School Boundary changes

Attended the first meeting to discuss the new elementary school boundaries for the 2008 school year.
Broadlands residents attending Mill Run and Hillside could be affected.
One plan has the section of Broadlands north of Waxpool and east of Claiborne being moved to Mill Run. This section has always attended Hillside.
Sections 13 (Still Brook Farm/Evening Breeze area) and 20 (Glebe View south of Truro Parish/Basil Court/Fairweather Court/Overlook) may be moved out of Mill Run and sent to Creighton's Corner, which is off Belmont Ridge south of Brambleton.
I strongly encourage those that are concerned to get active!

 

Cliff,
I wasn't able to attend tonight. Do you know where planning area 36 will be sent? Did Adamo say anything about when the proposed boundary maps would be available on LCPS' site? I'm going to try to attend the Oct. 25 meeting at Legacy but I'm curious about what was discussed tonight.

 

Dang, missed this tonight. I'll go to the one at Legacy.

 

http://inter1.loudoun.gov/lcps/Lcps_Locate/finder.aspx?509Nav=|924|&NodeID=202

I saw that on the LCPS website and it has an option to click on the current school year and the 2008-2009 school year.

 

These won't have the changes being discussed yet, although you can use it to see what planning zone you're in. This will only have changes already decided upon. The meeting tonight and next week are for public input, which you can also give until November 2.

Did they give out options at the meeting tonight? If so, anyone want to scan it in and attach so we can prepare better?

 

Mr Linux-
Be aware there are 3 proposed plans...450, 451 and 452. One of them moves you to Mill Run. I did comment on the ridiculousness of the plan that moves the homes that can see Hillside to Mill Run and the homes that can see Mill Run to Creighton's Corner.

I have never found any logic in some of their proposed plans. The bottom line is that you need to make your thoughts known. Way too many times I've seen the squeeky wheel get the grease.

 

I am not sure of what logic they use when doing school boundaries, but do remember when Heritage HS south of Leesburg opened the houses immediately adjacent and across the street had to attend Loudoun County HS a number of miles away in Leesburg.

 

It is certainly not unprecedented to be moved to a school when you can see the other in your backyard. In this election year, I've heard many stories of this both with people talking to Stevens Miller and Kevin Turner. If someone has the three plans, I'd really appreciate copies. PM me if you want to just drop it off instead of electronic.

 

WALKING?!?!?! That makes me laugh!

 

Folks:

As two of my children formerly attended Mill Run and Hillside, I understand your strong feelings.

For those who weren't there, as was stated last night by Dr. Adamo, the alternatives he displayed are simply discussion drafts to stimulate thinking and often to show parents the feasibility or lack thereof of certain changes they might want considered. For those of you who asked for a copy of the scenarios (and that's all they are, discussion scenarios), they should be posted on the LCPS website today and I will try to email you a copy of the entire packet as well (it's a big document). As Dr. Adamo also stated, the final plan to be recommended by staff after receiving community input will likely be significantly different from any of the plans shown last night. So we need your input.

Many of us have been down this road together before (my third child is in elementary school, so I am also interested as a parent in this year's boundary discussion). Since I began representing Broadlands on the School Board in January, 2003, we have done boundaries once for high school, twice for middle school and three times for elementary school, and I have worked with the Broadlands community each time. Keep in mind that the School Board did not move Broadlands students from Mill Run, Hillside or Eagle Ridge in any of those boundary processes, no matter what scenarios were shown by staff initially to stimulate input. (And the one change we did make four years ago -- moving Broadlands to the new Briar Woods HS -- was clearly desired by the community, as demonstrated by your strong efforts to push for its construction.)

As with the previous boundary processes, I want your input and would be willing to meet with any residents to discuss your concerns. I stayed last night, as I do at every one of these community input sessions, until the last car had left the parking lot, answering questions and hearing input from all the affected areas.

As a side note, while I had hoped for two years that the Board of Supervisors would allow us to use the ISA site opposite the Ice House for this school, and I had the backing of the entire School Board for this, we have not been allowed to use that property for an elementary school. And we can't wait any longer. So we will be using the One Loudoun site for the new Steaurt Weller Elementary School to consider options to relieve crowding at Mill Run and Hillside and establish long-term, more stable boundaries for the Broadlands area.

Again, my email address is rfdupree@aol.com. Please send me emails at that address so I can answer your particular questions. I look forward to working with you again this fall on determining boundaries for our area.

Robert

Robert DuPree
Chairman & Dulles District Representative
Loudoun County School Board

 

Thank you, Robert!

 

Thanks Robert.
My advice to all is VOICE YOUR OPINION.
Remember what happened last year with the Middle School boundary change. Although never presented at ANY time, the sfaff recommended plan pulled part of SouthernWalk out of Eagle Ridge. Never assume anything is safe. With Robert's help last year, we kept all of Broadlands at Eagle Ridge.
I only find it a small bit of consolation to consider the proposed plans as not likely to happen. It wouldn't have been proposed if someone didn't think it could work.

 

Is there a chance that students from western Loudoun will be bused to Briar Woods because they can't get it together and build another high school?

 

While this isn't on the subject of elementary boundaries, I will say that I think it would be a terrible idea to ship high school students from Western Loudoun all the way to Ashburn (I remember when my neighborhood had to go to Leesburg to Middle School for two years, that was bad enough). And regardless, there will be no room at Briar Woods in a few years. Briar Woods has grown by approximately 300 students each of the past two years and is now at over 1,100 students. Even if that trend slows down, the school will still be at capacity very shortly just from students living within the Briar Woods attendance zone. There will be no room for students from Western Loudoun or anywhere else. We are looking to build another high school to relieve Briar Woods in the years ahead, but that is not likely to provide any opportunities for Western Loudoun nor should it - they simply need a new high school which I hope we can build very soon.

Robert

Robert DuPree
Chairman & Dulles District Representative
Loudoun County School Board

 

Why don't we just put some trailers up at more congested elementary schools instead of trying to build enough schools to handle this temporary surge of students?

 

Thanks for the suggestion. However, the one thing this surge of students is not is "temporary." It has been going strong for two decades in the Ashburn area. In 1992, two years after my oldest son started elementary school here, the entire elementary population of Ashburn easily fit into Ashburn Elementary when it opened, so there were probably only about 500-550 students then. But as the charts last night showed, the Ashburn elementary population grew to nearly 2,300 by 1997; and now, ten years, later, when my youngest is in the fourth grade, the Ashburn area elementary population totals over 8,500. And still growing. If you look at the Mill Run numbers, if you did nothing at all, that school's enrollment would reach 1,800 in a few years, so trailers won't address the problem. This is not a temporary surge that can be fixed by a few trailers, but I appreciate the thinking out of the box.

Robert

Robert DuPree
Chairman & Dulles District Representative
Loudoun County School Board