Trailers are a viable option because the school system has failed to keep up with construction of classrooms, mainly because the County Planning Commission will approve any and all housing developments regardless of the burdens on the school system. Get rid of these jerks (Burgess et al) on the Commission and you might see results. As for toilets for girls, you sir sound like a simpering fool who jusat wants to bitch about a situation that has noe asy remedy. I do know an esy solution..send you kid to Stonewall or Gar-Field and thank the Lord Jesus (is that pronounce Hey-zues?) when they come home every day.

Basically you sound like a whiny a$$ed parent who didn’t get his way!!!!!!!!!

Using the “illegals are filling our schools” argument is simply a cop out. Since hard numbers are not available to support either side of the argument, it’s impossible to prove one way or another that the bump in students is simply due to illegal immigration. In fact, the “hard facts” available actually contradict that argument. Over 50% of the students enrolled in ESOL in PWC schools were born in the United States (Constitutionally making them full American citizens). Even without the “illegals” in the school, we would still be facing a problem. The amount of space for teaching our children has not come anywhere near to keeping pace with the growth that has been allowed in the area. Who is moving into those houses along Linton Hall? Young families. Who is moving in to Dominion Valley? Young families. Like it or not, the Planning Commission needs to step up and take some responsibility (along with the BOCS and School Board) for inadequate planning. The BOCS has to get off this “hold the line on all taxes” so we can get $20 a year back on our property tax while our children are educated in overcrowded schools and new schools that would have provided relief are delayed over and over again (Kettle Run High School which would relieve the burden at Brentsville has been delayed another year). Let’s also keep in mind that our ability to build schools depends on our ability to incur debt and maintain a good bond rating. Many of the current school construction delays are not because the funds aren’t available within the school system’s budget but rather because the current debt ceiling (which is based on a percentage of the total budget) won’t allow it.

I really don’t want to come across as an apologist for the School Board as I really do question some of the decisions and choices they’ve made. I have no love lost for Lucy Beauchamps or Milt Johns. But there are times that political dogma needs to be set aside for common sense. The quip about Beauchamps (and the School Board by extension) engaging in “senseless turf battles” is way off. The standing agreement that the schools get 56.75% of the county budget without any negotiation or question on either side puts the school system at the mercy of the whims of the BOCS. As a result, the school’s budget is not set by true budget priority, but reather is set on the whims of the BOCS (whose members are paid considerably more than School Board reps even though the School Board is responsible for a much bigger budget and managing a much larger bureaucracy). Decisions outside the control of the School Board this year and in the past can’t be laid completely at the feet of the School Board (which still has a fair burden of shame to carry). The School Board didn’t give Heritage Hunt a pass on paying the full proffer amount per unit that should have been paid. The School Board didn’t decide to let conservative anti-tax dogma blind them to true and pressing needs.

Worst of all, the proffers were nothing like they are today. The average school proffer was 10% of the cost of building the school capacity. To put it in round numbers, 15,000 houses at a shortfall of $18,000 each or $270,000,000 that the current taxpayers have to come up with to make room for the new folks (and that’s just schools). So now we are bumping up against the County’s debt limit while the schools are packed.

It’s true there was no planning, but it wasn’t today’s planners.

That said, I have no idea how to pack 1,580 students in Brentsville.

It helps create a vicious of cycle of growth begetting growth in an effort to address inadequate infrastructure. It also has a snowball effect as the site acquisition is arguably the cheapest component when one considers construction, equipment and staffing costs, the latter or which are perpetual. A cursory review of the Brentsville boundaries seems to indicate that the problem here is the massive growth in the Linton Hall corridor particularly in starter or next tier housing, as the neighborhoods start to mature the pressure on the high schools increases as the children begin to age. I don’t see anything to suggest that the demographics support the premise that illegals are largely responsible for the overcrowding, like anything else involving infrastructure in the western end of the county, it all comes down to poor or absent planning. For that you can thank the Planning Office, School Board and particularly, Connaughton, Caddigan, Wilbourn and especially Wally.

With regard to your comments about Lucy, I couldn’t agree more, the last thing she wants is public input that runs counter to her position. As a result she runs roughshod over the School Board and citizens who wish to speak, going so far as to strictly limit access during citizens time and public hearings, limitations that might not be in the spirit of the governing statutes. I hope no one believes that the location of the current School Board building is poorly marked by accident. I know more than a few who have been unable to find it on the night of a meeting even when given a set of (incorrect) directions by the Schools.