Loudoun Supervisor Miller To Reconsider Essential Dulles South Lenah School Site

In the face of overwhelming opposition against an extremely unpopular inclination by Stevens Miller (Loudoun Board of Supervisor - Dulles South Region) to not support the special exception vote needed for a desperately-needed set of new Dulles South schools, Mr. Miller agreed in principle to more carefully and completely weigh and consider both the facts on the table and the vast majority of constituent support evidenced at last night's town hall meeting on the issue.

Mr. Miller hosted a conversation last night with Dulles South constituents at Mercer Middle school, and engaged in frank, open dialogue with over 200 parents and citizens - at least 90% of whom were unequivocally unanimous in their message to the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors - "the Lenah school site is the right place, with the right approvals, at the right time, for the future of the county and its children".



The meeting itself was very spirited, with a mix of audience-initiated banter and response and a steady stream of eloquent speakers addressing Mr. Miller, the crowd, and a couple of "Loudoun's finest" on hand to enjoy the community support. Dulles South representation came from the entire district, with a majority from the South Riding and Stone Ridge areas.

Mr. Miller himself was extremely engaged and provided much helpful information - in the face of what amounted to an onslaught of well-read and popular opinion regarding an exceptionally critical decision to support Loudoun's current school overcrowding situation and dire projections. Mostly on the defensive, with little support for his current undecidedness or the apparent litany of existing economic, policy, education and political support for the Lenah school site selection, Mr. Miller received a very thorough taste of the massive wave of constituent pressure building quickly in Southern Loudoun.

By far the best metaphor of the day involved the spectre of the current and quickly-rising school-age children population growth - a speaker compared Mr. Miller's arguments to "arguing over the cheapest bucket to catch the leaks from the building flood - we need to stop the flood, not focus on the bucket". Mr. Miller's arguments seemed to revolve around making sure the "least worst option" was selected - which by these measures has already proven to be the Lenah school site.

Update - per the Dulles South Neighbors for Education site, the next and possibly last opportunity for Dulles South and Loudoun parents, moms and dads to convince their elected representatives to actually respect their concerns and overwhelming direction is this coming Monday:

Board of Supervisors Public Input
Loudoun County Government Building
1 Harrison Street, S.E. • Leesburg VA 20175

Monday, October 20
6:30 pm

Call 703-771-5072 to sign up to speak.