Boundary study meeting tonight

Discussion to focus on process, timeline for new Seven Locks school

Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2006

The boundary study to determine which neighborhoods will attend the new Seven Locks Elementary School planned for Kendale Road kicks off tonight with a meeting hosted by school officials.

The 7:30 p.m. meeting at Herbert Hoover Middle School is strictly informational and covers only the process used in deciding school boundaries, said Bruce Crispell, director of long-range planning for Montgomery County Public Schools.

‘‘We’ll explain how the boundary process works and the timetable involved,” Crispell said.

Not on the agenda: Issues raised just last week by the county Inspector General’s findings that school planners ignored less-costly options to rebuild or upgrade the school at its existing site on Seven Locks Road.

The report also found the school system might have ignored board procedures in awarding an $817,500 architect contract and that Superintendent Jerry D. Weast misrepresented community concerns about the new school.

School officials say the new 68,000-square-foot school on Kendale Road will cost about $18 million, or about $1.3 million less than renovating the existing school. It will have a core capacity of 740 students. The existing school, one of the smallest in the county, holds 294 students but if rebuilt would also hold 740 students. The new school would draw students from Potomac and Seven Locks elementary schools.

Whatever the outcome of politicians and school officials debating those findings, the boundary study must go on, Crispell said.

‘‘We’re assuming everything will stay on track and we’ll have the new school constructed by August of 2007,” he said.

But the uncertainty surrounding the decision to build on Kendale Road is adding to the strain of parents faced with a boundary study.

‘‘There are a lot of balls up in the air and we don’t know when they’ll land,” said Diana Conway, a Montgomery County Chapter PTA delegate and the parent of Potomac Elementary and Hoover students. ‘‘Parents are anxious and agitated about knowing where their kids will go to school. They want to know what the decision process is...yet that process is very unclear.”

Boundary study The boundary study process for the new Seven Locks Elementary School planned for Kendale Road kicks off with an informational meeting at 7:30 tonight at Hoover Middle School, 8810 Postoak Road. In March, an advisory committee of parents from Seven Locks and Potomac elementary schools, as well as the middle schools they feed into, Hoover and Cabin John, will begin meeting. The committee members will work with their PTAs and school staff to decide a series of options and criteria to forward to School Superintendent Jerry D. Weast in June. In October, he will announce his recommendations and in November, the Board of Education will hold a public hearing and decide the boundaries of the new Seven Locks school.

Still, the meeting tonight represents a step forward to relieving overcrowding at Potomac Elementary School. Its is currently 110 to 120 students over capacity, said Bert Klein, PTA president.

‘‘Some of our parents are concerned about the redistricting. Anytime there’s uncertainty when it comes to your kid, there’s anxiety,” he said. ‘‘But the option of a move to a new school constructed with state-of-the art facilities, with lots of light and windows, is very appealing.”

He hopes tonight’s meeting stays on task. ‘‘In theory, there’s no decisions made yet, no maps made and no lines drawn in the study,” he said. ‘‘My fear is that people will come and want questions answered [about the new school] when there are no answers yet.”