Lansdowne & Ashburn Farm: My Take

A commenter asked:

John,

Is there any reason we wouldn't keep Ashburn and Lansdowne together at Stone Bridge because of their shared schools in each other's neighborhoods? How can we acknowledge the virtues of the feeder system and also support dismantling it when other options exist?

I would hope that no community would have to leave SBHS but it seems like if a community has to move to a new school, you wouldn't want it to be the one that breaks the feeder system and houses a middle school used by Ashburn.

What are your thoughts?

I made extensive remarks (about 11 minutes) about this on Tuesday night, they start at about the 5:13 mark on the webcast. I'll try to post the audio here later tonight. For the sake of clarity, here are my thoughts:

1. There isn't room at Stone Bridge for Lansdowne, Belmont and Ashburn Farm.* Too many kids. To the best of my knowledge, this is a fact accepted by all sides.
   
2. Kids in Leesburg and the surrounding area will fill Leesburg-area High Schools (County, Heritage, Tuscarora) in 4-5 years. To the best of my knowledge, this is a fact accepted by all sides.
3. Therefore, Lansdowne cannot have a permanent home in Leesburg, at either Tuscarora or Heritage or split between the two. To the best of my knowledge, this is a fact accepted by all sides.
4. Therefore, if we were to accept a plan that sends Lansdowne to the Leesburg schools temporarily, we need to think ahead to where Lansdowne will attend once the Leesburg-area kids fill up those high schools.
5. There are four high schools within range, three existing and one planned to open in 2014. In reverse proximity order, they are the planned HS-6, Briar Woods, Broad Run and Stone Bridge.*
   
6. I do not support assigning Lansdowne to HS-6 because it is the farthest school of the four, which violates the proximity principle.
   
7. Similarly, it does not make long-term sense for Lansdowne kids to attend the 3rd farthest school, Briar Woods.
8. To send Lansdowne to Broad Run would cause dramatic disruption to an otherwise stable high school community, something everyone values. Broad Run has no capacity, so Lansdowne would displace about half the Broad Run students, creating a different "southern slide" to HS-6 and violating the stability principle.
9. Stone Bridge is the remaining school in the group. It is the closest, and is the school that Lansdowne students currently attend. It is the only one of the four that makes sense to me, indeed the only one of the four* that anyone has suggested is a viable permanent option.
   
10. If Lansdowne's permanent home is to be Stone Bridge, it violates the stability principle to move them out now only to move them back in later.
    
11. We have already established that if Ashburn Farm attends Stone Bridge, Lansdowne cannot.
12. Therefore, if Lansdowne attends Stone Bridge, Ashburn Farm (or Belmont, which lies between these two neighborhoods) must be assigned somewhere else. Ashburn Farm to Briar Woods is the logical choice according to the principles of stability and proximity. I have not heard anyone argue for a different alternative such as HS-6 or Broad Run.
13. The staff plan moves some parts of Ashburn Farm to Briar Woods now, anticipating that the rest of the community will move there in 2014 when HS-6 opens and relieves capacity from Briar Woods.

*A plan to expand Stone Bridge or build another high school north of the Greenway changes this formula, but until those plans are in place it isn't responsible to assign students to schools based on those proposals.

There are many other factors that many people are debating: Past Ashburn Farm moves, contiguous communities, travel distance, walkability, dangerous roads, overcrowding, fairness, the feeder system. These are all legitimate concerns. In my mind though, the question of Lansdowne's permanent home overrides all of them.

Update:
It would have been better for me to have written that every neighborhood needs a permanent home. That was my meaning. Under the other proposals, there remains one community without a permanent home, and that is Lansdowne. Therefore the basis of my opposition to them is the lack of that permanent home. The staff recommendation moves toward permanent homes for all neighborhoods, albeit not the permanent home that all neighborhoods want. I would not have voted for a plan that didn't give Ashburn Farm a permanent home either. I created matrices of the major proposals against all of the possible future homes, at the planning zone level. The staff plan was the only one that did not move any planning zones twice. I have no personal affinity or loyalty to any of the neighborhoods in question here.

There are a hundred different numbers to argue over, but I believe my logic over the long term can be understood without the numbers.

You may also want to listen to Mr. Marshall's very good remarks about how he had decided to support the staff plan, starting at the 5:39 mark. Several minutes later he abstained from the vote on the staff plan, and it failed.

My Statement On Leesburg Elementary Schools

I support the staff plan. Had the representatives of the Leesburg area spoken with one voice, or even two, on the question of whether to redistribute students on the basis of economic and ESL status, I would have voted to support them as the elected representatives of the area as I did in Western Loudoun.

Moving children between schools should be the option of last resort. Moving children between schools is what the federal government forces you to do when it thinks a school is failing. To move kids, we should demonstrate that there are problems, that a boundary change will solve those problems, and that nothing short of a boundary change will solve those problems. Two years ago when Catoctin ES failed to make AYP and students were given the option by the federal government to relocate to a different school, we did not encourage them to do so. Now that Catoctin is making AYP, I do not see a new reason to do so.

I don’t know these schools very well, which is one of the reasons it is best for the area’s representatives to seek common solutions instead of turning to the rest of us to decide. But there are schools in my district, some of which my children have attended, which have dramatically different levels of ESL and students, and students with economic hardships. The differences are similar to those in Leesburg. My own children go to the school with the highest levels of ESL/FRL students in my district. I see no need to rebalance the schools in my district to change this mix, and I have not seen the evidence that the schools in Leesburg are suffering from problems that a boundary change and nothing short of a boundary change will fix.

Balls Bluff’s principal is an LCPS veteran but still in her first year at the school. A new principal of Catoctin Elementary will start in the fall.

The larger Leesburg ES PTO community has expressed its intent to work together to help the Balls Bluff and Catoctin PTOs to raise funds and staff events. I hope this will happen, and lead to a smoother process when ES-15 opens in Leesburg a few years from now.

Boundary Motions and Votes

Western Elementary Schools

• Godfrey moves Bergel/Godfrey Plan 2, Bergel 2nd
• Godfrey moves amendment to pull part of one planning zone from Banneker ES into Middleburg ES (Godfrey Plan 3). Reed 2nd for discussion.
• Godfrey amendment fails. Yes votes: Godfrey, Stevens, Marshall
• Geurin moves modifications requested by parents in WL 53.1 and WL9.1. Stevens 2nd for discussion.
• Geurin amdenment fails. Yes votes: Geurin.
• Base motion (Bergel/Godfrey Plan 2) passes unanimously.

Leesburg area Elementary Schools

• Bergel moves Staff Recommendation (no changes to boundaries). Stevens 2nd.
• Marshall moves amendment moving CL05 (Beacon Hill, Old Waterford Road) from Frances Hazel Reid ES to Catoctin ES. Ohneiser 2nd.
• Marshall amendment fails 4-5: Yes votes: Marshall, Geurin, Ohneiser, DuPree.
• Reed moves Reed Plan #4 as amendment. Geurin 2nd. Moves CL11 from BBES to FHRES. Subdivides CL05, sends Beacon Hill residents from FHRES to Culbert ES.
• Reed amendment fails 4-5. Yes votes: Reed, Marshall, Ohneiser & Geurin.
• Staff recommendation passes 8-1 (Marshall, Geurin, DuPree vote No).

Southern Ashburn Elementary Schools

• DuPree moves staff recommendation, Reed 2nd.
• Ohneiser moves amendment keeping DN14 at Mill Run ES. Marshall 2nd.
• Ohneiser amendment fails. 2-7 Yes votes: Ohneiser, Guzman.
• Staff plan passes unanimously. 8-1 (Ohneiser opposed)

Northern Ashburn Elementary Schools

• Ohneiser moves staff recommendation for no boundary changes. Reed 2nd.
• Staff recommendation passes unanimously.

Ashburn & Leesburg Middle Schools

• DuPree moves plan to leave boundaries unchanged. Ohneiser 2nd.
• DuPree plan passes unanimously.

Mercer & Stone Hill Middle Schools

• DuPree moves DuPree plan. Geurin 2nd.
• DuPree plan passes 8-0-1 (Guzman absent).

Leesburg & Ashburn High Schools

• Reed moves Marshall/Reed plan. DuPree 2nd.
• Stevens moves staff plan as substitute amendment. Ohneiser 2nd.
• Stevens motion (4-4-1). Yes votes: Stevens, Ohneiser, Bergel, Guzman. No votes: DuPree, Geurin, Reed, Godfrey. Marshall abstaining.
• Reed motion fails 3-5-1. Yes votes: DuPree, Geurin, Godfrey. No votes: Stevens, Bergel, Ohneiser, Marshall, Reed. Guzman abstaining.
• Ohneiser moves staff plan with DN-29 back to Stone Bridge. Stevens 2nd.
• Ohneiser motion fails (3-5-1). Yes votes: Ohneiser, Stevens, Bergel. No votes: Godfrey, Geurin, DuPree, Reed, Marshall. Guzman abstaining.
• Bergel moves Leesburg-area middle school boundaries as feeders to Leesburg High Schools (staff recommendation for CL planning zones). Marshall 2nd.
• Bergel motion passes 8-1 (Geurin no).

Good night.

Boundary Vote Tonight

The long-awaited boundary votes are tonight. This has been a much more difficult process than the budget this year, especially for the three Board members who haven't been a part of major boundary changes before. With the exception of the Ashburn & Leesburg High School boundaries and the Leesburg-area elementary boundaries, expect to see the plans put forward by the representatives of the affected areas to pass.

There are still many emails and phone calls coming in about the High Schools & Leesburg-area elementaries, and the end result is still very much up in the air.

The meeting starts at 6pm.

Boundary Update Notes

The School Board held a work session last night to ask follow-up questions of staff. My notes:

Western Boundaries:

• Godfrey asked to remove Bergel's name from Split 2 plan
• Adamo said Godfrey plan had minor modifications based on transportation input
• Godfrey mentioned zone WL 9.1 (Hillsboro), said she was asking staff some questions but noted overflow problems at current capacity. Adamo noted that there is current overflow at the school and existing boundaries will overcrowd within two years

Leesburg Boundaries:

• Discussion of past promises to Lakes @ Red Rock and River Creek and whether they had been met
• Discussion of diversity vs. enrollment balance
• Possibility of splitting CL05 to allow kids along Old Waterford road to remain in Leesburg while rest of kids go West, due to Old Waterford Road feeding right into Leesburg.
• Board received a confidential briefing of potential sites for next Leesburg-area elementary school
  

Ashburn Elementary:

• Ohneiser asked lots of questions about overflowing and special permissions
• Ohneiser requested map showing DN39 into Cedar Lane but will not propose it as a plan

Mercer & Stone Hill Middles:

• DuPree alternative leaves DN14.1 and DN14.2 at Mercer Middle

Ashburn & Leesburg Middles:

• Staff plan moves DN38 to Farmwell to “clean up” the BRHS feed
• DuPree map requests no changes, says 10 families in that area prefer the Briar Wood feed.

High Schools:

• Adamo reported no new requests for maps
• Reed asked for more detailed grandfathering numbers for Juniors & Seniors
  
• Reed proposal will remove 10.2 and 10.1 from Stone Bridge to match proposed Stone Hill MS/Heritage feed.

Reed proposed moving next Tuesday's meeting (at which we will vote) 30 minutes early to accommodate public speakers.

Hatrick emphasized need to pass ES & MS boundaries immediately to allow staff to execute administrative actions.

My Inbox, Today

(click to enlarge)

The view from the outside in: Hatrick Elected to National Post

We live in a funny little fishbowl here in Loudoun. The bloggers, reporters, activists and leaders are keenly focused on everything that happens within our borders. Some local leaders are even criticized for thinking... and traveling... outside of those borders. It's interesting to discover how these leaders are perceived by those outside, and many are surprised to know that Loudoun County Superintendent of Public Schools Dr. Ed Hatrick has a powerful reputation statewide.

Dr. Hatrick has also been active on the national education scene, and last Friday, Dr. Hatrick was elected President of the American Association of School Administrators. He is past president of the Virginia Association of School Superintendents, which is an affiliated organization to AASA.

What is most important to the people of Loudoun is Dr. Hatrick's work locally to create a great school system for our kids. I am sure that most will be pleased with the national recognition that Dr. Hatrick has received from his peers, and with the increasing role that Loudoun will play on the national stage during this pivotal time in American public education.

Here's what I wrote to Dr. Hatrick last night when I heard the news:

Loudoun is very lucky to have you, and so is AASA. I hope this means that your voice will be a larger part of the national conversation about education, and that the current national emphasis on education will become a larger part of the conversation here in Loudoun.

This Week: Boundaries, Goals, Parent Symposium

Looking out across this new week, here's what's on my calendar:

1. Tuesday April 21st, 7pm: Special Education Advisory Committee meeting
2. Wednesday April 22nd 6:30pm: School Board Goals Review & Boundary Work Session
3. Saturday April 25th 8:30AM: 3rd Annual LCPS Parent Symposium
   

"Power to the Parents" is the theme of this year's Parent Symposium touted on LCPS Web as "the county's largest gathering of parents, Loudoun County Public Schools administrative staff, teachers and vendors from non-profit and youth organizations." The event includes a continental breakfast supplied by Wegman's, keynote speech by Virginia Secretary of Administration Viola Baskerville followed by breakout sessions on the following topics:

• Coach’s Corner
• Power to the Parents
• Summer Fun, Summer Safety, Summer Wellness
• NOBLE -The Law and Your Child
• Immigration Laws and the School
• Career Centers
• School Resource Officers
• The Internet
• From My Front Door to the School...Making the Journey Safe
• Health and Wellness
• Assisting Your Child in Being Successful in Elementary, Middle
• and High School
• LCPS - Special Education Process
• LCPS - Specialized Programs

Boundary Work Session Report

The board held a grueling 5-hour work session last night in advance of a April 28th boundary vote. My attempt at a quick summary:

• South-western elementaries: Priscilla Godfrey wants to broaden the Middleburg ES attendance area in order to make the school more viable. Risk: Middleburg could actually become overpopulated and overflow children in a few years. My guess: Priscilla represents this area, the board will grant her request.
• North-western elementaries: Godfrey and Jennifer Bergel came together on a plan to keep two north-of-Rt-9 zones in their current schools, anticipating that they will go to a new north-of-Rt-9 elementary school in about 4 years. Risk: Culbert Elementary school opens noticably under capacity. My guess: The Board will defer to Godfrey & Bergel.
• Leesburg Elementaries: A Leesburg elementary school is overdue and six of the eight are already overcrowded. Of the remaining two, Balls Bluff is at 97% capacity, and it along with The two which are underenrolled Balls Bluff and Catoctin have the highest numbers of students from poor (qualifying for free & reduced lunch) and non-english-speaking (ESL) families. SOL achievement scores are nearly identical, even between the richest and poorest schools and staff recommends no changes. Involved parents at the schools with high numbers of F&RL and ESL kids want those kids spread around to other schools. Parents at the other schools are quite happy with their schools as they are, thank you very much. Players: Bergel & Marshall want to keep the status quo... don't shuffle kids unless there is a pressing need, and SOLs indicate that there is not a pressing need. Reed wants to do a bit of balancing, but proposed a plan that does so by moving FR&L and ESL kids out of Balls Bluff and Catoctin the underenrolled schools. The third option: move affluent kids into poorer schools to give them a boost of fundraising and parent volunteers. My guess: The Board will be reluctant to move kids before opening a new school unless there is solid data that educational outcomes are suffering.
  
• Dulles South Elementaries: Robert DuPree and Tom Reed have a minor modification to the staff plan. Risks: There aren't any really good options available. The ES slated for Moorefield Station will be delayed and make the situation worse before it gets better. My guess: The Board will defer to the request of the area's representatives.
• Ashburn Elementaries: With no new schools opening in the area, staff recommends no change. No Board members have alternative plans. Bob Ohneiser took the opportunity to lament the situation and open old wounds. My guess: It's a safe bet there will be no changes here.
  
• Dulles South Middle Schools: The area desperately needs a new Middle School, which was delayed a year while the Board of Supervisors waited for a land bargain. That land is now under contract and the approval process has been fast-tracked. I can't remember whether DuPree had an alternative plan for this area while we wait for the new school, but if he does the Board will support it.
• Leesburg/Ashburn High Schools: This is a major dispute about whether Lansdowne or Ashburn Farm gets to stay at Stone Bridge. There isn't room for both. So either Lansdowne has to go to Tuscarora in Leesburg or Ashburn Farm has to go to Briar Woods. Players: Reed proposed a plan sending Lansdowne to Tuscarora, DuPree and Geurin clearly showed a preference for it. Bergel & Marshall want to keep the Tuscarora space open for Leesburg and prevent a future space squeeze there. Ohneiser is backing his Lansdowne constituents who want to stay at Stone Bridge. Godfrey was quiet but can be relied on by her Reed & Co. allies. The Board of Supervisors are insistent on enrollment-balancing, which will mean backing the Reed plan. The exceptions among the Supervisors are Lori Waters, also siding with her Lansdowne neighbors, and possibly Leesburg's Kelly Burk. Risks: The risks revolve entirely around whether a new high school can be sited up near Route 7 and just west of Route 28 in the next couple of years. This idea emerged just in the last couple of weeks. If so, Lansdowne could go to Tuscarora for a while until the new school is available. If not, the Lansdowne kids will need to move out of Tuscarora when Tuscarora fills with Leesburg kids and drive past three High Schools to HS-6, due to open in 2014. The School Board risks the wrath of the Supervisors if we don't balance enrollment, but by sending Lansdowne kids to Leesburg the Supervisors are then on the hook to pull a new High School property out of the hat from some of the most expensive acreage in the county, and fast. My guess: is as good as yours.
  

Joint Board school planning subcommittee

On Monday the Board of Supervisors and School Board met jointly to discuss land planning for schools. The Supervisors proposed creating a subcommittee of the Joint Boards committee. The subcommittee will look at school site planning and acquisition primarily for the Ashburn and Dulles areas.

Members of the subcommittee: Jennifer Bergel, Robert DuPree, Stevens Miller, Bob Ohneiser, Lori Waters and possibly Kelly Burk.

Supervisor Sally Kurtz, as chair of the Joint Boards committee will designate the subcommittee chairmanship. The Supervisors chose Stevens Miller before discovering that the School Board passed a resolution urging Kurtz to select her Catoctin counterpart, Jennifer Bergel, for the role.

The Joint committee meets Thursday afternoon at 4pm to hash this out.

School Budget Outlook Clears

With last Monday's final straw vote by Loudoun's Board of Supervisors, this year's budget process looks to be all over but the crying. Supervisors must make a final vote on Tuesday but nothing appears likely to change without some last minute public outcry.

Final verdict: LCPS will receive a $26.9M (5%) cut from last year's budget. Keep in mind that we anticipate an additional 2,500 students next year, so the per-student spending drops by more than 5%. Federal stimulus funds will not be used to increase education spending (although some Supervisors contend that without those federal dollars, the LCPS budget would be even lower).

Superintendent Hatrick has forwarded to the School Board his recommendations for how to implement those cuts, and they have not changed from those he published several weeks ago. They are in addition to cuts originally passed by the School Board in our proposed FY10 budget (presentation).

One of the most significant outcomes of the revised budget process is that the Supervisors and the public knew in advance what the potential impact of budget cuts would be. This was not the case in previous years.

While the School Board is free to depart from those recommendations, oddsmakers looking at past history would say that the Superintendent's recommendations are a good bet, possibly with minor modifications.

Below is a listing of all of the approved and proposed budget cuts in one place for your convenience. I have highlighted in blue those that are central office or non-instructional, but that is a subjective definition so you may mentally highlight more or fewer depending on your tastes.

Approved in the School Board's proposed budget:

• No step increase for employees (automatic raise for another year's seniority/service).
• No cost of living increase for employees
• Increase cost of health insurance, deductibles and copayments
  
• Cut of paid holidays for classified staff (non-instructional and non-administrative)
• No 403b matching for employees (similar to 401k matching program)
• Central Office hiring freeze
• Cut instructional materials & supplies
• Eliminate new payroll & attendance software
• Reduced special education staffing
• No elementary interactive whiteboards
• Eliminate full-day kindergarten
• Reduce ESL teachers & assistants
• Delay in technology replacement
• Reduce property & casualty insurance
  
• No new security cameras
• Reduce staff development programs
• Elimnate payment of Advanced Placement test fees
  
• Increase parking fees
• Institute per-sport participation fee
  

Proposed by the Superintendent to meet Supervisors' budget:

• 25% reduction in funding for activity buses and field trips
• Delay band uniforms for Park View HS and Stone Bridge HS
• Eliminate Fuel Contingency Fund
• Increase cost of health care to employees (this includes copay increases and an increase in out-of-network deductibles from $600 to $1,500 for a family. I will oppose this deductible increase).
• Further reduce in instructional materials
• Eliminate standardized national testing for 3rd & 8th graders
  
• Reduce or Eliminate professional services for construction and land acquisition
• Reduce part-time salaries & overtime
• Reduce substitute budget by 20%
• Reduce purchase of new textbooks
• Further reduce staff development programs
• Increase student parking fees: $200 annually
• Per-sport participation fee of $150

Many other cuts were proposed in case the budget cut was even more drastic. For those of you looking for a silver lining, below is a list of some high-visibility items unlikely to be implemented:

• Increase class sizes
• Eliminate existing positions
  
• Close four small western Loudoun elementary schools (Middleburg, Lincoln, Hillsboro, Aldie)
• Eliminate summer school
• Eliminate assistant athletic directors
• Reduce guidance counselors
• Eliminate elementary-level Spanish language instruction (FLES)
• Eliminate freshman sports and JV lacrosse
• Reduce Middle School Deans
• Eliminate Parent Liaisons
• Reduce elementary Art, Music & PE programs
• Reduce central office positions
• Implement unpaid furlough days

World Autism Awareness Day

I still remember the first time I heard of autism. In the mid-80s, a character in one of my favorite shows, St. Elsewhere, had a son with autism. It struck me as a rare and exotic disability. Several years later it was brought closer to my world, when in college I met a man who worked in a residential facility for young adults with autism. Now I have more friends with autistic children than I can count, and autism has a dramatic effect on our local education budget.

If you have heard about autism but aren't sure what it is or how it affects your neighbors, today is a good day to find out more. The United Nations has designated April 2nd World Autism Awareness Day in perpetuity.

April 2 is World Autism Awareness Day

This UN resolution is one of only three official disease-specific United Nations Days and will bring the world's attention to autism, a pervasive disorder that affects tens of millions. The World Autism Awareness Day resolution encourages all Member States to take measures to raise awareness about autism throughout society and to encourage early diagnosis and early intervention. It further expresses deep concern at the prevalence and high rate of autism in children in all regions of the world and the consequent developmental challenges.

World Autism Awareness Day shines a bright light on autism as a growing global health crisis. WAAD activities help to increase and develop world knowledge of the autism epidemic and impart information regarding the importance of early diagnosis and early intervention. Additionally, WAAD celebrates the unique talents and skills of persons with autism and is a day when individuals with autism are warmly welcomed and embraced in community events around the globe.

School Board Goal Setting

The Board met tonight in a fairly informal session to overhaul its stated goals, which were last revised in 2005. No members of the public or press attended, and the session was recorded but not webcast. The discussion is a look into the heart of the belief systems and management approaches of the individual board members and into the personal and leadership dynamics on the Board. It says more about where we are, how we got here and where we're going than any other meeting we'll have. At the pace we set, we'll need 3-4 more meetings before arriving at a final new set of goals.

One thought I had tonight:
It is dangerous to try to write down every good thing, and fear that we will neglect something that is good by not naming it.