A standing-room-only crowd almost entirely composed of supporters of Monocacy Elementary School filled a Board of Education public hearing last week to plead their case for not shutting down the school.

Montgomery County Public Schools Superintendent Jerry D. Weast announced Oct. 23 his recommendation to close the Dickerson school and consolidate it with Poolesville Elementary by August due to projected enrollment declines at both schools. The Board of Education is scheduled to vote on whether to approve the proposed procedures for closure and consolidation on Thursday.

Parents said they are not being given enough time to participate in the process and the school system has not provided sufficient evidence of why the school should be closed, and they asked the board to consider alternatives to increase enrollment in the rural cluster.

"[Monocacy] is a close-knit family and central to the surrounding community," Monocacy PTA President Dawn Albert said. "The school is academically and socially successful and has been for 50 years. Such a success should be applauded, not have its doors closed."

The Montgomery County Council of Parent Teacher Associations is concerned that the proposed closure procedures do not provide enough time for adequate community input or consideration of the recommendation's implications, President Kay Romero wrote in her testimony to the board.

Parents have sent the school system a Maryland Public Information Act request to learn more about the recommendation, Poolesville Cluster Coordinator Sarah Defnet said.

"You, the elected members of the board, need to know that the distrust felt in our extended community about the manner in which this decision was reached and communicated is palpable," Barbara Davidson of Barnesville, parent of a former Monocacy student, said.

Parents said they are concerned Poolesville Elementary could become overcrowded with students from Monocacy and because of future development in Poolesville, which school planners did not factor into the cluster's six-year enrollment projections. If students from both schools were at Poolesville Elementary this school year, the facility would be at 102 percent capacity.

Boardmember Laura Berthiaume asked whether Poolesville Elementary would be a priority if and when it needs a four- to six-room addition as anticipated in Weast's recommendation.

"We'll have to get back to you on that because it will depend on how overcrowded other schools are at the time," said Joseph Lavorgna, acting director of facilities management.

The Clarksburg cluster would support a liberal transfer policy allowing interested Clarksburg students to attend Monocacy, Cluster Coordinator Donna Pfeiffer said.

Highlights from upcounty cluster coordinators' testimony on Superintendant Jerry D. Weast's recommended fiscal 2011 capital budget and fiscal 2011-16 Capital Improvements Program.

Clarksburg

Supports building a classroom addition at Clarksburg High; building a new middle school; conducting a boundary study on whether to reassign Lois P. Rockwell Elementary students to John T. Baker Middle; and implementing a liberal transfer policy for Clarksburg students to repopulate the Poolesville cluster.

Concerns include overcrowding at Rocky Hill Middle and a lack of receptacles for feminine hygiene products in elementary school girls' bathrooms.

Northwest

Requests modernization of Darnestown Elementary; constructing Germantown Elementary as a "green" school if it is rebuilt; and building a classroom addition and scheduling bathroom renovations at Ronald McNair Elementary.

Requests that MCPS consider replacing portables at Spark M. Matsunaga Elementary with "green" semi-permanent modular structures connected to the school that could be moved to other schools as enrollment fluctuates in addition to other options proposed to address increased enrollment at Matsunaga and Great Seneca Creek Elementary.

Poolesville

Requests setting a date for modernizing Poolesville High and reassessing the school's condition.

Opposes closing Monocacy Elementary.

Concerns at Poolesville High include narrow hallways; small, crowded classrooms; students eating lunch in hallways, classrooms and off campus because there is not enough room in the cafeteria; wrestling mats and pallets of paper stored in the cafeteria because there is not enough storage space; new auditorium speakers that do not work; mold in bathrooms; sewage problems in locker room showers; and one working water fountain in gym area.

Quince Orchard

Supports completing interior modifications at Ridgeview Middle and keeping the modernization of Brown Station Elementary on schedule.

Concerns include overcrowding at Rachel Carson Elementary and pedestrian safety problems at Thurgood Marshall Elementary.

Seneca Valley

Supports modernization of Seneca Valley High and classroom addition at Waters Landing Elementary.

Concerns include overcrowding at three of the cluster's four elementary schools; lead in the water, asbestos in floor and ceiling tiles, classroom layout and air conditioning duct work at Seneca Valley High; lack of visitor access systems at elementary schools; and a need for security cameras to respond to growing vandalism of portables and school buildings.