Downturn Puts Strain On School Boundaries
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Redistricting Has Fewer Alternatives
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
As the economic outlook grows increasingly bleak, school systems in the Washington region are delaying construction and even considering shuttering schools, moves that could force wide-scale shuffling of students among campuses and disrupt deep connections that students and families have to neighborhood schools.
This month, Prince George's County's interim superintendent, William R. Hite Jr., proposed closing six under-enrolled schools and parceling out those students to other schools.
Prince William County is considering putting plans for a badly needed high school on hold, a decision that would result in shifting students to balance enrollments.
Loudoun County is facing delayed construction of schools planned for fast-growing neighborhoods and the prospect of closing a handful of under-enrolled schools.
The budget crunch is hitting schools in many ways, forcing increases in class size and cutbacks in staff and programs, but the possibility of uprooting students could be among the most painful for students and their families.
Boundary changes can cause heartache and outrage as students are plucked out of one school and dropped in another, separating them from their friends, teachers, sports teams and clubs. Families that settled in neighborhoods based on the local schools could find that they will be sending their children somewhere unexpected. The changes can be especially hard at the high school level.
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"I know a lot of parents here are loading up the pitchforks and shovels now, in case the peasant revolution has to start in January," when proposals for boundaries in Loudoun will be unveiled, said Ed Sugg, whose children attend Little River Elementary School and Mercer Middle School, both in the southeastern part of the county.
School budgets have been hit hard as plummeting home sales and property values have forced local governments to hunt for spending cuts. The situation grew worse this month when Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) proposed cutting $425 million in state funding for education, including eliminating $83 million in state assistance for school construction.
The biggest impact on school boundaries is expected in Loudoun, where officials will consider redrawing attendance areas for nearly half the schools, including four of 10 high schools. The county Board of Supervisors put the kibosh on school construction in the fiscal year that starts in July, citing the county's budget shortfall and the difficulty of issuing bonds in the tight credit market. School officials said they have been told that the hiatus might stretch to 2011.
But student growth hasn't stopped. The 57,000-student school system expects nearly 2,500 additional students in the 2009 school year and more than 2,800 in 2010. That spells massive shifts in student population to use existing capacity more efficiently.
If the budget picture grows more dire, school officials said, four elementary schools with dwindling enrollment in the western part of the county — Aldie, Hillsboro, Lincoln and Middleburg — could be closed.
"I think it's going to get real dicey around here," said Sam Adamo, director of planning and legislative services for Loudoun schools. "These will be the most challenging boundary changes we've ever faced."
Prince George's County school officials have not identified the six schools that could be closed, so it is unknown which communities could face a boundary battle.
Decisions over which students will be displaced from their neighborhood schools spark strong emotional reactions from parents and students.
Two years ago, when Loudoun officials last considered tweaking the boundaries for Stone Bridge High School in Ashburn, more than 400 people spoke at a hearing.
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"I think a lot of people want to go to Stone Bridge, and it might cause a lot of grief if they find out they can't," said Arlene Stark, a vice president of the Stone Bridge PTSO.
The construction halt in Loudoun is a striking move for a system that has opened 25 schools since 2002, growth that also led to frequent boundary changes. Some parents have grown accustomed to upheaval.
"At this point with the growth out here, unfortunately, it's become regular for us," said Barb Frick, a vice president of the PTO at Legacy Elementary School in Ashburn, another target for changes.
By delaying the opening of planned schools, school systems save the cash needed to hire teachers and other staff members and to outfit classrooms with books and equipment.
Prince William's School Board was scheduled to vote this month on whether to go forward with construction of a high school that would relieve crowding in schools in the western part of the county. The proposal would probably enjoy smooth sailing in most years but is in serious doubt this time around. The meeting was the same day that Kaine announced that the state would be cutting education funding, and the board delayed the vote to study the impact.
If the high school is voted down, the county could face boundary revisions, said David Beavers, supervisor of planning and financial services for the Prince William school system.
Tagged: Board of Supervisors, budget, education, Loudoun Planning Commission, schools
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IMPACT ON LOUDOUN EDUCATION
Loudoun County Public Schools will lose 15 million dollars under Gov. Kaine's BUDGET CUT proposals, and this is a permanent loss, not just a temporary cut. What that translates to in terms of impact on Loudoun County is an average increase of two children per classroom. Class size is one of five primary factors determining quality of education for children.
If the county tax rate is cut below $1.30, further cuts will need to be made. Small schools will be closed (as many as 4 are on the list), schools will be more crowded and staff will be reduced. If we stop providing adequate infrastructure for education, what has happened in Purcellville will be happening over and over throughout the county.
For the parents of children in elementary and middle schools, this will likely mean a lowering of Loudoun County's educational prestige when these children apply to college.
It is imperative that we taxpayers limit the educational damage done by the current budget crisis. We must remember that a good education is the best investment we can make, one that doesn't lose value when the stock market tanks. Investing in our children is investing in our future.
Let's keep sight of the REAL issue when school boundaries are discussed. It is not simply WHICH building our children attend, but the QUALITY of the education they receive in that building.
Please support the $1.30 tax level for this year's county budget.
Posted by LoudounPatriot (anonymous) on December 30, 2008 at 2:02 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Loudoun County is facing delayed construction of schools planned for fast-growing neighborhoods and the prospect of closing a handful of under-enrolled schools.
Your kidding right? There is no way we have underenrolled schools given the vast build up over the last 10 years! If its true someone needs to be held accountable for the lies and fraulent spending. HATRICK comes to mind! Turn out the lights the party is over.
Posted by Funnyguyva (anonymous) on December 31, 2008 at 9:24 a.m. (Suggest removal)
The boundaries in Loudoun needed to be redrawn years ago. Hatrick has catered to HOAs who wanted their children to go to pristine schools instead of the closer ones which might have. .gasp. . minorities! The kids of River Creek pass TWO elementary schools on their way to a 90% White school. Their kids pass at least one middle school for a middle school that is. . .you guessed it. . .White! There is nothing wrong with Harper Park Middle School, Tolbert Elementary or Balls Bluff Elementary and there is NO reason the billionaires of River Creek can't have their kids go to the CLOSEST schools!
Just wait for the new Tuscarora High to open because you know there won't be any "iffy" neighborhoods funneled there. Hatrick and friends decided long ago that Heritage High would get all the riff-raff in the Leesburg area, even if certain neighborhoods were closer to other schools. Betcha that won't change either. Tuscarora High will have few minorities and ooodles of money. This catering to rich neighborhoods is getting old, fast.
Posted by GenuineRisk (anonymous) on December 31, 2008 at 9:43 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Patriot, I doubt $1.30 is the magic answer.
I would bet LARGE that most of the county, and some of the supervisors, don't have a clue where money is spent here, and how much.
That is one of the ongoing problems with Loudoun's misguided "historic preservation" of a form of government that we outgrew years ago.
There are revenues uncollected, and programs funded, because of a picture held in the collective head that has NOTHING to do with reality, embedded in layers and layers of "we ALWAYS do it this way". Most go unexamined, and continue to be funded, for the private benefit of a small percentage of the population.
The government is charged with providing basic service in return for our taxes. Period.
Lifestyle choice should be left to the individual to fund.
The "open space deferral" should be eliminated. We can't afford that perc anymore.
Departments can be trimmed, and should be. Things that it is NICE to do in boom times aren't a priority in lean.
Schools, now that they have become "greedy developers" instead of one of the basic services government is charged with providing (that apparently having been replaced with handouts to Holy Ground and meetings on how Loudoun will stop global warming), are a fashionable target.
There is other expenditure, regarded as sacred, that can and should be eliminated.
Your proposed $1.30 will be hailed as fat for schools, while private percs will continue to fly under the radar in other areas.
(and there are private percs in the school system that need to be trimmed as well--some of the protesters who simply couldn't stand the thought of an icky school near their new homes in the sacred "transition" area don't need an 80-student de-facto private school experience on the public dime, because they moved to a new developer-built house in the "country". That doesn't entitle them to a school seat quadruple the cost of the kids whose schools they railroaded out of existence.)
I don't think $1.30 is a magic bullet. It is just an enabling for the continued delusion that we are primarily a rural county temporarily overwhelmed by a bit of growth that will go away if we just squinch hard enough.
Posted by BarbaraMunsey (anonymous) on December 31, 2008 at 10:52 a.m. (Suggest removal)
"The "open space deferral" should be eliminated. We can't afford that perc anymore."
Barbara, first off..."perc" is what describes land that readily absorbs crap.
Secondly, if you and a bunch of johnny-come-latelys , who've never ventured out here to see a vibrant rural economy, want to take on the Commonwealth's/DILLON aspect of those "open space deferrals", you go right ahead.
Loudoun , and all of Virginia, were rural areas that had a massive influx of carpetbaggers. What we see is exactly what Phoenix experienced with a massive migration of New Yorkers arrivals there. The New Yorkers moved from an area with grass, to one without grass. So they planted and watered grass in Arizona. Now Phoenix has humidity...go figure.
Posted by honchonumberone (anonymous) on January 6, 2009 at 9:43 a.m. (Suggest removal)
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