A joint School Board/Board of Supervisors subcommittee agreed last week that the next new school should be built in Ashburn, a subtle change from the term "Ashburn/Dulles" in current school construction planning documents.
The change, formally proposed by School Board Chairman Bob DuPree, recognizes that existing schools in Ashburn are among the most crowded, and that the recent Greenvest foreclosure will delay home construction in the Dulles area for a number of years.
The change is expected to be approved by the full School Board and by county supervisors.
But school construction challenges remain both severe and complex.

ADMINISTRATORS AND elected officials are looking at recently adjusted school attendance figures that show Seldens Landing in Lansdowne the most crowded elementary school with 989 students, Belmont Ridge in Lansdowne just one student behind the largest middle school (Blue Ridge in Purcellville), and Stone Bridge in Ashburn the most crowded high school in Loudoun.
All three are in Supervisor Lori Water's Broad Run electoral district and she led the effort to focus early school construction in the Ashburn area on the north side of the Greenway.
Waters has also proposed that the 100 acres of county property along the south side of Farmwell Road (across from Ice Rink Plaza), property earlier designated as the "population center" of the county, be designated for a "magnet school" that would draw students from throughout the county and in the process relieve crowding in many schools.
Waters' staff research, she told the joint committee, has found that magnet schools "are not only popular with parents and students," but "are generally no more expensive than regular classes or schools to run, and principals and teachers often find greater motivation in teaching specialized curricula."
She stressed that use of the existing property for a magnet school, property already designated for an "academy," would save taxpayers money because the county already owns it. The tract is large enough, she said, to build both a magnet middle school and a magnet high school.

MEANWHILE, Dulles Supervisor Stevens Miller, who chairs the joint committee, has also recommended that the next high school and middle school be slated for construction in Ashburn north of the Greenway.
But Miller suggested that the Farmwell site where Waters wants to build magnet schools, instead be "used as an asset for a land swap or sold to offset costs associated with purchasing school sites."
He noted that "Farmwell has tremendous economic value for the commercial tax revenue that it can generate for the county," and that the Waxpool/Farmwell roads are commuter arteries "already snarled in traffic during rush hour."
The efforts of the school/supervisors joint subcommittee last week appeared focused on easing overcrowding in Ashburn schools, and in turn trying to create school boundaries that can survive for several years without forcing changes in attendance boundaries that wrench students from one school to another, often separating long-established friendships for student and sometimes lengthening commutes for students, parents and school buses.