The staff-recommended attendance boundaries for a new middle and two high schools will keep communities together — for most part.
"We were trying to balance the enrollment growth as best we could while keeping the neighborhoods together," said Sam Adamo, director of planning and legislative services, at the March 11 School Board meeting. "We did caution everybody: sometime in the future when we add another high school, that’s likely to change."
The opening of Mercer Middle School in Aldie in fall 2004 and of HS-2 in South Riding and of HS-4 in Brambleton a year later will result in boundary changes for middle and high schools in the schools’ surrounding areas.
Staff developed proposed attendance zones for the three new schools by reviewing the current attendance zones for Eagle Ridge Middle School, Farmwell Station Middle School, J. Lupton Middle School, Broad Run High School, Loudoun County High School and Stone Bridge High School. Staff also considered school and community demographic data, current and projected enrollments for the new and existing schools and anticipated development patterns, along with community input.
ACCORDING TO THE STAFF proposal, Mercer Middle School and HS-2 will serve the Dulles South area, South Riding, Aldie and most of the Arcola attendance area, and HS-4 will serve the Broadlands and Brambleton developments.
The proposal will keep Ashburn Village together with Farmwell Station Middle School and Broad Run High School as the feeder schools. Ashburn Farm, Belmont Country Club and Lansdowne will have Belmont Ridge Middle School and Stone Bridge High School as their feeder schools.
"There are some smaller [neighborhoods] that are going to shift under the proposal," Adamo said.
For instance, the schools serving The Ridges of Ashburn will change in 2004 from Eagle Ridge Middle School to Farmwell Station Middle School and from Stone Bridge High School to Broad Run High School.
"We’re pretty much giving people what they want as far as schools and the facilities they want to be at," Adamo said. "The neighborhoods are staying together, and they’re intact."
The public hearings for the Dulles North and South area middle and high school attendance zones will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 20 at Eagle Ridge Middle School and on Wednesday, March 26 at Hutchison Farm Elementary School.
"I look forward to the public hearing to get the public input," said School Board member John Andrews (Broad Run). "It’s extremely important for me to hear from the public … whether they like it or don’t like it."
The School Board is scheduled to adopt the attendance zone for the three schools on Tuesday, April 8.