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The Clarksburg community went before the school board last week to request money for new schools after Superintendent Jerry Weast left Clarksburg out of his six-year funding recommendations.

Parents who spoke on behalf of the cluster said the community is growing rapidly and more classrooms are needed.

They wanted "to kill the rumor that Clarksburg growth has stopped," cluster co-coordinator Jaimie Jacobson said.

The school system conducted a feasibility study for a new middle school last summer and selected a site in the Arora Hills development. The school system also conducted a study on the need for a 20-room addition to the high school, but no funding for either project was included in Weast's recommendations.

As Jacobson read testimony describing the overcrowded conditions at the eight schools in the cluster, some 20 students marched behind him, each holding an enlarged map of a Clarksburg development in the pipeline.

There are more approved site plans, but only 20 students could fit on the floor behind the speaker, cluster co-coordinator Donna Pfeiffer said Monday.

"We were trying to bring a piece of Clarksburg so they could visually see [the growth]," she said.

The population of Clarksburg is about 9,000, Jacobson said. The town is expected to grown to 35,000 to 40,000 people in less than 20 years.

"New families are exponentially increasing our school needs," he said.

A new elementary school opened in the cluster three years ago. Another one is scheduled to open in the fall and another one is being planned but not funded.

The three-year-old high school has four portable classrooms and is in desperate need of the planned addition to the building, he said.

The lone middle school in the cluster, Rocky Hill, has eight portable classrooms, he said. To accommodate all of the students, the school has four lunch periods.

Jacobson was followed by representatives of three elementary schools in the cluster.

"As we continue to build more elementary schools, the need for this middle school is critical," said Chris McDermott, who represented Little Bennett Elementary School in Clarksburg. "Vote now to proceed on the building of a new middle school."

Most parents testifying Nov. 12 were asking for repairs and upgrades to their aging buildings, including Damascus cluster co-coordinator Leslie Cuneo, who asked the school board to keep its bathroom modernization program on track so Damascus High School and Damascus Elementary School can get badly needed renovations in 2010.

Jacobson pointed out that maintenance is important in the new Clarksburg schools to extend the life of the buildings and spoke in favor of the Damascus needs.

While the parents testified and the children paraded behind them, the Clarksburg High School coyote clowned around.

The only response from board members was to comment that it was nice to see neighbors supporting each other.

"You can't stop trying," Pfeiffer said afterwards. "If we didn't get it this year, we've got to get it next year."

The school board is scheduled to vote on the capital budget Thursday.