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Fiscal Irresponsibility of LCPS Planning Staff

Discussion in 'Broadlands Community Issues' started by CuriousGo, Mar 10, 2009.

  1. Buffettbassman

    Buffettbassman Troll Extrordinare'

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    Nevermind...
    Not sure it's worth the exercise.
     
  2. jedsob

    jedsob New Member

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    Please read this note from AFPU (Ashburn Farm Parents Unite) and attend the meetings this week - Broadlands will be affected if we dont speak up!

    From AFPU: As we have extensively researched the boundary shifts taking place, we believe we finally have enough information to formulate what will be the future of schools in our area. If the School Board endorses the vision of the Planning Staff based upon the Feeder System, the following is our estimation of how all communities south of Route 7 will be affected. The boundary process this time sets up future changes that will divide large communities from their community schools. This is important, because BROADLANDS might not think they are affected this go-round, but they are! The implications are severe.

    The basis of the decisions being made by the Planning Staff and the School Board is the Feeder System. In some parts of our county, the feeder system works well – Elementary Schools feed into a Middle School and one Middle School feeds into a High School. In the Dulles North and Dulles South areas (Lansdowne south to South Riding), this is not the case. Due to school placement and populations centers, the Feeder System actually divides. Ironically, had Newton Lee ES been the Middle School it was planned to be, we wouldn’t have this feed problem.


    As one community member put it, pushing south from the Potomac River, you could stand at any community Middle or High school in the Dulles District and look south to the next school, and that is where your children will go to school. For Ashburn Farm, the feeder system methodology means that for the next boundary process, all students south of Hay Road will be pushed south to Eagle Ridge Middle School and Briar Woods High School. That is 90% of our community! This is what we have been told by those involved in school planning. This is could happen as soon as 2 years from now in the next boundary change. The chain reaction becomes Eagle Ridge Middle School fed by 90% of Ashburn Farm along with students from Hillside Elementary and a small percentage of Mill Run ES. Those students will populate Briar Woods High School. The students from the neighborhoods directly south of Eagle Ridge MS will all feed into Stone Hill MS and HS-6.

    Without changes to the way planning is done in the Dulles North and South areas, large communities will be split in half for school attendance. We will have schools within the boundaries of our communities that we can see and walk to that we will not attend.

    The collective thought is that we need to change the boundary process paradigm to support communities rather than divide them from the schools built within their borders. We need to turn the process “upside down” and think High School and then Middle School. This is what citizens did when they formulated plans 564 and 592 see at
    http://www.ashburnfarmassociation.org/PDFFiles/AFPU_HSPlanEndorsement.pdf .

    These plans keep communities together in a High School. Lansdowne would move to a Leesburg High School, Ashburn Farm at Stone Bridge, the Broadlands at Briar Woods, and Brambleton at HS-6 when it opens.

    The Feeder System at this juncture in our evolution does nothing but divide and conquer. It keeps few large communities together, and divides most. It takes us out of our community schools that our children can walk to or drive to safely, and buses them many miles away.

    We need the support of the full School Board to make changes such as this. Our School Board member, Robert DuPree is working hard for all of us, and we thank him for that. As Chairman of the School Board, ethics dictate that he speak on behalf of the entire School Board, which is why you don’t publicly see the activism you may see in others. The problem is that most of these changes are taking place in his district. We need the entire School Board to step in and view this as a larger county issue and fix the problem.

    What can you do? Get your community involved – they need to start paying attention. By the next boundary change, it’s too late! Let your friends around the county know about it. Have them tell their School Board members that they support making the changes necessary to fix the problems in our area. If the Feeder System does this to us, it will happen to others.

    Sign up to speak, and attend the meetings next Monday the 23rd and Wednesday the 25th. You can call 571-252-1050 to sign up.
     
  3. Gabriellehoo

    Gabriellehoo New Member

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    I attended the SB hearing tonight and am appalled and outraged that the SB would consider disrupting most of Ashburn in order to stroke the collective Lansdowne ego. I plan to join the email campaign, and encourage my neighbors and Mill Run family to do so as well. When we moved here, my husband and I carefully studied the school districts and anticipated growth in the county, trying to hedge our bets on our kids' education. I "respectfully" submit that, if the residents of Lansdowne wanted their kids to go to school in Ashburn, they should have bought homes in Ashburn, rather than in Leesburg!
     
  4. CuriousGo

    CuriousGo New Member

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    Broadlands really needs to come out and speak up or Broadland students at Eagle Ridge and Briar Woods will be pushed out of the Broadland schools. I will be dominoes falling. I think the kids from Ashburn Farm did a great job speaking last night, they all want to remain at Stone Bridge. What if the Broadlands students spoke also stating that they don't want to be next! If 800 Ashburn Farm kids get pushed into Broadlands, what will that mean for them?

    Ashburn Farm was wearing black - in support of staying fiscally responsible- show off your black too! Even if you don't want to talk, come support our ASHBURN schools and lets send a message that Lansdowne - a Leesburg community - should go to a LEESBURG school!
     
  5. Gabriellehoo

    Gabriellehoo New Member

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    I agree with CuriousGo! When I went last night, I went with 2 friends and we thought we were the only Broadlandsers there (hope not!). I'm going to try to go tomorrow, too. Last night it seemed like AF outnumbered Lansdowne by like, 5:1. Let's not let Wednesday be Lansdowne night! We live right next door to Mill Run and our daughter, a rising 6th grader, could be affected next year. It makes no sense to bus her to Stone Hill when she can walk to Eagle Ridge. In addition to building the hs we don't need yet, what about the additional costs involved with busing these walkers? More buses, drivers, gas, etc.
     
  6. fidothedog

    fidothedog Member

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    Where and when is the next meeting?
     
  7. Gabriellehoo

    Gabriellehoo New Member

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    There is a meeting tonight @ 6:30 pm. It is at the LCPS Admin Building (21000 Education Ct. in Ashburn). It's the big office building kind of behind Clyde's on Broadlands Blvd. The format is an open hearing. Members of the community can sign up for 2 minute slots to speak before the SB, who just listens - they don't answer questions. You may prepare more detailed written comments to hand in, but at the end of your 2 minutes, the hook comes out and they drag you away from the podium. Also, the audience is prohibited from clapping (or hooting, booing, etc.). To show support, you are encouraged to wave your "spirit fingers" (or jazz hands, if you prefer). Many people last night had signs to wave. (HS6 = Hapless Spending 6, Kids and Community First, etc.)
    Don't forget to wear black!
     
  8. CuriousGo

    CuriousGo New Member

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    The next (and final) public input meeting is actually Wednesday the 25th. You can call 571-252-1050 to sign up to speak. The meeting tonight is a regular school board meeting where they will enlighten us with their elementary school proposals. I can only hope those are better.

    Remember, as Ashburn Farm stated "Kids and Communities First!" We as a community should stay together and the only way for that to happen is for Ashburn Farm to stay together.
     
  9. Gabriellehoo

    Gabriellehoo New Member

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    Sorry - I did mean Wednesday night, not tonight!
     
  10. sp1568

    sp1568 New Member

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    I'm an Ashburn Farm resident. Sorry to intrude on your fourm, but I just wanted to thank you for supporting the effort to keep Ashburn Farm at Stone Bridge and for opposing HS6.

    To all: Please come to the meeting tomorrow night. Please sign up to speak. The SB needs to know that this isn't just an Ashburn Farm issue: it's a community issue. If Ashburn Farm is carved up into different schools and sent to other schools miles from their own community, then the groundwork is laid to do it to other communities in the future. What's happening to Ashburn Farm now may not affect anyone in Broadlands, but who is to say that the next boundary changes won't push kids just south of Eagle Ridge to Stone Hill or cause such overcrowding in Briar Woods from Ashburn Farm kids being pushed there that Broadlands kids are pushed out. (run-on - sorry) The school board needs to see that our communities will not stand for this.

    Again, the meeting is tomorrow night. To be corny and quote a line from a TV show that rings true, "Decisions are made by those who show up".

    Also, please send an e-mail today to the Board of Supervisors about fiscal responsibility and HS6. bos@loudoun.gov.

    Last, there is a joint SB and BofS meeting at 3:00 today at the school board building. If you are able, please attend that meeting as well. I don't think there is any public input at this meeting, but both boards need to see that we're interested and we're watching.

    Don't forget to wear black at all meetings!

    Thank you again for all your support. Kids and Communities first!
     
  11. wahoogeek

    wahoogeek New Member

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    I peeked in at the meeting last night as well. It was a great showing of support for the Farm but you gotta wonder if the SB is listening as the majority of the speakers were in favor of the Farm. But I did notice that the SB perked up when a non-Farm resident spoke against the plan. This is where Broadlands can come in and help fix the problem.

    The above posts are correct. The push south is in the plan and will move Broadland kids out of their neighborhood schools just like the Farm (I like the domino analogy). Speak up against this, let the SB and the BoS know that we as a collective body are against the Landsdown centric feeder system that doesn't work for Ashburn. If you have friends in Brambleton, get them involved too as they will be moved from Briar Woods to HS6 if this plan goes through.
     
  12. Audrey

    Audrey Member

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    I think this is very important. I hope a lot of my neighbors go to be counted on Wednesday night. I have a conflict and will not be able to be there - what is the best thing I can do to convince the School Board this proposal is a terrible idea?
     
  13. wahoogeek

    wahoogeek New Member

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    email. email. email. Get your friends outside of our district to do the same (these are the swing votes!).
     
  14. sp1568

    sp1568 New Member

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    Yes! Voices from Broadlands, Brambleton and South Riding are indispensible! Please attend and let the SB know where your from and that you do not support the staff recommended boundary plan or HS6. It's great that those of us in Ashburn Farm are there in force, but the SB needs to see that we're not alone.

    Also, Please e-mail the BoS ASAP regarding fiscal responsibility and HS6. They are meeting tomorrow night and from what I understand, may be voting on the funding for HS6.

    If they do not vote for HS6, then the staff recommended boundary plans will not work. The fight won't be over, but half the battle will be won if the BoS votes down HS6.

    When e-mailing the BoS, remember that they are not involved with the drawing of the boundaries. They do need to be reminded that because of a surplus of seats in Leesburg that HS6 is not needed and it would be fiscally irresponsible to move ahead with it.

    Please write them today or tomorrow. The sooner, the better. Thursday may be too late.

    Thanks again.
     
  15. redon1

    redon1 aka Aphioni

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    thanks SP- this is an EXCELLENT reminder. sending a scond letter now. several of them did respond to my first letter, no real answers but thanking me for speaking out and encouraging me to attend meetings. good form letters... lol
     
  16. sp1568

    sp1568 New Member

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  17. redon1

    redon1 aka Aphioni

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    you are ALWAYS welcome here- especially when you spread useful info!!!
     
  18. Mr. Linux

    Mr. Linux Senior Member & Moderator Forum Staff

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    sp1568, we have many non-Broadlands users here. You are welcome here anytime, so no need to apologize :)
     
  19. sp1568

    sp1568 New Member

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  20. delilah

    delilah New Member

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    I was at the meeting last night as well and I am afraid that Broadlands residents do not realize that this proposal will affect us too. When Briar Woods becomes overcrowded we will be moved again not to mention what happens to our tax dollars when they build a school we do not even need yet. The whole thing is suspicious to me. Broadlands residents need to support Ashburn Farm residents in the fight against the staff recommendation. It makes no sense to move Ashburn residents out of Ashburn schools to accomodate Lansdowne residents who have plenty of room in their own community schools in Leesburg. This is nonsense. Broadlands residents need to check out the facts and attend the meeting 3/25 Wednesday night at 6:30 pm at the school administration building behind Clyde's.
     

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