Up Close: Sam Adamo

By Meghan Louttit (Contact)

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

As the director of planning and legislative services for Loudoun County Public Schools, Lovettsville resident Sam Adamo has recently found himself at the center of many heated debates over topics like school boundaries and land purchases. But there's much more to this Pittsburgh-native: He's an avid biker, speaks Portuguese and frequently uses the phrase "cool beans."

Before his current position brought him from New Mexico to Loudoun 12 years ago, Adamo spent three years of his graduate studies in Brazil piecing together the history of Afro-Brazilians in the first two-and-a-half generations following abolition of slavery.

During our interview, Adamo discusses how he went from studying Latin American history to projecting enrollment numbers for Loudoun schools and dishes about his biking habit.

Tell us how you got into this field, and how you came to be the director of planning and legislative services for Loudoun County schools?

You know what Bob Dylan would say, "A simple twist of fate."

When I finished my graduate degree [at the University of New Mexico] there basically weren't any academic jobs. I was working part-time at the Latin American Institute in the morning, then as a strength coach in the afternoon, then I was loading trucks at UPS at night. … I saw a job advertisement for a planner with the City of Albuquerque. But they were really looking for someone to manage this land-use database. Because I had a lot of computer skills at that time, I applied for the job and they gave it to me. So I started working and coordinating this land-use project, and from there I began working with their comprehensive planning team.

Photo: Meghan Louttit

Loudoun schools' director of planning and legislative services, Sam Adamo, stands with one of the many maps his team uses in their work.

From there, I happened to see this job advertised with Albuquerque public schools. And I thought, well if they really want a planner I'll throw my hat in the ring. I ended up getting hired by Albuquerque public schools to do planning for them.

And I was kind of thinking, you know it might be cool to move somewhere else; I had been in New Mexico for a long time. I was thinking maybe Colorado or California, but I saw this job advertisement for Loudoun and thought, what the heck? So I applied and got a call back asking if I wanted to interview. So I said, sure. Back then I had really, really long hair, tied up in a ponytail and everything, and I don't know that Dr. [Edgar] Hatrick was really sure I was Loudoun material; and I wasn't sure that I wanted to come here. Then I came back for another visit and after that was offered the job. We moved out here in an old ratty pick-up truck with three dogs. Been here ever since.

This is my 12th year here, and I have nine years with Albuquerque public schools and another five with the City of Albuquerque. I'm getting old, man!

How did your educational background prepare you for your current job?

Well the thing is, it was really a lot of the demographic work that I did with my dissertation, because I reconstructed the Afro-Brazilian population in Rio [de Janeiro]. Had I not had that and the computer skills, I probably wouldn't be here.

What do you do on a normal day in the office?

On a normal day … besides spreading hate and discontent? Right now, this has been a really busy time of year because we've been doing a lot of work on the boundaries and so that's probably right now occupying about 80 or 90 percent of our time.

Your office has been at the center of many heated debates regarding growth, land purchases, etc. What has been the most difficult battle in the past year concerning the building of new schools?

I think in some respects, what I would have to say the real surprise is, is the reluctance [of people to having] a school next to them or near them. That just really blew me away. I mean in New Mexico people were dying to have schools and get them open. … You know, schools mitigate the impact of development. Once these kids are here we need to provide seats … but now it seems like if you build a school it's like you're going to make people come here. It's kind of been flipped on its head in some respects.

Your office has predicted that Loudoun County Public Schools will grow from 57,000 students this year to almost 72,000 in 2013. What are your methods for predicting growth? What factors lead to your current predictions for the county?

Courtesy of Sam Adamo

Sam Adamo, Loudoun County Public Schools' director of planning and legislative services, biking in a 24-hour challenge event at Seven Springs on his 50th birthday five years ago. "Have to do something crazy on an annual basis," said Adamo.

Well, if you're an outsider, you think we just throw the bones, but actually we use cohort survival methodology, and that's also documented in our Capital Improvement Program. … You also have to apply [your experience] as you begin looking at these schools and which schools are in high-growth areas that are developed; you know you should be seeing a lot of growth in them. And there's a lot of … our knowledge as a staff that goes into making those projections as well.

Have the current economic conditions affected your growth predictions? How so?

I think they certainly have, I mean if you look over the past couple years as we've seen the weakened economy, our enrollment projections have followed suit. We're really looking at about a 2,500-student increase. … And again we'll find out in September how right we really were.

But Loudoun is not, when you look at other Northern Virginia counties or those that are in Maryland, we're still not doing too bad. … So in the immortal words of Monty Python, "We're not dead yet."

The other component of that is we have a much younger population. When you have a much younger population who are in their prime childbearing years, they are going to have kids and that is also contributing to the enrollment increases that we're projecting over the next few years. As I've said, even if we put up a big fence around Loudoun, don't let anybody move in, we would still grow as a school division.

What is your personal opinion about the growth that the county has experienced? Has it been good or bad overall, especially for the people who have lived in the county for a long time?

As a cyclist, all I can say is it would be nice if we had a lot more bike trails. Would make the commute to work much safer. As far as the growth, you know, I don't really have an opinion one way or the other.

You currently bike to and from work every day. Why? And how long does it take you on a normal day?

Just about every day, yeah. … The way I look at it, you know when you have a high-pressure job it releases a lot of frustrations that you have. I'm not polluting when I ride it. It gives you free time and maintains some fitness. The only thing I really miss is not being able to race because of the job; I put a lot of hours in so I just don't have the time to commit to racing. I think when I can retire I'd like to go back and start racing again, in the Old Fart category.

Total, it takes about three hours to get to work and back. It's about 42 miles and change, round trip -- an hour-and-a-half in, an hour-and-a-half back.

Do you think Loudoun County in general is biker-friendly?

Compared to New Mexico, no.

What could Loudoun do to become more biker-friendly?

Well, I don't know that there's any one thing. I think that there just needs to be an attitude change by both cyclists and motorists actually trying to share the road.

I mean I come down Clairborne Parkway every day, and I would submit to you that I feel very safe. I try to stay as far to the right as possible, and people are usually very cautious about passing me. It's a good world.

Have you had any major accidents or run-ins with motorists?

So far, on my bike in Virginia I have not been hit by a motorist. Though I have had a hit-and-run with a deer, on Featherbend Lane, no less. I was coming home at about 7:30 p.m. and was just bombing down the road, and I saw a deer in front of me. There was another one I caught out of my peripheral vision, and he hit me, or she hit me, and I was doing about 25-miles-per-hour. I went right over, hit my head first, 'tacoed' my wheel. I just got splayed. Had major road rash. I was maybe about three-and-a-half miles from home. … But you know, crashes happen.

Are you married? Any kids?

I'm married. I have a really great woman in my life, her name's Wendy.

No kids. We kind of met late in life, but better late than never. We have a Golden [Retriever] named River. He's really cool.

Tell us something else about yourself that you think would surprise your friends and co-workers.

I don't think there's anything I could tell you that would surprise most of these people. … Oh, the first time I ever voted, I actually voted for Richard Nixon. I was young and stupid. But I think it was more because in '71, I was eligible [for the draft]. They no longer had the draft, but they were doing the lottery, and I was pretty certain that because I had a relatively low lottery number that I was going to go to Vietnam and join the big green army machine. Later that year, Richard Nixon announced Vietnamization; in other words, he was going to pull back American forces and encourage the Vietnamese Army to basically take up more of the load. Because of that, he didn't need as many folks. So I ended up actually finishing my degree rather than enlisting in the army. I think that was one of the reasons in '72 that I ended up voting for Nixon. That was the first time I could vote.

Tagged: bikes, development, growth, Loudoun County Public Schools, Lovettsville, schools, Up Close

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