Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County School Board, School Board Elementary School Attendance Zone Public Hearing & Work Session, Thursday, October 22, 2026

Date: Thursday, October 22, 2026
Place: Loudoun County Public Schools / School Board meeting (see BoardDocs / LCPS-TV)
Length: 45m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/1236391014?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 2026-10-24. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:02:16] - Good evening, everyone. I call to order this School Board Elementary School Attendance Zone Public Hearing and Work Session on Thursday, October 22nd, 2026. I have been notified that Dr. Rasheed would like to remotely participate in tonight's School Board meeting.

[00:02:34] Dr. Rasheed, please state your location and whether this is a medical or personal matter. - Thank you, Chair Chandler. I'm located in my home and this is a medical matter. - Is anyone present with you at this location? If so, please state their names.

[00:02:51] - They are, they are my two sons and my husband, but they're on the far end of the other side of the home. - Thank you, Dr. Rasheed. Therefore, I will entertain a motion that Dr. Rasheed's request to participate remotely be granted. - So moved. - Thank you, Ms. Chernoff. Is there a second? - Second.

[00:03:06] - Thank you, Mr. Spenson. All right, let's move forward with the vote. Please open the vote. Board members, please record your vote. Wow, that board is weird. - It's terrible. sorry um okay um clerk please close and display the vote all right that motion passes um with six board members present including ms ricardi mr spenson ms shirnoff myself mr pepper and ms labelle

[00:03:41] vice chair donahue and mrs griffiths absent for the vote welcome to the meeting uh dr rasheed thank you thank you all right um with that everyone we will move on to item number 2.01 the eastern loud and attendance zone overview um and that this evening will be presented by miss tate and mr momen good evening before i go through the presentation which i promise will be brief it's just a recap i would like to make note of the items in your folder this evening

[00:04:18] behind the agenda is a copy of the presentation which is onboard docs and so it is viewable for those watching from home we will also post it on our web page after tonight's meeting you have an additional copy of last week's the two plans that were reviewed the staff plan r0 and then the staff plan r6 and then they're following that is a schernoff plan r1 which we will talk about after the public hearing and then the next item

[00:04:53] is a tracking chart and so this is to provide you a quick and easy way if you struggle with the maps which are huge and very colorful but it identifies planning zones that are recommended to move with each of the plans again i remind you that those planning zones that are noted in red font the school is within them so one would should not recommend moving those out of their planning zone. The second, the bottom of the second page is a summary of the count of students moved with the plan. This is the resident students who live in the planning zone, current kindergarten through

[00:05:31] grade five students. So those are summed there. Obviously the grade five students are going to change schools regardless because they will matriculate to sixth grade, but it gives a snapshot in time. And then the keys to the various abbreviations. This information is already on our webpage. The next document is the school board question and answers. So there were a couple questions asked last week that I promised to get back to you on, so I've provided them there.

[00:06:02] We have this document as a PDF is not posted on our webpage so that it is more accessible for those, whether it's language or otherwise. We are posting the Q&A directly on the webpage. The downfall of that is that I can't include charts, so there's a lot more text on the web page.

[00:06:24] If you flip the page, Ms. Chernoff, you had asked two questions about feeder schools. You had asked about school walkers. They're lovely in charts, but on the web page and the response that we've posted, it's all text, so it's a little bit more wordy, but we are provided that here.

[00:06:43] And I should point out, Ms. Chandler, you had asked, and I will get to this when we review the plan, Transportation is preliminary, looked at the plans, and planning zone EL021 would partially walk to Algonquian.

[00:06:58] That is their belief if that was adopted. The final document in the folder is thanks to the communications team. They have prepared this flyer, so I wanted to give you all each a hard copy of it. It is also posted on our webpage, but the flyer is provided in English.

[00:07:15] It's a two-sided, then Spanish, and then Arabic. Those are the top two prevalent languages beyond English. And so they've prepared that just to give parents a primer on the process. With that, I promised to quickly go through this, but I just wanted to do a recap before the hearing began.

[00:07:37] We will do the meeting recap. We're going to talk about GeoCivic Analytics Zone Lite. Those of you who were part of past boundary processes with the Virginia Tech Reed District, They've all now graduated and they're marketing their own company, so we're going to continue to part with them.

[00:07:54] Then we have the public hearing, and then we will review the Chernoff Plan R1 at the work session. Again, 12 elementary schools involved in this attendance zone process, all of them east of 28, west of the Fairfax line, and south of the Potomac River.

[00:08:11] We are here tonight in part because of policy and regulation 6530. The changes adopted by the board to that policy indicate that all school attendance zones should be reviewed every five years. So we are here this fall looking at the Eastern Lawn Elementary School boundaries.

[00:08:29] There are various factors you as board members will consider as you look at boundary changes. If there are any, some of these are conflicting and some of them perhaps resonate more importantly to you than others.

[00:08:44] But I just am sharing this for those who are watching and here behind me. We are at the 22nd meeting, so it's a public hearing and work session. Our next attendance zone meeting will be November 12. Again, another public hearing and work session.

[00:08:59] And then on December 1, the board would narrow down their focus if there are multiple plans moving forward so that the communities would know what you're considering. We would have another hearing on the 10th and then anticipate any action to change any zones by the board on the 15th i do ms ricardi had asked last week if those meetings could be truncated and mr allen had indicated we could potentially do that for the december 10. we are following the hearing and calendar process that's outlined by policy so i think we have to adhere to

[00:09:37] that to a certain degree all of the information that you received last week and as we continue you to get plans and additional information is posted on this web page families can access it utilizing the icon to the right here the fall boundary process it's on all 12 of the school's home pages kind of below the fold in the leader picture we provided you a map book last week that has a lot of information and provides you maps of the areas walk zones attendance zones residential development as well as projections for the next six years

[00:10:16] by planning zone, and the resident student counts K-5 this current school year. This, we're throwing this slide in this time. Folks may say, well, what is a planning zone? Where do I live? I don't understand. So if they go to our label app, the attendance boundary e-listing, they can select the school year, put in their house number, their zip code.

[00:10:40] It will click find address. It will come up with multiple addresses. They click on theirs. It will not only give them the planning zone in which they live but it will also identify the election district that they reside in as well.

[00:10:55] GeoCivic Analytics, and I'm just putting this plug out here, it is not live on our website yet. We are working through the final nuances with procurement and the attorney's team. But I wanted to advertise it at this juncture because it is the last meeting before your next hearing.

[00:11:14] So as we get instructions and we make it live, it will be on our web page. But this is a program that will allow parents or you or any community member to create a plan. They think that the plans that we've reviewed with you thus far are lacking or that they would like to consider another plan.

[00:11:35] All of the data that's provided in paper form and on the web in tables, they have created an app that you can then create a boundary. You can share it with board members. They can share it with each other. They can provide feedback with other community members, all anonymous, and random numbers assigned.

[00:11:55] But Zone Light is out there, and I'm just putting that plug in real quick, and it's a wonderful tool. I put these slides back in only because we now have official September 30 numbers, so I just wanted to update the slides from last week.

[00:12:13] So we had 5,600 students living in the elementary school, serving the schools while they're attending. Again, updating this sheet as well that provided the building capacity, the official September 30 enrollment, and then the resident K-5 students.

[00:12:35] Again, just reiterating the special permission process. I know this slide was interesting to many last week. Special programs, we identified what special program classrooms are in each of the schools. And that tied to our explanation of how we were looking at both program capacity and base building capacity.

[00:12:58] And that helped us identify that while even I was the one who said going into this, oh, there's plenty of space in the schools when you look at base capacity, but when you actually walk in the schools and see all of the instruction and the supports that are in there, the program capacity gives you a more realistic look of what is happening.

[00:13:16] Then we talked about the program and base capacity comparison. And while in any other attendance zone process, staff would recommend that you look at an 80, 85, 90% utilization. In this process, we would recommend that it would be a 75 to 85% target because that would give you a more realistic look of the space needs in the buildings.

[00:13:41] Often, many of them are older without all of the resource spaces we build in our current prototypes. We also spoke about the consideration expanding step in the schools. And so I just put in this slide for those who may be dialing in at this juncture and missed the first meeting.

[00:13:59] And these were all considerations that staff looked at when we came up with the two staff plans. So staff plan R0 means we're rezoning zero planning zones. And then the staff plan R6 where we're recommending that six planning zones change schools.

[00:14:18] It involves six elementary schools, Algonquian, Countryside, Horizon, Lowe's Island, Potomac and sugar land. And then we outlined the different areas, and that is why I'm sure our speakers here tonight are here to talk through. And then this is our contact information. Any questions that citizens, parents, community members have, if you send them to our LCPS plan at lcps.org, we will answer them in writing. We feel it's important to answer in writing so that if there's conversations at the bus stop or at soccer matches, we want everyone

[00:14:55] to have the same information we don't want them to say well i heard this or i heard that so if we put it in writing everyone can reference it so i just promote that one more time and then i will turn off my mic and we can begin the public hearing thank you thank you ms tate um and we appreciate the update thank you for going through that again and with that we will move on to item number three our public hearing um i have the benefit of being able to do the procedures for public comment twice tonight yay right so here are the procedures for public comment thank you

[00:15:31] for engaging with the school board through the public comment process the school board welcomes comments from loudon county residents and believes that strong community engagement and outreach are important components of a successful school system speakers must limit comments to the time allotted based on the number of speakers in the agenda this evening all speakers have been allotted two minutes each for public comment please be advised that speakers who missed their time slot will not be called at a later time decorum and civility all audience members shall maintain civility decorum and respect for the functioning and dignity of the school board at all times please remain seated unless arriving departing speaking at the podium or during a break violations of civility decorum

[00:16:10] and respect include shouting heckling jeering applause and other noise which disrupts or delays the meeting obstructing speakers from being able to see the school board and vice versa interrupting speakers attempting to speak when not called to do so by the chair and approaching a speaker or otherwise attempting to intimidate disparage or distract a speaker staff member or other meeting attendees speakers should refrain from vulgarity obscenities defamation profanity and other like breaches of respect nor may speakers target criticize or attack individual students and or individual division employees during public comment the school board requests

[00:16:46] that comments on an individual student or employee related matter not be shared at public meetings where the disclosure could violate applicable confidentiality requirements speakers should communicate those concerns to their school principal or an appropriate school official speakers should face the dais and direct their comments to the school board per school board policy 2520 members of the school board will not answer questions or respond directly to the public during the public comment period to the extent necessary i will also warn of breaches of decorum civility and respect from attendees prior to taking other actions to preserve the orderly

[00:17:22] conduct of the meeting. Violations of decorum or civility by any meeting attendee may result in the chair directing staff to remove the attendee from the remainder of the meeting. Repeated or persistent violations of decorum or civility by the audience may result in, on the decision of the chair, public comment being t-bold until a later point in the meeting's agenda, limiting the number of attendees in the meeting room during public comment for safety reasons or the public comment period ending for the evening copies of materials for school board members should be given to the public information officer in the media box at the back of this board room before the start of the meeting please provide 12 copies of the materials under no circumstances may a speaker

[00:18:01] approach the dais the public is reminded that access to school board meetings is available through lcps tv on 1070 hd and verizon fios channel 43 the live stream of the meeting may be viewed on the website we look forward to hearing your comments and we'll start now with our public our virtual public comment our only virtual speaker tonight is Michael Crawford yes hello can you hear me yes we hear you thank you all right excellent good evening board members and chair Chandler my name is Michael Crawford and I have a first and third grader who currently attend Horizon Elementary School also a resident of EL30 or as we like to call it Cardinal Glenn

[00:18:41] which plan R6 would rezone to Sugar Land Elementary School here tonight to ask you to vote for plan r0 no changes cardinal glenn was built in the early 1980s put that in perspective at that time there were only three high schools we were one of the oldest neighborhoods in sterling right behind sugarland run we are the oldest neighborhood currently attending horizon elementary school i know this because my grandparents were the original homeowners here in 1984 and then my aunt six years ago my wife and i purchased the same house making it 40 years that my family has lived in this community. Because of this, it is almost impossible to fathom that after all these

[00:19:19] years, or should I say decades, our children could be rezoned to another school with just a handful of their peers. Yes, the document lists 32 students from our neighborhood, but once you dive deeper and remove the rising fifth, sixth graders, remove the students that have special permission based on IUP, program, placement, or parents as staff members, it would be approximately 15 children that would be taken out of Horizon from Cardinal Glen and placed at Sugar Land.

[00:19:47] It's one thing to remove a large group of students and put them at another school to maintain a sense of familiarity, but this is intentional isolation for these 15 students. They're basically starting over again. In addition, about eight of those 15 students will be in fourth grade next year, which means the majority of their elementary schooling has already occurred within the classrooms of Horizon Elementary.

[00:20:10] Especially if Horizon has the most space out of all these Eastern schools, why would we remove students and then replace them with other students? Furthermore, Cardinal Glenn is not close to any other schools. We are between 2.2 and 2.5 miles from four schools with drive times between eight and 11 minutes.

[00:20:28] Additionally, most students. - Thank you. We'll proceed with our in-person public comment. Our first public speaker is Heather Crawford followed by Karen Patton. - Good evening board and chair Chandler.

[00:20:44] My name is Heather Crawford and I'm a mom to two children who attend Horizon Elementary, first and third graders. I'm also a resident of EL30, or as we like to call it, Cardinal Glenn. I'm here tonight to ask you to vote for Plan R0, no changes, and I have six data-driven points that I will share with you. Point one, Horizon has a lot of space.

[00:21:02] It has the highest percentage of open space of all Eastern Lounge schools, and why would we remove students if other students were being moved in? Number two, Cardinal Glenn is a very isolated community. We're a very unique, non-contiguous neighborhood. There's only one turn off of Route 7. There's very little foot traffic in our neighborhood.

[00:21:17] Although on a map it looks like we border neighborhoods that attend Sugarland and Meadowland, And we do. There's no walking paths or throughways between our neighborhoods. Moving on to the third point. Enrollment is at its lowest in Lowne County, and all schools have space. No classrooms at Eastern schools are at their limit or even close.

[00:21:33] And class sizes at many of these schools are reported to be between 15 and 21 students. As a reminder, the class size limits are 25 for kindergarten through second grade and 29 for third through fifth grade. The fourth point. Our neighborhood is equal distance and travel time to four schools. We are within 8 to 10 minutes of Potomac, Sugarland, Meadowland, and Horizon, and we were within 2.2 to 2.5 miles of all of those schools.

[00:21:55] Finally, the start and end times would change for most of the students. For example, Horizon starts at 8. If you move us to Sugar Land and other students to Lowe's Island, those schools start at 7.30. Finally, Countryside begins at 7.30, and we've moved to 8 o'clock. My final point, it has been over 20 years that families and Cardinal Glenn have been attending Horizon.

[00:22:15] At that point, half of Loudoun County schools weren't even built. I also want to end by pointing out that Loudoun County really prides itself on the sense of belonging. So much of the work that happens in Loudoun County is centered around this, and I can't help but think how unfortunate it would be to not choose a plan that would maintain that sense of belonging for all of our students in Eastern Loudoun.

[00:22:33] Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight, and I look forward to additional opportunities in the future. Thank you. Our next speaker is Karen Patton, followed by Peter Jorgi. Good evening, board. My name is Karen Patton. I live in area EL30, also known as Cardinal Glen, and I am the mom to a fifth grader, a third grader, and a first grader who all attend Horizon Elementary School. I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you all tonight. Part of why we bought our home in Cardinal Glen community is due to how isolated it is. In the world of Northern

[00:23:10] Virginia, finding a closed and quiet neighborhood is difficult, and Cardinal Glen is unique not only to Sterling, but to every other neighborhood in the area that is Loudoun County. We have one entrance and one exit, and every street is a cul-de-sac off of the literal circle that is Cardinal Glenn. The peace of mind that comes with this layout and the fact that it facilitates a strong community are why many of us chose to live where we do. Because of this closeness, we invest our time, money, and energy into our community. We even have a neighborhood welcome committee. We have a neighbors helping neighbors group, and we have block parties. We also invest in our schools.

[00:23:50] Currently, we have two Horizon PTA board members that live in Cardinal Glen. We also have a former Horizon PTA president that lives in Cardinal Glen. Our families volunteer, donate, and participate at Horizon Elementary School, and we have a legacy of love tied to Horizon. Breaking that bond would be devastating. There is no school immediately adjacent or connected to our community, and regardless of where we're zoned, a bus route will require travel on Route 7 to turn north on Potomac View Road, and there is a half mile between Sugar Land Run Drive, the turnoff for Sugar Land, and Broadmoor, the turnoff for Horizon.

[00:24:29] Horizon is not overcrowded, and I do not feel it is necessary to disrupt a whole community of families and take students from a non-overcrowded school over a difference of half a mile. I understand the goal is to move towards a contiguous boundary, but the reality is that our community does not and will not ever fit into that box.

[00:24:48] - Thank you. Our final speaker this evening is Peter Yorgy. - Good evening, everyone. I'm here to ask the board to either consider Plan 0 for your vote or to have Plan P6 with special considerations of the notion that you will grandfather current students into their current school.

[00:25:15] Reason being, as you saw on your PowerPoint, stability and community are ultimately the anchors for our children's success. If you move the kids, If you take them out of where they are today, they will be subject to potentially having mental effects, and that could probably be passed on by other studies that would ultimately disrupt their learning abilities.

[00:25:40] I don't know if you know what's going on with Major League Baseball today. I'm a baseball coach in the youth sports in Sterling, so baseball is important to me. Baseball is potentially going to inherit a salary cap for the first time ever. In doing so, they want to give owners and players a five-year grace period in order to fall into those rules, to go through an adjustment period.

[00:26:02] If we go through with Plan P6, we're ultimately saying, well, kids, sorry, there's no adjustment period. How can grown adults be given that leeway when children are not? I also have one more point. In your one slide in the PowerPoint, just to have considerations, the one major thing was not there, and that was the kids.

[00:26:21] The kids in their community is the most important thing. Not a bus schedule, not a bus route. The kids and their ability to be in their community and learning with their peers. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for coming out this evening and for providing the board with your comments.

[00:26:41] And with that, the public hearing is now concluded. We will move on to item number 4.01, our work session. And let's see. I believe we should start. Miss Chernoff, would you like to present your amendment?

[00:26:57] Sure. Thank you, Chair Chandler, and thank you to the community members who came out to speak and to the team. I want to be very clear that I am still very much open to plan R0 and doing nothing, but in just making sure that we're doing our due diligence and making sure we're thinking about all aspects of this, I did put together what we're calling the Chernoff plan. It's really an amended R0 plan, which keeps one neighborhood only moving, which would be EL02.1, which would move from countryside to Algonquian. A portion of these students, I believe, and you guys can speak to

[00:27:36] that staff, already go to Algonquian on special permission. Additionally, this would largely become a walk zone instead of bus students, so that gets us some buses, potentially maybe some more efficiencies with bus routes and bus drivers. I'm not sure what logistically that would all look like but I was hopeful that maybe that could be something that could help us as we are still facing a pretty significant bus driver shortage. Additionally my big end game is to get us all away from the 7:30 a.m. start time. I've been pretty clear about that for three years on this board and so if there was any way to get more walkers to Algonquian and allow

[00:28:16] countryside to get a bump of 15 minutes even I would support that and I thought maybe moving some of those pieces that could be a consideration I did have a chance to talk to our folks at preschool this new plan would not disrupt that plan in fact it would help even open up more potential space at countryside which is potentially one of the planned sites for the new step program so all things considered i just wanted to put this out for feedback if it's just a no-go all the way around it is not um again i can get on board with r0 but i just wanted to make sure that we at least

[00:28:53] had those discussion points and staff if you want to clarify anything that i said or be out for more specifics on buses or start times i would welcome that thank you thank you board members any comments or questions mr kardi thank you madam chair i just i guess i have a question for you and maybe you had a chance to talk to any of your folks i haven't um but i will absolutely be seeking feedback on this and that i'm i would say of all the options we've been presented so far this is the one that makes the most logical sense to me but i would really prefer to have a

[00:29:32] conversation with my community and make sure that it's in alignment with what the community desires so i'll report back i was just going to say i'm i'm all for r0 and i'm all for shortening this process but I'm about but if we were to make any adjustments it would be maybe this one depending on the feedback you're getting from your community I I mean I definitely will take your lead on that because it's you know it's your your your folks in your district so I just want to state for the record that I'm all about our zero and all about shortening this process and moving along to the other million things we have to do and I and I think just for the public

[00:30:09] This process in eastern Loudoun is very different than the processes we've had in central Loudoun in the springtime in the early summer, because we don't have new neighborhoods in eastern Loudoun.

[00:30:25] We have a couple of non-contiguous groupings here and there, but honestly, as our speakers have already noted, I mean, I drive up Sterling Boulevard every day at Route 7, and there's Cardinal Glen, right? And that's your in and out.

[00:30:41] um and i and i appreciate the fact that you all want to stay there we have in in the sterling district in in algonki and in sterling park um multi-generation families as we heard earlier that have lived and got grandparents parents and now their kids have gone to the same schools and we don't have a huge problem with overcrowding at this point we've got space issues that need to get addressed and i think we're we have some opportunity to look at that but um i really do want to just kind of keep everybody where they're at maybe we do a little bit of adjustment for buses if if we get feedback from the community and they want that but otherwise i just want to put on the

[00:31:20] record that i'm all about keeping it as it is thank you thank you um mr svensson i just wanted to thank uh mr schernoff for putting it forward i think the thinking about the start schedule and the buses are and the walk zone for the community and aspect as well is really important so i'm i'm looking forward to hearing feedback from the community thank you for pepper thank you madam Madam Chair, I also would like to thank Ms. Chernoff, because when I looked at the maps, other than R0, which seemed like the obvious option, really the only option I saw was possibly moving this one tiny little zone over just because of where it sat, because of the walk zone.

[00:31:59] I didn't even realize the impact it would have on our STEP program. You know, for me, even when Ms. Tate said it, R0 is the plan that helps us expand preschool probably the most, which is a huge driving factor because of space considerations.

[00:32:16] so like i said i thank you for this plan i love this idea of trying to get the schools back on a later start time um or the same start time would be great um so love to see what your community has to say sounds good thank you all right board members are there comments sure miss riccardi thank you measure i mean i'm mr allen i'm gonna come back to you again on the process um if we go i mean i would like to hear from community so i'm not saying this evening is the

[00:32:54] the time to do this, but I am very curious about if we decide to make no changes and therefore there is nothing to really comment on because there will be no changes if we do the R0, how can we, I'm going to ask for the path of how do we shorten the process?

[00:33:14] I know you're a rules guy and I know you want to follow the policy, but there's got to be a way that we can shorten up these meetings. Thank you for the question, Mr. Riccardi. It's always my advisement for the board to follow its policy, as you know. So short of in order to modify that, you can consider suspending the rules which would allow you and that would require two-thirds vote to modify following policy.

[00:33:47] It's not advisable again. But another approach would be to follow the process this time and consider amending policy 6530 so that in the future it allows for flexibility for the board to modify the schedule if there is a will to do so.

[00:34:14] that please so I think what might see for me on the 12th is I would love to have public comments specifically around the amendment and hear hear how that goes but depending on kind of the will of the board in the direction that we're going I would just as a heads up to my colleagues consider asking to suspend the rules and taking a vote and taking getting this done on the November 12th we have a ton of budget meetings coming up as well so if there's not going to be any significant stuff, or if we decide to do this amendment, either way, I would love

[00:34:53] for us to be able to consider that at that meeting. Is there a voting, an action item at that meeting, or is that just another public hearing? And could we notice it as a, will we have to notice it as a meeting, or is it, would it have to be that Tuesday, December 1st meeting that we actually take a vote?

[00:35:11] Sorry, that was a lot just put into one big long question, but there's a couple, you know, some process perspective, how, what would that look like? Thank you for the question. I'm happy to answer.

[00:35:27] I would advise that you consider waiting until the December 1st meeting where it's at as an information item, and that will allow more input from the community, but also allow the board properly to suspend the rules when it's taken up as an information item to then take it up as an action item and then suspend the rules yet again to suspend the rules, i.e. modify your policy.

[00:35:59] I'm going to get us there, Mr. Allen. I'm going to do it. Thank you so much. Mr. Pepper. Thank you, Madam Chair. And Mr. Carney, thank you for those questions. I think that a lot of us are thinking about how to simplify this process. Truthfully, I don't know.

[00:36:16] One, I want to see how public comment plays out at November 12th, if I had to get the date right. But if we really, truly don't have a lot to say in the process, I personally don't see the harm in just a series of quick, like, here's the information item, it's presented, none of us really have much to say.

[00:36:34] Bumping it to the 15th, doing a quick action item vote, and then we're really keeping this process with fidelity. I guess probably your concern is the December 10th meeting, just as kind of an extra piece of time if we all know where we're going to go. But like a quick info and a quick action don't save us that much time and do keep us aligned with policy.

[00:36:53] That's just my thought on this. knowing that we're going to have other zoning hearings going forward and really are going to want to stay in line with kind of our procedures and our policy. Ms. Chernoff? Thank you, Madam Chair. Just for clarification from staff, if we, I mean, I'm not speaking for anyone.

[00:37:13] I'm speaking for myself. I'm not really interested in R6. I'm interested in R0 or adding that one neighborhood. But if we collectively did not want to move that forward, could that be dismissed or do staff options automatically go to the finish line?

[00:37:30] Just for our friends who are sitting here. Staff options do not automatically go. On December 1, the intent of the information item is in those instances where there may be multiple plans that are under consideration, where the board has entertained their communities and they're bringing forth a variety.

[00:37:54] There have been times where we've had 10 plans that have been active. So the purpose of the information item is to narrow the focus for you as board members as well as the community. By policy, any plan moving forward on the 1st, we ask that there be rationale attached to it to explain why it's being supported.

[00:38:18] We have in recent past provided that rationale when we've presented our plans. We did not intentionally. because we were publishing our plans as you all were reviewing policy 8155, and we did not want to prepare rationale that might in fact conflict with what you would ultimately -- what ultimately was adopted on 13th.

[00:38:44] So the intent of the first is to have rationale for plans that individual board members or several board members collectively seem to have a consensus on, and then that would kind of set those other plans aside.

[00:38:59] And then the, because there sometimes have been 10 plans that are active, that is why there's been the briefing between the information items so that it's that last opportunity for communities to say, we really like this plan over this plan to kind of help guide you as to at least how they would like you to vote.

[00:39:20] And then on the 15th is when there's final action. There have been instances where the briefing due to inclement weather or other schedule complex where that briefing between the information item and action item has been held at the final meeting.

[00:39:36] And I think Mr. Allen had alluded to that last time that it could be advertised that we're just going to combine that to the briefing hearing and it would just be part of your public comment component. It would be a separate speaker list.

[00:39:53] But that has happened and I believe Mr. Allen has mentioned that as an option last time. I appreciate that. Thank you. thank you for that clarification I would say I'm probably more interested in that change but before committing to any of that I certainly want to give the community an opportunity to respond and it's hard to forecast since this information certainly hasn't gotten out to the fullest extent how the community will respond on the 12th or even on the first so I'd be inclined to wait and see how if if it continues on the same vein perhaps it's a conversation we can have

[00:40:32] Ms. Riccardi. Thank you. I just want to ask a kind of a process question beyond this. So what what I would like to see us look at the policy before we get to the next pod of option. What so what's coming in the springtime? It's the next question. Secondaries. All secondaries. Okay. So is it possible that we take a look and again I don't know what's coming down the pike. It could be a 50,000 options that we've got or none or some number in the middle, right? But I would like for us to have in the policy an opportunity to

[00:41:11] craft an agenda and process that's obviously fair and gives us lots of opportunity for the public to comment, but if, you know, to basically adjust this if needed because maybe we don't have any action or much action or whatever. Now, again, secondaries are probably going to have a lot. I get that. But I think we need to tweak the policy so that we don't get in this. So we have the flexibility of adjusting the schedule depending. It may be that we want to do more because we've got more things to consider too. So I think we need a little bit

[00:41:46] more flexibility in the policy and the scheduling of these in order to accommodate whatever it is, the body of work that we have to tackle. Dr. Spence. Yes, ma'am. Thank you, Madam Chair. Ms. McCarty, I would actually say staff really would agree with you on that. I think we do need to look at the policy and the reason for that is because of the change you made to the policy that we will review these annually on a five-year cycle, because we will get to a place where changes aren't needed.

[00:42:13] If you're doing this every five years, theoretically, and if our enrollment either remains flat or continues to go down a little bit, you're likely going to find a lot more of these no changes needed recommendations, and I think it would be good to have a process to address that.

[00:42:29] So we agree with that. I just think we would encourage what Wes said, which is to try to figure out how to work with in your current policy for this one and then go from there i appreciate that thank you may i yes please not to perseverate the topic but just um i will acknowledge that last fall with ashburn dulles north boundary process there was no new school involved and so those who came were those lived in the communities that were the same is even true for the dulles south that we did

[00:43:04] the small but painful boundary process there. Again, this process this fall involves no new schools. In recent past, the Board adjusted this policy and combined work sessions and public hearings to shorten the number of meetings.

[00:43:24] This coming spring, whether any or all boundaries change, we are opening a new school. There will be plenty of community engagement. I would even offer to say that from a staff perspective when we bring you the calendar, we may break from your policy and we may with intention schedule a night for public hearings and a night for work sessions because I believe there are going to be students and community

[00:43:58] members coming because secondary schools are even nearer and dearer to families once they get to that level. So it would be my request that, yes, we start talking about the policy changes, but let's not make any changes to the policy until we make it through next spring.

[00:44:20] If we make it through. But I just and so I just offer that as for consideration because I do believe with the new school we are going to hear from more community members because they either want to go and open or they want to stay. high schools are even I just I'll stop there I just I that would be my suggestion Ms. Tate I do really appreciate your really like bringing that forward and sharing your experience because as board even those of us that came in in 24 we haven't done a new school yet we don't remember

[00:44:54] so thank you that is very helpful context which gives us much to consider as we continue on our way board members any further comments on this evening's agenda all right seeing none this elementary school attendance zone public hearing and work session on the eastern loudon planning district is now adjourned thank you and please drive home safely

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