"This is one excellent project," said board member Gabriel Romero (Dist. 1) of Montgomery Village, of the child-friendly design with its village-like façade and gabled roofline. "I wish I were a kid again, growing up, going to this school. It's going to be very cool for kids."

With the concept approved, work moves forward on fleshing out the architectural plans. A construction contract should be awarded by January, with construction starting in March of that year. The school should open in September 2007, said Richard Hawes, facilities manager for Montgomery County Public Schools.

The new school will have a core capacity of 740 students, versus the 294-student capacity of the old school, and is needed to help relieve overcrowding at nearby Potomac Elementary School, school officials said.

It will cost $14 million to construct, about $3 million less than the cost of renovating and expanding the existing school on Seven Locks Road.

While the design easily won approval, both school officials and board members touched upon the concerns raised by various community groups opposing the plan during the past year.

Uppermost is a fear among some that building the new school automatically means the existing 10-acre school site on Seven Locks Road will be turned over to the county for affordable housing.

Hawes tried to allay those concerns, saying that once the new school is built, the county school superintendent will make a recommendation to the board about the use of the property. The board has total authority over what happens next, he said.

But board member Stephen N. Abrams (Dist. 2) of Rockville said so many people believed it to be a done deal that he wanted a moratorium of 10 years placed on any decisions about surplusing the school site.

"Despite our denials, the urban legend exists," he said. "I don't want to see our school decisions and space need decisions...tied up in some other politician's issues, vis-à-vis affordable housing."

Montgomery County School Superintendent Jerry D. Weast opted out of making such a promise, however.

"If I made recommendations based on rumor and innuendo, we'd have very poor recommendations," he said. "I base my decisions on facts. We will not surplus anything we have reason to believe we'll use."