Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County School Board, School Board Elementary School Attendance Zone Public Hearing & Work Session, Thursday, November 12, 2026

Date: Thursday, November 12, 2026
Place: Loudoun County Public Schools / School Board meeting (see BoardDocs / LCPS-TV)
Length: 48m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/1245658326?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 2026-11-13. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:25] Good evening. I now call to order this School Board Elementary School Attendance Zone Public Hearing and Work Session for November 12, 2026. My name is April Chandler and I'm the chair of the Loudoun County School Board and I have been notified that Dr. Rasheed would like to participate remotely in tonight's meeting. Dr. Rasheed, please state your location and whether this is a medical or personal matter?

[00:00:59] - Thank you, Chair Chandler. I am in my home and this is a personal matter. - Is there anyone present with you at this location? - They are, but they're on the other side of my home. - Right, Vice-Chair Donahue.

[00:01:17] - Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that the London County School Board approve Dr. Rashid's request for remote participation. - Thank you, Vice-Chair Donahue has made a motion. Is there a second? - Second. - Thank you, Mr. Pepper. It has been properly moved and seconded. Let's move forward with the vote.

[00:01:43] Madam Clerk, please close and display the vote. That motion passes with all seven board members present voting yes and Ms. Chernoff and Dr. Rasheed absent for the vote. Dr. Rasheed, welcome to the meeting.

[00:01:59] Thank you, everyone. All right. First up, we have our attendance zone briefing, and I see Mr. Mahmood and Ms. Tate are ready to go. The floor is yours.

[00:02:18] Good evening. Thank you, Chair Chandler and board members and those here tonight. If you will indulge me, I'd like to go through your folder first before I start the very brief PowerPoint. I promise it's brief. You first have a list of speakers for your hearing tonight.

[00:02:35] At your spot, we've also provided you a handout from, I believe, the second speaker. It's a petition that they're sharing. You have a copy of this evening's PowerPoint presentation, as well as large 11 by 17 maps of the staff plan R0, staff plan R6 that were presented on October 15th.

[00:03:00] We have a copy as well of Ms. Chernoff, Chernoff plan R1, that was reviewed at your October 22nd meeting. And then since your October 22nd work session, Mr. Pepper and Ms. Donohue have also proposed two plans to begin to have discussion with you as your fellow board members, Pepper Plan R2 and Donohue Plan R6 that I will speak to in the presentation and let them speak to their plans.

[00:03:31] We also have an updated plan tracking chart, so it includes all of the plans that have presented or will be presented through tonight so you can again track what planning zones are moved with each how many k5 resident students live in those planning zones and on the second page at the very bottom it gives us some of those students in kindergarten through grade five could move if that plan were adopted I again remind board members that planning zones that are noted in red font are the planning zones in which a school is and so it's recommended that

[00:04:09] you not move a school out of its own if that was a consideration and then the final handout in your folder is just a brief instruction on how to utilize zone light zone light went live after your October 22nd meeting there are the five plans that have been reviewed or will be reviewed through tonight from mr. pepper miss Donohue miss Chernoff as well as the two staff plans are posted there and as of earlier this afternoon before all of our outlooks went crazy I did note

[00:04:49] that there were I believe nine other plans that had been created so they were created by community members or other folks who are interested in this boundary process should you wish to look at those for those in the audience listening or board members if you wish to create plans to see kind of what ifs based on feedback you get at public hearings or the comments that we're forwarding to you you may certainly do so we as staff will not map them unless we are requested to do so by board members for further discussion but it

[00:05:24] gives you that opportunity to visually see ideas that you are hearing or you are receiving from your constituents so with that I will quickly go through we again are here tonight we've involved 12 elementary schools in this tenant zone review Algonquian countryside Forest Grove Guilford Horizon Lowe's Island Meadowland Rolling Ridge Sterling Sully and Sugarland and Potomac thank you I know I was going to forget one as I was going through that are part of this

[00:06:00] attendance zone process this is guided by policy 6530 changing school attendance zones this slide indicates the factors that may be considered as you a board consider and review changes we are here because policy does also ask that the board review all school attendance zones over a five-year period in this fall we are looking at the Eastern Loudoun elementary school part of the conversation that you all requested that we include in this process was the potential expansion of the step program and this was guided by action you took

[00:06:39] on June when you were taking action approving the head start preschool grant and so it was asked that the consideration expansion of step be part of this upcoming process, or the current process. As we have received your plans, as we have provided information to you, as Zone Light finally became live, as we have received questions from constituents as well as you, we have posted all of that information on our webpage.

[00:07:10] I would encourage everyone, those watching at home, those in the audience, news board members to visit this website often because we are constantly updating with information we had a question from miss Chernoff specific to if planning zone EL 02.1 were to move to Algonquian would that perhaps lead to a later start time for countryside elementary school I think that was a conversation you had at October 22nd we posted a response to that last week transportation upon their

[00:07:48] review indicated that they currently have three buses transporting students to countryside out of that planning zone the entire planning zone of EL02.1 will not be walkable to Algonquian based on your walk the transportation policy transportation staff has indicated that it is likely that one of the three buses could be taken out of service but the other two buses would still be needed to transport those students to Algonquian based on that their preliminary look and again they don't schedule routes until we get into

[00:08:25] the spring would not lead to them believing that countryside could be a later start but I just wanted to share that but that's a question that we've posted on the website as well so light again I'll do a little PR for them this is the app that would allow you or others to create plans to see how plans might impact neighborhoods and what those enrollments would be so I encourage folks to look at that site and experiment with plans that you may wish to see we presented staff plan our zero had October 15th it recommends no

[00:09:01] attendance zone changes and as I mentioned when we presented this staff part of the drive behind this was at the time the board was still reviewing policy 8155 and we were not we weren't sure how that may or may not impact these schools we presented staff plan our six our meaning rezone rezoning six planning zones that involved six schools Algonquian countryside horizon Lowe's Island Potomac and Sugarland and that is mapped here with the numbers on

[00:09:33] the associated chart miss Chernoff made a recommendation to rezone one planning zone based on feedback that she had received or had been presented at the board meetings so that Chernoff plan R1 and that involved moving planning zone EL021 which I just referenced part of the countryside community from countryside elementary schools go out on Kim then mr. pepper on October 29 you asked us to map this and so I will pause if you wish to speak to your plan and I will advance like Banna when you ask me.

[00:10:13] Mr. Pepper. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Ms. Tate. So I designed this plan based off of the movement of Ms. Chernoff's original R1 plan because in Ms. Chernoff's plan, it moved a significant chunk of students from countryside to Algonquian based on proximity and a whole host of other reasons.

[00:10:33] The reason I selected EL36, and it really just moves one large zone, is EL36 is a unique zone in that it is, for a better sense of the word, kind of an orphan. In that it is the only zone that was currently zoned for Sterling Elementary that does not follow the remainder of the zones at Sterling Elementary to both Sterling Middle and Potomac Falls High School.

[00:10:59] I'm sorry, Parkview High School. Sorry, it goes to Potomac Falls, and it goes to Riverbend. So in order to maintain, one of my things that I've been preaching for a while is to maintain K-12 continuity. And so this was my first attempt to maintain K-12 continuity.

[00:11:18] I also wanted to see how the numbers ran out. Now, I know when I do this, it drops the population at Sterling Elementary quite significantly down, If you go down to the 2033 year, down to 49, almost 50%, and that's relatively low.

[00:11:35] But what it would allow us to do is it would allow us the opportunity to open some of those step classrooms in a school that particularly needs it. I also wanted to flag this zone because even if we don't decide to do any movement of EL36 as a board now, this is a zone that I think we should also consider possibly in the springtime

[00:11:53] We look at the secondary realignment for consideration that they maintain continuity with their other classmates at Sterling Elementary and continue on to Sterling Middle and Parkview High School, just so that we can do our best to maintain K-12 continuity in all of our schools as we now have the opportunity with a one-to-one middle-to-high school ratio once Thornton Summit is complete to do so.

[00:12:17] So that was my rationale behind the movement. I would love to hear the thoughts of my colleagues in my community. I have always said at the beginning of this process, I'm not necessarily married to any plan. I also said that would be quite deferential to both Ms. Riccardi and Chair Chandler because these are their districts and it's their people who live there. And so I'm proposing this because I want to see, but also because I want to recognize that we can start taking steps now to build that K-12 continuity.

[00:12:46] Thank you. And then earlier this week, Ms. Donahue asked us to map this plan for her, Plan R6, which involves the rezoning of six planning zones in the schools of Algonquian, Countryside, Forest Grove, Horizon, Lowes Island, Meadowland, Rolling Ridge, and Sully.

[00:13:11] So, Ms. Donahue, I will defer to you to talk to your plan. Vice Chair Donahue. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Ms. Tate. So I did ask staff to help put this proposal together. It keeps the movement of EL02.1 to Algonquian.

[00:13:30] And the rest of this proposal is to address non-contiguous planning zones. The policy that we are operating under 6530 on Part C, factors considered in attendance zone changes states when changing attendance zones the school board will consider the following criteria whenever possible and part 2c is promote attendance zones that are contiguous wherever possible so I put this proposal forward as a starting point to have a conversation about I'm I will be

[00:14:08] curious if I can get some background possibly from staff as to how these non-contiguous districts ended up being zoned for the schools that they're zoned for and if there is a better way to address the non-contiguous issue or if there are compelling reasons to leave them in place but that is why I put this proposal forward is to have the starting point for a conversation thank you thank you miss Tate thank you and so I will try to address that as we get into the work session portion but I'm just briefing at this point so on Tuesday December 1 you will have an information item before you for that

[00:14:47] December 1 and down here at the bottom of the slide I've noted any plan to move forward as a plan under active consideration on December 1 needs to be mapped and so we currently have five plans that are mapped and have written rationale that's provided to us staff by noon next Thursday this way it provides an opportunity for you as board members to focus your thoughts on a plan or plans to move forward and in your discussions tonight you may decide that

[00:15:21] staff plan R6 is not a plan that you want to move forward or perhaps Miss Donahue Mr. Pepper or Miss Chernoff's plan are not one to move forward but this gives an opportunity for you all to focus as well as the community to focus to realize what you're really intent to consider as you move forward on December one narrowing down the options so that come December 15 and the hearing that is scheduled for December 10, the focus can be on those plans.

[00:15:53] That does not mean, and I probably should have policy in front of me to read it specifically, that does not mean that other changes can be made. But at this juncture, past practice has been that no planning zone that has not been discussed up to the information item, is all of the sudden added under consideration.

[00:16:19] So planning zones EL16, which has not been in discussion for any of the plans, would not all of the sudden come December 1 or December 10 or even when you take action, all of the sudden a change be adopted for that planning zone because it's not been under discussion at this point.

[00:16:38] But any of the planning zones that you've talked about at this point could be modified as you make the final decision but our ask is that anything that is to move forward be requested by a board member or board members to move forward our zero seems to be popular by some to continue that discussion so if someone wishes to request that then we will move that forward and as that was a staff recommendation we could provide rationale to that but I just wanted to highlight that and happy to answer additional questions following your

[00:17:16] hearing if you want to come back to it and then as we continue to receive emails comments questions from members of the public families we will forward those to you we encourage those listening those here who have questions or wish to provide comments to you in writing to send those to us and we will forward there is a direct link on each of the school's web pages using that boundary link the icon that's on their home page or they can utilize the 2026 ES boundaries email and with that kind of concludes the briefing to get us up to the point for their public hearing thank you so much miss Tate for the

[00:17:56] briefing and with that we will move on to our school board attendance zone public hearing I will read the procedures for public comment now thank you for engaging with the school board through the public comment process the The school board welcomes comments from Loudoun County residents and believes that strong community engagement and outreach are important components of a successful school system.

[00:18:20] Speakers must limit comments to the time allotted. Based on the number of speakers in the agenda of this evening, all speakers have been allotted two minutes each for public comment. Please be advised that speakers who miss 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.

[00:18:42] Please remain seated unless arriving, departing, speaking at the podium, or during a break. Violations of civility, decorum, 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.

[00:18:58] 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.

[00:19:15] Nor may speakers target, criticize, attack individual students and or individual division employees during public comment. The school board requests that comments on an individual student or employee related matter not be shared at public meetings where the disclosure could violate applicable confidentiality requirements.

[00:19:32] 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 conduct of the meeting violations of decorum and civility by any meeting attendee may result in the chair directing staff to remove the attendee for the remainder of the meeting.

[00:20:10] repeated or persistent violations of decorum or civility by the audience may result in on the decision of the chair public comment being tabled until a later point in the meetings agenda limiting the number of attendees at the meeting room during public comment or for safety reasons and the public comment period ending for the evening distribution of materials to board members copies of materials for board members should be given to the public information officer in the media box at the back of the boardroom before the start of the meeting please provide 12 copies of the materials under no circumstance may a speaker approach the dais. The public is reminded that access to school board

[00:20:44] 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. We'll now start with our virtual public comment. Our virtual speaker is Michael Crawford. Hello, my name is Michael Crawford. I am a resident of Cardinal Glen Circle aka EL30. We plan R6 to be ineffective due to similar distance and drive time to four nearby schools from our neighborhood, the change in start and end times that would disrupt already established before and after

[00:21:19] school child care plans, the low class sizes at all Eastern Loudoun schools, and finally, the fact that our neighborhood is one of the oldest in Sterling and that our families have been attending Horizon Elementary for over 20 years. Personally, my house has had three owners since 1984, my grandparents, my aunt's family, and now my family of four. School rezoning should not be treated as simply moving students from one building to another. Research has shown that changing schools can disrupt students' academic progress, social connections, emotional well-being, and a sense of stability. Students rely on established relationships with teachers, peers, and support staff. Forced transitions can create additional challenges, particularly for

[00:21:59] younger children and students who are already struggling academically. The potential impact on children's academic achievement, mental health, and long-term success must be carefully considered. Our children deserve stability, and any rezoning proposal should demonstrate clear research-supported benefits that outweigh the disruption it may cause.

[00:22:18] Therefore, I ask for your support and plan R0, as I certainly hope my neighborhood stays Horizon Comets, as we strive for courtesy, care, and cooperation. Thank you for your time. Thank you. We'll move on to our in-person speakers now. Our first in-person speaker is Heather Crawford, followed by Karen Patton.

[00:22:39] Good evening, board members and Chair Chandler. My name is Heather Crawford, and I'm a mom to a first and third grader at Horizon Elementary. I'm also a resident of EL30, the Cardinal Glenn community. Both R6 plans would rezone just our community to Sugarland or Meadowland, a mere 15 to 25 students.

[00:22:54] I'm here to ask the board to vote to remove both R6 plans from consideration tonight. You've heard extensively from our community regarding our opposition to both R6 plans through emails, public comments, and a petition with over 130 signatures. As a Sterling resident since 1998, I know families move here for the stability of our schools.

[00:23:11] Sterling hasn't seen major boundary changes since Dominion High School opened in 2003, which was necessary at the time due to high enrollment. Yet for the past six weeks, our lives have been disrupted with the possibility of having to change schools. And just when things seemed headed in a positive direction, my neighbors and I discovered a new RS6 Donahue plan.

[00:23:28] During the first meeting, at least one board member stated, we don't move kids just to move kids. Looking at both RS6 plans, the intent seems to be just that. Moving kids simply to make color-coded maps look neater, when in reality they create more work for transportation. Ms. Riccardi already addressed a non-contiguous neighborhood by Sully that attends Forest Grove, which the new R6 plan also moves. While I know policy requires reviewing boundaries every five years, Sterling is very different from other areas in Loudoun County. It seems unreasonable to upend our lives for plans that move kids just to move kids. I'm asking you tonight to vote for Plan R0 No Changes or consider Plan R1, which includes benefits such as increased walk zones

[00:24:05] and expansion of pre-K. Beyond the data-driven points our neighborhood has already shared, adopting either R6 plan would actually force LCPS Transportation to send two different buses onto two isolated neighborhoods off Route 7, because EL28 next to us, mainly Lakeland and Cedar Drives, also only has one access point, also directly off Route 7, since Thomas Avenue Bridge closed in 2024. Rezoning that neighborhood to Lowes Island means both the Sugarland or Meadowland and a Lowes Island bus would have to navigate one of Route 7's most congested stretches between Potomac View and Drainville Roads. Finally, I want to reiterate the fact that class sizes are at their lowest. Enrollment is down specifically at the elementary level. Thank

[00:24:42] you. Our next speaker is Karen Patton. Good evening board members and Chair Chandler. My name is Karen Patton and I'm a resident of Cardinal Glenn and Sterling aka EL30. I have a first grader, third grader, and fifth grader. And again I want to implore the board to keep our neighborhood zoned for Horizon and request both our six options be removed from the docket this evening. Currently both options rezone our neighborhood to Sugarland or Meadowland Elementary. As previously stated, our neighborhood is unique. We have one entrance and one exit point, unlike nearly every other

[00:25:21] neighborhood in the Sterling area. The goal of contiguous boundaries makes sense for neighborhoods and streets that are connected. Ours, despite how it looks on a map, has no roads or pathways connecting us to the Sugarland or Meadowland zone areas. This is an inefficient and unnecessary change. Additionally, once the bus is on Potomac v. Rose, which is where it must go to take students to either Horizon or Sugar Land, there is a distance of only a half mile between the turnoff to Sugar Land or the turnoff for Horizon. Meadowland is even further. I genuinely cannot see any benefit

[00:25:56] to EL30 being rezoned other than it looks better on a map. It makes busing less efficient. It's almost universally rejected by the EL30 residents, as is evident by the petition with over 130 signatures of Sterling residents that is in front of you now. It also breaks decades-long community bonds. I adamantly oppose the rezoning of our neighborhood. As a Loudoun County resident represented by this board, I request the board to move forward considering only R0, R1, or R2.

[00:26:30] Thank you. Thank you. That concludes our public comment period for the evening. Thank you for coming out today and providing us with your public comment all right with that board members we will move on to item number for our work session any questions or comments from the board mr. Svensson thank you madam chair I appreciate mr.

[00:26:51] pepper's thinking ahead to the secondary school rezoning process that we'll have to be working on in the spring and I just wanted to ask staff maybe it's easiest to look at up here. To the extent there are non-contiguous zones here currently, for instance EL30, Cardinal Glen goes to Horizon right now and then in some of the R6 plans it has either Sugarland or Meadowland. Do Horizon, Sugarland and Meadowland all feed into the same high school? Does this

[00:27:31] changing that does that address any secondary school feeder patterns currently all of Sugar Land and Meadowland proceed to Seneca Ridge and Dominion high school horizon elementary school as well as Sterling of the 12 in this they currently progressed to two different middle or high school horizon either River Bend and Potomac Falls depending on where one lives or to Seneca Ridge and Dominion. And then Sterling, they go to Sterling Middle School, Parkview High School, or Riverbend

[00:28:07] and Potomac Falls. And that's under the current lines. Yes, sir. So, for instance, if we had EL30 was moved to Meadowland, I guess, what is the current feeder pattern for EL30? EL30 currently attends Horizon Elementary School, and then they attend Riverbend and Dominion High School. I'm okay i'm trying because i'm okay well then they go to dominion oh i've oh i'm yes i don't even

[00:28:43] know what i'm looking at the maps and it is i'm so sorry i'm really just long day seneca ridge in dominion high school sorry my air thank you thank you i appreciate that correcting me and you thank you um and then for el 28 and el 28.1 um i guess if they are moved um that address any feeder pattern If both of those planning zones were assigned to Lowes Island, all of Lowes Island does in those two planning zones, they also attend Seneca Ridge and Dominion High School.

[00:29:21] And what is their current pattern? Currently, 28 and 28.1 attend Horizon, and then they go to Seneca Ridge, and then they go to Dominion. Horizon is a split feed. Thank you. And then looking at EL 46 and EL 52, what are their current feeder patterns?

[00:29:47] Those, all of the purple on the map, they are all Forest Grove Elementary, and they all proceed from Forest Grove to Sterling Middle to Parkview. Forest Grove is a pure feed. All students who attend Forest Grove attend Sterling Middle and Parkview. Thank you. I appreciate that.

[00:30:07] Mr. Pepper? Thank you, Madam Chair. I have just a couple questions. First, I want to piggyback off of what my colleague, Mr. Svensson, had to say. And really kind of looking ahead, there are three, when I'm looking at this, I'm trying to do my best, so tell me if I'm wrong.

[00:30:25] But EL11, EL17, and EL18 are the three horizon zones that don't end up in the Potomac Falls River Bend Cluster. Is that correct? They are, sorry, they don't end up in the Dominion Cluster, they end up in the Potomac Falls River Bend. Is that correct?

[00:30:40] Correct, you had the same. I did the same thing you did. We're both on the same bad mind wave, but you are correct. Okay. Those are the three that attend Riverbend and Potomac Fossil. Do we know what the population is of those three zones? Thinking ahead, because we don't make changes, and I know we're talking about elementary zones tonight, but do we know the population of those three zones, EL11, EL17, and EL18 combined?

[00:31:06] At the secondary level? At the elementary level, really, because it's going to... We do have that on the planning zone. And I will tell you that, yes, if the resident counts, so EL, if you look at your plan tracking chart, that will give you, EL11 has 111 K5 resident students this year.

[00:31:30] EL17 has 31 resident K5 this year, and 18 has resident 23 K5 resident students. I will tell you that right now, Horizon is pretty much an even split as to how their fifth grades progress to either Seneca Ridge or Riverbend.

[00:31:53] Appreciate that. I just wanted to kind of get a feel for the size of Horizon and where it's going. My other question actually is about the STEP program, so I'm going to change gears a little bit. Should we go with, and this may be, it's maybe not a question for tonight, but it's a question kind of to be answered at future work sessions.

[00:32:09] Should we go with, I'm going to leave the R6s out of it, but should we go with R0, R1, and R2? Can we get a breakdown of possible locations for the STEP classrooms and where they would go? For expanded STEP.

[00:32:28] For expanded STEP. So expanded STEP would first need to be funded through the FY28 operating budget. That would be the first step. And then we would work with teaching and learning, and I'm looking at Dr. Ellis to kind of help me answer this question.

[00:32:47] But maybe it is a future question. it's a future question I'm just I part of my and I'm just gonna say it and then I'm gonna turn over to my colleagues but part of my my lean here is is this expansion of the staff is something that I look forward to greatly I know that as a board we kind of talked about doing it if we if the funds were available but would love a projection as to where in this district we could possibly fit those programs based on the decisions we make tonight because everything we do kind of has further steps down the line so I appreciate it And thank you for that.

[00:33:19] I do believe that when we presented the plans on October 15th, in consultation with Dr. Ellis and Mr. Slevin and Ms. Duffin, that we had identified the potential of a STEP program going at Countryside Elementary School and Sugar Land Elementary School was where they were preliminary identified based upon our initial two plans.

[00:33:47] Understanding that and knowing that we're doing some tweaks to both of some of these schools. So it might change those plans Well, that's the Algonquian representative. I will say When we first started to contemplate this process one of the issues that I wanted to consider was whether or not we could fix that split feed for horizon I've certainly had lots of conversations with mr. Krause about how difficult it can be to manage both of those processes But because it's so close, it would be almost impossible to do without doing it.

[00:34:24] You basically have to move everyone to make it make sense, which is difficult. And ultimately, one of the real challenges, especially with the walkers that are going into Horizon, the roads are all graded at a level that doesn't encourage walking because they're two-lane-divided highways.

[00:34:54] Even the road that Horizon is accessed from is graded that way, even though it's a small road. So the people who actually live across the street have a bus because it's too busy a road.

[00:35:11] And there's been an accident there in the past for them to be expected to cross. And so although I find your questions interesting, and I will acknowledge that that was where I started with this too, feels like it would be hard to do without completely starting from the beginning again like we'd have to start from scratch I still find myself being most aligned with the idea of doing nothing here the preschool program is

[00:35:47] incredibly important to me I have not gotten a significant amount of feedback from the McPherson square area which I would love to get if anybody is out there listening please let me know how you feel about being moved over to Algonquin we've gotten some but it's different than what I expected that it would be and I certainly won't be making any commitments about any plans that would move that haven't been out for feedback I certainly don't think we've had a chance to hear from the community about their perspective especially in Miss Riccardi's district so I guess it'll be interesting to contemplate the

[00:36:24] suggestions that have come forward but I think my preference still remains with doing nothing so any other board comments yeah mr. Cardi thank you madam chair so I mean I think I'm like I normally do I think I'm gonna start big picture down to the details so big picture I think one of the biggest concerns I have is we have a lot of additional services going in to Eastern loud in schools. English Learner, Title I, a ton of community support. We just had breakfast this

[00:37:02] morning with our whole interfaith community that supports our schools. And my number one concern here is when we start moving students without a really good reason, we are now not just moving bodies from one building to another, but now we're having to move staffing, we're having to examine structure. We're having to examine programs like the before school and after school programs that we're doing. We're going to have to start looking at many, many, many more things in a very concentrated area than just moving students from one school to another. All right, so this is not

[00:37:40] just, hey, we need some more space in this place in one building. It's not about just moving bodies here. It's a very different situation. So that's number one. Number two, I don't think we have a business justification as R0 and the staffs in their analysis have indicated.

[00:37:58] I don't think there's a business case to be made by moving students in this part of the county right now. Although I am intrigued about the secondary option with the EL36 and maybe bringing them back to Sterling Middle School, which is under capacity, and with new Parkview coming in next year and having additional student capacity, I'm interested in looking at that. Of all the things that we're looking at for next year, it might be an interesting conversation to be had.

[00:38:30] But I will tell you just even the proposal of these amendments in Sterling Park, I have spent hours today fielding questions and concerns from, I've talked to principals, I've talked to parents, I've talked to staff at these buildings. I think the thing that we have to understand is we're battling and really trying to tackle the English learner reading concerns, right?

[00:38:55] And in doing that, consistency at schools is absolutely critical. These students have built community. Many of them have come from other countries. They have really gotten established in their schools. Our principals and our staff, our family liaisons work very, very hard to build these relationships.

[00:39:11] And simply starting to move neighborhoods of kids because we want to better color code our map, as one of our public speakers mentioned, right, and make it look pretty is incredibly detrimental to our families, especially our English learner families and our new to the country families that are learning about the American education system.

[00:39:32] So, I am not supporting any of these changes. I am open to Ms. Chernoff's change with the EL, sorry, I put my glasses back on, EL02, her R1 option, so the EL02.1 neighborhood.

[00:39:50] But I honestly, again, I defer to Ms. Chandler for that because that's her community. But otherwise, I get why these are the way they are. I think the EL46 and EL52 split, that is one big neighborhood split by a road.

[00:40:08] Moving one half of that to Sully, I think, is going to create major issues. And moving the other up to Rolling Ridge, that community in particular is on the south side of my neighborhood, and Rolling Ridge is on the north side of my neighborhood. And getting from one side of my neighborhood to the other is not, even though the roads may indicate, it's not an easy path.

[00:40:30] So even just making that logistically happen is challenging. And again, that is a population of students where we have a high English learner concentration, and they're settled into their schools. And I'm not going to support any of the plans where we're messing around with moving, especially our English learner students, for convenience.

[00:40:54] So I'd have to see a lot more of this. I would like to see the justification for our zero I'll just tell you that right I'll go ahead and put that right on the top of your list of things so and I'll get ahead of the curve on the ask but I definitely want to see the just the full justification for our zero and again I'll be interested in looking at the secondary ones next year especially because we've got Parkview and we'll have more capacity there so that opens up some interesting opportunities perhaps perhaps, but I also understand why the northwest side of my district, the yellow boxes, why those are going up to countryside, because to be perfectly honest with you, it's easier

[00:41:33] for them to cross over 7 on a bus in some cases than it is to get all the way down to Sterling Elementary School, just by the nature of where they are. It makes sense. It's all of the housing complexes, the new apartment complexes and townhouses around Dulles Mall, those, it's easier to jump right across 7 than it is to wiggle your way through the neighborhoods back over to sterling elementary which is also pretty full so there's that issue too so I get why we have that going on in the northwest side in the crossover on seven but I'm really good with Eastern Loud and kind of sticking to where it is I think everybody is good they're settled we

[00:42:08] don't have any massive over capacity issues that we can't we're not already having to tackle and that's my two cents or ten cents whatever it might have been for now thank you thank you board members any further comments or oh - Oh, Mr. Svinson.

[00:42:26] - Thank you, Madam Chair. And maybe this is more for my own clarity, just to put a finer point on some of the questions I previously asked, because I agree. I think the feeder patterns are worth looking at, but as Chair Chandler said, I mean, if changing, I think it may be too difficult to actually address it all.

[00:42:45] So I just want to understand, like if for instance, and maybe for staff or the board members in the particular districts can weigh in here. So, Rolling Ridge, Sully, and Sterling, do they all go to the same high school?

[00:43:00] They all go to Parkview. All of this goes just one intact. Sterling Park is one intact pyramid. So, all the elementaries feed into Sterling Middle, and all of them feed them into Parkview. Right. So, yeah, so I think, you know, to me, the feeder issue was intriguing, but I don't support moving those folks if everyone goes into the same feeder pattern.

[00:43:25] Actually, Ms. Tate, I see you might have a point of clarification. Yes. So with the exception of EL36, which is currently in Sterling, those students presently progress. I agree with everything else. Thank you. And that's what's addressed in Mr. Pepper's plan.

[00:43:43] And then for... Not really. Oh, wait. Let's go one at a time. Right? So we'll go Mr. Svensson and Mr. Curry. I'll get you after. Okay. Then looking at, and this is, I understand where it gets confusing over on the other side of Route 7 here.

[00:44:05] So for Lowe's Island, does everyone who currently goes to Lowe's Island go to Dominion? Yes. And then everyone who currently goes to Meadowland goes to Dominion.

[00:44:25] And then Horizon is just, no matter even if you change some of these non-contiguous areas, Horizon would still be a split feed. Depends on if you change the non-contiguous.

[00:44:43] But yes, right now it would still be a split feed. If you reassign the non-contiguous to other schools. I guess I'm looking at like EL 22, 22.1. Do they all go to Dominion? Is that right? Yes, sir.

[00:44:59] And then by EL 18, 17, and 11 go to Potomac Falls. Okay, thank you. So yeah, it would not address necessarily the fact that it's a split elementary school. So thank you. That's helpful for my clarification to understand the feeder patterns. And as I've said to constituents and folks who have written in, I tend towards R0, R1, and then also I'm interested in hearing more feedback on R2 from the public.

[00:45:31] Thank you. Ms. Riccardi, did you want to follow up? I just wanted to say, so the EL36 actually goes to Sterling Elementary, but then they jump up to River Bend and Potomac Falls, correct? yeah so they so this is the one i i would say that would make a lot of sense next year for us to look at and get feedback from the community on whether or not coming back over to the park side of the schools makes sense from a numbers perspective thank you um one of the miss t one of the questions that i would like to i guess follow up with you on um i haven't looked at the policy

[00:46:09] recently um but part of the reason why this occurred is because most of algonkian district is There are several neighborhood associations, and one of the things in the past that they tried to do was keep the neighborhood associations approximately together, but they're not perfectly together.

[00:46:29] That is correct. That's correct? Yes. So, I mean, at Horizon, everything in Horizon is Cascades. Everything at Potomac, except for the one little offshoot on the other side of Seven, may not technically be Cascades, but it's still more Cascades.

[00:46:51] Not all of Horizon is Cascades. No, but the parts that are over by 7, the parts that are closer to Horizon are Cascades.

[00:47:10] But you're right. Thank you for that clarification. EL-22 is not necessarily Cascades. It's like Riverbank and— Is that the part that's behind the grocery store at Food Lion? Yes, and on the north side. So like Riverbank and—I should know these.

[00:47:26] I don't off the top of my head. but I can but we can provide that to you if that would be helpful okay that would be helpful thank you so much board members any other questions or comments right seeing no further questions or comments that brings us to adjournment thank you for coming out that concludes the November 12th 2026 will board elementary school attendance zone public hearing and work session we We are now adjourned. Thank you and please drive home safely.

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