Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County School Board, School Board Elementary School Attendance Zone Overview, Thursday, October 15, 2026

Date: Thursday, October 15, 2026
Place: Loudoun County Public Schools / School Board meeting (see BoardDocs / LCPS-TV)
Length: 1h 24m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/1236365194?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 2026-10-20. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

[00:02:37] okay guys good afternoon i call to order this october 15 2026 school board elementary school attendance zone overview this evening we will be reviewing current elementary school attendance zones for loudon county public schools in the eastern loudon geographic planning district and we will start with item 2.01 the eastern loudon attendance zone overview presented tonight by Adnan Mamoun and Beverly Tate.

[00:03:17] Thank you for being here this evening. The floor is yours. And I just realized I left my notes in my backpack, so I'm really going to be winging it for a second. Oh, do you go get your notes?

[00:03:34] Can I? Okay, thank you. We're so happy. Make yourself comfortable.

[00:04:28] Thank you. You'll understand why I needed my cliff notes when we get further into the presentation. So tonight we begin the attendance zone process, reviewing the eastern island elementary school attendance zones which includes 12 schools algonkian countryside forest grove guildford horizon lose island meadowland potomac rolling ridge sterling sugar land and sully elementary schools and i will note at this juncture that all

[00:05:02] 12 schools have walk zones this review process is guided by policy and regulation 6530 highlighted here in red font is the driving force of this review and that the board when you adopted revisions to the policy back in April of 25 you asked that all school attendance zones be comprehensively reviewed every five years to assess for student enrollment and capacity imbalances last fall you embarked on the Ashburn Dulles North elementary boundary process this fall we are embarking on

[00:05:41] the Eastern Loudoun Elementary and we envision or anticipating that the board will collectively review all secondary school attendance zones this coming spring of 27 and then to fulfill that five-year review process we have the Central Loudoun Dulles South and Dulles Western Loudoun boundaries to review over the remaining two school years policy also outlines the factors that

[00:06:17] the board would consider in changing an attendance zone, including facilities, proximity, community, accessibility, stability, and cluster alignment. Also that can be considered are impacts on families and neighborhoods, long-range capital plans, and socioeconomic characteristics were available.

[00:06:38] There is no rank order on priority of these factors. One might even say that they could conflict with one another. And certainly what may be an important factor for one family or one board member may be a different priority for another.

[00:06:55] Back in June, when you were taking action on the Head Start grant continuation, part of your action was to also ask staff to consider the expansion of the STEP, the Starting Towards Excellence in Preschool Classroom, to see if there was an opportunity to gain some additional classroom spaces during this boundary process.

[00:07:17] So we have looked at that as well. This is the enrollment for the eastern non-elementary schools over the past decade plus. We went a little further here with reflecting an unofficial at the time we prepared this of 5,601 students attending one of the 12 schools, total of the 12 schools.

[00:07:44] This chart, I'd like to explain it just a wee bit. The 12 schools are listed here. The far left column provides the 26-27 base building capacity, and we'll speak to that on some coming slides. Then we have the unofficial September 30 enrollment.

[00:08:01] So Algonquin's top of the list, I will use that example, we're showing 443. The far right column is the resident K-5 students who reside in that attendance zone. So those are the students we geocode every fall, so we're address matching where the students live.

[00:08:18] The 339 students showing here are the total number of K-5 Loudoun County Public School students who live in the Algonquian attendance zone. They have an unofficial enrollment of 443, but you can see that for all the schools.

[00:08:34] This leads to the 443 number. This chart reflects 8155 special permission where Algonquian has a net of 89 students in their attendance zone.

[00:08:51] This recognizes the fact that the board made changes to the policy on Tuesday night, but this has kind of guided some of the recommendations we are putting forward to you tonight. You will see several schools have a net difference that isn't less than, but Algonquian, Horizon and Lowes Island are all receiving a significant number of students with the special permission process.

[00:09:18] That potentially could increase pending how the policy changes take effect this coming fall. Also part of the 8155 policy is regional assignments where if a school has reached its maximum class size for a grade level we regionally assign or transport them to the next adjacent closest school.

[00:09:43] There are none for the Eastern Latin schools as of October 6th and as of today as well. This slide provides a snapshot of the special programs that are held, are being served or offered through our schools.

[00:10:03] So special education, it could include early childhood, autism, emotional disability, and intellectual disability. But as an example in this, again using Algonquian, they have four classrooms serving special education students. They have no head start, no step, and they do not have the dual language.

[00:10:22] If you roll down to Potomac Elementary then, they have three special education classrooms, no head start, no step, but because of the dual language program where there's a classroom for Spanish speaking and one for English at each grade level, we have four grades currently offering that, so we have a total of eight classrooms dedicated.

[00:10:48] Horizon Elementary has way too many X's for me to count, but I believe it's eight special education classrooms. I'm going to switch them. They also have two-step programs. Maybe it's just me. And so that is how this chart is read. Going back to base building capacity, we calculate base building capacity as part of our capital budget. It reflects what a school could serve based on the

[00:11:27] total number of classrooms in a standard program offering. It's a more fixed number. It's more static with the exception of if you have a classroom addition or if we have a major renovation of the building. We transitioned to base capacity a number of years ago in part when we were doing attendance zone change processes like now where we would have an overwhelming number of parents coming advocating for their children as they should but asking to stay at a school because

[00:12:06] The school was wonderful. The principal was wonderful. The staff was wonderful. They felt comfortable. Any parent would feel that way. But oftentimes it was suggested that programs such as special education programs be relocated so that they could have more classrooms dedicated for K-5.

[00:12:24] Part of our partnership with LCPS, and we are here to educate all children, all children deserve to be educated at the school closest to their school. we started calculating that base capacity that given the prototype size of a school so as an example we have a 34 classroom school we as staff said we should have at least five classrooms available for special programs or special education so that siblings can go to school together if in fact one is a special education student so we started calculating base capacity that way we

[00:13:01] also calculated base capacity in part when we were still half day kindergarten and so you could potentially have seven kindergarten classes which would be four classrooms but then the next year it might just be six half days and so that's three classrooms and so capacities were changing every year and it was really hard for parents to understand well why is my capacity changed this year. So we transitioned to the base building capacity because it addressed our special program needs. That also was endorsed by policy where we cannot rezone, we cannot change special education

[00:13:40] classrooms just because of the boundary, and because it gave a more consistent look at a building. I wouldn't say ideal, but it identified where we had space. Program capacity, on the other hand reflects what's actually happening in the school so we were talking about the step classes that are at rolling ridge or the step classroom at meadowland step has a maximum enrollment of 16 students per class base capacity we're calculating it at 23 because that's what our typical school is

[00:14:15] at a head start or at a title one school it's reduced to 20 but program is what's actually serving so it's more dynamic it reflects what's happening that school year and can change depending on the programs that are in that school program capacity is also almost always large lower number than base capacity i give these definitions so that i can give them an example of one and this all does lead to part of what our recommendation is before you tonight meadowland elementary school

[00:14:49] they have a September 30th unofficially they had 368 students their base capacity for elementary school they have 28 regular size classrooms we always pull out one room for art one classroom for art we pull out a classroom for music we pull out a classroom for the gifted fusion program and we pull out a room this year we this is a change we've pulled out a room for resource because meadowland has no resource places there's no room in the inn for them to offer one-on-one small group instruction it's an older school it was built in the late 70s it just didn't happen so this year

[00:15:27] we've pulled a room for the resource that leaves us a total of 24 rooms the art the music the resource and the gifted do not get calculated in base capacity so of the 24 rooms we have 22 of them are K-5 instruction. Again, as a Title I school, they get a reduced capacity. We calculated 20, so that gives you 440. We have two special education classrooms at Meadowland. Those are counted at eight following the base capacity. So you get a total base capacity of 456 for Meadowland

[00:16:01] with the 368 students at 81% utilization. Right side of the screen, same 28 classrooms, same art, same music in addition to the resource room that's allotted to the school in the base capacity calculation there's another classroom that they're using for resource small group instruction so they lose five in this so that leaves us with a base of 23 classrooms this year 17 of those rooms are used for kindergarten through grade five they have four classrooms that are being

[00:16:38] use for special education which we multiply times eight. STEP only has a maximum enrollment of 16 per program so that gives them 32. When you sum that up they have a program capacity of 404 or a 91 percent utilization. Significantly different. Significantly different. We looked at this specifically for Eastern Loud because as we walked the schools and we saw the students and we saw the wonderful things that are happening we recognize that this is a little bit different in Eastern Loudon than it is in the Ashburn-Dulles North area that we just came from. So many new schools

[00:17:15] because there was so much growth in the Ashburn area at the time. So now this chart reflects the program capacity and the base capacity of each school. We've again provided the unofficial enrollment and in the far right you can see the percent utilization based upon each of those capacity calculations you will notice that we range from 69 is the low percent base capacity up to 90 that was at algonkian up to 92 percent utilization at potomac elementary under base

[00:17:55] capacity under program capacity our lowest is horizon at 77 percent utilization and our highest i believe is guilford guilford and potomac are both 94 so that has led to what we are recommending and those of you who were here with the ashburn dulles north process know that typically when we begin a boundary process and someone says well what what's your goal what's your goal with

[00:18:28] recommending a tenant zone and we always say 85 90 would be great it would be ideal because it gives you some space, but it also recognizes that they have the capacity. We're changing that with this. We're saying that in an ideal world, based on base capacity, we need to be looking at having schools sitting between 75 and 85 percent, because we're recognizing that the majority of these schools have limited resource space that we need to be able to provide for the students to succeed.

[00:19:04] So all of that's to say we're not going to be saying 85 to 95 percent of base capacity in this process. We're going to be looking at it more of a 75 to 85 percent range to address what is needed in all of the schools.

[00:19:23] This also is a reminder from our capital budget work session in early September where we spoke about the renovation plans that were part of the FY27 adopted where we were recommending renovation at Sully, Meadowland, and Sterling Elementary.

[00:19:43] We came to you in September and we spoke about delaying classroom additions at two of our middle schools so that we could potentially pursue expediting the classroom addition at some of our elementary schools.

[00:20:00] Two weeks from now, it's 27, the superintendent's recommended capital budget It will, in fact, include recommendations to expedite classroom additions at Guilford, Sterling, and Leesburg. Two of those schools are part of this boundary process.

[00:20:17] Again, tied to the lack of resource spaces in those buildings, but also to recognize all three of these schools have modular classrooms. And they are approaching, if not at 30 years of age. Facilities has done a wonderful job maintaining the buildings.

[00:20:36] But if they've been on a school site for 30 years, we need to put permanent structures there, regardless of what the enrollment is, because we know we will continue to serve students in these areas, and we need to be able to provide them those spaces. So I throw this slide in here only just to remind you of that as you begin this process.

[00:20:59] So I failed to talk about everything in your folder, which is typically how I start these boundaries, probably because I forgot my notes, and so that threw me off. in front of you tonight you have a bound map book that has all of the information that i'm getting ready to talk about with respect to what is in our school division now this map book the information if it's not already posted on our web page a lot of this will be posted tomorrow morning but that information is also part of your board docs agenda item for those

[00:21:36] who are watching and want to go look there now or here tonight and want to go home and see it but the Mac book prevents us from giving you very fat folder every time we have a meeting we're trying to conserve paper it includes reference maps so it includes if you go behind tab one we have both elementary and secondary school attendance zones the current 26 27 behind tab 2 we have the respective school attendance zone so for every school

[00:22:11] every each of the 12 schools we have their attendance zone maps here so that you have an idea it's tied back to the planning zone data that's up here on the slide as you all will recall instead of looking at neighborhoods or individual communities we utilize what we call planning zones they're small sub areas sometimes they represent an entire subdivision sometimes they do not Cascades Potomac Lakes too big so there is multiple planning zones that comprise what would be those communities each planning zone is served by one

[00:22:47] elementary one middle one high school they do not overlap those boundaries so we're providing you the attendance zone maps and they do show the planning zones behind tab three is policy 6530 regulation which guides this attendance own process behind tab 4 is policy 8160 which speaks to the exceptions to school assignment due to attendance zone changes so those listening or here should an attendance own change be adopted that would involve your community your

[00:23:24] residents and you have a rising fifth grade student policy 8160 speaks of the opportunity that may exist for your child to finish out their elementary career at their current elementary school policy are behind tab five is policy 5320 that's the procedures for location of self-contained special education classrooms that again speaks to the capacity component behind tab six is policy 6210 student transportation so it talks about walk zones and

[00:23:59] transporting students and then behind tab number seven is the conditions without change it's the enrollment based on resident students all of our boundary processes deal with resident students that's how we're able to identify them by planning zone so it provides the projections for the next six years based on the current boundary. Behind tab eight, and this is where most people get very interested in the data. I know Ms. Riccardi, you had asked for this as well. This gives you these

[00:24:35] counts by grade K-5 of the students who reside in a given planning zone. So you have an idea of what those planning zones, the number of students comprised. Behind tab nine are the projections for the next six years by planning zone not by grade but a compiled total and you will note on the chart that we preview the planning zone number the elementary school code the middle school code and high school code for the current boundaries one may say why are some of these planning zones

[00:25:10] in red font versus black font that indicates the school's the school is located in that planning zone so you probably would not want to consider a plan that would move algonkian out of algonkian zone then tab 10 gives you attendance and changes over the past decades typically this is a much more interesting table and map to look at we have not rezoned eastern loud elementary schools in over decade two decades a score if i practice my ape lincoln so we just wanted to provide that to you

[00:25:49] on the chance the last time attendance zones were looked at were when Forest Grove opened in 2002 and Countryside opened in 2003 and then the last tab is just there if you have any notes telephone numbers of constituents that want to talk to you a lot or any other questions you may want to ask so all of that then leads to I pause at this point to talk about we will be we've provided you the geographic planning zones in this information and in the plans that we come forward that's part of what we do EL Eastern Loudon so you'll

[00:26:27] have EL O2 or you'll have EL 30 and so you can figure out what planning zones we have resident student counts kindergarten through grade five we have attendance and assignment by residents so all of those all these data points and of this information is part of it on the maps behind tab two you will be able to see the walk zones for the school as you flip through so on the first one algonquin behind tab two you will see the crosshatch that indicates the walk zone that's in the planning zone residential development

[00:27:07] we provide that as well so turn the page just like the song says and you will be able to see what planning zones what residential development by planning so as you flip through and there are a few but there are some particularly when you look at the Sterling Elementary area there are residential developments we're still tracking around the Dulles Town Center water set so those are shown in here as well for you to reference and then the final bullet is the map book and so that will be out there as well it was a large document we struggled with getting it posted on board docs that we haven't posted it yet on the web but it will be up there

[00:27:44] for whoever wants to look at it by tomorrow morning. And then this is how we started what is in your folder tonight. We are offering two plans for your consideration to begin the conversation.

[00:28:02] But we wanted to look at providing enrollment relief where it may be needed. We wanted to correct any imbalances in capacity where it may be needed. We, again, at your request, we looked at were there opportunities where we could expand the STEP program and offer more preschool for the students in these areas, the families.

[00:28:25] We looked at special education space needs, service delivery, kind of tied to that, then segued well to bus transportation. We know we have some special education programs that because of the maximum size, where we're eight students is typically much, we may be transporting a student who lives in Sterling Park out of their school zone to go to perhaps countryside, perhaps even Stuart Weller, perhaps even further west because of the program offerings that exist for that student. And so if the program is full, we then have to. That is something when we were talking with our transportation

[00:29:05] education friends during this boundary process, they said it's really tough. It's tough for any student to be on a bus for a long time, but there's, when you have special education students, that's kind of an additional area of concern, and they really, they said, you know, we need to, in an ideal world, I think we would all agree we would love for students to go to a school as close to their home as possible, and if possible to go to the school with their siblings if they're special education.

[00:29:33] we wanted to examine non-contiguous attendance zones and Mr. Mamoon, I'm picking on him one of our first conversations he was like, why do we have these schools that aren't a contiguous boundary? And we said yes, we know. Susan is not a very big fan of them either in the back. And then because you all were still in the discussion of 8155 at the time we were preparing this, we were just kind of trying to figure out what impact they might have in boundaries. So we came up with two plans.

[00:30:08] staff plan R0 rezoning zero planning zones R0 that's how we came up with the name a copy of this is in your folder in front of you tonight copy both plans are in your folder they are presently posted on our web page under tonight's agenda item and as is this presentation this we're recommending no changes to any school zone we didn't come to this

[00:30:40] recommendation lightly but we recognize that no one enters an attendance zone process to move students just to move students i know that might be surprising some to say oh even bev tate is saying that but i am saying that because it's true we don't do it just to change boundaries and when we looked at a lot of these schools and i'm going to focus on guilford and sully particularly the majority of their school is in a walk zone so we really try

[00:31:12] not to in most instances move students out of their zone if they're in a walk zone so we did not none of these schools had six empty classrooms where we knew we could rezone enough students that we would have a additional classroom for each grade level students don't come in nice neat packages we could have a whole cul-de-sac full of third graders just depending upon when

[00:31:44] they had their children so we decided that in recommending plan R0 this would potentially alleviate concern for parents because no one's being recommended to move but it also might give you the board the opportunity to truly embrace the expansion of the step program and it would give you some capacity at potentially a majority of these schools where there may be a classroom that could be available. I will certainly defer to Mr. Slevin and Ms. Duffin if she's here

[00:32:19] on how they envision that staffing, but we thought maybe that's the win coming out of this that we are able to offer that and so as students enter kindergarten they meet with more success. So here you have the map and here you have the attendance zone numbers.

[00:32:35] I will explain the chart in this one so I don't have to in the next one. The far left column is the school name the next column is the base capacity we have the staff plan and we've got the plan name right above that the two yellow columns are the resident students who reside in that boundary and then the base capacity again based on the resident students not on the school attendance zone so think back to where we said the goal would be 75 to 85 percent of the base

[00:33:12] you will note here that if all of the students in the countryside attendance zone went to the countryside elementary school it's at 101 so we would say in this instance that maybe we do need to look to providing relief for countryside and then the next columns are the 27 28 projection k5 only does not reflect any preschool does not reflect that part of this because that's a little bit more nuanced it's not always by the zone you live in we then give the base capacity calculation for the 27 28 year we give the following five years of

[00:33:51] projections and then the very last year the 32 33 school year we're giving you a snapshot of the base capacity at that point the bottom half because we have the dual language immersion so Potomac was once a regional DLI but now they They are site based, but we have students that were given the exception, so to speak, to remain at Potomac through the duration of their elementary school.

[00:34:21] So that is what we have added back in the bottom. So you'll see the chart of the non-resident grandfather dual language students and how they matriculate through. And so that standout row, Potomac ES with the regional DLI, gives you the full effect of those students still remaining at the school.

[00:34:40] So again, staff plan R0, rezoning zero students, rezoning zero planning zones. Staff plan R6, that re-zones, recommends rezoning six planning zones within this boundary process.

[00:35:01] Again, not taken lightly. Now you're gonna see why I needed my Cliff Notes. Hopefully they're here, but perhaps not, so I will wing it again. I made too many notes, my desk is a mess if you came into my office.

[00:35:16] We're recommending attendance zone changes for six schools, Algonquian Countryside, Horizon, Lowe's Island, Potomac, and Sugarland Elementary. We're not recommending any changes to the Sterling Park area. Again, walk zones and just looking at the capacity.

[00:35:37] Gives you a little blow out of the area. So map area one. We're recommending that planning zone EL02.1 be rezoned from Countryside Elementary to Algonquian Elementary. This is off of McPherson Circle, that portion of Countryside Subdivision that is west of Algonquian Parkway and of which probably some of those students before Countryside opened were within the walk zone for Algonquian.

[00:36:08] So it's recommending that that planning zone move from Countryside to Algonquian. The Map Area 2 blowout is showing Planning Zone EL10 being recommended to move from Algonquian elementary school to horizon elementary school these are the residents who live on the north side of algonkian parkway east of cascades includes quarter path trace and for the life of me which is why i was had my notes that still i don't have um the town homes there as well and i'm sure

[00:36:44] miss chandler you could probably educate me on that name so i'll forever remember it planning Planning Zone EL 08 is being recommended to move from Potomac Elementary to Horizon. So this again, middle field on the west side of Cascades Parkway, not the full effect.

[00:37:06] We're recommending that that area move to Horizon Elementary School to utilize available capacity at Horizon. Planning Zone EL 30, which is in that map area 3.

[00:37:21] This is the Cardinal Glen community. exit entrance to their community is only off of route seven I know this is not been well received we've already received emails from parents in part we recommended this change because Horizon Elementary is one of those non contiguous schools you when you look at the school boundary now there are three different areas of the school that are not so the recommendation for your

[00:37:54] consideration is to rezone el 30 the cardinal glenn community from horizon to sugarland elementary it keeps them in the same secondary it's not changing that we are also recommending that el 28 and el 28.1 the other non-contiguous portion of the horizon boundary be rezoned to lowes island Elementary.

[00:38:19] So this includes Potomac Hunt, it includes Richland Forest off of Lakeland Drive. So those two areas are being recommended to attend Lowe's Island to, again, utilize capacity that's available at Lowe's Island.

[00:38:39] These are, again, staff's recommendation. I will say without any -- we did not ask you all what you wanted as part of this. We're putting forth a staff plan to begin the conversation. We will be, years past, many of you are familiarized with the Virginia Tech app.

[00:39:00] We are working with them. They all graduated, so they are standing up a product, GeoCivic. I will bring more information about that at next week's meeting. So that will give parents, community members, and you the opportunity to create your own maps.

[00:39:16] It will have all of the planning zone data, projections, numbers that we have provided in the map book and posted online, but it will be an app that you can sit while you're watching your son play soccer or while you're watching Mobland, whatever it may be, that you can create your plan and look to see if you can do a better job than we can, and you probably can, but that will be an app that will allow you to visually see it.

[00:39:45] It will not collect your personal information. The maps will be randomly numbered. But for those listening or in the audience, if there's a plan that you and your community like, that presents an opportunity to come to say, Ms. Chandler, map 538, our community really likes.

[00:40:04] We would like for you to consider it. You and Ms. Warren, for all of you, would you be willing to present this? If there is a map that's created that you want us for staff to map for then discussion at a subsequent meeting, that's how we can do that. We can also create maps that you, after having conversations with your constituents and communities.

[00:40:24] All that to say, we will be coming back more with that next week. October 22 is a public hearing and work session, so it will be an opportunity for those who have looked at the plans to come and speak to you, to say, yay, we love it, or no.

[00:40:40] we don't or have you considered this it's an opportunity to begin that dialogue in a public form there will be a work session that night we will then have another public hearing work session early november on december 1 is the point of time in which board members typically if there are a number of plans by that point 10 or 12 that we ask you to kind of focus and perhaps plans have evolved because you created one and then later said oh this makes much more sense and so you really don't care about your former plan as much so it gives us staff the opportunity to kind of narrow it but also helps you and those who are

[00:41:20] concerned watching boundaries as parents to focus more and say they're not looking at ten these top three seem to be what they're then we have a final public hearing a briefing on December 10 and then we would anticipate the board taking action on any plan changes on December 15th any attendance zone changes adopted in this process would take effect next fall with the start of the 27 28 school year all of these meetings are going to be held here we are broadcasting live on Comcast Verizon and streaming the recordings will be

[00:41:58] available we are looking to do some additional outreach through the communities if that's the desire of the board we recognize that these are closely fine but we also recognize that some folks may prefer to have a meeting in their community i know ms ricardi you've already mentioned a couple so these are the ones that will be publicized here these are the ones that we've advertised we will continue as we get questions maybe it's the next slide okay as we get requests from you for information as we have these meetings and provide

[00:42:37] additional information for you we will be posting it on our dedicated attendance zone map the far right you'll see that little fall 26 ES boundary process on all 12 home pages on the landing page for all 12 schools this little icon is I call it on the fold and it's right below the main picture of the school that will allow you or parents to immediately access the boundary they click on it it takes you to this page parents are more inclined to go on their school's web page for information

[00:43:14] than try to find something on the planning and gis services web page it'll take them a while so we provided this quick link there with the help of the communications office we have some frequently asked questions up there right now that are pretty general as we receive questions throughout this process and we would ask that they be sent to our email address anything we receive in writing we will answer in writing as we have in the past we will also post the questions on the web page we post them anonymously but we will just post the question answer we will respond to the

[00:43:53] individual who sent it so if bev tate sent an email we would respond back to bev or miss tate we wouldn't call you by your first name but we would say answer to your question is posted on on the webpage, provide the link. Your question is question number six. And so then I could go and I could read the response. The reason we do this is if I have the question, somebody else has the same question. We want parents to have a consistent answer. If they're talking at the bus stop, if they're talking at a sport event, if they're talking at an event at the school and they're like, well, I think this is what they mean or I think this is what's

[00:44:31] imply go and look in the answer is there so everyone has the same answer so that is there if you as board members individually or collectively have questions that I'm unable to answer at the meeting or you think of them as you're driving hither or yon and you shoot us an email with the question we will provide that question as well so that again the public is engaged they understand what you're asking of us and they can see it there we're trying to be as transparent as possible. We recognize that we have some potential language so we're posting

[00:45:08] a lot of information directly on our webpage in this process because PDFs do not translate but if I open my webpage and I speak Urdu it's going to translate to Urdu so all the questions will be there. We recognize the maps are not but Guilford is Guilford and the color and the numbers are pretty, I mean, we are working to become more accessible, but we are endeavoring at least with the questions. Again, if you have suggestions on how we can improve, we welcome them and

[00:45:42] appreciate it. But again, as we get additional information, this is the web page information. And that includes my presentation. It was a lot of information. I do recognize that. And I probably should have paused midway to ask a question. But if you have any questions now i'm happy to answer them thank you miss tate um i would love to start off um with our questions this evening in looking at the slide with the staff plan um r6 that shows the three proposed

[00:46:15] map changes you want this one are you on that yes um that's the one okay um so just for a point to clarify with map area one would that actually be a walk zone could it potentially be a walk zone yes ma'am a portion of it potentially would be walkable but not the entire thing only portions I don't believe so I will ask that question of transportation okay and then based on map two and as the

[00:46:50] Algonquian District Rep and having a firm understanding of the community, Pascades Parkway and Algonquian Parkway are both roads that would, even though in that map area to EL10 and EL08, are closer to Horizon, but because of the way that the roads are graded, they would not be a walk zone, correct?

[00:47:18] Because they're both considered highways, right? for lane divided highways correct okay and then um you said in el 30 in map area three there's only one exit from that neighborhood it's off of cardinal glenn on to route seven yes ma'am i i am unaware i've driven back there several times i've never been able to leave any other way but i can i will be corrected if i'm wrong well i will definitely be going to that's my recollection too

[00:47:57] um but that is i will verify it does but all in map area three and four none of those proposed changes would improve any walk zones that is my understanding but i will ask the full all six plans or all six planning zones i will confirm with transportation thank you by thursday yes ma'am Board members, do you have any questions?

[00:48:22] Yes, Vice Chair Donohue. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Ms. Tate and Mr. Mamoun for the presentation. It is a lot of information, and as we know from past experience, a lot of work that goes into all of this. I have, I think, three questions for you. My first question, I'm looking at slide 9 that has the special permission ins and outs.

[00:48:46] Are those numbers, when I am then separately looking at the list of conditions, the 26, 27 capacity and 27, 28 capacity numbers, do these numbers include the special permission that we know of?

[00:49:11] Based on the changes they make? They are based on residential geocoded students. They are not reflected. So that does not include the special permission numbers? That is correct. Okay. Thank you. And then, again, looking at the projected students for the next five years, I'm looking at the attendance zone process without change, the R0 proposal.

[00:49:38] And I see here that, for example, Countryside is listed this year, 26-27, at 101 capacity. But the 22-23 projection drops down to 67 without change, without any attendance zone changes. So to what do you attribute that drop of utilization?

[00:49:59] So the yellow columns reflect the resident students, and so it is in part to the declining enrollment. May I respond to you later?

[00:50:22] I don't want to misstate, but I need to cogently and clearly state it. So if you will indulge me, I can provide you an account. And then my final question is, with regard to these projected numbers of students, in previous years when you all have put together projections, we have been a little off.

[00:50:52] So did you do anything differently with this process compared to your previous processes for projecting student enrollment? No, ma'am. Projections by their very nature are already incorrect, but no. We endeavored to provide the best projections possible and recognize that they will never be exact.

[00:51:17] Thank you. And I did not, I hope that did not come off as a criticism because I did not mean it to be. Thank you. That's all I had. Mr. Crutty. Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you guys for all of this work. I really do appreciate it. I have probably some follow-up questions to some of the ones that Ms. Donahue just raised because, you know, from a data perspective, I love projections and we know where we're standing with all of that.

[00:51:44] So I guess one of my questions is, is there a plan as we're moving forward to reevaluate the methodology behind the projection numbers so that we can kind of triangulate those numbers a little bit closer than what's been happening in the past?

[00:52:04] And I'm going to suggest that there are trends, and I'm not even sure what all of those trends are. But the methodology behind probably needs to shift to meet whatever those shifting trends are in the future to see if we can do that. So I would love to, because I looked at that same chart too, and I'm really curious how we're going to go in some of these 15 to 35% lower in enrollment.

[00:52:33] I'm just back in the napkin numbers here but somewhere in that range you know some of these schools it's smaller but some of them are pretty significant and then we're also talking about investing in adding additional classrooms which by the way any of our schools that have cottages that are 20 plus years old we probably do need to replace them and get permanent classrooms in those buildings and I think that's probably true I would probably agree with that across the county

[00:52:59] But I guess one of my concerns is I'm not really comfortable speculating out with the same formula, these numbers at this point, because clearly stuff has changed in the methodology that we're using.

[00:53:17] And that just, you know, it's just that happens from time to time when you're using formulas and the underlying premise change and shift. So I don't know kind of what you guys are thinking as far as that goes. So thank you for the question. we utilize cohort survival methodology and as a tickler for you and my friends to the left right here at the October 27 meeting we will be specifically presenting at your work session we will be talking about the enrollment September 30 enrollment and the projections and what all is influencing what we and our

[00:53:53] neighboring school divisions are all experiencing now with the decline enrollment so hopefully that will help answer your question and when I provide the response for miss Donahue's question hopefully that will give you a little bit more of a comfort level too but I do understand and appreciate that yeah and it's not just for this I mean it's for our budget process too that's coming up imminently so and and by the way I I can appreciate the fact that just in general estimation tools and their methodologies have to shift over time because things you know life happens circumstances change in business and

[00:54:32] everywhere else and in our environment so not a problem at all I want to go back to the conversation around the preschool pieces as well and you know it's something we've been talking about so for the public's knowledge we're looking to continue to expand out preschool opportunities especially in the Sterling Park and Eastern Loudoun area but the problem with that is there's no classrooms just open and available for preschools in these schools as you can see because they're very much at capacity so the question then becomes where can we put those and you know can we get them in the schools as close to where our families are or are there other

[00:55:11] locations for that so I guess one question is do have we been exploring that and specifically in the Sterling Park area do we have any thoughts on with the I guess the short-term answer for the current environment right now as far as the capacity goes and then longer term what we might be looking at as far as space for preschool opportunities. Now I'm looking to my right to

[00:55:43] Dr. Ellis or Mr. Slevin. So you're asking in terms of the expansion plan or the identification of space? All of the above. That's E right? E all of the above. So starting with the expansion plan And we shared a brief update in the spring for the rollout of, I believe, 12 classrooms over the next four years.

[00:56:11] With the development of the FY28 Sion, we are considering the potential of two classrooms going into FY28. And so part of this process, Ms. Duffin, myself, Ms. Rosario have attended meetings with the elementary principals to find classroom locations.

[00:56:34] And so we do feel confident over the first phase of our rollout that we will be able to identify space. It's in the out years when we get up to the larger numbers is where we will need to continue monitoring and perhaps look at more creative solutions.

[00:56:51] But at least the first few years, there's a level of confidence between planning and teaching and learning to identify classroom space. And as you can imagine, our principals are eager to partner with our team. So does that address your question? Yeah, it does. Thank you so much.

[00:57:07] So a couple coming up and then we'll figure it out over time. I think the other thing I just want to just say is that while the Sterling Park area doesn't look like that's, you know, we're going to be doing a lot of stuff here.

[00:57:23] I'm definitely, I'm in support of whatever the families in Algonquian want to do as far as these plans or others. I will share with everyone for whatever it's worth in talking about the walk zone piece. I've had some of my elementary school family liaisons and some staff and family members share some concerns in our Title I areas where families may not have cars, they may not.

[00:57:52] and so they take public transportation and where their students live in the outskirts of a walk zone and in the winter time when we're you know struggling to get kids to wear proper clothing or families don't have the money for proper clothing and they're expected to walk their kids in some cases I don't know and I guess one of my questions was before I put a distance out there what is the distance parameter for the walk zones at this point or is it school by school

[00:58:23] It is one mile at the elementary level, and it is covered behind tab six on policy 6210. Recommended walk routes will be measured up to one mile walking distance to the front door entrance of a school and up to one and one quarter at a secondary school.

[00:58:50] and so you know that's that's great if if it's in a part of Loudoun County where the neighborhoods are new and there's actually sidewalks on both sides of the street and whatnot but I'll tell you in Sterling Park most of our streets have it on one side if they have them and it requires some real creative walking and so I'm concerned in some of in some of our older neighborhoods about the walk zones and as we're looking at walk zones in these areas too I don't it's been a while since I lived up in Algonquian so I'd have to kind of go think about that a little bit but for the neighborhoods that are that are right in walks that are

[00:59:29] closer to seven which is kind of where the neighborhood started to develop and then worked out we may want to take a look at the side the sidewalk situation for those new walk zones and make sure that they're reliable for the students in that and and I will say I think one of the things on my list honestly for Sterling Park separate from this project is looking at the walk zones in some of our Sterling Park neighborhoods where having little kids walking a mile is not like walking a mile in other parts of the county especially just considering a number of other factors so but I want to I want to just kind of

[01:00:08] throw that out there for for you as you're thinking about that in the Algonquin district yeah thanks yes dr. Spence yeah just to weigh in on that briefly so we we do have in that same policy of safety exception so if there specific areas of concern that'll be helpful to talk about those. I will note that our team does review those walk zones on an ongoing basis just to make sure that they don't meet those safety exemptions. Any work we do there we obviously want to time out because it will impact.

[01:00:41] Thank you Madam Chair. Thank you to the team as always as Ms. Donahue said we know this is a heavy lift and thank you to the community members that are here tonight. It shows that you're already actively engaged in the process and we appreciate it.

[01:01:00] I have a feeling we're going to have a lot of fans of R0. I'm just going to make a guess. This is uncharted territory for us as a board to see a staff plan with no changes. So I think that that will definitely, it's definitely piqued my interest in terms of it being new in our era, but also really thinking about now the impact of enrollment as we're seeing it play out.

[01:01:27] I was wondering if you could just reiterate, and I know we've touched on preschool a little bit, but you did say something about preschool as related to plan R0. And, I mean, I'll be honest, obviously a plan with no changes is appealing for many, many reasons, not just for you all, but as a board member, like, that could be a real win for us, which we don't get in rezoning process very much.

[01:01:52] But I'm also always cognizant of the long-term effects, And I am very, very, very interested and invested in accelerating preschool as fast as we can. And I have not shied away from that conversation. So what was it that you said about is R0 versus R6 more favorable to the preschool development?

[01:02:12] Or is it six half dozen in the other? I would offer that R0 certainly potentially provides opportunity for preschool expansion.

[01:02:31] fact that we know right now what spaces potentially are available. R0 in part was recommended for the pre-K and certainly the stability, but I will selfishly say that R0 was also recommended because we were uncertain of the implications of 8155. So as an example, Algonquian has 89 special permission. If we presume, and again it's a big presumption, but if we presume that

[01:03:08] that each of those 89 students has a younger sibling getting ready to start. That's putting us at 170, 180 students, I mean, potentially. And so we did not want to make a recommendation to rezone, to potentially move in planning zone ELO2, the McPherson, and then also have the students that potentially would be coming in with their siblings.

[01:03:38] And so it was a recommendation to do nothing, but it was also a recommendation to say, let's bide our time. Let's see what happens with 8155, and if you as a board say, we need to come back in two years and look at this again, we're here to support you to do that.

[01:03:58] Again, the intent is not to move students to move students, but at the same time, we don't want to move students who parents, for whatever reason, want their children to go to whatever school, But we don't want to regionally assign then having to bus students because none of them will be going to a school that they can walk to.

[01:04:18] We don't want to bus students who reside in that zone out of that zone if someone moves in on July 31st and the first grade is already full. And so that was just our moment to say, let's pause. And with this recommendation, we can provide space for pre-K expansion somewhere.

[01:04:38] somewhere and I confident that Neil and his team we look and we've looked at some schools to say there's opportunity here potentially but we also gave ourselves the grace to say let's see how policy 8155 does shake out depending upon what you voted and you have voted and you have made changes and so it was a twofold for that recommendation I appreciate that transparency I do because it is surprising to see an option with no changes additionally I was wondering if you could expand upon the I think something I'd like to have

[01:05:17] is sort of the cluster alignment from each school that would be helpful for me going forward and just if you could explain the nature of the non contiguousness if that's a word for EL 30 28.1 and 28 that are moving out of Horizon because we are seeing the emails about why would you move us out and then move other people into Horizon I think that that is a tough sell personally but if it does help with the middle school and high school feed that could be something to think about thank you for that be we have two schools right now in

[01:05:56] this study area that split feed horizon elementary school depending upon one where one lives in that boundary you would either progress to River Bend and Potomac Falls High School or Seneca Ridge and Dominion Sterling Elementary likewise they have students that advanced to Sterling Middle Parkview but we also have students that go to River Bend and Potomac Falls the non non-contiguousness resulted when when boundaries were done I don't even think that's a word when boundaries were established with the opening of countryside and forest growth

[01:06:35] at that point in time and it's somewhat relevant Potomac Elementary opened in 1995 Lowe's Island opened in 1997 Horizon opened in 1999 and it was all due to the development in around Cascades Lowe's Island in 97 and 98 before Horizon Open was bursting at the seams I mean it just there were students we had at one point had all of those communities Great Falls Forest Great

[01:07:11] Falls Chase Potomacont they were all attending Lowe's Island and it was so full and so in adopting the changes that the board did back in the early 2000s the decision was made to divide that Lowe's Island boundary and they could not those students would have overwhelmed Meadowland which was its next contiguous school because Lowe's Island is right on the Fairfax County line and so the

[01:07:44] compromise that was decided at that point between the representing board members and obviously five of the board members sitting on the, and the community was that they then would be assigned to Horizon Elementary. They felt more aligned to that.

[01:08:00] Sugar Land and Meadowland both were full. And so it was just the decision made at that time. And that boundary did not change. I mean, it's not changed since. And so as those areas have grown, like a lot of Loudoun County, it's matured. Again, the students have gotten older.

[01:08:17] They're in middle and high school. Houses, you just have not gotten the same amount of young children as you would with a new development, and so they weren't. Cardinal Glenn, for a long time, was attending Sterling Elementary. They were assigned to Dominion and Seneca Ridge, and so during that Countryside Forest Grove boundary process, that was when it was recommended that they go to an elementary school with those that they would matriculate to at secondary level.

[01:08:46] So we're just, the R6 does address that non-contiguousness as part of that recommendation. I appreciate the context and the history there. I do think it's important. We have a couple of situations like that in Leesburg where neighborhoods drive by high schools to go to further away high schools, which I'm sure will be rectified next spring.

[01:09:09] But it was very confusing to me why those two were going to Horizon, and now that makes more sense. But that's 20 years of investment, you're saying, in being in that school. So that will be something definitely to weigh.

[01:09:25] I guess this is maybe an early question for the capital budget conversation about the additions on the three schools, which I'm very excited to see. I think that was widely supported by the board, so I'm happy to see that.

[01:09:41] I guess this is maybe a Dr. Spence slash Mr. Mamoon question. is the thinking in that to just right size is the priority to get the trailers what do we call them modulars is that what we call them okay cottages to get the cottages off of the property and to get everyone in-house or is the priority to expand the resource space potentially at a preschool classroom like where is that decided later or is that something that like do you have a plan because

[01:10:16] that would also help inform some of this I think. So it's both. So it is both because we have modulars on the property it makes sense to provide some hard space and then also I do think that gives us a little more flexibility in terms of what's happening in the building and to the point when we're looking at the preschool expansion. Okay I appreciate that. I think that's all for me in terms of questions. I did have one other request. If you could just get me a list of the

[01:10:50] start times of every elementary school impacted in R6 you thank you madam Sharon and thank you guys so much for this presentation on being a map nerd this really excites me you guys probably don't know that or maybe you do already figured out a matter um I'm gonna echo a lot of what mission off said I was flabbergasted to see an R0 but also kind of delighted to see an R0 in

[01:11:26] particular, I would love any plan that was able to expand our preschool offerings as much as possible. I think that going, I know at least in my district, and it's not, none of this is in my district, but our knee and our want is greater than our ability to deliver right now and would love to see us, particularly in Sterling and Algonquin, do that. So, you know, when you said that R0 might be able to do that faster, that's a big selling point for it. I will tell you that My favorite tab right now is actually tab 8, which is kind of the planning zones by grade

[01:12:04] and tells you where they're going for the middle and high school. And I know this is getting ahead of ourselves, but when we get to the springtime, we are looking at our secondary zones. And one of the things that I would love to do, and I've said this before, is to stop all the split feeders if we can do it.

[01:12:20] Because I think that as best as possible, keeping our kids together, K-12 is one of the most important things we can do developmentally. um that being said i recognize that there is strong ties of communities to schools and if we don't have to uproot people i don't want to uproot people um the other thing that i will say is well i probably have a lot of stake in the game in the springtime i don't know sterling and algonki as well as i know my area and i am going to lean very heavily on my colleagues chair

[01:12:59] Chandler, Ms. Riccardi, who live in these districts to do what's right for for their residents. And I want the public to know that. And I may play around with the maps and say, oh, if we do this, we do this. But at the end of the day, if they're like, nope, that doesn't work for my people, I am definitely going to lean very heavily on my colleagues. So I want to thank you for the work. I'm very excited to get started with this process. But let's keep in mind what we also have to do next year when we're starting to do stuff this year miss ricordi thank you madam chair can i just ask kind of a process question here and i'm just i don't know what everybody's

[01:13:38] thinking but let's just say we decide we're just going to do our zero can we speed up this timeline and get things done for you and i'm asking no legitimate legitimately because we have budget we have budget stuff a lot of budget stuff coming up here in the fall going into the budget season And if, I mean, heck, if we can get, you know, nine of us to say, yep, let's do R0, boom, done, let's move along.

[01:14:05] Does that, well, I understand we want to hear from the public, so it's, well, we don't know what everybody wants here. We haven't had a chance to hear from the public yet on this, so I think we definitely need to do that piece of it. But I guess my question is, you know, if we're getting overwhelming response, everybody just wants to keep it as it is, we're good with that too.

[01:14:25] there a way and would it be helpful for us to move this along for you so that we get this done quicker so that we can continue to move along because I'm all about being efficient and effective in our time utilization so this calendar is guided by policy that requires a certain number of public hearings and if we had blizzards on these dates and you chose to combine meetings or some you know we

[01:15:00] could I defer to mr. Allen but the fact that we're guided by policy a prior board probably five six years ago we used to have a public hearing meeting and a work session meeting in a public hearing meeting in a work session meeting and it was for an attendance it was actually two back-to-back attendance zones where they recognized they would come and there would be no one here or an individual to speak.

[01:15:36] And they happened to like the plan that was moving forward. And so they actually at the end of that process came back and revised this policy to combine the public hearing and work session dates.

[01:15:52] So I think no, I think it's not possible. I would defer to Mr. Allen. Going into the spring, though, I recognize that this is a really short timeline with secondaries and so probably when we come to you with that, just as a hint, I may suggest that we split these meetings because I think there's going to be a greater number of people coming to speak.

[01:16:15] But I defer to Mr. Allen if he thinks we can truncate it. We've advertised these, we're running public notices required by code to do. I'm not trying to suggest that I want to shortchange because I don't want to hear from the public but if the public says hey we're good with r0 and we're all like we're good with r0 that's a lot of meaning time that we could save the staff and everybody else but if you're telling us that it's policy we can't adjust then that's a whole nother process thing and then i would suggest maybe we need to revisit the policy about hard tying us to all of this when there's

[01:16:54] clear agreement in the public and on the board about no chain a no change solution so the two dates noted in italic bold are regular scheduled board meetings so it's just an information item so after next thursday there'll just be two other meetings um recognizing that's still two nights up here yeah mr allen did you want to thank you for the question clarification um pursuant to virginia code 22.179 section eight that's its fourth kind of the public comment and public

[01:17:33] hearing requirements in law and our policy kind of goes above and and beyond that for the school board um one way just thinking off the top of my head is that december 10th public hearing it could if time permits be consolidated with the december 15th board meeting to free that date there's a seven-day reasonable notice that would need to be put out prior to that and i would ask

[01:18:08] miss tate if that's a consideration that could be made if the board wanted to consolidate that public hearing with that public uh school board meeting because under under code that would be permissible thank you um vice chair donoghue thank you madam chair um i i really dislike the non-contiguous attendance zones so i will say my initial thoughts are i like at least

[01:18:45] parts of r6 because of how it deals with horizon but i am open to being persuaded to other things i did have one more question for you ms tate and that was um forest grove also has two non-contiguous zones um so i was curious if there was cons if if your team considered as part of r6 moving either or both of those zones and if so why you chose not to include that as in the proposal excellent question you're not the first board member to inquire mr carty asked similar so

[01:19:25] you are correct um to reassign either of those non-contiguous planning zones that are between rolling Ridge and Sully to either school would based upon what those program what programs those schools have would be a added concern with those but speaking specifically to the non-contiguous Lincoln Avenue runs directly from those northern non-contiguous to Forest Grove it is

[01:20:05] almost parallel and very close to the Fairfax County line so it's basically running right where you see the Sully walk zone end that's Lincoln Avenue it is a direct route to Forest Grove Elementary those buses do not have to go on Sterling Boulevard they are going directly from those communities to there yes we did look at it but at the end and looking at Lincoln Avenue and talking with our transportation folks we maintained the boundary for horse

[01:20:36] Forest Grove as it is well as the Algonquian district representative I will say it definitely resonates very strongly with me given the age of these schools the challenge that we would have in expanding the preschool program if we made significant changes these buildings just are significantly older

[01:21:08] than most of our schools and I know based on visits if you were asking the principals none of the principals would say we are we have extra space it's just a complexity in how schools were designed 30 and 40 years ago so it definitely resonates with me that perhaps taking a minute if I were gonna solve anything with the boundary change process it would be horizon being a

[01:21:43] split feed and I don't see a plan and I'm not sure even if I sat down with it myself I could devise a plan um that would address that with the current enrollment so that'll certainly be something i'll be weighing but um i am hopeful that we can find a way to accelerate preschool and i appreciate the work that the team has done um board members any other comments or questions um miss ricardi i think one more thing i just wanted to add to you that i that i'm noticing in the sterling

[01:22:17] park side and this is probably gonna hit algonkian at some point in time is we're hitting um especially in my community a whole generational turnover in housing we've got a ton of houses that have sold within a few days in sterling park and a lot of them are going up and a lot of new families with young kids are coming in so i think that as we're you know we're thinking about the ages of these neighborhoods um and generally in eastern loudon at least and probably some other places as well um i know i'm definitely seeing i mean we have six houses in my neighborhood that are sold

[01:22:54] just sold on the market like moving so i think for some of these schools too um something to kind of factor in is you know that turnover in housing um to younger families is a real i mean it's a very promising thing and i'm very excited about that but it's definitely happening in certain in different pockets in sterling park right now so i think something we should factor in as well thank you um seeing no further questions or comments uh this eastern loudon elementary school's attendance zone meeting is now adjourned. Thank you and drive home safely.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Coraggio Consulting · aguyonx.com