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More than 25 parents spoke to Superintendent William Hite Jr. and a panel of school officials during the third of four public meetings designed to give officials feedback on what changes, if any, should be made to elementary and middle school boundaries. School officials are working toward leveling enrollment countywide while keeping intact specialty programs, such as gifted and special education programs, Hite said.

Most of the parents urged efforts to focus on creating smaller classrooms and expanding programs, while some parents argued for no change at all.

"Keep them at a school with the teachers they know, with the principals they know and with the friends they know," said Kyle Thomas, PTA president at Rockledge Elementary School, which has 547 students, 91 more than the school's state-rated capacity. "What we want for them right now is stability."

Thomas asked Hite to focus on the school's achievement instead. Last year, 90 percent of Rockledge students passed the reading portion of the Maryland School Assessments, and 83 percent passed the math section.

Rockledge parents asked officials to leave current students at the school.

"We are a family," said Kim Washington, Rockledge PTA vice president. "We realize that you're faced with adjusting these boundaries, but we ask that you apply boundary changes to new students only."

Shannon Klug, who lives in Fairwood, a community just outside Bowie city limits, attended the meeting and was among 250 people who signed a petition asking that children be transferred from Glenn Dale Elementary, which is at 120 percent capacity, to Tulip Grove Elementary in Bowie, which is at 71 percent capacity and has room for an additional 119 students.

Klug's neighborhood is situated equidistantly to the two schools.

The boundary review is the second being conducted by the school board within the past year. In the 2008 boundary review, 10,000 unused seats were found in nearly 70 south county schools. As a result, eight schools in Temple Hills, Suitland, Landover and District Heights were closed, and students were transferred to underenrolled schools. The current and final review for elementary and middle school boundaries focuses on northern and central county schools.

Of the 93 elementary and middle schools included in the second boundary review, 44 are overcrowded, some as high as 134 percent. The remaining 49 are under capacity, including five schools which are hovering in the 60th percentile of enrollment.

Schools at less than 80 percent capacity or more than 105 percent are targets for redistribution, said Hohndel Jones-Brown, county director of pupil accounting and school boundaries. Other factors, such as facility condition, academic performance and specialty programs, are also considered, Jones-Brown said.

The community forums were added to the second round of boundary changes after residents and school faculty complained about a lack of input in the first boundary review.

At an Oct. 7 boundary meeting at Northwestern High School in Hyattsville, residents from College Park and Hyattsville also asked for the boundaries for University Park Elementary and Hyattsville Middle schools to remain unchanged.

Hite said he will present his plans to the public in December, and a series of public hearings will be held before the school board votes on Hite's recommendations in mid-January.

The final community forum will be held at 6 p.m. Oct. 27 at Frederick Douglass High School, 8000 Croom Road, in Upper Marlboro. Residents can register to speak at the Oct. 27 meeting by calling 301-780-5909 or going to www.pgcps.org and clicking on the "Community Forum Sign-Up" link.

E-mail Megan McKeever at mmckeever@gazette.net.