The Montgomery County School Board’s plan to replace Seven Locks Elementary School with a new school on nearby Kendale Road is the most cost-efficient of eight options studied by an ad hoc work group this spring and is likely to be reaffirmed by the board today.
“It is the best option because it saves time and money and avoids traffic safety and other issues associated with building a larger school on the Seven Locks site,” the board resolution reads.
The design budget for the 640-student replacement school was already partially spent when all work was put on hold this spring to study alternate plans. A report from the Office of the Inspector General had suggested the board may have withheld information about less costly alternatives when it presented the project to the County Council for funding.
Board members said at the time that the council had initially directed them not to investigate several of those alternatives — including plans to renovate the aging building, then expand it in the near future.
The work group released a final draft report April 19.
The report confirmed that “the Kendale project was the least costly solution of the options evaluated, with the exception of an option that would balance enrollment in the Winston Churchill Cluster among four elementary schools and close the existing Seven Locks facility,” board documents state.
Schools Superintendent Jerry Weast issued a memo Friday recommending that the board move forward with the Kendale plan, schools spokesman Brian Edwards confirmed.
But community opponents still support rebuilding the school on its current site, and claim the school system manipulated data to support its case.
“Any numbers that come out of MCPS you need to take with a whole barrel of salt,” said Jay Weinstein, a member of the Seven Locks PTA.
Seven Locks options
$18,165,000: Build a new school on Kendale Road by December
$19,262,000: Replace on existing site by 2011
$21,877,000: Build addition, then upgrade existing school by 2011
$12,384,000: Shut down Seven Locks and reassign students
