Leap Meeting – May 8, 2013
“Annual LEAP Town Hall Meeting”
Delegates Choice – Questions and Answers
President Gary Walters called the meeting to order at 7:05 pm. Board members Kathy Baker,
Michele Wilson, Adrienn Salazar, and Pamela Hunter were present.
Two board positions are open for 2013-2014 LEAP Board: President and Treasurer. Cliff Miller
volunteered to be the President and Jill Wright volunteered to be the Treasurer.
Board Candidates for 2013-2014 LEAP Board:





President – Cliff Miller
Vice President of Communications – Kathy Baker
Vice President of Programs – Adrienn Salazar
Secretary – Pamela Hunter
Treasurer – Jill Wright
A vote was taken and the candidates were elected by the delegates for the 2013-2014 LEAP
Board.
Officer Reports:
VP Communications, Kathy Baker, reported that she plans to get out a survey in June to the
delegates to get feedback on the programs for the coming year. She plans to reach out more
directly to the PTSO and PTA groups in an attempt to spread the world about LEAP and its
programs.
VP Programs, Adrienn Salazar asked delegates to please think about what topics you would
like to have discussed at future meetings.
Secretary, Pamela Hunter, reminded guests and delegates that all meeting minutes and
presentations are posted on the LEAP website.
Treasurer, Michele Wilson, reported that 26 schools have paid dues for a current balance of
$807.88.
1
Mr. Walters introduced the evening’s speakers, School Board Members:
 Chairman Eric Hornberger (Ashburn District)
 Tom Reed (At-Large Member)
 Jeff Morse (Dulles District)
 Bill Fox (Leesburg District)
 Brenda Sheridan (Sterling District)
Question and Answer Session:
Q:
A:
What is the update on TJ and AOS?
The discussion to date has been that we support the current students’ continuance in
attending TJ. This includes all current students, as well as the group of incoming
students, who will be grandfathered in. So no additional charges will apply for those
students. The question will be for the future as LCPS is looking at an additional $2,000
plus dollars per year per student. Can we continue to justify that commitment? Currently
there is almost a $2,000 tuition differential to ship kids to TJ, plus there would be an
additional $2,000 per pupil to cover the cost of TJ renovations. It will become
increasingly difficult to justify.
Discussions are beginning on if LCPS will continue the relationship with TJ, if not, then
how will we begin to fill in that gap. There is an October deadline to sign a new 2-year
contract with Fairfax County. There is a great deal of hesitation in severing our
connection with TJ until LCPS can come up with a plan of its own to fill in the gap.
AOS could be expanded to include additional seats but currently there is no money to do
this. There is a 2 year delay in expansion at this time. There are not enough seats at this
time to include all of the gifted and talented students. There is also a question of legality.
Is it legal for Loudoun County to give Fairfax County money for Capital Improvements,
such as the renovation of TJ?
Q:
A:
Have you thought about partnering with other counties to be able to expand the sciences
for the all the kids?
Surrounding counties are talking about expanding their current programs that are similar
to our AOS. There are a lot of good science programs at Monroe and AP science
classes that are offered throughout the county.
We certainly have enough students that could fill a high school for sciences but there is
just not enough money or support for expansion.
Q:
Regarding expansion of the arts: there is an interest in a solution for those children who
are not science type kids, those that are “artsy”. What do you need for a program for
them to work? What would be the timeframe before you could submit a new program in
the budget?
2
A:
You would have to define the type of program and where you would place the funding.
There is a competition for funding. It would be about 7 or 8 years from the time you start
the process to the time you open the doors.
Could ask staff to look into the possibility of establishing an enhanced program with
space that maybe available at various schools.
Q:
A:
Q:
A:
Isn’t there a better way to handle the boundary process? Currently it is like putting
neighbor against neighbor and room mom against room mom. It is like community
against community. The process seems so divisive.
The only way to not pit community against community would be to take the community
out of the process. That would be not a good idea. It would be a solution that is worse
than the problem. No matter what happens, someone is going to be happy and someone
is going to be unhappy. How do you define community? A lot of people define their
community as their own HOA.
What are your thoughts on charter schools in Loudoun?
Some board members would need to know how supporting a charter would make the
budget situation better, since money for students would follow them if they go to a
charter school.
Some board members fully support charter schools. Charter schools can be a “model for
keeping smaller schools alive.” Loudoun County has a wonderful curriculum in place to
build upon for possibly establishing a charter school. This would make a road to a
charter school much easier.
Q:
A:
Is boundary realignment putting back in any of the locations that were removed one
possibility? (with respect to the under enrolled schools such as Middleburg)
No. If you look at the CIP, which is the planning document for capacity at schools, in
Western Loudoun, there is a surplus of seats for years in the CIP at the elementary level.
We can rezone and change the pattern of where the distributions of those seats are but the
seats will remain. With Policy 8-20, we are giving all students a choice to go where you
want; this hasn’t drawn those children into the under enrolled schools in the past. No
one is opting to send their child to Middleburg, Aldie, or Lincoln, so re-drawing the
boundaries won’t help.
Q:
I would like to understand the board’s oversight as to the academic achievement (at risk,
etc.) It seems that SOL scores are getting worse. On the surface, English and writing are
doing well, but math seems to be getting worse for at risk groups. What action will you
take to hold administration accountable for goals? There seems to be a lack of
emergency in handling this.
A:
SOL math was redesigned by VDOE last year. You can point at the changes in the SOLs
and how well we trained out teachers to administer the SOLs.
Q:
Boundary question – are you going to grandfather 8th grade students to stay at Farmwell
Station when Trailside opens?
3
A:
Policy 8-22 (grandfathering) is exclusive to the high school students. Currently, it is not
at the middle school level. If you keep them, say at Farmwell, you will ultimately delay
them getting to know who they will be going to high school with.
Q:
How well are you working with the county to get the roads expanded, such as Belmont
Ridge Road?
The expansion of the roads is largely a state issue, not a school system’s ability to work
or fund, though we are spending school money on transportation issues. Roads are
supposed to be a state issue. We are not getting the money from the state that we are
supposed to be getting to help maintain and expand our roads.
A:
Q:
A:
What goes on before Dr. Hatrick’s staff prepares the budget? Does the school board
direct Dr. Hatrick’s staff? Do schools come into play with the Board of Supervisor’s
election process?
The missing link is that we are responsible for the public schools and they (BOS) are
responsible for the tax rate. We have no control over the tax rate and no control over
how it is spent, so without that direct link, there is a disconnect happening. You have
one board who is responsible for providing the best education you can for the county and
another board telling how much you can spend on that.
LCPS Superintendent Dr. Edgar B. Hatrick III thanked the school board members for
coming and for the delegates and parents for attending.
“The school board worked hard to provide the Board of Supervisors with a very well prepared
and justified budget this year. There was a lot of conversation around what Fairfax does that
we’d like to do. Keep in mind that if we had the same budget per pupil as Fairfax County does,
we’d have $140M more dollars in our budget to spend on our schools than what we get. That is
how you get programs like TJ and more sophisticated art and language programs and all those
other things.”
“The budget next year will go up 2.5%. Enrollment will go up 3.8%. This means that we are not
holding our own. It is just that simple. When Fairfax, Prince William, and Montgomery
Counties were growing like we are growing, the tax rate was not a $1.25 or $1.19, it was a 1.75.
We are doing as good a job economically as this elected board can do, but we can’t keep doing
it. Things are going to start dropping off. Reality is, there is a commitment made to road
construction. In the next six years, almost as much money will be spent on road construction as
on our schools, about $600M building new schools and about $580M on capital debt for
transportation. Why, because the state won’t fund it and if we don’t do it, we will have gridlock.
Worse than we have got right now. We have got to start holding state officials responsible for
what they are supposed to be doing.”
We need the support of the community, the parents, of LEAP, and the business community.
Thank you for your leadership for LEAP and thank you for being so faithful.
The meeting adjourned at 9:10 pm.
Respectfully submitted by Pamela Hunter, LEAP Secretary
4