Shortly after midnight—after a staff preliminary presentation on two possible new Lovettsville area school sites followed by a closed session—the Loudoun County School Board voted 6-3 to keep the Wheatlands contract alive while amendments to the contracts are executed, new information is disseminated to the public and two new alternative sites in and around Lovettsville are examined.
Dr. Sam Adamo, LCPS Director of Planning and Legislative Services provided a preliminary presentation on the two alternative school sites —Shoene/Engle and McDonough parcels. Adamo spoke of the likely challenges associated with either of the new sites, specifically concerns about access. Access and the cost associated with achieving access to both new sites as well as numerous issues regarding town and county amendments and ordinances were mentioned in Adamo’s preliminary presentation.
School board member Joseph Guzman (Sugarland Run) offered a motion to “terminate the Burgess/Cangiano (Wheatlands school site) contract,” when the board reconvened from the closed session late the evening of Tuesday, May 26. Guzman's motion found support from colleagues John Stevens (Potomac) and Bob Ohneiser (Broad Run).
But a substitute motion offered by School board member Jennifer Bergel (Catoctin) carried the day—or rather the night. Bergel offered a substitute motion to “Approve the first amendment to the Burgess contract and approve the first amendment to the Cangiano contract and the chairman is authorized to execute both the contracts on behalf of the board.” Bergel went on to explain “We have new information tonight, new amendments to contracts…We need to keep this site viable at this point in time,”Bergel said. Board approval of the substitute motion extends the Wheatland contract deadline until the end of October. Priscilla Godfrey (Blue Ridge) seconded the motion.
In turns, school board members spoke of their positions on the Guzman and Bergel motions before Bergel’s motion to keep the Wheatlands school site contract alive passed in a 6-3 vote with Bergel, Godfrey, School board chairman Robert DuPree (Dulles), vice chairman Warren Geurin (Sterling), Tom Marshall (Leesburg) and Tom Reed (At-Large) voting in the majority. School board members Guzman, Stevens and Ohneiser voted against continuing to pursue the Wheatlands site. The Wheatlands school site contract originally negotiated in late February at a cost of $11.3 million for the combined 170 acres with two property owners—Cangiano $9.3 million for 160 acres and Burgess $1.4 million for ten acres, was recently reduced. Sam Cangiano agreed to lower his asking price for 160 acres from $9.9 million to $7.6 million, effectively reducing the per acre cost from $62,031 to $47,500 per acre; a reduction in the contract price of $2.3 million.
The School board heard from almost thirty speakers at the Tuesday, May 26 meeting during public comments; the majority spoke in opposition to the Wheatlands school site. Speakers urged the school board to “kill the Cangiano contract,” and reiterated often-heard arguments against the three school western site off Route 287, near Route 9. Opposition has centered on the location, costs, and concerns about water, as well as concern for preservation of historic Nixon house on the property as well as the contract process and what opponents charge is a lack of public input and involvement. Members of Wheatland Alliance and others opposed to Wheatlands school site were hoping the school board would act to terminate the contract, given the vocal opposition, and the alleged dwindling support of Loudoun supervisors for the project. As the evening worn on only a handful waited to see if the school board would blink and terminate the Cangiano/Burgess contract and wait they did while the school board met in closed session. Even fewer were in attendance when the school board reconvened the regular meeting and addressed the Wheatlands school site contracts.
Stevens spoke against Bergel’s substitute motion and cautioned against extending the Cangiano and Burgess contracts and “putting in jeopardy several hundred thousands dollars in public funds.” “It is fairly clear to me this is not a viable acquisition and has nothing to do with the merits of the case…every confidence in the merits; I don’t have confidence in the viability. And I am not willing to vote for more money on an acquisition that is not going to happen,” Stevens said.
School board vice chairman Warren Geurin spoke of “doing things in concert with the Board of Supervisors,” and mentioned the “three or four times now they have indicated their support for us to move forward.” Geurin concluded he would support the Bergel substitute motion explaining, “if tomorrow the Board of Supervisors takes some concrete action…we have time to come back and take a different action. Tonight we can do nothing, amend the contracts or terminate the contract. Let’s see what the Supervisors have to say publicly.” Geurin explained the school board had the time—although just days—for supervisors to publicly speak on the Wheatlands school site—before the looming June 1 deadline for the school board to terminate the two contracts.
DuPree spoke of the school board’s “responsibility to work with Supervisors in cooperative…we need to go to them, show them the latest option.” DuPree also asked of supervisors that after receiving the new information “then tell us on the record you have changed your mind. Don’t just send us out there to do the dirty work. Stand up and say okay we planned with you, our professional staff worked with you, a majority of both boards agreed, professional staff agreed, just say so publicly. In the meantime I would like to show (supervisors) this new information, have conversations with Town of Lovettsville…We want to work with the Towns. It would be premature to pull the plug tonight, so I will support the extension of the contract,” DuPree said.
Bob Ohneiser (Broad Run) maintained his opposition to the Wheatlands school site contract by voting against Bergel’s substitute motion. “Land banking is inappropriate when we don’t have enough funds to build schools we need. This is ill timed and the funds should not be spent.”
Priscilla Godfrey (Blue Ridge) voiced support for the Bergel substitute motion. “There is a great deal of urgency behind finding land out in the west, not just an easy thing to do and not going to get easier as time goes by.”
Tom Marshall (Leesburg) also spoke in support for the substitute motion. Marshall referenced the “difficulty we have in acquiring land is so acute and for us to ignore this opportunity, a very excellent location with respect to safety and convenience, I think we need to support the study a little further.”
Tom Reed (At-Large) compared the three school (elementary, middle and high school) site proposed on Wheatlands to the three school site along Route 15 in Leesburg—Francis Hazel Reid Elementary, Smart’s Mill Middle School and construction of Tuscarora High School which will open for the 2010-2011 school year. Reed said of Wheatlands “We need this land, we need to bank it.”
More tomorrow - The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, scheduled to reconvene an earlier meeting on Wednesday, May 27, are reportedly preparing to make a public their positions on the Wheatlands school site.
I just don't see where the sense of urgency is coming from: “There is a great deal of urgency behind finding land out in the west, not just an easy thing to do and not going to get easier as time goes by.”
This land is no bargain by any means, especially when you consider the as yet undisclosed $$ needed for waste water treatment, traffic mitigation, etc. It is not going anywhere- Sal is not going to be selling it anytime soon. In case the SB hasn't noticed, there is a severe bust in the real estate market currently and nobody knows when this buyer's market will turn around. Look into it...
Adamo presented the Shoene/Engle and McDonough parcels in the worst possible light. Alas, if similar scrutiny and analysis is done on the Wheatland site, it is likely to come up much worse. There is a clear bias toward Wheatland on the part of some of the SB, in spite of the facts.