By Michael Birnbaum
Originally published at 9:28 a.m., October 29, 2008
Updated at 11:19 a.m., October 29, 2008
The Loudoun County school system's Lenah land deal may yet have life.
In the wee hours of this morning, at 12:30 a.m., the school board emerged from a closed session to approve an amendment to the Lenah land deal that will knock $1 million off the sales price and extend the contract until Dec. 12.
The previous deadline had been today, after which the school district would have lost a $100,000 deposit it had placed on the property.
Greenvest, the owner of the 99-acre property, has now agreed to a sales price of just over $18 million and has also agreed let the school system and the Board of Supervisors mull it over until December.
Although the supervisors voted against the deal last week by a 5-4 margin, it could still be approved at the supervisors' meeting next week if one of the five supervisors who was in the majority moves to reconsider the decision.
During the meeting prior to the two-hour closed session, the school board discussed the county's worsening budget situation.
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Under discussion were proposals to prepare for what all county and school officials expect will be a hard year for finances. One idea, which will be voted on at the next school board meeting in early November, is to prepare multiple budget proposals with different funding levels, including one with a cut of up to 15 percent.
"This approach… is crucial to securing as much funding as possible" from the Board of Supervisors, said board vice-chairman John Stevens (Potomac).
"We can make this debate an honest debate," Stevens said, "not based on speculation as to what the superintendent and the school board might do."
School board members generally agreed with the sentiment, but some thought that a 15 percent cut was harmfully low.
"I think we're hurting ourselves by starting at the wrong starting point," said board member Bob Ohneiser (Broad Run), likening it to a neurosurgeon conducting surgery without anesthesia.
Board members also discussed the possibility of making spending cuts this school year to avoid more damaging cuts next year.
"If we know there's a financial debacle next year, why are we not looking to this year to build a cushion?" asked Ohneiser.
School superintendent Edgar B. Hatrick III said that some spending cuts had already been made. At the beginning of September, he said, he had asked each department to return 5 percent of its non-salary accounts, and he said that the school system was filling only essential job vacancies.
Hatrick also forecast larger class sizes next year. When the school system increases class size by one student, it saves $7.3 million, he said.
"I'm confident that I will be recommending to you… increased class sizes across the board," he said.
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