BAUMHOLDER, Germany — The numbers just didn’t seem right.

When DODDS-Europe announced that Neubruecke Elementary School was closing at the end of this year following predictions enrollment would drop from about 115 to 53 the next school year, a group of parents decided to do a little investigating.

“We started knocking on doors,” said parent Bethany Howell, one of the leaders of an apparently quixotic bid to keep the school open.

Soon after the Jan. 16 closure announcement, parents canvassed the neighborhood and discovered that the Department of Defense Dependents Schools’s numbers were too low. In fact, in their little housing complex alone, the group says it found nearly 80 children whose parents would send them to Neubruecke if it remained an option.

With an online petition drive and a constant stream of e-mails and phone calls, the parents are now attempting to convince DODDS officials that they made the wrong decision based on incorrect data.

“We feel like we’ve been lied to so many times,” said Shawna Roberts, Neubruecke’s School Advisory Committee president, who says parents were blindsided by the announcement.

Parents also say they’re angry that the decision was delivered in the form of a memo home to parents. No community meetings were held, no forums to gather input from concerned families. Just an edict.

In retrospect, mistakes were made, DODDS-Europe acknowledged.

“Did we err by not including them? We probably could have handled it better,” said Margret Menzies, a DODDS-Europe spokeswoman. “There’s no doubt, with hindsight, it could have been handled better.”

Nonetheless, the decision to close the school is final, she says, and petitions won’t change it.

“There’s no going back,” said Menzies, adding it would be impractical to keep the school open. “DODDS has to be a good steward of government money.”

Menzies continued: “Put the projection figures aside. It doesn’t matter what those numbers are — if they’re 43, 48, 78 or 80. There are still less than 100 students in that school. DODDS still considers it in the best interest of everyone to close.”

However, Neubruecke supporters also argue that at a time when Baumholder soldiers are gearing up for a spring deployment to Iraq — the unit’s third tour — the last thing children need is to be uprooted from their school.

“These kids go through enough as it is. They shouldn’t be doing this in the middle of a deployment,” said parent Vanessa Durocher, arguing that at a minimum the school should be given a reprieve until soldiers return home.

“It’s a slap in the face to the families,” Howell added.

And the secretive way in which the decision was reached makes it harder to accept DODDS’ conclusion, parents said.

Howell, who moved her family from Baumholder to the village of Neubruecke in November, said her daughter had struggled at nearby Wetzel Elementary. The attraction of small classes and a family-like feel at Neubruecke was the reason for the move, she said.

“She’s made so much progress at Neubruecke in such a short time,” Howell said.

Yet when the Howells made the transfer, no one ever said that the school was being considered for closure, according to Howell.

Now Howell’s daughter appears to be headed back to Baumholder.

Next school year, all Neubruecke students are slated to attend Smith Elementary, which is about 13 miles from Neubruecke.

Smith offers up a broader range of programs, particularly in the arts, DODDS-Europe says.

“It wasn’t just enrollment projections,” Menzies said.

Neubruecke, with about 115 students, will lose large numbers in the coming months as soldiers from the 4th Battalion, 94th Field Artillery Regiment begin to relocate stateside. The departure of the 1-94, based at Strassburg Kaserne, was a main factor in the decision to shut the school.

“DODDS did not do this in a vacuum,” said Menzies, explaining that the garrison, Installation Management Command leadership and officials from U.S. Army Europe were all consulted.

Although there appears to be little hope for a reversal, parents say they intend to keep making their voices heard though e-mails and phone calls to DODDS officials. And in the case of Roberts, a call to her hometown congressman is in the works.

“A lot of people are heartbroken,” Roberts said. “I’m fighting to keep this school open.”