Anne Arundel County schools Superintendent Eric J. Smith said yesterday that he will recommend closing the dilapidated, but beloved, Ferndale Elementary School and erecting in its place the county's first institution devoted entirely to prekindergarten and kindergarten.

If approved by the board, Smith's plan would bring to an end years of controversy surrounding the small, gray, 77-year-old building on Wellham Avenue.

In July, noting unsafe and unhealthful conditions, Smith temporarily shuttered the county's smallest elementary school and sent its 140 students to nearby George Cromwell Elementary.

The plan would be Smith's first attempt to bring the county the prekindergarten-kindergarten model, which he said he strongly supports.

A "first-class" center for early childhood education also would be millions of dollars cheaper than rebuilding Ferndale as a K-5 institution, he told about a dozen parents in Ferndale's musty library.

"I think, from the educational standpoint, we can do some things here that would truly be recognized nationwide," he told parents.

But parents struggled to understand why Smith was willing to spend up to $4.5 million to build a facility for about 160 prekindergartners and kindergartners, and not for Ferndale Elementary's current pupils.

"Why not do what the community wants and have an elementary school here?" asked parent Brenda Cramer. "You are destroying the Ferndale identity. There will be no more Ferndale."

The superintendent said although he already has cut millions from construction projects in past months, his budget still is too tight to allow funds to be spent on a new school that would benefit only Ferndale, a working-class community sandwiched between light-rail tracks and Baltimore-Washington International Airport.

His proposed early childhood education center, on the other hand, would absorb children from nearby George Cromwell Elementary and Hilltop Elementary.

According to the school system's projections, it would cost $9.4 million to rebuild Ferndale as a K-5 school to modern standards and pay for additions at Hilltop Elementary to meet the area's full-day kindergarten needs.

Turning Ferndale into an early childhood education center would cost $3.7 million to $4.5 million, and the state likely would provide funding as part of its full-day kindergarten initiative.

Smith said his plan also would benefit the county by creating the extra classroom space in the community necessary to satisfy the state's requirement for full-day kindergarten by 2007 and free prekindergarten for low-income children.

'Educational sense'

"I didn't want to look at Ferndale in isolation," Smith told the parents. "This is the [proposal] that makes the most educational sense and the most financial sense for the county as a whole."

Smith plans to present his proposal to the school board at next week's regular board meeting.

After that, the board likely will schedule a series of public hearings before making a decision by April 30, the deadline for closing a school and redistricting students.

If the plan is approved, a section of Ferndale built in 1962 that is still in good condition would house the first five classes of 4- and 5-year-olds in the fall of next year.

At the same time, demolition would begin on the older portions, which would be rebuilt by the fall of 2004. First- through fifth-graders from the community would continue to attend George Cromwell.

Parents took comfort in the knowledge that they will be able to appeal to board members, who have the final say in the matter.

Liz Wagner, who heads the school's citizens advisory group, said she was putting together a collection of videotaped testimonials by students and members of the community that she hopes will sway the board.

Wagner said it's unfair that the community will lose the school because the county has failed for decades to bring Ferndale Elementary up to code.

"We worked hard to make this place work for the kids," Wagner said. The building's condition is a result of neglect by the board, not the community, she said.

A handful of parents left the meeting saying they felt defeated. Sue Guzinski, who graduated from Ferndale in 1969 and whose son is a fourth-grader there, said she sensed the "beginning of the end."

Community wishes

"What we want as a community is not what we're going to get," Guzinski said.

Cramer, who attended the meeting with her husband Ed, said she dreaded going home to tell her daughters, one of whom attends Ferndale Elementary, that the school would likely be closed.

"I'm totally disgusted," she said. "[Smith] had no intention of saving the school. We were hoping we were wrong."

Walking around the building after the meeting and examining a flooded room, Smith said ordering repairs for the school, which some parents have asked for, was not an option.

"I can't put kids in this building," he said. "If directed to, I couldn't do it. You can cover the problem, but the problem's still there."