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Parents argue over location for schools
More parents in recent weeks have reached out in support of a proposed middle and high school in Dulles South, in the southern tip of Loudoun county.
The two schools would be built on 99 acres of land currently for sale by developer Greenvest, south of U.S. 50 off Lenah Road, a few miles west of South Riding. The county has not yet purchased the property, but the schools are approved in Loudoun County Public School's Capital Improvement Plan.
In a May 28 article in the Times-Mirror, several parents and community leaders expressed concerns about the location of the schools, saying they would be better suited in South Riding, where more of the population lives.
Since then, more parents have come out in support of the Lenah Road site. They say the schools are so badly needed that they would rather go ahead with that site than wait to find a site in South Riding and start over with the approval processes.
Parent Dean Zywicki, who lives off Gum Spring Road in Westview Estates, has a daughter starting at Mercer Middle School next year and two younger children.
After living in Dulles South for five years, he said he can remember when middle school and high school students were bused to Ashburn because Mercer Middle School and Freedom High School hadn't opened yet.
That is what will happen, he said, if the county isn't quick to build new schools in Dulles South.
"If these school sites go down, we're going to be in trouble," Zywicki said. "[Overcrowding] is already a problem, and every year we delay the middle school is going to be another year kids will have to bused up to Ashburn."
As proposed, the two-story, 180,000-square-foot middle school would be slated to open in fall 2010 and the two-story, 270,000-square-foot high school in 2011.
Opponents of the Lenah Road site, like parent Lisa Melton, say it doesn't make sense to place two huge schools in the middle of the undeveloped "transition" area.
Dulles District Planning Commissioner Sandra Chaloux also questions the proposed site.
"On many levels, it makes more sense to locate the schools where the infrastructure already exists in the communities at the focus of the
attendance area," she said. "I am not convinced that all the options have been explored for appropriate school sites to address the overflow
situation."
But proponents of the new schools say there is nowhere in South Riding to purchase land for schools.
"I'm sure the land fairy is going to produce a site in South Riding," said South Riding resident Barbara Munsey, a supporter of the Lenah Road site for the schools. "Everyone in Lenah Run developed their house in the transition zone. They have kids. Where do they think they're going to go to school?"
Zywicki said he thinks a lot of parents just don't understand all the facts about the situation.
"They argue for a school in South Riding, but they aren't able to provide a space for it," he said. "People don't understand the land acquisition process. They don't understand the constraints the School Board is under."
School Board Chairman Robert DuPree Jr. (Dulles) also is a supporter of the schools.
"Mercer already needs relief, and we need to get these schools built," he said. "We need to get the land approved so we can build them to open on time. These schools are already overdue."
Sam Adamo, director of Planning and Legislative Services for Loudoun County Public Schools, said if nothing is built, Freedom High School in South Riding will have a student body of 2,300 by 2016. Freedom was built for a capacity of 1,600 students.
Building the schools as proposed will be the fastest way to fix the overcrowding, he said.
Zywicki said if these sites aren't approved, it could be years before the county gets to this point again with another site.
"A lot of people hear the word 'developer' or 'Greenvest' and automatically assume something has to be up," he said. "People seem to gloss over the fact that the schools are desperately needed."
Contact the reporter at ecoe@timespapers.com
My vote is for Lenah Road. The site does not require condemnation proceedings but is desperately needed. I sure hope the constant feuding isn't really motivated by the fact that the county has adopted a position of contrived roadblocks. If we do not have the seats for our current students, who would want to move here? We are already here. Honesty is the best policy.
Posted by byebyeburton
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