Near-Capacity Loudoun Valley Answers an Addition Problem

Loudoun Valley cheerleaders, from left, Devon Embrey, Kori Reece and KP Phillips work on posters for the first day of school on Tuesday. (By Rich Lipski -- The Washington Post)

With the fall sports season about to begin, the Loudoun Valley High School cheerleaders practiced their front handsprings and backbends on a recent afternoon. Their limbs flew and their feet landed in a chorus of thuds.

As the girls worked on their routines, a different kind of preparation was underway in the administrative offices.

For the first time since 2002, when the freshman class was transferred to the new Harmony Intermediate School to ease crowding, Loudoun Valley will be nearly at capacity this fall, underscoring the need for a second high school in the rapidly growing western part of the county.

About 1,520 students -- about 100 more than last year -- will flood through Loudoun Valley's doors on Tuesday, cramming into hallways, waiting in lunch lines and devising new strategies to navigate the crowds in the six minutes between classes.

To help manage the influx, the school has added a fourth lunch period at 1:30 p.m., which will keep the lunch lines shorter than last year, Principal Sue Ross said. Ross hired seven additional teachers, a librarian and a counselor, and two conference rooms have been converted to office space to accommodate the additional staff.

Every inch of the school will be occupied, said Ross.

"We're just employing some creative solutions right now," she said.

Eventually, though, creativity won't be enough to manage the crowds. The enrollment is expected to climb to 1,643 by next year and 1,830 the year after that. The capacity is 1,551.

School district officials are hoping to open a new high school a few miles away by fall 2008, a deadline they believe they can meet if the permits are approved expeditiously and the construction goes smoothly.

But it will be a tight schedule, and there are significant obstacles that some say may derail the plan.

Most notable is the town of Purcellville, where Loudoun Valley is located, which has fiercely opposed the plan to build the new school just north of the town's boundary, with the mayor promising to fight the project "tooth and nail" each step of the way.

Town leaders have certainly made good on that promise this summer. They have taken their case to the courts and are even considering condemning some of the land where the school would be built, although they say the latter effort has nothing to do with the school.