Ashburn’s Next Middle School (MS-6) Takes Step Forward

Land use applications needed to allow Ashburn’s next middle school (MS-6) to be constructed next to the won unanimous approval from the Loudoun Board of Supervisors Dec. 6, putting the community one step closer to finding space for its growing student population.

The school site is bound by Clairborne and Gloucester parkways, the and Newton-Lee.

Two possible configurations for the school were authorized: a preferred design and an alternative that can be used if the Virginia Department of Transportation does not authorize a traffic signal requested a Claiborne Parkway and Meadow Valley Terrace. Even with the approval the local supervisor said she has concerned about the alternative.

“I think there are going to be significant traffic issues if we have to resort to that alternative,” Supervisor Lori Waters (R-Broad Run) said. However, she also said she was confident that the county would be able to use the preferred design.

County Chairman Scott K. York (I-At Large) agreed.

“I’m fairly confident that VDOT will bend over and approve the light for us, so all this side conversation about the alternative and the gates will be a moot discussion,” he said, adding that most of the traffic will be coming from the south.

Without approval of the light, the alternative design would allow traffic from northbound Claiborne to enter the site directly, but anyone heading north out of the school would have to head south and do a U-turn on Claiborne.

Construction is set to begin in FY 2012 and the school is scheduled to open in the fall of 2014. Voters approved construction of the school as part of this year's bond package.