The Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a $16.5 million bond Tuesday to build a new elementary school in the growing southern Dulles region of the county.
The school, which has yet to be officially named, will be located south of Route 50, near Braddock Road, and is scheduled to open its doors in fall 2005, said Wayde Byard, Loudoun County Public School's public information officer.
The unexpected growth in the region caused the county to push the new elementary school project ahead of schedule, Byard said.
"It's being moved up to accommodate massive student growth that we couldn't have anticipated," he said.
School officials realized they had a problem on their hands when the school year started last fall and 500 more students than expected showed up for class.
"We're not bursting at the seams, but our schools are mildly overcrowded," Byard said.
Next year, the county will open Mercer Middle School and Freedom High School in the region, Byard said. Construction is almost finished on the middle school and the high school project is getting underway now.
The new elementary school, which will hold 892 students, will join two existing elementary schools in the area, both of which were built in the last four years.
Because of the low interest rates and competitive contracts, Loudoun County has constructed the new schools at a lower price than projected, Byard said.
"We're getting good bargains on these schools," he said.
SUPERVISOR Stephe Snow (R-Dulles), who represents the region where the new school will be built, said the board is carefully examining the budget and determining what is actually needed and what is merely desirable. Schools, police and fire and rescue are examples of necessities the board is obligated to fund, he said.
"Given the problems of the budget we're under right now, you have to pay for the needs of the community," Snow said. "Those are needs. The message is that we are very aware of and must take care of the needs of the community."
The land on which the new elementary school will be built was proffered in 1997 to Loudoun County by the developer, Greenvest, LLC, which owns the Kirkpatrick Farms development in the southern Dulles region, said Bev Tate, a planner for Loudoun County Public Schools.
Developers often proffer land to county governments to gain favorable leverage in the rezoning process.
Snow said the Board of Supervisors has stepped up negotiations with developers to encourage them to proffer more land for public projects, such as schools.
"THE PUBLIC needs to know that we are true to our word," he said. "We are strongly encouraging the developers in the community to give us schools, land and roads."
The board voted to pass a larger school than the school board originally sought because larger schools are cheaper in the long run, said Bruce Tulloch (R-Potomac), vice chairman of the Board of Supervisors.
"Whenever you build a larger school, you leave a larger footprint," he said.
The main idea, Tulloch said, is that with larger schools, fewer multi-million dollar schools will need to be built in the future.
By keeping the bottom line in mind while approving new school construction projects, the county is saving budget dollars, said Eugene Delgaudio (R-Sterling).
"We came in on Jan. 6 and we took a 180 degree turn on spending," he said.