MONTGOMERY — Parents can look forward to dropping off their children in front of a new Montgomery Elementary School in August 2003.

        With little discussion, City Council members unanimously approved the conditional use permit that will make the $11 million, three-story construction possible.

        Sycamore Schools officials plan to start the bidding process in January and, weather permitting, begin excavation work at 9609 Montgomery Road in the spring.

        The 5.5-acre lot now is home to the present Montgomery Elementary School, which educates kindergarten through fourth-grade students in a 49-year-old, single-story school.

        The present school will remain in operation while the new one is being built. District officials have wanted to replace the facility for at least three years.

        “It's something you've been wanting for a long time, but the hallelujahs aren't over yet,” Mayor Gary Blomberg said.

        Krista Ramsey, spokeswoman for Sycamore Schools, said the district was expecting unanimous approval. Planning commissioners had recommended such.

        “We were expecting that 7-0 vote and happy to get it,” she said. “There is great support for this school from the community and the parents. It'll be a school of which the whole community will be proud.”

        The finished school will have touches of Montgomery's past including:

        • A tower reminiscent of the one on a historic church at Montgomery and Remington roads.

        • A bell from the original school building. Students will be able to ring it from the second-floor media center.

        • A large, semicircular limestone slab, also part of the original school. It says “Montgomery Special School, 1899.”

        Some nearby condominium residents have protested the traffic, noise and lighting the new school will spark.

        City council members are accommodating their concerns by making sure no deliveries are made to the school between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.

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