Below we present all the coverage we've found concerning the LCPS Wheatland Schools proposal, both for and against. If you know of anything we've missed, please contact us with the details. You be the judge. Get involved. Speak out. Thank you.
School Board Schedules Special Meeting To Terminate Wheatland Contract
"The Loudoun County School Board will hold a special meeting Monday when it is expected to vote to terminate its contracts to purchase land in Wheatland for construction of three schools. County supervisors last night approved, by an 8-1 vote, a resolution indicating they would neither allocate funds for the purchase of the land or issue land use permits needed for construction. The School Board has until 5 p.m. Monday to terminate the contracts to purchase the Cangiano and Burgess properties without incurring approximately $200,000 in penalties.School Board member John Stevens (Potomac) said the board plans take formal action to terminate the contacts during the meeting."
http://www.facebook.com/
Supervisors Say Wheatland Wrong Place, Price
"Despite a recent price drop, county officials deemed the Wheatland properties south of Lovettsville the wrong price and place for three new Loudoun County Public Schools..... Vice Chairwoman Susan Klimek Buckley said the problems with Wheatland might not be with the site itself but with the method of school site acquisition approval currently used by the county government and schools."
http://www.loudountimes.com/
School Board Holds on to Wheatland, Delays Grade Weighting Decision
"LCPS planning and legislative services director Sam Adamo presented the school board with two potential alternative school sites to the perhaps-doomed Wheatland edu-complex. The sites are less than ideal, however, as they each may require town annexation and county/town amendments, along with special exception permits to site schools there. (Click here to see more info and site maps.) The Schoene/Engle Track sits adjacent to Lovettesville, on the east side of the town. The McDonough Assemblage is 108 acres southwest of Lovettesville in an agricultural district."
Our Loudoun Schools:
Wheatland Extension
"My colleagues believe that sometime in the next five days the Supervisors can be convinced that this is the right place at the right price. I was one of three who voted no, not on the merits of the proposal but simply in recognition that there is slim chance that the Board of Supervisors will approve the funding needed to complete the purchase. I don't wish to spend additional public money on a dead project."
http://blog.loudounschools.org/2009/05/wheatland-extension.html
Wheatland Survives to Fight Another Day
"Shortly after midnight—after a staff preliminary presentation on two possible new Lovettsville area school sites followed by a closed session—the Loudoun County School Board voted 6-3 to keep the Wheatlands contract alive while amendments to the contracts are executed, new information is disseminated to the public and two new alternative sites in and around Lovettsville are examined."
http://www.loudouni.com/
Leesburg Today Editorial:
Incentives for Failure?
"Regardless of the outcome of this project, the back-and-forth post-contract debates about the flaws in the School Board's school site selections, in eastern or western Loudoun, are not getting the classroom seats in place, are not serving the community at large and are not a good use of time or county resources. The anger and frustration expressed by opponents of the embattled Wheatland purchase and of the abandoned proposed school sites in other areas of the county should [be] shared by school and county leaders. Those emotions should serve as ample motivation to find a solution by working better together."
http://leesburgtoday.com/
Purcellville Gazette:
Editorial and Letter to the Editor
"Hot Potato!"
"[An] Open Letter to School Board's Mr. Marshall"
/library/purcelleville-gazette-excerpts-2009-05-08.pdf
Price Drop Too Little to Save Embattled Wheatland School Deal?
"Salvatore Cangiano, owner of the largest portion of the Wheatland property Loudoun County Public Schools has under contract to purchase as the site for three future western Loudoun schools, has lowered his asking price, but questions remain about whether the concessions will be enough to overcome objections to the project.... Supervisor Sally Kurtz (D-Catoctin), who lives east of Lovettsville, noted that residents had more concerns during the public input session on the school last month than the price."
http://www.leesburg2day.com/
Do We Want Community-Based Schools or a School-Based Community?
"The population of the proposed complex is more than twice the current population of Lovettsville, Waterford, and Hillsboro combined. This would make Wheatland Farms the largest town north of Rt. 9, inviting low-density sprawl.... LCPS should be building schools, not towns. The Western Schools taskforce affirmed the rural Loudoun school study to 'maintain small, community-based schools.'"
http://www.leesburgtoday.com/
Letter to the Editor:
Critics of School Site Guilty of Exaggeration
"Our Comprehensive Plan states that schools in the rural area should be located near towns and villages 'whenever possible.' In the constant climate of protest in Loudoun, where will that be possible? To date, nowhere."
Tysons Corner Farm Isn't a Good Model for Loudoun
"[T]he detail that caught my eye is her [School Board Member Priscilla Godfrey's] mention of our farm on Route 7 — the last commercial vegetable farm in Fairfax County. I am astounded that she would use our farm as a model to emulate. We would not wish our situation on anyone who is currently farming in a rural area. Farming in the high-traffic suburbs is not in the Comprehensive Plan. At the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors meeting last week, I used our farm near Tysons Corner as an example of what we don't want to see in Loudoun. We want the board to look hard at the Comprehensive Plan and pay attention to the ideals it supports. Build schools near communities and maintain open space for agriculture."
Wheatland Site Faces Mounting Opposition
"'It's the scale of the project that is frightening,' said Wheatland Alliance spokeswoman Ellen Polishuk, co-owner of Potomac Vegetable Farms next door to the proposed site. 'We depend on water to run our business. My gut reaction is that there is not enough water.' ... '[School officials] have this breathless desperation that we have to buy this land right now to get in front of these children, and it's just not the case,' she said. 'We love the fact that they are thinking ahead, but they need to think ahead using excellent [student projection] numbers, and we don't think they are.'"
http://www.loudountimes.com/
Our Loudoun Schools:
Bergel on
Wheatland
This link is to the first in a series of posts on the blog of School Board Member John Stevens, discussing "informational emails" from School Board Member Jennifer Bergel to some of her constituents.
http://blog.loudounschools.org/
Priscilla Godfrey:
Schools Site Critics Don't Consider Children's Needs
"I am writing to provide compelling details about the decision to purchase property ... south of Lovettsville for the construction of three schools.... "
Leesburg Today Editorial:
It's in the Plan
"In working together to identify and acquire needed school sites the Board of Supervisors and School Board should reaffirm the policy that community facilities should be located in and around the existing towns and in areas where infrastructure is in place. They should recognize the value of locating schools in established communities, where other support services are readily available. Finally, they also should establish new parameters for the price they are willing to ask taxpayers to pay."
http://www.leesburg2day.com/
How We Got to Wheatland
"[Under the new process...] the materials ... brought to ... [the Board of Supervisors] in the briefing would be a complete overview of the current assessed value, the sellers' asking price, the actual budget that was established to purchase the property.... [I]f something deviates significantly, then yes, it has to come back and be vetted and make sure we are all on the same page."
http://loudountimes.com/
Opposition Again Raised to Western Schools
"Echoing his concerns regarding the proposed school site purchase in southern Loudoun at Lenah Run, Supervisor Jim Burton (I-Blue Ridge) is quoted as saying that the price 'cannot be justified in the current market.'"
http://www.loudouni.com/
Wheatland Schools Plan Draws Protest; Speakers Press for More Studies, Better Contract Terms, Lower Price
"Sounding a common theme throughout the meeting, speakers claimed the project — the first in Loudoun proposed to locate all three instructional levels in one spot — of being in the wrong place, rushed, overpriced, too large and badly handled by the school system with too little due diligence or public input.... Citing the General Plan's 'core concept' of preserving the area's rural character, [Wheatland area farmer Ellen] Polishuk ... urged supervisors not to undercut the county's land stewardship goals 'because you're tired of looking for school sites.'"
http://www.leesburg2day.com/
The Official NIMBYs
"One alternative site that was the subject of much controversy was the Miller site just on the outskirts of Lovettsville.... That plan shows the location of the Miller parcels in blue, with the properties of Catoctin Supervisor Sally Kurtz in green and LCPS Chief Planner Sam Adamo in orange. Did everyone know they're next door neighbors? I didn't until very recently."
http://tooconservative.com/?p=3879
An Ugly Night in Lovettsville
"Local residents raised a number of concerns with the school system's plans for the site, including the impact the complex would have on local ground water supplies and the character of the rural area, as well as the price the school system would be paying for the property.... Tensions came to a head when resident Jeff Wolinski questioned the appropriateness of LCPS legal representative Bill Chapman drafting the contract, given that he previously represented Cangiano, the owner of the largest portion of the property."
http://leesburgtoday.com/
Wheatland Gothic
"...the County appears to be COMMITTED to buy the Wheatland Farm property BEFORE a Special Exception or Commission permit (and associated public) process has even been scheduled. Has the School Board ever entered a contract like this where school bonds are used to buy land that hasn't been approved for schools?"
http://tooconservative.com/?p=3787
EduPlex... Too Expensive, Too Big, and Too Remote
"In the current real estate market and with the current budget crisis where land is going for $20K-30K/acre, it is absolutely absurd for them to pay an average of $67K/acre for this land."
http://www.wheatlandalliance.org/
It's the Wrong Place and the Wrong Cost
"Loudoun County's Revised General Plan says that new public schools will be located in, or immediately adjacent to, existing villages, towns and joint land management areas. Wheatland is not a town. There are no services nearby, nor is there public water or sewer service."
Letter to Leesburg Today
"Children and families throughout the county continue to be victimized by a disastrous planning approach that disregards community, continuity, and institutional size when considering a location or design for new schools that results in countless boundary changes."
http://www.leesburg2day.com/
Wheatland Death Rattle
"Some members of the public and School Board are still trying to resuscitate the Wheatland property for school use. There are suggestions fluttering around to nix the high school use and having only elementary and middle or to buy it for an agricultural center/park and then use it for schools if Lovettsville properties fall through."
http://
Supervisors Kill Wheatland School Plan
"On the heels of a Tuesday vote by a majority of the School Board to extend the contract to purchase a site for three schools south of Lovettsville, an almost unanimous Board of Supervisors Wednesday adopted a resolution stating its opposition to the plans, effectively ending the debate that has raged over the past month about the proposal. Supervisors were clear they would not approve the budget adjustment needed to purchase the land or grant the land use approvals needed to begin construction."
http://leesburgtoday.com/
Loudoun Independent Editorial:
Delayed Harvest for Wheatlands Schools
"The School Board contract for Wheatlands appears to be 'dead on arrival,' due to opposition from local residents and several members of the Board of Supervisors.... This is at least partially the School Board's own fault.... This appears to be Loudoun's recurring conflict for our time."
http://www.loudouni.com/
School Board Continues Pursuit of Wheatland Schools Complex; Two Alternatives to Get Study
"The Loudoun County School Board voted 6-3 Tuesday night after a lengthy closed meeting to extend the contract for the purchase of the Wheatland property south of Lovettsville... The two alternative sites now being considered by the school system are known as the Shoene/Engle property and the McDonough assemblage..."
http://www.leesburg2day.com/
School Sites — Who, What, Where and When?
"Despite a considerable drop in the cost per acre of the 160-acre Cangiano tract for three western school sites near Lovettsville, supervisor support for the Wheatland contract has evidently eroded."
http://www.loudouni.com/
Wheatland Deal Decision Time
"The School Board will vote on whether or not to proceed.... By all accounts it will be a very close vote one way or the other."
http://tooconservative.com/?p=3995
Board Might Vote Soon on 3-School Campus
"Loudoun County supervisors could vote as early as this week on whether to kill a proposed deal for a three-school campus near Lovettsville, as pressure ramps up from a group of western Loudoun residents who say the schools would ruin the area's rural economy."
http://loudounextra
Loudoun Times Mirror Interview with Ellen Polishuk
(segment runs 1:03 - 2:32 in this video)
What Do You Save?
"It's a form of chicken-and-egg problem. If the population of this rural area is too large for the local school system (and it is), the construction of newer, larger schools will attract more people to the area, causing greater pressure on roads and infrastructure. Like the rest of the country, we're in a terrible real estate crisis at the moment, so there's not much chance of that happening this year or next; but it will reverse itself at some point, and we'll be right back into the rapidly-disappearing-rural-paradise mess we were in in 2005."
http://byneddiejingo.blogspot.com/
Wheatland Price Lowered, Contract Extended
In the wake of the public outcry against bringing a three-school complex to the Wheatland properties south of Lovettsville, the school system's negotiations over the land have been modified.
http://www.loudountimes.com/news/2009/may/20/wheatland-price-lowered-contract-extended/
Loudoun School Board Doing Its Best Tulloch Board Impersonation
"This School Board needs to get it's priorities in order and focus on the very pressing needs of today’s students."
http://tooconservative.com/
You Wanted My Thoughts on Wheatland
"Cost: It was too high and still is too high. Whoever negotiated this deal should never be allowed to negotiate a land deal again."
http://theoperativeword.com/
Cangiano Shows Just How Inept the School Board Is
"Loudoun County has spent millions of dollars fostering agriculture and rural economic development and this site puts a stake in the heart of those efforts."http://tooconservative.com/?p=3964
Push Continues for Wheatland School Site Alternatives
"The Loudoun Rural Economic Development Council also has weighed in on the subject, writing May 6 to the Board of Supervisors to oppose the proposed use of the Wheatland Farm property for schools use. While the schools may well be necessary, the REDC said in keeping with the county's General Plan, they should be placed adjacent to, or within, towns where supporting road and utility infrastructure already exists, not at Wheatland, which does not meet those criteria..."
http://leesburgtoday.com/
Wheatland Update
"The Wheatland Alliance did a great point by point rebuttal of the ... LCPS 'fact sheet'..."
http://tooconservative.com/?p=3945
Purcellville Gazette:
Lead Article, Editorial, Two Letters to the Editor, and Guest Op-Ed
"Loudoun's Largest Land Developer: The School Board"
"Here We Go Again!"
"There is Still Time to Stop It"
"Former Slow-Growther, Now Developer?"
"Wheatland — The Wrong Place for Three Schools"
http://www.thepurcellvillegazette.com/
Rally Held to Protest 3 Schools
"'Our movement is not a simple showing of NIMBYs,' said Ellen Polishuk, a co-owner of the 180-acre Potomac Vegetable Farms, which is next to the proposed schools site. 'We are fighting to make sure we can continue to provide food to our community with the use of clean air and abundant clean water.' Polishuk, who represents one of the eight farms that make up the Wheatland Alliance, warned county officials that if they did not 'use every power within your reach to kill this deal, you will be pilloried.'"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Controversy Brews over Wheatland Schools Site
"About 50 residents protested in front of the county government building in Leesburg May 4.... The protest followed an emotional April 29 meeting in Lovettsville that turned controversial, with several participants raising their voices in frustration at school officials."
http://www.loudountimes.com/
Wheatland Protesters Expected to be Out in Force Tonight
"Hundreds of western Loudoun residents, many of them members of the Wheatland Alliance group, are expected to gather at 6 p.m. tonight in front of the County Government Building and in the lobby to stage a protest against the Loudoun County School Board's plan to build a high-, middle and elementary-schools complex on 171 acres at the junction of Rt. 287 and John Wolford Road in the fertile Loudoun Valley agricultural region."
http://www.leesburg2day.com/
Loudoun Farmers: Don't Build a 3-School Complex Here
"Loudoun County may soon be closing a deal that would put a three school complex in the western part of the county, but a coalition of parents and farmers in the area are highly against the proposal."
http://www.news8.net/
(this article includes a link to the newscast video)
A Letter to the Editor of Leesburg Today
"As a resident of Lovettsville I would like to offer my support to the School Board's efforts in using the contracted Congiano [sic] site as a future complex for schools north of Rt. 9. I have been attending meetings on this topic since the Miller property and park site in Lovettsville were initially considered for the HS-10 site."
http://leesburgtoday.com/
A Shameful Travesty of a Deal and a Meeting
"Wow. I am almost rendered speechless (in a digital sense) after attending my first public meeting in some time.... The elected officials there looked mighty shell shocked to me, as they should have. Only Jim Burton looked confident, and that's probably because he has been against this deal from the start, and publicly said so."
http://tooconservative.com/?p=3846
School Planners Ignore Downside of Well Drilling
"Calvin Eugene Singhas's 55 years of well drilling experience ... should serve as a cautionary tale to our county planners and leaders. Unfortunately, Loudoun's school planning staff and School Board simply aren't paying attention."
Even a Grandmother Thinks It's Wrong
"The project would destroy historic buildings including an 1820 residence in excellent condition and a large stone and timber bank barn. Loudoun's residents and elected representatives should question the whole notion of such a large multi-school complex."
http://leesburgtoday.com/
Build
3 Schools in the Heart of Loudoun's "Agricultural
Jewel?"
— A Farmer's
Perspective
"As one looks at the aerial view of the proposed Cangiano tri-school complex, notice the interesting shapes and textures of the land to the south and west of the site.... These are the best farming soils that our county has to offer... Schools are meant to be near the students they serve, not on the easiest site found, as far away from public utilities as possible."
http://leesburgtoday.com/
Don't Rush the Decision to Buy Land for 3 Schools
"These schools will not have a distinct community with which to identify. Furthermore, this decision poses a threat to the area's rural character because of the sheer size of the facilities: three schools with a total of more than 4,000 students (not including staff members), in one of the most sparsely populated sections of the county."
Wheatland School Site Selected
"Bob Ohneiser (Broad Run) was the lone dissenting vote. He questioned the value of the land, as well as the priority for new schools.... He also said that the purchase does not take into account the current economic environment, and that he believed declining property values could ... lower the price of the land in the future."
http://www.leesburg2day.com/