Schools Brace for Boundary Revisions
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Construction Cuts Prompt Changes
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Student crowding, continued enrollment growth and a budget crisis have created a tidal wave of school boundary revisions in Loudoun County. The School Board voted last week to schedule hearings on redrawing the attendance boundaries of 36 schools, creating upheaval for families throughout the county.
"This isn't business as usual," said Sam Adamo, director of planning and legislative services for the school system. Members of his staff will be occupied with dozens of community meetings, haearings and work sessions from January through April.
Residents will make suggestions for changes in the attendance zones at community meetings next month and in February. Adamo's staff will take those ideas into consideration and make formal recommendations to the School Board. The recommendations will be discussed at public hearings in March and April, and the board will take a final vote on boundaries at its April 28 meeting.
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Click here for the full schedule of meetings on school boundary adjustments
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The boundaries will take effect next fall for elementary and middle schools and in fall 2010 for high schools.
In a typical school year, the district has hearings on setting or changing the boundaries of a much smaller number of schools. This year, the pressure to consider more boundary adjustments comes partly from delays in opening Tuscarora High School in Leesburg. That opening, originally scheduled for next fall, has been postponed a year. Another factor is uncertainty over the fate of Woodgrove High School near Purcellville, although that project appears to be on track for a fall 2010 opening.
The biggest change involves the budget constraints the board faces. County supervisors, confronting a sharp decline in property tax revenue, have told school officials not to expect funding of new construction projects next fiscal year.
Loudoun's school system continues to be the region's fastest-growing, and Adamo's office expects that the district will increase from 57,000 students this year to almost 72,000 in 2013.
Unable to open schools as quickly as planned, officials said their only option to alleviate crowding is to shift boundaries. "That's going to require us to begin utilizing existing facilities much more efficiently," Adamo said.
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School Board members are gearing up for some tough conversations.
"You look at Fairfax [County] last year. They tried to rearrange the boundaries for one high school and they just about had a mutiny," said Loudoun School Board Vice Chairman John Stevens (Potomac). "It's a doozy."
Stevens said he has started to hear talk from the Board of Supervisors that there also might not be funding of new school construction in the fiscal year that begins July 1, 2010. That would mean a two-year delay in school projects as the system continues to add enough students to fill a high school, a middle school and an elementary school every year.
Not all School Board members are convinced that all the boundary readjustments being considered are necessary.
School staff members "are very prone to churning communities, in my opinion needlessly, most of the time," said board member Bob Ohneiser (Broad Run).
He said he thought that some boundary reviews were being used as a bargaining chip in budget negotiations between the School Board and the Board of Supervisors. "Is it absolutely unrelated that we'll be doing budgets at the same time [as the boundary process] in the spring?" he asked.
Ohneiser made that argument at the School Board's Dec. 1 meeting when he successfully urged the board to remove Broad Run High School from the list of schools whose boundaries are under review.
"People in Broad Run need to realize that they were given a reprieve," he said.
Tagged: Board of Supervisors, Broad Run, budget, construction, school board, schools, Tuscarora High School, Woodgrove High School
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Do let's not forget that deciding to blow off a middle school already two--now at least three--years late, and a high school in the fastest growing enrollment area helped promote this to the clusterbomb it shall be.
Well, thank goodness that Mr. Miller's little contributors won't have to have any icky schools to disrupt their fantasy that they live in the "country" in the transition area.
Speaking of transition area, are they really looking at sites there again? But I thought it was just too fragile for something as horrible as a school!
What a bunch of hypocrites, blowing off services for their cronies' sake.
And speaking of cronies, whatever happened to those magical better cheaper faster sites?
What a disaster.
Posted by BarbaraMunsey (anonymous) on December 11, 2008 at 6:57 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Barbara, I have been wondering about all these wonderful sites, too, and what has happened to them. Only time will tell the full impact of what has happened. Let's hope it isn't too horrible, but I know there will be quite a few people who will not forget what has happened and will gladly speak up about the effects of all of this.
It is interesting that Mr Ohneiser is bashing the school staff about unnecessary boundary adjustments. From what I understand, he has engaged in behind the scenes political maneuvering regarding boundaries, himself. HUM.......
Posted by momof2 (anonymous) on December 11, 2008 at 9:06 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Can we please use the appropriate words here? It's not redrawing boundaries, it's capacity redistribution. It's not bussing, it's capacity redistribution. It's not about long bus rides for the kids, it's all about capacity redistribution. Can't we expedite the "lower-cost temporary on-site overflow buildings" at the affected schools that Mr. Miller is going to put in place at Mercer? Here are the details: http://leesburgtomorrow.blogspot.com/200....
I just don't understand what the problem is. Bussing was good enough for Mr. Miller when he was a kid, it should be good enough for everyone (certainly not his kid though).
Luckily, all of the cheap new sites in Dulles South are mere months away from being approved. Just ask Ms. Chaloux-Conway or Mr. Miller (Assuming you can get an answer from either of them regarding anything to do with the schools).
Posted by deanzywicki (anonymous) on December 11, 2008 at 11:48 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Agreed, Momof2.
Dean, given the HCA population projection maps in their application that show a total of 5500 people between Gum Spring and the Fairfax line north of Braddock and south of 50 by 2010 (really!), I guess we should be grateful they aren't discussing resettlement of entire households yet.
Posted by BarbaraMunsey (anonymous) on December 11, 2008 at 12:14 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Aren't there more than 5500 homes (homes not people) just in the South Riding HOA alone?
Posted by charsj (anonymous) on December 11, 2008 at 11:07 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Yes there are, charsj.
Apparently HCA hired a consultant who used zip codes and "fiscal impact data" to generate their projections.
The county staff countered that with COG data and discounted the zipcode (good idea around here, where the zipcodes bear no relation to location), and slightly adjusted the figures countywide.
However, the HCA ad showing 5500 in the Dulles South suburban policy area appeared in the papers (the star map) the week before the joint public hearing, and was presented again by the applicant's representatives at that public hearing.
It is the same map that was presented to the Strategic Planning committee of the SR HOA four years ago, and it was outrageous then too.
Posted by BarbaraMunsey (anonymous) on December 12, 2008 at 6:58 a.m. (Suggest removal)
It is unbelievable that important decisions are being made without the most basic, updated information.
Posted by momof2 (anonymous) on December 12, 2008 at 7:32 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Momof2, I am concerned about the phrase "fiscal impact data".
Normally the county uses the COG growth summary for their demographic research, and does not do fiscal impact on business applications because they are assumed to be a net positive to the county.
If we have cross-pollenation between the perceived impact of houses that already exist and service projection, then decisions CAN be made that reflect what some may WISH were true instead of what actually exists.
Not that it matters at the moment; we have the fastest growing area of student growth, yet two compliant sites were jettisoned for political payback, yet supposedly the site inventory has now been expanded to include transitional sites, including TR3, which is theoretically MORE fragile than the TR1 that was too close to some special people.
We as a county have pledged to remove over a million pounds of carbon from our footprint, yet are talking about increased busing over much greater distances than would have been travelled on improved roads to the jinxed sites at Lenah.
Some officials maintained throughout that process that there were no utilities to Lenah, and little prospect of getting any there in time for a now further delayed school, yet Greenvest just WON AN ENVIRONMENTAL AWARD for going above and beyond in the process for those very lines that ALREADY EXIST, and will serve more development, that will create more school kids, who will be bused.....
Posted by BarbaraMunsey (anonymous) on December 12, 2008 at 8:41 a.m. (Suggest removal)
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