Liz Bradsher looks out the window on weekday mornings and sees the crowded bus stop at 6:15 a.m., a by-product of the south-county high-school delay. Her community is off Silverbrook Road in southern Springfield, and the middle-and high-school-age children in that community are bused to Hayfield Secondary school, about 8 miles away. She has a 12-year-old that will be joining them at the bus stop next year.
"My daughter will have to walk out the door at 6:05. The sun's not even out, it's dark. Next September, I'll be there," she said, pointing to the corner outside her front door.
Kathy Kalland is in the same position with one of her children who is in sixth grade at Silverbrook Elementary School. She sees a small traffic jam in front of her house at the bus stop.
"I'd say a third of the parents drive their kids and park," she said.
As the budgetary problems mount up in Richmond, the south-county high school slips further and further away. Now 2008 is the expected completion date, which means children in the sixth grade now will be going to this school as seniors, and this years' second-graders will be the school's first freshman class. Parents of the students now getting on buses at 6:15 a.m. to go across several high-school regions to go to Hayfield are the most vocal about the issue, but their children will be graduated by then. Still, the struggle continues.
<mh>Planning Funds
<bt>The land on the Laurel Hill site has been etched out for the school as part of the Lorton Prison closing. Fairfax County Public Schools public information officer Paul Regnier confirmed the date, although there was a bond referendum on the ballot in November.
"Right now we have $3 million in planning money. We expect to open in 2008," he said.
Karen Carlton of Fairfax Station has children 10 and 6 years old and an 8-month-old. She knows people whose children get bused.
"Right now we are zoned for Hayfield. I would be one of those people, I live in Fairfax Station. I'm very concerned. The way this area's growing is phenomenal. Right now, we're looking into private high schools, we didn't want to have to," she said.
Bradsher is on the Coalition for the South County High School. She knows the situation and looks at the Oyster School in Washington, D.C., as a possible solution, which is a public-private partnership.
"That proposition has merit. Right now we have building going on all around us," which would increase the need for schools, she indicated. Pulte Homes, JCL, Washington Homes, Northern Virginia Homes and Brookfield Homes are all private companies with developments under way in the southern Springfield, Burke and Fairfax Station areas that would be affected by the new school.
<mh>Already Too Old
<bt>Kalland remembers moving in.
"I was pregnant with him [her sixth-grade son] when we moved in. He's too old to go to this school," she said, referring to the future high school.
George Waters is the chairman of the Coalition for Good Schools. He's familiar with the situation as well.
"There are some alternatives being looked at, a public-private partnership. It would take the south-county school off the CIP completely (Capital Improvements Program). [David] Albo and Jack Rust [delegates] have talked about this in the past few years," he said.
Bradsher and Kalland have been in touch with area politicians and feel they will turn to the ballot box if the school schedule remains the same.
"If it's 2008, the south county will vote out every supervisor," she said, recalling a conversation she had with Albo (R-42nd).
"He said he would like to see it open by 2005," she said.
2005 or possibly sooner is still possible according to Albo, who is enthusiastic about the county seeking alternative funding methods, which is not their business-as-usual routine.
"They're finally looking outside the box, they are moving forward," Albo said. "The county's come 180 degrees since this summer for funding sources."
Supervisor Elaine McConnell (R-Springfield) knows the urgency in her district. She's behind a half-cent sales tax referendum to fund the new school, which is priced at $88 million according to the 2003-07 CIP.
"I'm so disappointed, we need it now, all those long bus rides. That's the only thing that I can see that will move it up," she said.