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Loudoun high schoolers face boundary changes
In fall 2010, two new high schools will open in Loudoun County – Tuscarora in Leesburg and Woodgrove in Purcellville.
In the west, boundaries for Woodgrove have been determined. The school will serve 1,600 students from the most northwestern part of the county, relieving overcrowded Loudoun Valley High School and taking those who graduate from Harmony Intermediate School.
But in the Leesburg and Ashburn areas, some students are still waiting to learn which high school they will attend, as boundaries for Tuscarora aren't yet fully known.
The School Board postponed deciding boundaries for Tuscarora, Stone Bridge and Briar Woods high schools this spring as it redrew attendance lines for several middle and elementary schools around the county.
"We came up against an impasse that could not be resolved without getting more information," said School Board Chairman Robert DuPree Jr. (Dulles). "We realized we were trying to decide without part of the equation and that is – where should the next high school be?"
School Board members and supervisors are now meeting to determine the ideal location and opening date for a new high school off the Route 7 corridor in the Ashburn area.
Once that piece of the puzzle is solved, the School Board will finish drawing the Leesburg/Ashburn high school boundaries for 2010.
For now, it has been decided that students who attended Smart's Mill Middle School in Leesburg will go to Tuscarora High School when it opens.
For Janai Mitchell, a freshman at Loudoun County High School this year, that means as a junior she'll have to change schools.
"At first I was kind of mad because I didn't want to switch schools after going to County for two years," she said. "I play basketball and volleyball and I'm in a lot of clubs and chorus, so that would be kind of hard … but I have a lot of friends who will be going [to Tuscarora] too."
LaShon Davis, whose daughter, Brielle, is also a freshman at County, said she is concerned about the boundary change.
"High school is hard enough without having to change and switch once you've gotten comfortable with the routine, teachers, classes and friends too," she said. "The whole new high school thing has been a little stressful around here."
In Ashburn Farm and Lansdowne, parents can relate to Davis' stresses. There, students are waiting to learn where they will attend high school in 2010.
The school staff put out a plan this spring that included moving about 275 western Ashburn Farm students from Stone Bridge High School to Briar Woods, almost 5 miles away. Students in Lansdowne would have been allowed to stay at Stone Bridge.
"Ashburn Farm to Briar Woods is the logical choice according to the principles of stability and proximity," School Board member John Stevens (Potomac) said in his blog, Our Loudoun Schools.
The plan caused controversy and pitted Ashburn and Lansdowne parents and students against each other in a fight to stay at Stone Bridge.
Most Lansdowne residents spoke out in support of the plan, some hinting that they resent being told their children should attend Tuscarora -- a "Leesburg school" – just because their ZIP code is a Leesburg one.
"My children do not feel defined by the artificial construct of a postal ZIP code," said John Hoffer, of Lansdowne. "They have always felt part of the Stone Bridge community."
Kelly Chappell, an eighth-grader at Eagle Ridge Middle School, lives a mile from Stone Bridge and said she has always felt part of that community. But if the staff proposal is passed, she'll be going to school down the road at Briar Woods High School rather than walking to and from her neighborhood school and home.
"Stone Bridge is where all our neighbors have gone, and being switched to Briar Woods would make no sense," she said. "It's so far away, and I wouldn't look forward to it."
Kelly, 14, has already switched schools twice – once from Hillside to Cedar Lane in elementary school and again from Belmont Ridge to Eagle Ridge Middle School. She said she doesn't want to be shifted around again.
Alicia Boyles, whose eighth- grade daughter, Caitlin, faces the same unknown future, said she can't believe the School Board is considering breaking up Ashburn Farm again.
"They are basically taking our community and splitting it in half," she said. "I truly think they don't look at the kids. They're just looking at a number so it's easy to shift our area, but they're not realizing what they're doing."
Contact the reporter at ecoe@timespapers.com
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