RELATED POLL: Should the Board of Supervisors trim $23 million from the amount requested by the school board next fiscal year?

From Living in LoCo South Riding correspondent Val Cavalheri:

Several concerned parents in the South Riding area are planning to make their voices heard at a public hearing Wednesday as the Board of Supervisors meets to discuss the fiscal year 2009 budget.

Supervisors plan to discuss a proposal to trim $23 million from the amount requested by the school board and exclude funding for a second high school in the Route 50 corridor.

Tricia Haneghan, PTA president of Pinebrook Elementary School, sent an e-mail to parents addressing her concerns.

"The School Board worked hard to come up with the LEANEST budget possible. They are very aware of the difficult economic times we are currently facing. They offered the MOST pared-down budget they could to the BOS," Haneghan wrote, "The proposed cut made by BOS would be nearly impossible to implement, and would come mostly at the expense of staff positions – fewer teachers … more children per classroom. This is just an unimaginable amount of money to try to cut from an already lean budget proposal."

Freedom High School PTSA president Cheryl Bacak expressed her disappointment about the lack of funding for the additional high school.

“I don’t get it. Why aren’t we working together? We need to spend the money to get ahead of the game," she said.

According to Robert DuPree, chairman of the Loudoun County School Board, Freedom High School is set to be 900 students over capacity by 2011, requiring the use of about 40 classroom trailers. If a high school is to be built by 2011, it would need to be included in the FY 2009 budget.

Opponents to funding the School Board's requested budget argue that since growth has slowed, Loudoun should not continue funding and building at the current rate. Bacak countered that argument.

“The estimates are not based on future growth, but on kids that are already here and these kids must be provided for," she said. "Even if growth slows down in half, we’re still facing the problem. The Board of Supervisors knows this. It frustrates me to see us fighting the same fight year after year.”

Haneghan agrees. “If we want to continue to offer a top-rate public education to our children, then we must make funding education in the county one of our highest priorities," she wrote. "The BOS needs to hear from citizens and business owners that this is one of our priorities.”

Over the past year, the average assessed value of a single-family home in Loudoun fell to $447,605, from $487,187, according to county figures. Loudoun County Administrator Kirby M. Bowers has proposed a $1.2 billion operating budget that would increase the tax rate.

Funding for schools accounts for more than 70 percent of county spending.

Supervisors will meet at 3:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Wednesday for the public hearing on the proposed budget. The meetings will be in the Board of Supervisors meeting room at the government center in Leesburg.