School Board Tells LEAP about Future Plans
The Loudoun County School Board described the work before it during the October 9th, meeting on the
Loudoun Education Alliance of Parents (LEAP). Topics such as budget, boundaries and class size were
discussed in answering questions from LEAP delegates during a meeting at the Loudoun County Public Schools
(LCPS) Administrative Offices in Ashburn.
One issue that was explored was the relationship between the School Board and Board of Supervisors as it
relates to the school budget. “The School Board is not a revenue-generating body,” said Chairman Eric
Hornberger (Ashburn District). “All we have authority over is how to allocate the resources we receive.”
Making sure the schools receive the resources they need was the topic of an impassioned speech by Brenda
Sheridan (Sterling District). “It’s really important for you to get out and be outspoken about the budget and for
the Board of Supervisors to allocate enough money so that we can look at issues like class size. The problem
is…last year during the Ashburn boundary process we received over forty-five hundred e-mails. We’re copied on
e-mails the Board of Supervisors gets and there were about 200 budget e-mails.
“We had over 450 speakers just for the high school boundaries; 32 speakers for the Board of Supervisors for
the Loudoun County school budget. I think that’s deplorable. I’m begging you, right now, to go home and call
10 of your friends and sign up for the Board of Supervisors…
“You can sit here and tell us everything you want; we’ll either agree with you, disagree with you. But what it
comes down to for every last program is money. If we are not funded properly… we will be looking at cuts.
We’ll be looking at increasing class size.”
Jeff Morse (Dulles District) said it’s important for speakers to have a focused message when they appear before
the supervisors. “Tell them why you want the budget supported. Tell them what programs are important to you
that you want to make sure are funded. Tell them the impact of not having that program funded upon you and
your family. The generic statement of ‘give ’em what they want’ is going to get deleted. They’re not going to
pay attention to that.”
Morse added that the School Board has done a great deal of work to make sure the budget reflects the school
system’s actual needs. “If you look at metrics on how Loudoun County is performing; you look at the test
scores, you look at the graduation rate, you look at the percent of employees in the classroom – you look at any
metric, this school system is succeeding.”
Tom Reed (At-Large) noted the Board of Supervisors has stated it wants to maintain Loudoun’s educational
system while seeking to improve other areas such as transportation. “It’s the status quo. When you consider
we’re growing by 2,500, 2,600 students (per year); if you just maintain it at that level, you’re going to have to
impact class sizes at some point.”
“One of our goals is to have class size well below where it currently stands, but without the resources we can’t
even think about doing it,” said Hornberger. Hornberger said the main thing facing the board in the coming
months will be the hiring of a new superintendent for the first time in 23 years. (The School Board has hired the
firm of Hazard, Young & Attea to help with this process.) “Obviously our superintendent search is going to be a
big issue. This is the number one issue for any school board.”
He added the board would not attempt to revise its goals until the new superintendent begins their tenure on
July 1, 2014. “The decision was made for us not to attack addressing goals or the mission, collectively as a
group, until the board had functioned together and work within the system.” (Some technical language
concerning the goals is now being revised.)
Delegates offered the opinion that too much emphasis was being placed on high-stakes testing; something
School Board members did not disagree with. “If it were up to me, which it is not… these SOL’s, science and
social science, would be banished,” said Bill Fox (Leesburg District). “They serve no useful function as they
stand now. They’re certainly not for the kids’ benefit. They reduce what should be exercises in critical thinking
and problem-solving to essentially memorizing facts and figures.”
Morse noted that the academic pressure on students and teachers also comes from colleges that want students
to take more advanced courses at an earlier age. “There’s a lot of pressure now on teachers and on principals
to have their students perform at the expected level… We understand the pressure is there and I think the
teachers do a wonderful job of trying to push back and trying the leave the gateway open for more learning
than just that rigorous, specific, teach-to-a-test kind of mentality.”
School Board members also spoke about the progress their committees are making in relation to goals set at a
board retreat last May. Hornberger said the Health, Safety, Wellness and Transportation Committee is looking
at the expansion of the Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) to all Loudoun schools in an effort
to standardize behavior protocols. The committee also is looking at ways to make expanded walk zones safer
and school meals more nutritious.
A new ad hoc committee, which Hornberger will chair, will look at an expanded model for the Academy of
Science (AOS) and Monroe Technology Center (MTC).
Reed said the 19-member Discipline Task Force has made 38 recommendations for changes to School Board
policies, five of which would mean a change in state law. The other 33 will be considered by the Discipline
Committee to see if they should be incorporated into School Board policy. Reed said he can’t tell how many of
the suggested changes will be adopted.
Sheridan said the Legislative and Policy Committee’s work has centered around Policy §8-20, which allows
expanded school choice and Policy §5-65, which governs charter schools. Much of the work on the charter
school policy has been done to reflect changes in the Code of Virginia. (There is a School Board select
committee working on the development of a charter school application for Middleburg Elementary.)
Fox said the Personnel Services Committee has been revising the evaluation system for teachers and principals
to conform to the Code of Virginia “There are elements of it that improve the process. There are other elements
that we are doing more begrudgingly because they are required by state law.”
Broad Run School Board member Kevin Kuesters also attended the October 9th LEAP meeting.
The next LEAP meeting will be on November 13th. The subject will be “Tools for Success,” an exploration of the
online tools available through LCPS that parents can use to check their students’ academic progress.