School Board Election: Ashburn

The most challenging race for some voters might be the five-way Ashburn District School Board campaign. So many candidates on the ballot might make choices difficult for voters.

Candidates include former school board member John Andrews, Ashburn Farm HOA board member Eric Hornberger, attorney Debbie Piland, educator John Ryan and LCPS teacher Chris Souther. They faced off in the Loudoun Chamber of Commerce School Board Forum last week.

Candidates first were asked whether the school system is providing adequate preparation for students, whether they are heading to college or the workforce.

Souther said the school system is doing well, but “we can do better.” Students today and in the future need skills their parents educators never had to have, he said.

“These students are unlike any generation we’ve ever taught before,” Souther said. “They have different skills sets that we never had.”

He pushed for working more closely with local businesses on career mentoring for students, suggesting partners like Volkswagen.

Ryan offered similar sentiments in that the county performs well, but can always improve.

“I think we better open up the doors to any and all education possibilities that exist,” he said. “Not all students learn in the same manner or the same way. Options must be available to them.”

Piland’s comments were not drastically different.

“I do think that we need to have better paths for children. I’m also a big proponent of simulated experiences,” she said, calling for opportunity for students to work with professionals in the fields that interest them. If a student has an interest in architecture, she said, “The logical thing to do would be to give her the opportunity to speak with an architect or even go into the office.”

Hornberger called for a greater variety of business connections.

“I think we need the opportunity for [students] to be exposed to different fields so that they can differentiate for themselves where to go and what to do,
 he said, “so that don’t have to wait until their senior years of college to figure that out.”

He also offered support for educational choice, including charter schools, distance and magnet schools.

“I agree with everything Eric said,” Andrews said. “I think it’s an archaic business model. We have been doing the same education system for hundred of years, first through twelfth grade.”

Andrews called for more exposure to professional careers and more opportunities for dual enrollment in high school and college for a greater range of students. “I also agree with charter schools,” he said, adding that it opens up the range of options for students, who might seek immersion in language or technology.

When asked about school site selection and permitting, Andrews said state law establishes certain responsibilities for the school and county boards.

“The system is set up as checks and balances,” he said, adding that everyone must work together to accomplish the county’s goals. “You can’t ridicule people in public. People use the dais as a platform to attack people when the don’t do what they want them to do.”

He said the county board could make it easier to build schools in certain zoning categories by, for example, eliminating special exception requirements in certain zoning districts. He also said that historically low interest rates and continued anticipated growth in the county make it a good time to consider land purchases for schools planned 10 to 20 years in the future.

“I believe we’ve done that a bit in the Ashburn community,” said Hornberger, who pointed to his work on a panel that sought solutions for Ashburn’s school needs. “I think we can find ways to agree on certain principals.”

Hornberger said the county could do a better job at focusing on the “kids that are here today rather than kids that may be here tomorrow” and questioned whether the growth rate would continue for as long as predicted. He also agreed that the county should ease zoning requirements for new schools.

Piland said she remains concerned about the county’s “explosive population growth” and questioned whether residents are given enough consideration when choosing school sites.

“We have had to be reactive to the explosive population growth,” she said, adding that for the most recent school site acquisition process for HS-8 in Ashburn “I felt, as a citizen, that we didn’t have enough input into the process. It’s a very tough site to engineer.”

Piland estimated the school could cost $100 million to build. In the end, however, she said it might prove to be a good choice.

 “That being said it may be a very good outcome for the community because it provides us with a community school,” she said, adding that options remain to seek school contributions from developers seeking higher uses of their properties. “I think there’s a lot of opportunity in these mixed-used developments to put some schools in.”

Ryan said the two boards must learn to work together, rather that constantly fight about the best solutions for schools.

“Both sides have to get over the turf issues that exist,” he said. “There’s a lack of public confidence. Compromise is the way to go on these things, because that’s how they usually end up.”

Souther said the two boards should meet twice a year to work out their differences and not let too many outside influences cloud the negotiation.

“And to not do it through the media, not do it through the public,” he said. “Just to do it as civilized adults.”

The individual board members can assess the feelings of their own constituents and bring that information to the table.

“I think this get’s back to transparency,” he said.

Souther also supports turning land acquisition over to the county.

“I believe the land site selection process is not part of Loudoun County Public Schools; it should not be,” he said.

When asked how the school system would keep up with growth, Souther sounded a bit pessimistic.

“We won’t be able to solve it. It is overwhelming. Too much water is under the bridge,” he said, but added that charter and other school choices for students would be a good start. “I’m definitely in favor of alternative school choices.”

He explained that his daughter recently took college credit courses at Northern Virginia Community College to get a jumpstart on her higher education.

“I had to find out that opportunity,” he said. “That was not something that was told to her in her own high school. We have to be more proactive in showing these alternative choices to our students.”

He also suggested that the school system consider taking advantage of some of the county’s empty commercial buildings to accommodate school needs.

“We don’t have to educate our kids in a traditional schoolhouse,” he said.

Ryan chimed in with similar thoughts.

“I agree with just about everything Chris has said. We do need new alternatives in terms of how we’re going to approach this,” he said. “You can increase class size; most people don’t like that. You can move on to distance learning; some people have a problem with that. We better really accelerate our long-range planning to get out of this mess.”

Piland also agreed that more alternatives should be available and suggested the school system continue down its path of “global learning,” pointing to exchange programs with other countries.

The students “can experience a different culture, they can learn another language,” she said. Another alternative schools may need to consider, she said, is using split shifts in which school schedules are staggered throughout the year, rather than all students attending school at the same time. “I think we need to use nontraditional models.”

Hornberger said he was not convinced the level of growth in Loudoun would continue in perpetuity, estimating it would curtail in five to ten years.

“I’m going to challenge the assumption,” he said. “This year we expected a 3,000-student growth, and we were short of that. I believe this is a short-term problem.”

Among his concerns in terms of current policy is that the school system operates at an estimated 85 percent underutilization rate.

“I think we can’t afford that anymore,” he said, suggesting that future schools have more options for expansion, so that building a new school is not the only option on the table. “We must be more flexible with the schools we’re putting in place.”

Andrews pushed back on the notion that enrollment would not continue to grow at rapid rates for many, many years.

“With all due respect, I do believe that Loudoun is going to continue to grow,” he said. “Right now we’re in a recession and we’re growing slowly now at 2,500 students per year.”

He then point to his work establishing the county’s Academy of Science at Dominion High School, “something people said couldn’t be done at the time and it was.” He also said more alternatives should be available for students.

Most candidates agreed that a top school system is essential for drawing new businesses to the county.

“When business come here to Loudoun or when we’re trying to recruit people to Loudoun County, one of the first people they want to meet is Dr. Hatrick to talk about education in Loudoun County,” Andrews said. “If we did not have an excellent school system, we would not be attracting the large corporations that we have.”

Hornberger said one of the keys would be to draw new businesses without overburdening the county with too many new homes at the same time.

“Yes, we do have an excellent education system,” he said. “Our problem is we have such a good education system that a lot people move here, so we have more kids to educate.”

In a few years, he said, the county may be able to absorb better the new students as the growth rate become a smaller percentage of the total school population, but in the meantime, he said drawing new business to the county would be critical.

“We need to figure out how to get the balance right in terms of how to bring more business, not just more residential units, in,” he said. “We need to attract businesses here by offering a quality education system that Loudoun can afford.”

Piland said the relationship with the business community relies not only on educating the children of workers coming to the county, but also providing a quality workforce.

She said the county must figure out “how to make the curriculum relevant to the business community,” calling for more teachers and educators to become involved with the Loudoun Chamber.

Ryan said, “There’s not a question in my mind the two are inexorably linked. If you have good schools, you will attract good companies to come; well known fact.”

However, he wondered why Loudoun was not luring more businesses.

“Why aren’t we getting the types of businesses we should be getting?” he asked, adding that Fortune 500 companies require Class A office space that the county currently lacks and that school board members cannot provide. “A lot of these issues are going to be tied up with the county.”

Souther pointed out that the business community already works closely with county schools and that more attention should be given to those partnerships.

“We need to recognize more of the successes we have already,” he said, pointing to a program where students from Northern Virginia Community College recently mentored his LCPS students.

“We need to publicize more of those relationships,” he said, suggesting a closer relationship with county supervisors would help. “We need to strengthen our relationship so they know what we can do for them and so they understand what they need to do for the schools. We need to strengthen the relationship with corporations that are currently here today that will spread the word for us.”