HS-3
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HS-3 (better known as the Western Loudoun County High School or the Western Loudoun High School) is a public secondary school tentatively scheduled to open in Purcellville, Virginia in the 2008-2009 school year on the Fields Farm location north of the town. The construction of the new school is in jeopardy because of backlash among Purcellville residents who complain that traffic will not be alleviated with another school being built near Loudoun Valley High School, which is also in northern Purcellville.
Currently, the high school has no name because the building has not been built yet. When the school opens however, HS-3 will be the eleventh high school of Loudoun County Public Schools.
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[edit] History
HS-3 was planned into the Capital Improvement Plan of the Loudoun County School board since 1999. The building is anticipated to be able to hold 1,800 students without difficulty. The school would alleviate overcrowding primarily at Loudoun Valley High School, which now only holds grades 10-12 due to overcrowding, and perhaps some areas in the Loudoun County High School attendance zones as well.
The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors bought several pieces of land in Western Loudoun County for governmental purposes, which includes schools. In May 2006, the Loudoun County School Board voted to have the high school built there, however this caused a large amount of dispute among Purcellville residents.
[edit] Dispute over HS-3's location
Some residents of Purcellville were very dissatisfied with the decision to build HS-3 in the Fields Farm Site for several reasons. Purcellville, as well as most of Western Loudoun County's roads (with the exception of State Route 7) are two lanes (one going each way). Already, traffic at Loudoun Valley High School is very hectic. Parents, students, and commuters complain of traffic jams between 8 to 9 AM when Loudoun Valley, and its feeder secondary schools, Blue Ridge Middle School and Harmony Intermediate School open and again from 3:30 to 4:30 PM when the three schools are closing. All three schools are located within four miles of each other. If HS-3 were built on Fields Farm, this would add a fourth secondary school to the Purcellville area. Though Loudoun Valley High School may be relieved of overcrowding, the traffic will not be.
Sites in Lovettsville and Round Hill were considered, but the school board turned them down because they did not have the sewage and power resources to accommodate a large high school building.
[edit] Differences Between HS-3 and new Eastern Loudoun County High Schools
The land site for HS-3 was not determined until May 2006, only about two years before the building would have been finished. The roads are also not made to accommodate the traffic that large secondary schools create. In the eastern portion of the county, Potomac Falls High School, Freedom High School and Stone Bridge High Schools' land sites were located in planned subdivisions and they opened long after these subdivisions were developed. The roads that these schools are on are also larger and are more capable of accommodating such traffic. This is partly due to the growth in western Loudoun County which was much faster than expected.
[edit] Building HS-3 altogether
Very few people will deny that there is a need to build another high school to relieve crowding at Valley. Once the smallest high school in Loudoun County perennially, Valley is now the largest high school in Loudoun County with 1,955 students in grades 9-12. If HS-3 does not open in 2008, Valley would then have to accommodate 2,521 students. If the school for some reason cannot be opened in the 2009-2010 school year, Valley must accommodate 2,760 students in grades 9-12, which would make it one of the largest high schools in Virginia, but Valley nor Harmony and Blue Ridge can accommodate all of these students without some drastic measures.
[edit] Consequences of not opening HS-3 "on time"
If HS-3 cannot open by 2008-2009, Loudoun County Public Schools superintendent Edgar Hatrick said that Loudoun Valley would face severe consequences, which include the following:
[edit] Class Sizes
At a bare minimum, class sizes at Loudoun Valley, Harmony, and Blue Ridge would have to hold more students than Loudoun County standards allow. Loudoun County high schools try to keep classes down to about 25 students in a class, but Virginia standards allow up to 35 students in a class.
[edit] Extra Curriculars
Though this is not a major inconvenience, students who wish to play varsity sports or perform in drama and theater plays may be denied because of competition to get on these teams.
This to some extent has already happened, because Valley, which traditionally plays in Group AA is now classified as a Group AAA school which is not consistent with LCPS' athletic policies. Valley is also not located nearby a large number of AAA schools which are located in Fairfax and Prince William Counties. Stone Bridge High School of Ashburn also is in AAA, but is located more closely to AAA schools, though they too have travel inconveniences with their new status.
[edit] Extra Lunch Shift
This alleviates crowding in the cafeteria and seems like a good idea on the surface. However, some students in this "extra lunch shift" would have lunch very early (ie: 11:00 AM) or very late (ie: 2:00 PM). This has been done at Loudoun County High School during the 1998-1999 and 1999-2000 school years before Stone Bridge High School opened to alleviate crowding there.
[edit] Moving the Sophomore Class out of Loudoun Valley
Because of overcrowding, Valley may have to move the 10th graders out of its main campus to Harmony Intermediate school, and Blue Ridge would turn into a middle school for 7th and 8th graders. Sixth graders would remain in elementary school. Even with this plan, Blue Ridge and Harmony would be overcrowded. Traffic will still not be alleviated either.
Past high schools have had to move students out, including Broad Run High School in 1996-1997, which shares the same template as Loudoun Valley and held nearly 1,800 students. Freshmen were enrolled at a nearby Ashburn elementary school to handle overcrowding.
[edit] Double/Overlapping Shifts
To alleviate crowding, Loudoun Valley may have to incorporate a double shift schedule. A double shift schedule is a cost effective solution to alleviate overcrowding to allow twice as many students into the same building. For example, half of Valley's students would have school from 8 AM until 3 PM, and the other half would start school from 1 until 8 PM (notice the two hour overlap).
This is still very undesirable in principle for two reasons. One reason is because extracurricular activities still must be coordinated together, including music groups, theater groups, and athletic teams. The double shifts would be done to accommodate the 10th-12th grades at Valley alone, and this could also be done in Harmony and Blue Ridge as well. The other reason why double and overlapping shifts would be undesirable is because of Valley's geographic area, which consists of about half of Loudoun County's geographic area. Schools that incorporate double or overlapping shifts tend to be in very densely populated areas, and while Loudoun Valley's attendance area is growing, the area is still not densely populated.
[edit] Current Progress on HS-3
On June 20, the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors voted 6-3 to start construction of HS-3 on the Fields Farm site in Purcellville. The Town of Purcellville is pursuing legal action in court to stop its construction with a Richmond legal firm.
In July, the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors reexamined the possibility of opening HS-3 in Round Hill, but if the school opens there, it probably will not open in 2008-2009.
[edit] External links
- Edgar Hatrick's comments about HS-3
- Loudoun County High School projections from 2005-2011
- "High School Site Vote Delayed Two Weeks" by Margaret Morton on Leesburg Today
- Documents from the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors Meeting on June 1, 2006 on the Loudoun Valley High School pyramid.
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