Board Postpones Boundary Vote

Loudoun school Superintendent Edgar B. Hatrick III agreed with DuPree's stance. "I've sent out a lot of letters saying as soon as this new school opens, we're going to fix things for you," Hatrick said. "To leave schools purposely overcrowded is unfair to the students."

Redistricting is a familiar ritual in Loudoun, a county that has grown by 132 percent in the past decade, increasing from 29,000 students to more than 50,000.

Staff members presented their recommended attendance lines to the School Board on Nov. 14. Since then, hundreds of parents have attended public hearings to express concerns about changing schools. Scores of people also wrote letters and submitted their own boundary proposals for consideration.

At a hearing on the proposed boundaries for Sycolin Creek, more than 100 people signed up to speak, many from Evergreen Meadows.

On a recent weekend, two dozen volunteers gathered 460 signatures in the 330-home development asking the School Board to help keep their children in school nearby, Carver said.

Other groups have been organizing behind the scenes, including parents of students from a northern Leesburg school who were hoping that redistricting would lead to more equitable racial and socioeconomic distribution.

As the board voted at 11 p.m. to table the discussion, dozens walked out of the room shaking their heads.

"It's really a tough decision," said Dan Bellair, the father of three sons at Cool Spring. "But it sounds like the School Board and the superintendent should have talked more before sitting down."