Louodun County gets approval to build school, faces court fight

The one high school and two middle schools serving the western region of the county are approaching full capacity, and unless the school is built within three years, students would have to be educated in split shifts to accommodate the area’s rapid growth, Superintendent Ed Hatrick warned in a memo this week.

“If we can get this litigation out of the way, we can open that school in 2009,” Loudoun School Board Chairman Robert DuPree said. “We could have it out for bids right now.”

The town argues the project would overburden the Purcellville community and violate a land-use agreement for the region outside the town’s borders. The proposed Woodgrove High School would be built about a mile from the only existing high school in the western portion of the county, Loudoun Valley High, Purcellville Mayor Bob Lazaro said.

“We are being crushed daily by school traffic,” Lazaro said, and building a school outside town limits would create major road-construction expenses.

However, the county contended building a new school is not only allowed, but any other site would result in a costly delay.

The county’s legal situation has prompted some Loudoun officials to begin looking at other sites in case the Woodgrove plan is scrapped.

The Lovettsville Town Council is slated to meet tonight with school board members to discuss plans to eventually build a school tentatively set to open in 2017.

School board member Mark Nuzzaco, who represents the Lovettsville area, said speeding up the debate over the Lovettsville school would give the county an option if the county can’t build outside Purcellville.

“My view on it was the best thing we could do for all these kids is to get the next school open as soon as possible,” Nuzzaco said.

dgenz@dcexaminer.com