Lenah Form Letters, Part 1

Over the weekend School Board Chairman Robert DuPree & I received a form letter from about 20 people regarding the purchase of some land in South Riding for a new High School and Middle School. According to one correspondent, the information came from the organization Campaign for Loudoun's Future. The letter went like this, few writers added any of their own words to it:

Dear Vice Chair Stevens,

Thank you for working to ensure that Loudoun County Public Schools remain among the best in the nation. I am concerned that the current system for new school site selection is flawed, leading to overpriced, poorly sited locations that don't meet the goals of the Comprehensive Plan for neighborhood schools.

It doesn't make sense for Loudoun taxpayers to continue footing an unnecessarily high bill for these new schools, and for our kids to keep suffering boundary changes. With so many new schools needing to be built, I urge you to closely examine the process and find ways to reform the process.

Sincerely,

I treat each of these letters as the heartfelt position of an individual, even if the words are not individualized. Nonetheless my response to the same letter over and over again is the same. With so many people interested I thought I'd save others the time by placing it here. First though, I'd like to share with you Mr. DuPree's response (with his permission).

Thank you for your email voicing some concerns about school site acquisition policies and processes. I also appreciate the kind words regarding our work to make Loudoun County Public Schools among the finest in the nation. Inasmuch as I received virtually identical emails from some other individuals who live in various places, I thought I would respond to all of you and provide you with some factual information you might not have been made aware of.

On the matter of long-term reform for the future, you will be pleased to know that I am to begin meeting soon with Supervisors Burton and Buckley to brainstorm on
whether and what changes might be warranted to the current process. Loudoun County Public Schools does have some definite ideas about improving the process so that the school system can keep up with the growth of enrollment caused by factors that are completely beyond our control (the economy, job growth in the area, previous land use decisions by the Board of Supervisors and the demographics of our population which has caused our birth rate to far exceed the national and state averages). Indeed, a recent outside audit of our school system concluded that the most important thing that could be done to improve school operating efficiency and achieve savings would be for the Board of Supervisors to reform the land acquisition and approval process in order to allow the School Board to move forward with greater speed and certainty on school sites. I look forward to discussing these matters with the Supervisors.

Please know that under the current policies and plans established by the Board of Supervisors, that Board determines the school system’s budgets for land acquisition, school construction and overall school operations. The Board of Supervisors also establishes the county’s land use plans and policies. So they already have established the parameters for our decision-making in school site selection and, as such, the School Board is seeking to build a middle school and high school at the Lenah site in Dulles South within the above constraints already set by the Board of Supervisors.
With this in mind, you should know that the land we are purchasing for these schools is 20% BELOW the budgets which were previously approved by the Board of Supervisors and by the voters. So we are clearly in conformance with the budgets already set by the Supervisors and approved by the voters.

With regard to location under the county’s plans, according to the official report of the Loudoun County Government professional staff (not the school staff), which is charged with advising the Board of Supervisors and Planning Commission on whether an application meets the requirements of the county’s plans, the county staff has concluded that "the proposed Special Exception and Commission Permit for Middle School and High School use and associated accessory uses are consistent with the existing land use policies of the Revised General Plan for the Subject area (Transition Policy Area)." Indeed, the county staff correctly notes that the Revised General plan
for the Transition Policy Area does call for public schools in the Transition Policy area. Finally, the staff report states that, "as the proposed middle school and high school are centrally located to serve existing and future students residing within the Transition, Rural, and Suburban Policy, staff finds the location of the proposed schools is in conformance with Plan policies."

County staff has also concluded that the application is in accordance with the Revised 1993 Zoning Ordinance. Indeed, nearly every single issue or concern that was raised over the past year by the various county referral agencies has been resolved according to the staff report. There are only a few outstanding transportation issues that are still under discussion, and we look forward to addressing them with the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors. Keeping in mind these few remaining issues, the staff report indicates that county staff "finds that the proposed Middle School and High School, as designated facilities with the School Board CIP, are in substantial accord with the Comprehensive Plan, and therefore (staff) supports the approval of (a) Commission Permit for the proposed public facilities."

Thanks for writing, and I hope these facts are helpful to you.

Robert

Robert DuPree
Chairman & Dulles District
Representative
Loudoun County School Board

Tomorrow I'll post my own response to these letters, and on Wednesday I'll post a links to online information from LCPS and the County that you may find useful. On Wednesday evening the Planning Commission holds its first public hearing on matter.