve overcrowding at Potomac Elementary, which is the real crux of the matter."