Sterling community members and School Board member Brenda Sheridan (Sterling) have celebrated the announcement that Superintendent Scott Ziegler will propose rebuilding, rather than simply renovating, Park View High School.
Sterling community members had campaigned for months to get the Title One school rebuilt. In the week since then, community members have expressed their excitement at the announcement.
New Virginia Majority Loudoun, a nonprofit that works to build marginalized communities in Virginia, has been supporting the rebuild campaign for Park View for the past several months. Liliana Weinberg, a community organizer for the group, said they started supporting a group called Park View Redo Crew to get the word out about the school and its needs.
Park View Redo Crew is a group of school staff, students, parents and community members who want to see equity in all Loudoun public schools, according to the group’s Facebook page. That page has more than 1,900 members.
“It is what the community wants and what they’ve been asking for. The school is in bad shape, and all of the schools need to be the same. It doesn’t matter what ZIP code it’s in,” Weinberg said.
“I was a parent there for many years and I volunteered many times and certainly know the building inside and out and I’m certainly happy to be able to help my community get a new building for Park View,” Sheridan said. She added she was pleased that the superintendent put his intentions out to rebuild the school early so the community could know their advocacy efforts are being heard.
Sheridan said there are no plans yet for the school in terms of how and when it will be rebuilt, and said it’s only a recommendation from the superintendent at this point and still needs to go before the full board.
The [Capital Improvement Program] goes through the whole approval process as it does every year, so all nine board members have a vote on that. It is not something that has been approved, and we don’t know what staff’s plan is yet. We just know the superintendent’s overall recommendation,” Sheridan said.
According to the Loudoun County School Board’s current capital budget, the school had been set to undergo a $42 million improvement project, with design funding set for 2023 and construction set to begin in 2024.
Park View was built in 1976 and has undergone five renovations since its opening, according to Loudoun County Public Schools spokesman Wayde Byard.
A community information meeting for the Park View cluster will be held Nov. 10 from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Park View High School auditorium.
The superintendent will present his recommended Fiscal Year 2024 Capital Improvement Program budget to the School Board on Nov. 15.