The final official act of the months long–and now failed–effort by the Loudoun County School Board to secure a three-school site in western Loudoun on the Cangiano/Burgess property at Wheatlands will play out during a special School Board meeting on Monday, June 1, at 1:30 p.m. in the School Board Meeting Room at the School Administrative Offices, 21000 Education Court, Ashburn.
Despite vocal and steady opposition from Wheatlands area farmers– specifically the Wheatlands Alliance–and what many saw as a sure but unofficial signal from a majority of supervisors that the Wheatlands project no longer had their support, the School Board voted 6-3 on Tuesday, May 26 to keep the Wheatlands contract alive.
The Wheatlands contract provided 170 acres at an original cost of $11.2 million – but in recent days, one of the sellers agreed to lower the price by $2.3 million. School board members hoped to build three schools–an elementary, middle and high school for 875, 1200, and 1800 students respectively, on the property on Route 287 north of Route 9 in Lovettsville. Supervisors replied with a swift, public and sound majority vote of 8-1 the following day, stating their intention to reject the Wheatlands contract, and deny funding and the necessary land use and special permits.
School Board members who voted in support of the Wheatlands contract included Jennifer Bergel (Catoctin), Priscilla Godfrey (Blue Ridge), School Board Chairman Robert DuPree (Dulles), Vice Chairman Warren Geurin (Sterling), Tom Marshall (Leesburg) and Tom Reed (At-Large). Voting against any further consideration of Wheatlands were School Board members John Stevens (Potomac), Bob Ohneiser (Broad Run) and Joseph Guzman (Sugarland Run). See “Wheatland Survives” story at www.loudouni.com for more information on the School Board’s May 26 decision.
Supervisors official 8-1 vote Wednesday, May 27 stood in stark contrast to unofficial–but confirmed–reports of majority support for the Wheatlands project, and contract presented at a February LCPS briefing and review session with supervisors. Three briefings between LCPS staff and supervisors were held in December, January and February regarding the Wheatlands project, plans, costs and contracts. Sterling Supervisor Eugene Delgaudio (R) cast the lone vote in support of the School Board contract for Wheatlands on May 27.
Wednesday’s decision by the Board of Supervisors to effectively kill the Wheatlands contract reflects the fate of two earlier School Board contracts for proposed school sites. A majority of supervisors and planning commissioners rejected the School Board’s contract to build two schools on a Lenah Run site on Route 50, and the Rouse contract for three schools on property on Evergreen Mills Road. Their decisions to deny were based on location, as well as price and process.
Underlying all the debate and discussion about these three contracts for specific schools sites is an elemental shift in the process of school site selection, land acquisitions and land contracts. Supervisor Lori Waters (Broad Run) officially acknowledged a desire for such a change in the process on Wednesday, when she remarked that the time “...had come for the School Board and the school system to focus on education,” leaving supervisors to deliver the school sites.
Supervisor Jim Burton (Blue Ridge), a member of the Joint Supervisor/School Board committee and chairman of the Supervisors Finance Committee, has also indicated his desire for more supervisor control in land acquisition and contract negotiation. School site selection, land acquisition and contracts negotiation and public input have been discussed by the Joint Supervisor/School Board committee, and now its Capital Construction Projects Subcommittee. Such discussion about process is likely to accelerate, as the county’s need for schools in pockets of the county, both east and west, continues.
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The Wheatland property is NOT in Lovettsville. The property is closer to Hillsboro and Purcellville than Lovettsville. It has a Purcellville mailing addresss and is 5 miles from Lovettsville. Why do reporters keep getting this detail wrong? It is SUPPOSED to be in Lovettsville. Since sites in range of Lovettsville's water/sewer have been identified, there is hope that middle/high schools which do belong there will have a chance and the public will have a voice.
What no one seems to be recognizing is that much of the public outcry was powered in part by LCPS files obtained under the Freedom of Information Act law that they refuse to address. If these people don't get taken to task for their malfeasance, they need to be shown the door because Loudoun taxpayers just can't afford this behaviour, whether its due to incompetency, arrogant disregard or flat-out graft, compensated or otherwise.
To think that School Board members like Godfrey, Bergel, Dupree, Reed, Marshall and Guerin continue to grasp onto this site and some like Bergel are even desperately discounting the potential promise held by alternates in Town, further show their disconnect with the public and another reason to invite their successors to the party.