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Lansdowne students face move to Tuscarora
Following last spring's uproar over a plan to move Ashburn Farm students out of Stone Bridge High School to Briar Woods, the school system has come up with a new proposal to move Lansdowne students instead.
The new plan would shift Stone Bridge High School students who live in Lansdowne to the new Tuscarora High School in Leesburg opening this fall.
According to the new boundary proposal presented to the School Board by school staff Nov. 10, between 130 and 260 Lansdowne students will be shifted to Tuscarora.
The change would be made one of two ways:
One option would remove all rising ninth- and 10th-graders who live in Lansdowne from Stone Bridge and would give juniors and seniors the choice of whether to stay. This option would result in an estimated 260 students being pulled from Stone Bridge.
The second option would phase in the boundary change and would require only rising ninth-graders who had never attended Stone Bridge to make the switch. That would mean 132 fewer students at Stone Bridge next year.
Either option would help Stone Bridge bring its enrollment down. It is currently the most overcrowded school in the county with 1,957 students in a school built for about 1,600.
But Lansdowne parents aren't happy about the proposals, saying if they move now, their kids will just be shifted again in a few years.
“This plan would have Tuscarora High School overcrowded in three years,” said parent Catherine Graves. “Then where will Lansdowne be shuffled off to? Why sacrifice the Lansdowne kids and overcrowd a new school?”
Superintendent Edgar Hatrick said while this may not ultimately be a long-term solution, it is the best one for now.
“The Capital Improvement Program indicates we will only be able to build one new high school in Ashburn, and it can't be funded until 2013,” he said. “Something has to happen to relieve the overcrowding. An interim boundary solution for Stone Bridge is required.”
The School Board will host a public hearing Dec. 3 on the boundary change and will vote Dec. 8 on which option, if any, to choose.
Contact the reporter at ecoe@timespapers.com
How ironic that anyone living in the overdeveloped Lansdowne area would worry about their kids' schools becoming overcrowded. They pack you suckers in there like sardines. Out here in Raspberry Falls, we have plenty of room and no school boundary issues or worries.
Posted by NovaDifferenceMaker
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With the move of Lansdowne students to Tuscarora, you now have boundary issues. Based on current elementary and middle school enrollment, Lansdowne will in a few years have about 700 high school students -- that will fill up a good many seats at THS. One plan the school board is considering is to then move Leesburg students to Western Loudoun high schools.
Posted by Locoresident
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