opponents continue work to stop initiative

The meeting agenda was as clear as white chalk on a blackboard.

It was the seventh, and final, session to develop the architectural design of the replacement Seven Locks Elementary School planned for Kendale Road in Potomac.

Montgomery County Public Schools planners hosting the meeting on Feb. 8 wanted community input on its final concept design for the new school, projected to open in 2007, that will house as many as 740 students.

It is slated to replace the much smaller, 294-student capacity Seven Locks Elementary School on Seven Locks Road and its design has evolved since October at twice monthly meetings of the facility advisory committee, a group comprising school planners, architects, residents, PTA members and teachers.

But as the final meeting progressed, it became clear that for many of the approximately 80 attendees, the issue was not the new school's design.

The real issue was closing the existing school and surplusing the 10-acre property.

Several attendees wore "Save 7 Locks" T-shirts and one man held aloft a sign printed with an image of the existing school and the logo, 'Save me, I'm paid for."

Dick Hawes, MCPS facilities manager, tried to allay concerns over the fate of the existing school. No decision has been made on its use, he said, and it may end up as a holding school.

"I can't say what will happen to this building," Hawes said. "We're building a replacement school for Seven Locks, but that doesn't mean we don't have a need for this [existing] building."

That did not sway attendees convinced the site would be used in the county's drive to find land for affordable housing.

"Our input is 'no,' that's our input," said David Tiktinsky, the father of a first-grader at the school. "You can tell that to the [Montgomery County] Board of Education, and [also] that the community wants to be heard."

For nearly a year now, as school officials moved steadily forward with construction plans, opponents have cried foul. They say school and county officials have shut them out of the decision making process that resulted in a move to build a new school in lieu of an earlier plan to modernize and expand the existing school.

"We keep showing up at meetings, writing letters, meeting with county and [school] officials, and none of our questions are ever answered," said Sandy Vogelgesang of the Save Seven Locks Coalition, comprising six neighborhood civic associations.

But school officials tell a different story.

Residents opposing the plan have had their say in meetings with county and school officials and in e-mails, letters and testimony before the school board, said board President Patricia B. O'Neill (Dist. 3) of Bethesda.

"It's been over a year that we've been hearing from Seven Locks people, and really even before that," she said. "But there is a difference between [getting] input and [reaching] agreement. We've got to do what is in the best interest of the kids."

Frustration is apparent on both sides of the argument.

While opponents believe the proposed 68,000-square-foot school is too large for the eight-acre Kendale site and lacks sufficient parking and playing fields, school officials say the new design meets county requirements. And it will cost an estimated $14 million, less than the estimated $17.7 million needed to modernize and expand the existing school.

"This is highly unusual, the reaction [to the plan]," said Joseph Lavorgna, MCPS planning director. "Our staff is frustrated over the rhetoric out there...people saying the new school will cost more than [renovating] the old school. We have two feasibility studies that show otherwise. [Opponents] are just trying to derail the project."

On March 8 a final decision will be made by the school board on whether to move forward.

"The board is aware, clearly, of [residents'] feelings," Lavorgna said. "We'll do our best to present a fair picture on March 8 and tell the board what the community concerns are."

Residents may also testify and Janis Sartucci, PTA cluster coordinator for schools that feed into Winston Churchill High School, plans to be there.

At last week's meeting, Sartucci insisted attendees be allowed to vote on the design plan despite Hawes explaining that MCPS wanted input on, and not approval of, the plan.

"I've been saying from the beginning, it's all been about the process," Sartucci said after the meeting. "MCPS has just pushed this thing through."