tom marshall

Bridget Beichler assumed the post of principal of Eagle Ridge Middle School on Monday, Sept. 28, replacing Janice Koslowski, who was recently named principal of Potomac Falls High School. The School Board approved Beichler's appointment at the board’s Tuesday, Sept. 22 meeting.

“Without funds to purchase the land in Wheatland for public school purposes, staff recommends that the School Board terminate the contracts with Mr. Cangiano and Mr. Burgess.” Such was the lone agenda item on the special meeting of the Loudoun County School Board held on June 1. It passed 9-0.

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.

A motion to adopt the staff plan recommendations for Ashburn and Leesburg area high schools failed in a 4-4-1 vote with John Stevens (Potomac), Jennifer Bergel (Catoctin), Bob Ohneiser (Broad Run) and Joseph Guzman (Sugarland) voting for the staff plan and Robert DuPree (Dulles), Warren Geurin (Sterling), Priscilla Godfrey (Blue Ridge) and Tom Reed (At-Large) voting against. Tom Marshall (Leesburg) abstained.

The recent debate on Ashburn/Leesburg high school attendance boundaries has been a difficult and sometimes rancorous one for the School Board. Here are comments from their most recent discussion:

The discussion began January 26, shortly after the 2009 Presidential inauguration, and included three community input meetings on Ashburn/Leesburg high school attendance boundaries as well as public comments offered at school board meetings. Couched in the recent ‘One Hundred Days’ refrain of performance and accomplishments–the school board failed to adopt a plan to redistributed high school enrollments.

• After bringing to four suspects into custody in the Lansdowne attack, Sheriff Steve Simpson is definitely the winner of the week. There was certainly speculation that a truly random crime would be almost impossible to solve. It will be interesting to see how many critics try to characterize the successful “whodunit” as an “of course.”