Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County School Board, School Board Elementary School Attendance Zone Overview, Thursday, October 19, 2023

Date: Thursday, October 19, 2023
Place: Loudoun County Public Schools / School Board meeting (see BoardDocs / LCPS-TV)
Length: 35m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/876201292?rel=0
BoardDocs (School Board): https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/loudoun/Board.nsf/Public

Machine transcript (speech-to-text) produced by Coraggio Consulting. Not an official county record. Names and numbers may be misspelled; check the video at the timestamp before quoting.
Speech-to-text: whisper.cpp, model large-v3-turbo. Produced 2026-10-19. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:15] Good evening, I call to order this Thursday, October 19th, 2023, School Board Elementary School Attendance Zone Overview for Henrietta Lacks Elementary School. The first item on our agenda is item 201, remote participation.

[00:00:32] I've been notified that Denise Corbo would like to remotely participate in tonight's school board meeting. Ms. Corbo, could you please state your location, whether you are, whether anyone is present with you at your location, and whether this is for a medical or personal matter?

[00:00:49] Thank you. I'm home, I'm alone, and I'm requesting remote participation due to an ongoing medical condition and disability. Thank you. At this point, I will entertain a motion that Ms. Corbo's request to participate remotely due to an ongoing medical issue be granted.

[00:01:08] So moved. Is there a second? Seeing no, that motion will fail for lack of a second. Ms. Corbo, do you have any other requests regarding remote participation you'd like to make tonight? No, not at this time.

[00:01:23] Thank you. Thank you. With that, we'll move to item three on the agenda, 301, for the attendance zone overview. And I will turn it over to Mr. Lewis and Ms. Tate. Thank you, Mr. Sorokin.

[00:01:40] We appreciate everyone being here tonight to look at the information provided. I will turn it this time to Ms. Tate, who will walk us through a number of slides. and some information related to the recommendations for the attendance on change. - Good evening, board members.

[00:01:56] Dr. Smith and our visiting guest, thank you. If you would indulge me before we start the meeting, I would like to go over the information that is in your folder. We have endeavored to post a lot of this on the webpage. It is certainly available off of the board docs agenda item for anyone who is watching from home and wishes to access, we will update our webpage later this evening to post it all the first item in the folder is of course tonight's agenda the second item is a copy of this

[00:02:28] evening's presentation for reference as we move forward the next item is a map of the current elementary school attendance zones for the Dulles South area including Aldi Arcola Buffalo Trail Cardinal Ridge Elaine Thompson Goshen Post, Hovater, Hutchison Farm, Liberty, Little River and Pinebrook the second or the next item in your folder is a copy of the current secondary school attendance zones for the same area the next item in the packet is an 11 by 17

[00:03:05] map of the planning zones that are involved in this boundary process and if you open the map folded within it are two stapled sets one is the September 2023 resident K-5 student detail for the children who live in the planning zones that will be part of this boundary study and then the second document that was folded within it is the planning zone projections for the next six years there were the preliminary projections that we provide for those who wish to look at detail by planning zone this will be available on the webpage later tomorrow

[00:03:40] actually with the PDF version in Excel version mr. Morris I'll use you as an example I know you like to work with that so we provide both the Excel and the PDF then we have a stapled set of maps which are the 11 schools that are part of the boundary process it shows their current 23 24 attendance zone it provides residential development detail it also notes the planning zones that comprise each of the elementary zones so that is there and then towards the end we have the staff plan that I will review later this evening and enclosed

[00:04:18] within that is the tracking chart that as this plan certainly is part of the package now but as additional plans are offered by board members we would update this to show what planning zones are being changed with each plan I will note that on the tracking chart you will see certain planning zones that are highlighted in red those planning zones really can't change because they are the planning zones that hold the school such as hovater so that is there and then the final item in the folder is a look at the move tracker as we call it it shows

[00:04:55] what the schools have what schools have served a planning zone over the 2014 to present day so that you can see how they've changed I will offer just as an observation as an example DSO 8 you will see that it's changed over the years but that's the Heartland community and they didn't have their first building permit until 2021 up to that point the planning zone was very rural so it might look like the residents of Heartland as an example may have moved multiple times but they really haven't because that planning that community just started

[00:05:31] building a couple years ago and with that that that covers everything in the folder again a lot of this is already posted on our web page but will be updated so tonight we begin the process of establishing an attendant zone for Henrietta Lacks the goal is to outline the information in the packet to go through this presentation to provide some background information for you the listening public I acknowledge that there's a lot of information in tonight's presentation we've endeavored to make it a little to make it as cogent

[00:06:07] as possible but certainly if there's questions that you have if there's questions that members of the public have while watching this or viewing this later we encourage everyone to submit questions to us through our LCPS plan at lcps.org email address any questions we receive we'll answer we'll post on our webpage so everybody can see the response have the same answer and we that kind of keeps the communication open this presentation again as well as the Excel version of the planning zone student counts will be posted on a

[00:06:42] dedicated school attendance zone web page and is again in board docs as additional information is provided to you board members at upcoming meetings we will post that as well but why we are here we're here to establish the tenant zone for Henrietta Lacks which opens in the fall relieve existing and projected overcrowding in the area elementary schools and balance the student needs through the Dulles South area to the greatest extent possible I will restate this multiple times but we're not changing secondary school attendance zones with this process the schools that serve your residents this year for middle and high will serve your residents for next year for middle and

[00:07:21] high since the inception of Henrietta Lacks adjacent to Hovater Elementary school it has been the thought that Henrietta Lacks and Hovater would be sister schools where one would serve the lower primary grades and the other would serve the upper grades of the elementary school so recognizing that this process tonight that we begin is just to see if the Hovater boundary should be expanded beyond what is currently serving if there are any adjustments that could be made to better utilize all of our schools this is a

[00:07:57] location map and I failed to bring my pointer but I think we're okay we've got Braddock Road, Light Ridge Farm Road and Collaboration Drive but this is the Light Ridge High School Hovater Campus as we know it and you can see Henrietta Lacks is adjacent to Hovater Elementary School. It will be addressed at 4-1-1-2-5 Collaboration Drive. It's anticipated to be a 960 student school and at this juncture with the board's direction up to last board meeting Henrietta Lacks will be a k2 school Hovater will be a 3/5 but for its inaugural year the

[00:08:36] board's direction has been that Henrietta Lacks would only serve k1 students that second grade students who will be starting second grade in the 24 25 year will remain at Hovater Elementary School for that continuity because when they were in kindergarten they were at Pinebrook they were at Hove Otter this year is a first grade and the board agreed that they didn't need to move to Henrietta next year to move back to Hove Otter for their third grade year the school this boundary process is guided by school board policy 6530 that addresses various criteria facilities proximity community

[00:09:14] accessibility stability and cluster alignment other factors that may be considered include impact on neighborhoods long-range plan socioeconomic characteristics and overall impact on schools and the facilities this is the calendar that the board adopted back in June to facilitate this boundary process tonight is the first meeting of overview we have public hearing and work session next Monday night there will be another public hearing and work session on November 8 it would be anticipated the board would have this as an information item on November 28 at which time any plans that

[00:09:54] are under consideration would be narrowed down so that the public would know which which plans the board are actively considering so that plans that perhaps aren't getting support by board members would no longer be the focus and then we would have an additional public hearing on December 4 and then we anticipate board action on December 12 all of the meetings like tonight are going to be televised on Comcast and Fios Verizon Fios as well as streamed from our website our web page and then live here as well so this is a snapshot

[00:10:33] of our website that's dedicated to the Della South boundary you can certainly access it from our planning and GIS page but in the lower left here of the slide I've taken a snippet from Hovater's home page on every elementary school that's part of the boundary process we have a quick link on their home page we know parents are going to their school site to find the lunch menu to check on homework to do parent view so we provided a link that if they click this at the bottom of their each of the school's home pages it will take them directly to the Dulles South so it's an easier access I do want to point out in

[00:11:11] the upper right corner we have a lot of great resources great apps great maps that is in our that are in our map gallery so that is there as well you can look at what attendance zones you can check out residential development so I just wanted to do a little PR for that as well this map again in your folder and posted on the web page identifies the attendance zones for the 11 schools that are part of this boundary process again Aldi in the far west then in the green we've got our Cola it's in the turquoise blue kind of in the center we

[00:11:48] have Elaine Thompson which is north of Route 50 and again I'm sorry I don't I don't have my map pointer to do that, but Elaine Thompson is on the north side. Goshen Post is, actually Goshen Post is in the turquoise, I misstated.

[00:12:04] Hovater's in the purple on the western, and then we've got Little River, Liberty Hutchison Farm on the most eastern side with Cardinal Ridge, and there we are. This is also providing the secondary school so that you can see how the students matriculate from elementary to middle.

[00:12:25] So we've got the Lightridge-Willard cluster. We have the Freedom-John Champ cluster. We have the, I'm sorry, Freedom-J. Michael Lunsford cluster, John Champ-Mercer. And then we even have Rockridge-Stonehill because part of Elaine Thompson advances there.

[00:12:43] And then we also have Independence and Brampton Middle School as part of Elaine Thompson advances there as well. We're providing here the September 30 enrollments going back to 2013. we have opened a number of schools over that time Buffalo Trail opened in 2010 Cardinal Ridge in 2014 Madison's Trust which is not part of this process opened in 2016 we opened Goshen Post in 2018 wax pool in 2019 that's not part of this process but showing how the area has grown so rapidly Hovater opened in 2021

[00:13:21] one and Elaine Thompson opened in 2022. You'll note the blue shading for both Hove Otter and Pinebrook on for the last two years and that reflects the all of the kindergarten students who are currently in the Hove Otter zone going to Pinebrook in the interim before Henrietta Lacks open. This is often information that board members ask regional assignments which are guided by policy 8155 when maximum class sizes are reached and there's no more classrooms or staffing to add an additional class students are regionally

[00:13:59] assigned to a neighboring school transportation is provided this year currently as of the 12th of October we had eight students being regionally assigned from Elaine Thompson some are going to Creighton's Corner Madison's Trust and Rosalie and sometimes that is determined where they live in the attendance zone is to make it a closer route and then we've also noted that we have the 140 kindergarten students from Hove Otter that are attending Pine Brook this is another chart is often asked for during the process so we're

[00:14:36] providing it at the outset and this is the special permissions for this current school year so it's as an example Aldi has three special permissions that are attending from outside of their attendance zone but they have 34 students within their attendance zone that are attending other elementary schools so we provided that again for all of the schools in this attendance zone change process and that is guided also by policy 8155 special education we are we receive this information from our special education department this

[00:15:11] provides the programs that are in place presently at our elementary schools so we just wanted to recognize that we do project for k5 students our special education students are part of that cohort but we wanted to show the programs that are in the schools and you will note as an example Pinebrook has no specialized special education programs because they have a significant number of kindergarten classrooms in their school right now this is based capacity it's if you recognize this from the CIP and so we're providing the capacity

[00:15:47] detail for all of the schools in the boundary process going from Aldi down to Pinebrook again I'm in the packet and post on the webpage but I just wanted to reference it we've provided attendance zone maps for each of the schools we've also provided the residential development patterns so that you can see what's pending what's completed and what is approved so that as we're doing projections you can track areas such as Elaine Thompson which has both our cola center in Heartland within its attendance zone both are growing exponentially but that way you can see what if a more stable school versus

[00:16:25] a school that has additional growth anticipated and then we also always provide this the walk zones are also provided on the maps that were just on the slide preceding this but all of the schools with the exception of Aldi Arcola Cardinal Ridge and Elaine Thompson have a walk zone this current school year I want to provide these definitions certainly you as board members have lived through our boundary process a number of times but it's very important for the residents and those watching to understand the definitions between student enrollment and residential students. The student enrollment of a

[00:17:04] school are the students who are attending the school. They could be children who live in the zone or who do not live in the zone. If you have a day care provider that is in the Arcola attendance zone but you live in Buffalo Trail, your student is part of Arcola's enrollment. We geocode addresses and geocodes address matches all of our students in September of each year so that we know where they reside. So those are our resident students. So you may have resident students in our COLA's attendance zone that are attending another school.

[00:17:35] Again because of daycare or other exceptions that are allowed by policy. So I just wanted to distinguish between those two kind of definitions. This is the planning zone map for this boundary process.

[00:17:51] Planning zones again are planning and GIS services. It's kind of a tool we use so that we can track student growth. It helps us identify areas. planning zones are certainly not static in the fact that they remain constant year over year as we have additional development south riding at one point was just a few planning zones but as it has grown over the year they've divided but planning zones do remain constant throughout a given school year so that we can track student data as you all are all aware we start that process in june where we ask if there are any that may need to be divided we look at them as

[00:18:28] well if we've had new developments come in that we further divide but it helps us track there are more manageable capture data set than a whole attendance zone but they're often larger than a subdivision particularly our small ones they can be based on roads natural barriers streams we sometimes utilize subdivisions but each individual planning zone is assigned to one elementary school one middle school and one high school the planning zone table

[00:19:07] which is included in it includes our planning zone numbers the DS stands for Dulles South we have DNs that are Dulles North CLs or Central Loudoun but in this process it's all Dulles South numbers we are providing in the table that's also posted on the web our elementary middle and high school attendance zones for this current school year and included with that are the number of students residing in those planning zones and then we have the K-5 resident student counts and we have the six-year preliminary projections going out from next year to the 29-30 school year we also provide free and reduced meal

[00:19:45] student identifiers to the extent and I think we've got an asterisk but we don't have the footnotes so that's on me and the English language learner those eligible for services on the table if you see an asterisk we if it's ten or less we do not identify that it's an asterisk on there so that it's not identifiable information but that is just a another data set that board members often ask for in this process so again we're providing it at the outset this is a snapshot of that table for those watching again you will see the

[00:20:25] The DS 11.2 is highlighted in red, and that's the planning zone in which Pinebrook is located. Maybe it's 12.2. Yeah. Can't even read my insights. We often also have folks ask, well, how do I know what planning zone I live in, particularly if they're new to Loudoun and have yet to experience a boundary process with us?

[00:20:51] So on our webpage, we have a link to the attendance zone lookup. They will have to click the disclaimer, but they can select the current school year. You put in your house number, you put in your zip code, and lo and behold, it will tell you what planning zone you reside in.

[00:21:07] It also is providing the upcoming election district, but this helps people find out. Also, for anybody watching or viewing this later, if you're really unsure, give us a call, and we can help you walk through that and identify your planning zone for you.

[00:21:25] This is the Conditions Without Change, and so this reflects our projected K-5 students for the next six years. I will start on the left column is the Dulles South Elementary Schools. Then we provide the base building capacity from the chart that was previously shared.

[00:21:44] We provide the K-5 resident student counts for this September 23, and then that gives you the percent of the base capacity. So as ALDI as an example, they have 126 resident students living in their attendance zone this September, October.

[00:22:00] Their capacity is 120, so their base capacity is 105%. Then we've provided the six years of projected enrollment for the same schools, and the base capacity at the far, as we're getting closer to the far right, that's based off of last year, the 29-30 school year.

[00:22:18] And then we have again provided the qualified, free, reduced students, what percentage they are of the resident students in that attendance zone right now, as well as the eligible English learners. So, without further ado, we are going to go into the staff plan that we are recommending to you tonight.

[00:22:42] And I'm going to share the numbers and then I can come back to this because I think that I need to explain. Okay, we're going to zoom in. We are not proposing any changes to Arcola, Buffalo Trail, Cardinal Ridge, Liberty, Little River, Pinebrook, Hutchison.

[00:23:04] Thank you. The only changes we are making or proposing with this staff plan are to move four planning zones into the what would be Henrietta Lacks Hovater attendance zone. They are DS08, which currently is in the Elaine Thompson attendance zone.

[00:23:23] They are planning zone DS of 6.6 and 6.9 in the Goshen post attendance zone and DS 6.4 in the Aldi elementary school zone so DS 6.6 is coming from Goshen post elementary it is on the north side of route 50 and includes the Westbury Glen and Arcadia Sunbury communities they are both completely built and they would matriculate they would now go to henrata lax and hovater elementary if

[00:23:58] the board were to adopt this plan ds 6.9 is adjacent to ds 6.6 it includes what was a Lena circle east and west community but was incorporated into the overall heartland community after partland started to developing so we are proposing that DS 6.9 move from Goshen Post to Henrietta Lacks and Hovater Elementary School. We're also proposing to provide some much-needed relief to Elaine Thompson as they are already at their capacity its second year of

[00:24:36] enrollment. We are recommending that the greater Heartland community which is in DS 08 that they transition from Elaine Thompson to Henrietta Lacks and Hovater elementary school and then mr. Soraka to mr. Morris I know you're well aware of the community off of Peach Ridge Court in DSO 6.4 which is part of the greens at Willowsford now that there will be space we are recommending that DS 6.4 be reassigned from Aldi elementary school to Henrietta Lacks I'm going to go back

[00:25:15] now and so you can see these when we I will offer that we looked at various ideas as we were coming up with this staff plan one of which included taking everything that was south of route 50 and east of route 15 in the current Aldi attendance zone and assigning them all to Henrietta Lacks and Hovater certainly there was space that would be at those schools but we recognized that we wanted to continue to utilize Aldi elementary school so we did not we also looked at planning zone DS 7.6 which is Kirkpatrick West and we at one time we

[00:25:54] considered whether that should perhaps be reassigned to Hovat or Henrietta Lacks from a proximity standpoint it's currently in the Buffalo Zone or maybe even to Pinebrook Elementary but we wanted to equally utilize all of our schools and so in the end our staff plan is recommending for planning zone changes only think I can okay so now I'm going backwards sorry I who put this slide for different presentation together but what we have here is the

[00:26:30] staff plan again it's the same setup as the conditions without change we've highlighted Henrietta Lacks and Hovater so that you know that those are distributed based on a K2 and a 3/5 we recognize next year the second grade will not be at Henrietta Lacks but for this illustrative we have divided the k2 percentage base off of current year so henrata lax's numbers will reflect the k2 projection and hovater will be a three five not articulating that overly well but so what you have we have relief for aldi although in the out year we

[00:27:08] will see that aldi is still at 108 percent of its base capacity our cola buffalo trail cardinal ridge elaine thompson with the reassignment of the heartland community that provides much-needed release for Elaine Thompson we do not have another elementary school planned in this area of the county for several years and so we are able to hopefully maintain the boundary for Elaine Thompson with this reassignment of heartland and be able to serve all of their students that are in their zone Goshen post is at 85% if you're

[00:27:41] looking at the 2930 we have Henrietta Lacks and Hovater in that 91 to 96% utilization for those two schools and then Hutchison Liberty Little River and Pinebrook all remain under capacity so again the staff plan is here I'm sharing this this is our contact information this is our email address I again have that little graphic there on the orange block so parents can look for that on their school's home page to click to go directly to where we have all the

[00:28:20] information our telephone number if you're unsure of what planning zone you reside in but any questions we encourage the public to submit any questions any comments through this email address we will forward all comments we receive to board members the superintendent and cabinet any questions we receive we will answer we will post on our web page will respond back to the person we're not going to post someone's name with the question there's the anonymous opportunity there but we want everybody to have answers to the same question because a question that I might have as a parent is probably one another parent has.

[00:28:57] So as we get the questions, we're posting them. They'll be updated. Any information that you board members ask throughout this process, any information we provide to you at meetings are going to be on the webpage. So this is where you can find the information.

[00:29:16] Next Monday again is a public hearing and a work session. So if there are concerns those watching or viewing have, they can come speak at the hearing. There's advanced sign-up. We will have sign-up here as well the evening and hour prior to the meeting start.

[00:29:32] And with that, I'm concluding my presentation and happy to answer questions, which I'm sure there probably are many. All right. Thank you, Ms. Tate, for the overview. Board members, what questions do you have regarding the staff plan or the presentation?

[00:29:49] Mr. Morse. Thank you, Mr. Chair. The package grows thicker every year, and, of course, we love the information that's available. One area that I wanted to keep an eye on is the thought that as we're adjusting the boundaries, especially for Laney Thompson and for Goshen Post, looking in the out years, those are the ones that are going to continue to grow.

[00:30:13] They still have areas of growth. So there is concern that if there is space available, like at Pinebrook or a school in the vicinity that has space available and is stable now, that might be an opportunity for us to look at perhaps, you know, one or two more zones added to the footprint so that the schools that we know are going to reach their capacity would either reach it slower or not reach it at all.

[00:30:42] I know, I like the plan, and I think it's probably the best plan that we can go with, but I will take a look and see if there are opportunities Because, you know, I see Pinebrook and I see that space available. And yet right next door, we see both the two elementary schools are going with the footprint that they have.

[00:31:02] They're going to keep growing. So but I do appreciate the plan and the stability that it provided for the schools to the east, which comes with time. Right. As the community aged out, we knew this was going to happen. And I think that they're in a comfortable area.

[00:31:19] Hutchison is a little bit low. you know they're just about two-thirds capacity so you know there might be there might be some efficiencies that we could look at if we could bring in something from Cardinal Ridge perhaps because they're going to be at 91 percent so there'd be very small changes but overall I think the plan looks great and I appreciate all the data. Additional questions or comments? I just have one DS 6.4 I know we've we've played ping pong with DS 6.4 before am I recalling right that there's

[00:31:53] either no or a very small number of students who were in that planning zone there are three streets peach orchard lane not even streets frosty meadow lane and peach ridge court and i believe i'm going to oh lewis is a good assistant here there's five k5 students living in that planning zone right now five five okay and so given the small number of students what's the the can you remind me of the rationale for wanting wanting to move that planning zone so peatridge court

[00:32:30] is part of the i'm and i can we'll bring a blow up of the area so for next monday there is one street that is part of the greens of willowsford that can only be accessed through the greens of willowsford but it is part but it didn't exist when we established the hovater boundary and so these residents are now, the bus is having to drive into the greens of Willisford, pick up off of Peach Ridge Court, and drive those students to all the elementary school. So the intent with this is to bring that planning zone into the Hovater boundary so that all of the greens of Willisford

[00:33:10] in that park will be at Hovater and Henrietta Lacks. It's an efficiency and it's a fix. Okay, so I thought that planning zone or those roads, I thought that predated the greens of willowsford has it has it always been a part of it or did it just get annexed into willowsford i think it got annexed in and i'm gonna look at susan but it was it was i think it was additional land that the developer acquired and it's a new road i'll get you more information okay i'm also

[00:33:46] wondering just given the small number of students if if we could if there's a way of reaching out to those five families and seeing if they would want to move or or not so i know we don't generally do that. They very much have been wanting to move since before. The first houses were being built as the board and staff were transitioning all the kindergarten students from Hovater into Pinebrook and they wanted to request an abbreviated boundary process to bring them in but at the time

[00:34:19] the belief was that we're not going to add additional streets to an attendance zone when we're reassigning all of the kindergarten students and so it is my belief though I'm certain that they will reach out as well that they very much want to be part of the Henrietta Lacks Hovater attendance zone I'm remembering that now I'm remembering those I'll go back to my email archive and I'm remembering there's the Peachtree Court emails now okay I we have forwarded you two emails just today that are both residents of this planning zone asking that specific request

[00:34:58] to move. Okay, thank you. Any additional questions or discussion? Okay, so seeing none, board members, I think we have our homework and many maps to take a look at and we will be back on Monday for our next work session and first public hearing on this. Okay, so seeing no further business, we are adjourned.

[00:35:23] Thank you.

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