When the school administration offices vacate the building on North Street in Leesburg for the new facility in Broadlands later this year, the county will retain use of the space for 20 years for the low lease cost of $1 a year.
It was a decision that created a three-way divide among School Board members Tuesday night, who eventually voted 5-4 to approve the lease. Three members wanted to declare the 9-acre property surplus and give it to the county outright. Bob Ohneiser (Broad Run), meanwhile, thought making the decision was "premature" at this time.
School Board member Sarah Smith (Leesburg) strongly supported giving the North Street building to the county outright. In a lease situation, the School Board could take back the site after 20 years if it was determined that school facilities were needed there.
"I see no reason to dangle this out there," Smith said. "They will know better what to do with the building if they have it now."
Superintendent Edgar Hatrick estimated that $6 million to $7 million worth of renovations would have to be done before the building could be used for another purpose — specifically, as a senior center, Area Agency on Aging offices, a library administration office and book repository. Temporarily, the site would also be used as a backup emergency communication center and emergency operations center.
The request to use the site for community purposes was made by Supervisor Jim Clem (R-Leesburg), who could not attend Tuesday's meeting due to health concerns. In a letter to the School Board, Clem also noted that expansion of the Rust Library would be put on hold until it was determined if the North Street facility could be used for library purposes.
PROPONENTS of the lease proposal pointed out that it was impossible to predict if the county would need an additional school site in Leesburg in 20 years, since the county doesn't plan more than five years out for student population. While Smith believed that the 9-acre site could never be used for school purposes — elementary schools are a minimum of 20 acres, Chairman John Andrews (Potomac) believed otherwise.
"There are properties in this part of town that have the potential of being something different in the next 20 years," Andrews said. "This is a site in the middle of an urban area that could potentially be a school."
According to Hatrick, the school system has previously recalled land leased to the county to build Forest Grove Elementary, Countryside Elementary and Dominion High.
IN OTHER NEWS, the School Board also:
* Recognized the FIRST LEGO Eagle Ridge Middle School team, the Eaglebots, who won the regional and state competitions.
* Recognized principal Ellen Fein, who is retiring after 20 years serving Sterling Middle. School Board member Warren Geurin (Sterling) spoke on her leadership, which led to the school garnering Adequate Yearly Progress for the first time, among other achievements.
* Requested the Board of Supervisors allocate an additional $2.1 million for the construction of a middle school slated to open in 2007 in Ashburn in order to increase the number of students from 1,184 to 1,350. Supervisors had directed the School Board to increase capacity at new middle and high schools last fall.
* Named Feb. 7-11 National School Counseling Week.