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Upcounty parents are urging school officials to find others ways to increase enrollment in the Poolesville cluster besides closing Monocacy Elementary School and consolidating it with Poolesville Elementary.

They have questioned projected six-year enrollment figures released last month that do not take new and approved housing development in Poolesville into account.

Montgomery County Public Schools Superintendent Jerry D. Weast announced his recommendation to close Monocacy by August due to projected enrollment declines at both schools in an Oct. 23 memo, a move that he said could result in a net savings of $1 million per year. The Board of Education held a worksession on the proposed procedures for the closure last week and is scheduled to vote on the procedures Nov. 19.

The procedures, if approved, would not apply to future school consolidations or closures, MCPS spokesman Dana Tofig said.

"We've been trying to keep Monocacy viable and open but if you look at the future that's not possible," Weast said at the worksession. "...If you decide not to do it [close Monocacy], then the economic consequences are something you'll have to deal with."

The four state legislators representing District 15, which includes Dickerson, sent a letter to the Board of Education on Nov. 3 requesting that the school system find other ways to balance its budget.

The Poolesville cluster wants the board to consider a boundary study to bring in students from the overcrowded Clarksburg cluster, Monocacy PTA President Dawn Albert said. Weast said he considered a boundary change or implementing a special program at Monocacy to boost enrollment but would not elaborate when asked for more information by the board.

"This is a bigger problem than just Monocacy. This is an entire upcounty issue," Albert said.

Boardmember Laura Berthiaume proposed giving the advisory group of parents that will provide input to Weast and the board an additional month to prepare its report. The committee would form in December and report to the board by the end of January, according to the recommendation. Phil Kauffman and Berthiaume voted to support the measure.

Monocacy can hold 206 students and 176 are enrolled. Poolesville can hold 549 students and has 387 enrolled. Enrollment is expected to drop to 157 next school year at Monocacy and to 358 at Poolesville.

The six-year enrollment projections for Poolesville Elementary do not include future development in Poolesville, which ended a three-year building moratorium in 2005, because of the poor housing market, according to Weast's memo.

Kettler Forlines Homes at Brightwell Crossing expects to begin sales in its planned 177-home Brightwell Crossing development in Poolesville in the spring, President Tom Kettler said. The community is expected to be completed in five to six years, Kettler said.

Four houses in Winchester Homes' 98-home Stoney Spring community in Poolesville are occupied, community sales manager Ross Wilhelm said. The development is expected to be completed in three to five years, Senior Vice President Stephen Nardella said. Another 138 housing units are planned in town.

None of the planned developments, including Brightwell Crossing and Stoney Springs, were factored into the projections. Projects with an approved preliminary plan are eligible to be considered when the school system is calculating enrollment, but planners must decide whether the homes are likely to be occupied in the near future, according to Bruce Crispell, director of long-range planning for MCPS.

"I made the judgment that I don't believe they'll be able to sell in the six-year period," he said of the two large developments, adding that developer projections can be overly optimistic. "There will be people who disagree with that but even if that's wrong, it's unlikely that they will achieve full build out during that time."

The memo states that "once the housing market improves approximately 30 housing units per year can be absorbed in the Poolesville housing market" and that full build out of the 415 housing units the town has the water and sewer capacity to support would take about 13 years.

An estimated 30 homes are expected to be built per year based on the average number of homes that were built over an eight-year period during the town's last growth phase, according to Town Manager Wade Yost.

The Board of Education will hold public hearings on the school system's fiscal 2011 Capital Budget and 2011-16 Capital Improvements Program, which includes the recommendation to close Monocacy Elementary, at 7 p.m. today and Thursday. Meetings are at the Carver Educational Services Center, 850 Hungerford Drive, Rockville. Visit www.montgomery

schoolsmd.org/boe.