It’s a lucky movement that unites both the need for western “viewsheds” and the belief that the schools need to exercise better financial discipline
The School Board contract for Wheatlands appears to be “dead on arrival,” due to opposition from local residents and several members of the Board of Supervisors. The plan had been to construct three schools (1 elementary, 1 middle and 1 high school) in western Loudoun’s Wheatlands along Route 287.
This is at least partially the School Board’s own fault. Staff members with the schools and the county both represented that the price of the land was reasonable. This hardly seems the case when the seller immediately lowered the sales price after the contract met with opposition. Whatever negotiations strategy is being utilized for land purchase needs to be reviewed in the most desperate way possible.
Whatever the truth of the matter is, it strengthens the perception that the schools have an intrinsic problem managing money. This new development will certainly rally those opposed to the relatively reasonable capital construction goals needed to fight school overcrowding and those against public schools in general.
Price notwithstanding, the failure of the Wheatlands project will be troubling. The opposition to the school complex is basically twofold: some opponents are opposed to any large development in the area, because of the increased traffic and decreased rural farm land—and other opponents believe that the project was two big and that new schools should be small and “community based.”
Both positions are taking money out of your pocket.
Everyone likes the idea of small, community-based schools with small class sizes. However, small class sizes cost money and three small schools cost more than one large one. Every parent wants their child in a 13-person class. However, there is a reckoning on its way when the parents of children in overcrowded schools at a maximum class size realize that they are paying the same tax rate as parents whose children are in “community-based” schools with class sizes of over one-third less.
And then there are the scenic views. Without being opposed to attractive scenery, it should be noted that no one owns a view of their neighbor’s property unless they have an easement preventing development. In years to come, the decision to oppose the schools may come back to haunt the residents of Wheatlands as the alternative to schools on the property is residential development—something equally likely to increase traffic, but without the guaranteed benefit to the community that a modern school would provide.
In the interest of amity, perhaps we should refrain from asking why a single complex of three schools is more of a danger to the scenery than multiple smaller schools. From a monetary standpoint, having three schools contiguous to each other makes sense as economies of scale allow for financial savings when services are split between them.
This appears to be Loudoun’s recurring conflict for our time. There will always be those in the west who oppose any construction or development, citing traffic, history, scenery and rural tradition. The truth in this is the sheer number of opponents to the school plan who immediately made the connection between the construction of a school and western Loudoun turning into downtown Fairfax. It appears that hyperbole is fair game on both sides.
If it were only a problem for western Loudoun, we could shake our heads and leave them to their own devices, but we are one county. So long as western Loudoun fights any sort of commercial development, then the commercial tax base of the country will be left completely to eastern Loudoun—who will be forced to recruit more new businesses into a confined space so that we can continue to pay for services (and the breathtaking views) in the western end of the county.
This is not an east/west conflict. This is about whether Wheatlands is truly a reasonable place for the proposed new schools for western Loudoun, and about the need for public participation in school sizing and school siting decisions. These concerns apply equally in the east as well as the west. Do not fall for "divide and conquer" and other strategies built on fear, uncertainty, and doubt.