Potomac Falls High This article is one of seven looking at the challenges that educators, parents and students faced in creating a new Virginia high school. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | Part 1: Boundary Decision Delayed Part 2: Dispute Over School's Size Part 3: A Study in Starting Fresh Part 4: A Learning Experience Part 5: New High School Debuts Part 6: Club Membership Lags Part 7: "Big Game" Unites Students

By Victoria Benning
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 23 1996; Page V01

In response to parents upset over a staff attendance zone proposal that would split the Countryside subdivision, Loudoun County School Board member Ellen D. Oliver (Broad Run) has submitted her own plan that would keep students together at one school.

Oliver's suggestion prompted the School Board to delay adopting new high school attendance zones until Tuesday.

The opening of Potomac Falls High School in September 1997 means school boundaries will have to be redrawn, affecting both Park View High and Broad Run High schools' attendance zones. Some middle schools also would be affected by the changes.

School district staff have proposed splitting the Countryside development, sending some students to Broad Run in Ashburn and others to Potomac Falls in Cascades. Under the plan, students in northeastern Countryside would attend Potomac Falls and students in the southern and western parts of the development would remain at Broad Run.

Gordon Fletcher, director of planning and legislative services for the school system, said the division is necessary to keep Potomac Falls from exceeding its capacity only two years after opening, and to keep Broad Run from being underused.

Countryside parents argue that splitting their community would result in decreased parental involvement in the schools, heightened juvenile crime and vandalism because of a three-school rivalry in one area and a reduction in after-school activities.

"We're not against Broad Run . . . we just don't want to be divided," said Karen Tyrrell, a parent activist with the group Don't Divide Countryside. Last week, Tyrrell presented school board members with a petition of more than 1,000 signatures in support of keeping the community within one attendance zone.

Under Oliver's proposal, the Potomac Falls boundary would be drawn with the Broad Run waterway as its western border, Route 7 as the southern border, the Potomac River as the northern border and the Fairfax County line as the eastern border. The Broad Run High School Class of 1998 would graduate from Broad Run, and Potomac Falls would open with no senior class its first year.

The boundary changes would affect area middle schools because of a feeder system in which students who go to middle school together also go to high school together. Under staff recommendations, Seneca Ridge Middle School would feed to Potomac Falls, Sterling Middle School would feed to Park View and Farmwell Station would feed to Broad Run.

Under Oliver's proposal, students currently attending Farmwell Station and Sterling middle schools and Broad Run and Park View high schools could take advantage of a grandfather clause and remain in their attendance zones. However, once grandfathered into a middle school, the student would be required to continue to the high school that that middle school feeds. The school system would not provide transportation for those students who elect to take advantage of the grandfather clause.

But Fletcher and Superintendent Edgar B. Hatrick III said Oliver's proposal would result in crowding not only at Potomac Falls, but at Seneca Ridge. And, although Countryside parents said they are willing to live with crowded classrooms in exchange for remaining together, Hatrick and other school board members said the result would be disastrous in terms of students' education.

Seneca Ridge, for example, which has had crowding problems in the past, could be forced to add 10 to 12 trailers to accommodate students under Oliver's proposal, they said.

"The result would be absolutely devastating to education," board Chairman Joseph W. Vogric (Dulles) said at a meeting last week, reminding board members that they have continuously fought for smaller classrooms and schools.

But Oliver said that a "sense of community" has always been important to Loudoun County residents. "I believe in this case, community can take precedent over the numbers," she said.

However, Hatrick, who has experienced crowding as a teacher and an administrator, said parents would soon forget that they had agreed to crowded classrooms.

"Let me tell you, when overcrowding comes, they forget how they got there," Hatrick said. "The fact is, we've made a commitment to this size school. This plan is detrimental to these children's education any way you cut it."

Board member Candyce P. Cassell (Sugarland Run), who supports Oliver's proposal, expressed doubt over Fletcher's enrollment projections. Cassell said she examined enrollment numbers and came up with about 350 fewer students than staff projections. Board Vice Chairman Edward J. Kiley (Mercer), however, said the planning staff has never been 25 to 30 percent off their projections.

Board members decided to delay a decision on new boundaries to reexamine both sides' figures.

In other business, the School Board voted to increase the cost of full-price student breakfasts and lunches by 10 cents for the 1996-97 school year.

The price of elementary school lunches will increase from $1.30 to $1.40. Middle and high school lunches will increase from $1.40 to $1.50. Adult lunch prices will go up a quarter -- from $2 to $2.25. Prices for full-price student breakfasts will increase from 70 cents to 80 cents; adult breakfasts will go from 80 cents to $1.10.

School officials said the increase is necessary because of federal nutrition requirements that require the school system to serve more food to students. Federal reimbursement rates for school meals have not kept pace with higher food costs, school officials said.

The board also named Edgar T. Markley, principal at Centennial High School in Howard County, to replace E. Wayne Griffith, principal of Broad Run High School. Griffith will become principal at Potomac Falls High School when it opens.