Lenah Site for Dulles South High School and Middle Schools - HS7 and MS5

Quite a bit of grass roots activism is generating quickly around approval of a site near Lenah Run selected for two desparately-needed schools in the Dulles South area. It appears that, although the Loudoun School Board spent 3 years evaluating site options and settling on this one, a minority of very vocal opinion in the area is seemingly on the path to convincing the Loudoun Board of Supervisors, led by Stevens Miller (Dulles District Supervisor), that procurement authority should shift from the School Board (as provided by Virginia legislation) to the BOS. These actions and an apparent initiative by Stevens Miller to "put a freeze on the Lenah site to investigate a new procedure for site procurement" (as relayed by local email communications) appear to (A) grossly underserve the needs of area children, and (B) appear not to reflect the mind of the majority of Dulles District constituents.

The Dulles area continues its rapid growth, and evidently, by 2010/2011, the existing schools will be overcrowded (even beyond current crowding) to the point that class sizes will be untenable, children may need to be bussed to other schools, and quality of education will markedly suffer. That is why the current Lenah area selection for HS7 and MS5, consolidated on a single property, is a timely, appropriate and absolutely essential procurement.

We've written a lot in this and other forums about the rapidly decreasing quality of public schools in our County, due mainly to symptoms related to rapid growth and overcrowding - let's take a stand to stem this decline, and provide our children with the educational quality, safety from gang influence and community stability they're entitled to.

The Board of Supervisors and this area's representative need to be reminded of their previous acknowledgements of this dire overcrowding and the need for additional schools in Dulles South, and reminded that their constituents' majority opinion require prioritized attention. Minority opinion is important, but doesn't yield votes. Remind them at the next BOS meetings -

Public input dates at the Board of Supervisors:

Monday, July 7 6:30
Monday, July 14 6:30

(If you've got different, better or revised information than that we've relayed here, please let us know, so we can be as accurate and timely as possible.)