"I really can't see combining them. I feel like things would get lost," Anne Sharpe, the parent of a student in Annapolis Elementary School's pre-kindergarten, said at the school yesterday. "If they're only doing this to save money, that's wrong."

Yesterday Mr. Leopold revised his earlier statements, saying the feasibility studies to renovate the schools, not the schools themselves, should be combined.

School and county officials have been mulling the idea to combine the schools as a way to save money in a tight fiscal year, said schools Superintendent Kevin M. Maxwell. School board members and the councilmen discussed it at a joint meeting in the fall, he said.

"We're not opposed to it, but we let the architects and engineers give us their best advice," he said. "I'm not sure we're going to see a recommendation that places all three of those buildings all under one roof. We might go from three buildings to two, for example."

He pointed out that before the schools can consider a plan to combine the three Annapolis schools, they need money for feasibility studies, and under Mr. Leopold's proposed budget, there's no money to fund school feasibility studies for the next two years.

Delaying the studies would stop up the pipeline of school construction projects at a time when the schools face a $1.5 billion maintenance backlog, according to school officials.

The idea to combine the three Annapolis schools parallels a plan currently moving forward on Fort George G. Meade.

Pershing Hill and West Meade elementary schools both need renovations, but are located less than a mile apart. Instead of renovating the two schools separately, the county Board of Education decided in December to combine them into one big, new school.

Instead of renovating the two schools separately, the county Board of Education decided in December to combine them into one big, new school.

Pershing Hill currently has about 200 students and West Meade has about 330. The new school will have space for about 730 students.

In that case, working on one school instead of two will save about $8 million, said Alex Szachnowicz, chief facilities officer for the Meade school system. Over time, it will save even more because the new school will have just one principal, fewer custodians and less space to heat and cool, Mr. Szachnowicz said.

School officials look at all options for school renovations, including plans involving surrounding schools, particularly if more than one school in a small area needs to be fixed, he said.

"Consolidation, where it's appropriate and done right, can save in the short and long term," he said.

"It should always be looked at. When you're weighing your options, you're doing a disservice if you don't weigh allyour options."

On Tuesday night, Mr. Leopold compared the Pershing Hill and West Meade schools project to his idea of combining the three Annapolis schools. That was just after he discussed his Annapolis idea at a meeting of the Greater Severna Park Council.

He was at the meeting to tell Severna Park residents he plans to fund a feasibility study for Folger McKinsey, an elementary school in Severna Park also badly in need of repairs. He said he's going to get the money by scrapping the county plan to build a new jail, and funnel that money toward school construction instead.

When asked yesterday for further details on his plan, Mr. Leopold backpedaled on what he said Tuesday. He said he just meant the feasibility studies should be combined, but "not that there was going to be one school."

Mr. Szachnowicz said the three Annapolis schools are badly in need of repairs.

Germantown Elementary School has the most trailers - portable classrooms - of any school in the county, and the Phoenix Center is over 60 years old and lacks the facilities needed for special education students, he said. Annapolis Elementary School is over 100 years old - it was built in 1896.

Jessica Guerrero, a kindergarten teacher at Annapolis Elementary, said that while the building does need a renovation, it would be a shame to lose a community school.

"There's history here," she said while sitting and talking with a group of moms outside the school yesterday afternoon. "We're teaching children whose parents and grandparents went here. It'd be a disappointment."

County Councilman Josh Cohen, D-Annapolis, said he's against closing the elementary school.

"An option that's not on the table for me is closing Annapolis Elementary School," he said. "I just want to head that off at the beginning."

Ali Cregan, who has one kindergartner at Annapolis Elementary, said she didn't think it would be a good idea to combine elementary students with the special education students of the Phoenix Center, many of whom are older and emotionally disturbed.

"There would be pros and cons," she said, "But it would be hard to teach with them intertwined."

Mary Tillar, director of special education for county schools, said parents shouldn't be concerned about mixing the students. If the schools were combined, the school system would educate parents of the elementary students about the Phoenix students' disabilities.

"I can understand some parents' concerns, and we'd have an obligation to address that," she said.

But, she added, putting the schools together could hurt the Phoenix Center's ability to address the specialized needs of students there.

Janice Lazzari, principal of the Phoenix Center, agreed. She said Phoenix needs to provide specialized services to its students, many of whom are emotionally disturbed, and that might not be possible if Phoenix were combined with other schools.

"I can't see combining them," she said. "I think it would be very disruptive."

Council Chairman Cathy Vitale, R-Severna Park, said yesterday that the councilmen have had informal discussions about combing feasibility studies, but "Nobody wants to hear you're going to take away a neighborhood school."

Robin Schmidt, president of the Parent-Teacher Association at Germantown Elementary School, said the PTA discussed Mr. Leopold's idea at a meeting last night.

"Parents are a little edgy, but I don't think it would ever fly," he said. "I think it's just something the county executive is throwing around. If he's going to allocate money, I think it could be better used than to build one school."

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