School Boundary changes

Joy, what school(s) are you talking about? That's a pretty blanket claim your making. I've lived here a long time and I am not sure your getting the facts correct.

If I didn't know better, I'd think you should start putting a political disclaimer on statements like this telling people what role you fill in the community.

 

Mr Dupree,

I appreciate the school board doing everything that they can to accomodate the quickly increasing enrollment. I do understand that we will continue to need to build new schools, however, I think that we should combine that effort with trailers in the neediest areas. I would guess that temporary trailers might be cheaper in the long run, and I do believe that in specifc areas the enrollment will eventually decrease. I don't believe that quality will necessarily suffer in trailers.

Thanks again

Nova

 

In my volunteer work for the local Democratic Party and our endorsed candidates (is that clear enough for you?), I have talked to people in the last few months who are upset about being moved to schools that seem to make no sense, just like the proposal of sending Section 13 close to 5 miles down Belmont Ridge Road instead of staying at Mill Run 0.3 miles away or even Hillside Elementary less than a mile away. I have my facts right.

For example, at Kevin Turner's kickoff event, I spoke with a couple from the South Riding area (not South Riding proper) whose child is bussed close to 5 miles (takes about 15-20 minutes) to Pinebrook Elementary in Aldie instead of attending Little River Elementary in South Riding, less than a mile from their home. They also have Hutchison Farm Elementary closer than Pinebrook. Check out Planning Zone DS16, where they live.

Just last week at the Broadlands meet-the-candidates event with Stevens Miller, I spoke with a woman who lives on the edge of Broadlands (DN-45) and their kid gets bussed to Legacy. I appreciate that this is a touchy issue and no one is ever going to be happy. But I did get my facts straight.

I checked and the presentation and planning zones are now online on the schools webpage. http://cmsweb1.loudoun.k12.va.us/509905169119/site/default.asp?509905169119Nav=|&NodeID=253
(Thanks, Robert, if you expedited that!)

I didn't see the 3 proposed plans that Cliff mentioned, though. Although there was a disclaimer in the presentation that they were just for "discussion," and to follow, they were not included. Can we get those too? (I recall last year that as new plans were proposed, they were put online. It'd just be nice for me and my neighbors to get the ones that were shown in hand before the next meeting.) -- FOUND THEM! (Thanks, Maeve)

Special thanks to Cliff and Mr. DuPree for keeping us all informed as usual.

 

Joy,
The three proposed boundary changes are in the presentation. They are about page 29 of the PDF file. Plans 450, 451, and 452 are in the presentation after a number of background slides on historical enrollment levels, building permits issued, and birth rates.

 

How about the folks who live right across from Broad Run - who can read by the stadium lights - and their kids are zoned into Stone Bridge?



I should probably say, in the interest of full disclosure, that I'm the wife of Stevens Miller. But I knew about the Broad Run/Stone Bridge instance waaaaay before Stevens got into politics.

Thanks again, Robert, for giving this forum good and timely information.

 

And thanks to Cliff, too, for bringing this to the fore.

 

Thanks. On my Mac, reading it with Preview, it skipped from page 28 to page 33. I opened it in Parallels and can see them fine! Adobe Reader on the Mac works too. (TMI?)

 

To Nova’s suggestion that we consider some mix of new schools and trailers, there are a number of problems with that. The educational, construction and budget experts will tell you that building temporary trailers when you know you will need lots of new classrooms and schools for a long, long time is a bad decision for taxpayers and students.

We are not in an area where enrollment is declining, far from it. Even in Sterling, which is very stable in terms of new building permits (only 15 last year?), enrollment numbers are not dropping. And the county’s demographers predict that the Ashburn/Dulles planning areas will grow by 50,000 residents in the next decade, so we are smack in the middle of a population explosion which is entering its third decade. And the cost of trailers, once you include site preparation, utilities, permitting fees, etc. actually is not that far behind the cost of building an individual classroom, and in the long-run the replacement/repair/energy costs mean that they actually have higher life-cycle costs than new buildings.

There are also concerns that the learning environment in a trailer, while acceptable, is just not of the same quality as in a classroom in a building, and there are concerns about safety in bad weather (witness the closing of Fairfax schools on April 16 due to high winds and the danger they posed to students in trailers, which Fairfax uses far more of than Loudoun).

Finally, adding too many trailers to a school puts additional burdens on that school’s core facilities – cafeterias, hallways, gymnasiums, media centers, parking, etc. – that at some point reach the breaking point.

A committee I chaired spent many months studying all of this and I’d be happy to sit down with you or call you to discuss further. Just shoot me an email at rfdupree@aol.com with your phone number and I'll call you.

Robert

Robert DuPree
Chairman & Dulles District Representative
Loudoun County School Board

 

I may be wrong, but I think this community requested to go to Stone Bridge.

 

anyone going to this tonight? Unfortunately I have a prior commitment and can't attend. Would love to know what comes out of this discussion. I'd hate to have to walk past Hillside - which I is just across the street- to go to Mill Run.

 

Many Broadlands residents will be there tonight.

 

Updates? Any fights break out?

 

There were some upset folks, but everyone was very civil.

I want to thank Cliff (and Joy and Donna!) for all the work they've done to try and keep section 32 at Mill Run next year. I thought Cliff brought up a very good point that out of 3200 homes in Broadlands, there's one plan that has all of them going to Mill Run or Hillside except for our little section of 149 houses. The school board would yank us out of our community and send us to BFE Creighton's Corner.

 

I think this plan, 454, is Cliff's work, correct?

http://cmsweb1.loudoun.k12.va.us/509905169119/lib/509905169119/454.pdf

If so, how do we make it known that this is what we want to happen?

 

Yes, 454 is my plan. Write or email the School Board to let them know what you think.
You can send it to Sam Adamo's office, Planning and Legislative Services. He will forward all comments received to the School Board members.

 

Awesome! Thanks Cliff!

Here is the contact info :

Department Of Planning and Legislative Services
21000 Education Court
Ashburn, Virginia 20148
571-252-1050 (Telephone)
571-252-1101 (Facsimile)​

Email: lcpsplan@loudoun.k12.va.us​

 

Folks:

You received some good advice from your neighbors above. Keep plugged in and send emails to the email address for the Planning Department listed above.

I was listending to the various comments the other night (I was sitting near Joy) and taking notes, and I stayed afterward to answer questions individually. I appreciate everyone who came out and let the staff know what they wanted to see (and not see) in the recommendations staff will make to the School Board.

Keep in mind that, contrary to the posting above that "the school board would yank us out of our community and send us to Creighton's Corner", the School Board has not proposed anything yet. Staff has not even proposed anything yet. All that were put forth were scenarios labeled for discussion purposes only. The staff proposal will be made after all public input is received, and the School Board will then hold a public hearing at which you should voice your views on the staff proposal and let the School Board know why you think that way. Only AFTER the public hearing would it be appropriate for the School Board members to propose anything - this is a transparent, public process.

Finally, also keep in mind that in the five years I have represented Broadlands on the School Board, I have worked with you and your neighbors through three elementary boundary processes and a middle school boundary, and at the end of the day I worked with my colleagues to keep Broadlands residents in Mill Run, Hillside and Eagle Ridge (which have been attended by two of my own children, so I appreciate your feelings for the schools). So none of you has been yanked out of these schools - we've worked together to keep you there, and I appreciate the continued constructive efforts of Cliff, Joy, etc. toward that end.

If you have any questions, please email me directly at rfdupree@aol.com (I will get that quicker than checking the forum). Thanks.

Robert

Robert DuPree
Chairman & Dulles District Representative
Loudoun County School Board

 

I apologize, Mr. DuPree, for the comments about "yanking". I realize nothing has been decided yet and I suppose I was taking out my frustration with one of the scenarios in my post.

 

Not a problem - having been through boundaries as a parent for 18 years (and still going with my youngest in fourth grade), I know about frustration. That's why I've been working for longer-term approaches that will result in stability for our neighborhoods and children. I just didn't want anyone who is new to the community and doesn't know the history to think that we've bounced Broadlands students around and out of the community. Quite the contrary, I've worked to avoid that.

Everyone have a good Saturday.

Robert

Robert DuPree
Chairman & Dulles District Representative
Loudoun County School Board