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School board draws boundaries, holds off on high schools
New boundaries have been drawn for elementary and middle schools across Loudoun, but the School Board on April 28 decided to put off redistricting several high schools.
"Let's regroup and try to come to a reasonable outcome," said School Board Chairman Robert DuPree Jr. (Dulles). "We've got a bunch of bad choices."
Members of the School Board were trying to determine boundaries for Briar Woods, Heritage, Loudoun County, Stone Bridge and Tuscarora high schools, but could not come to a consensus on this issue, the most controversial of the evening.
School staff had recommended a plan that would move several neighborhoods in Ashburn Farm from Stone Bridge to Briar Woods while leaving Lansdowne students at Stone Bridge.
School Board member Tom Reed (at large) put forward an alternate plan that would move Lansdowne students to Heritage and the new Tuscarora High, which will open in Leesburg in the fall of 2010.
In the end, both plans were defeated and board members said they would try to work out the Ashburn-area high school boundaries before fall.
The school board did, however, decide to send students from Smart's Mill Middle School to the new Tuscarora in 2010. J.L. Simpson and Harper Park middle schools will continue to send their graduates to Loudoun County and Heritage high schools respectively.In other changes, in western Loudoun, the new Kenneth W. Culbert elementary will pull from Banneker, Emerick, Hamilton, Hillsboro, Lincoln, Mountain View and Round Hill.
School Board members Priscilla Godfrey (Blue Ridge) and Jennifer Bergel (Catoctin) put forward a motion that allows two groups of students that could have been moved to the new Culbert Elementary school in Purcellville to remain at their home schools -- Hillsboro and Waterford.
Godfrey's request for an expanded boundary for Middleburg Elementary was voted down.
In Leesburg, despite complaints from parents who objected to disparities between schools, no boundary changes will be made for next year. School Board members said boundary changes are to alleviate overcrowding, not to balance students based on the number receiving free or reduced lunches, or the number enrolled in English as a Second Language.
In Ashburn, students from overcrowded Legacy and Mill Run elementaries will be moved to Creighton's Corner, which opened in 2008 and is under-enrolled.
In Dulles, students will be shifted from the severely overcrowded Mercer Middle School to fill Stone Bridge Middle School in Ashburn.
For more information on the new boundaries, go online to www.loudoun.k12.va.us and click "Planning and Legislative Services" on the left side.
Contact the reporter at ecoe@timespapers.com.
The real issue here is Ashburn Farms has been split into two voting districts. We have been politically neutered.
No other community in the area is split in half as Ashburn Farms has been. Our representatives at the Board of Supervisors and School Board have larger constituencies in the surrounding districts to worry about.
Until this travesty is corrected, Ashburn Farms will always be considered less than equal with both boards.
Go to this link and see how Ashburn Farms is split in half. http://www.loudoun.gov/Portals/0/docs...
Posted by Ben
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As a resident of Dulles South, I look forward to the 2010 Census and the subsequent redistricting. Given the population growth in the past decade, the current Dulles district will have be split into at least two districts. I doubt that Ashburn Farm and South Riding will still be sharing a representative after the next redistricting. It can't get here soon enough.
Posted by charsj
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Redistricting needs to happen and no community should be split between two voting districts.
Posted by Ben
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