My Summer with Loudoun Schools

Monday, October 21, 2024

Recent Reads: "Dirt Don't Burn: A Black Community's Struggle for Educational Equality Under Segregation"

Image of the book cover of "A Black Community's Struggle for Educational Equality Under Segregation" (2023). It features a black and white photo of a Black woman standing in front of a wooden two-story structure.

I read a new-to-me book, Dirt Don't Burn: A Black Community's Struggle for Educational Equality Under Segregation, by Barry Harrelson and Larry Roeder. It came out last year, and it's all about education in Loudoun County, so it is the perfect thing to talk about here!

Dirt Don't Burn chronicles Black education in Loudoun County from the Civil War to the late 1960's, when the school system was forced to desegregate. It doesn't just cover education itself, but also the many facets that need to be met in order to have a thriving learning environment: health/sanitation, heating, nutrition, transportation, administration, funding, and teacher education. It also sheds light on the many sung and unsung heroes who championed the fight for better Black education, as well as the work, petitions, letters, and organizing those individuals accomplished.

This book was created by the Edwin Washington Project, a non-profit dedicated to documenting the impact of segregated education in Loudoun. They've done some fantastic work uncovering and preserving stories, data, and history that really hasn't been public knowledge. And this book demonstrates that. The Edwin Washington Project is a subsidiary of the Edwin Washington Society, which was created to foster non-partisan conversations about the value of diversity in modern society, usually with a history/preservation focus.

Back to the book. The book's emphasis is on Black education, but in order to truly explain the dichotomy between the separate education systems in Loudoun, white education also has to be defined, so it really is an overview of both. There is lots to glean from its pages, especially in the early years of public education in the county. This is a thorough book of information that explains the intricacies of Loudoun's early public education system and how it grew. I understand their scope was just covering segregation, but I wish their coverage of events continued beyond that point. While de jure segregation was put to an end, there are still areas of de facto segregation.

The Edwin Washington Society has said they have more books planned, so I look forward to seeing what they publish next. In the meantime, add Dirt Don't Burn to your reading list!

Dirt Don't Burn can be bought online in multiple places. It also is available at select bookstores around Loudoun County. I happened to find one at the Very Virginia Shop in Downtown Leesburg, and it turned to be an autographed copy! Just goes to show, it never hurts to shop local!

Monday, August 19, 2024

Arcola School - 2024 Update

An image of the 1939 Arcola School at an angle. Sunshine is hitting the front of the one-story brick building with white trim. There are concrete stairs and a ramp going down from the elevated entrance. A bench sits to the right of the stairs on a concrete pad. A series of black wires reach out towards technological equipment on the building.

Where we last left the 1939 Arcola School in 2022, Loudoun's Board of Supervisors had voted to transfer the building and site over to Capretti Land Inc. contingent on a couple factors. Since then, the Board of Supervisors reviewed Capretti's rezoning application for the land in October 2023 and voted to approve it! Huzzah! As of now, the building is still owned by the County, so there are probably some other processes everyone is working through, but this is a great step towards the building's adaptive reuse.

Out of the board room, the school's condition is ... perhaps slightly better? Things I've noted here in previous posts have been addressed around the property. We love signs of continued maintenance! Let's take a look around...

Most of the spots where there were paint flaking have been repainted white, including the trim and front doors. It makes the façade look really sharp and less abandoned!

An image of the 1939 Arcola School, a one-story brick building with white trim. All the windows are boarded up. The grass on either side of the path leading to the school is mown.

Grass is mown, and other plants have been cut down around the building

Above the main entrance

Places where I had seen wood rot have been addressed. I'm not sure if the wood was replaced or covered over. Is this a band-aid fix until major renovation can occur? Either way, it looks so much better than it did two years ago.

An image looking up at the white trim molding on a corner of the brick 1939 Arcola School building. There is a white rain gutter, downpipe, and a couple miscellaneous wires around the corner.

An image of a side of the 1939 Arcola School, a one story brick building with white trim. There is one elevated entrance (doors boarded up) with stairs to the ground, and one window to the left of the doors. On the side borders are brick quoins.

Short end of the building

A detail image of a school bell of the 1939 Arcola School. It is painted white to match the trim it is against. Below it is the red brick of the school, along with a vertical series of brick quoins. I like the word quoins.

Old school bell

The backside of the building continues to be main target for vandalism and possible break-ins.

An image of the backside of the 1939 Arcola School. Windows are boarded up. The boards on the window closest to the left is fresh yellow-brown (newly placed), while most of the others are a faded brown. There are white blocks of paint on some of the boards. The ground is grassy around the school, then fades to a gray gravel parking lot.

An image of another section of the backside of the 1939 Arcola School. Most of the windows are boarded, but there is a square that is missing off the top of one. There is glass and wood surrounding the spot.

Recent window vandalism

An image of the 1939 Arcola outdoor stairs down into the basement. There is a black railing, a couple vine plants growing, and some miscellaneous trash.

Stairs to the basement

An image of an overhang structure above doors into the 1939 Arcola School auditorium. The doors are blocked off by a metal gate. The overhang is bordered by metal, but its underside is composed of white-painted wood that is rotting/falling down.

Deteriorating wood under an overhang into the auditorium

An image of another section of the backside of the 1939 Arcola School. Next to the brick building, there is asphalt, a couple vine plants growing, the broken remains of a chain-link fence, and a couple wooden boards in a pile.

The shed I looked at two years ago is now gone

Light bulb

An image of concrete, bordered by grass. In the concrete, there is some writing that was carved into it when it was freshly poured. It looks to say "D Furr, C McInto, D Harris, 11-11-02."

Some names scrawled into the concrete

In previous years, I had noted there was a whole fenced-off area on one side of the building that was severely overgrown. It's now all cut down! Sure, it's not much to look at, but it's better than it was!

An image peering over a fence along one side of the 1939 Arcola School. There is grass, dirt, and a hilly mound in the fenced-off area. On the brick school are more windows and a set of double doors, all boarded up, as well as stairs from the door to the ground.

The grounds' amenities continue to be limited, but in most cases, that's probably for the best while the site prepares for its future.

An image of a metal baseball backstop, metal bleachers, a water fountain with a pebble aggregate concrete base. Beyond the backstop is a grassy field, and then trees. One tree is next to the bleachers.

Baseball field with a grassy diamond

An image of a fenced off area full of short green vegetation. In the back are trees with green leaves. On the chain-link fence is a blue sign that says "Playground Closed."

The playground's play structures have all been removed now.

An image of two empty basketball courts next to each other. There are four metal basketball backboards, three of which have glassy backboards. The fourth is missing. There are no basketball hoops.

All the basketball hoops are gone

An image looking through the chain-link fence surrounding a tennis court. There are large cracks in the court, with tall weedy vegetation growing up through them.

The tennis courts are cracked and weedy

An image of a square wooden pavilion with a gable roof. There are five wooden picnic benches under the pavilion. Grass and trees surround the pavilion, while moss grows on the roof's wooden shingles.

The field pavilion is in pretty good shape

An image of a grassy field, bordered by trees.

The field

Well! After my last couple check-ins at the Sterling Annex building, it's nice to see maintenance and upkeep happening in a positive direction. Arcola's future looks bright, and hopefully its hardest struggle is behind it.

An angled image of the front of the 1939 Arcola School. In the foreground stretches the accessibility ramp from the front entrance. All the windows on the one-story brick building are boarded up.

SOURCES:

Loudoun Now: Old Arcola School Approved for Affordable Housing

Loudoun Times-Mirror: Housing development centered on historic Arcola school approved

Email Correspondence with Capretti Land, Inc - June 2024

Read other Arcola School Posts:
The Three Schools of Arcola (2011)
Arcola School - 2017 Update

Arcola School - 2019 Update

Arcola School - 2022 Update

Thursday, July 11, 2024

After Sterling Annex - 2024

A field with overgrown foliage grows around with a concrete cut right down the middle. In the distance are sport field light posts and parked vehicles.

In 2023, I thought I would only have one more Sterling Annex entry to write after its demolition, a nice little epilogue on the pocket park to memorialize the school. That prediction ended up being incorrect. I was in the area recently and decided to swing by, thinking maybe there would have been changes by now. But no, things look fairly similar to how I left them.

Since the Sterling School building's demolition, there really hasn't been any other activity on the site. It continues to be used primarily for extra car parking for the Lindsay Automotive fleet. I reached out to my contact with Lindsay, who told me there's been a few delays with the county in the process of building their detail facility and adjoining pocket park on the site. They're hoping to start construction by the end of the year.

So in this interim period between destruction and creation, I'm going to look around, see what looks interesting architecturally.

What remains on the site? Pretty much everything except the school building. As evidenced in the first photo, the front path that led up to the main entrance is still in place. It now leads to dirt and spindly grass. There are three piles of brick, most likely saved to be reused in the pocket park.

A patchy field with yellow, long grass. In the foreground is a pile of brick. Green trees are in the background.

School's out forever

There's some fun finds in the brick piles. One that warmed my heart was seeing a surviving section of a brick arch that used be above one of the side doors. No idea if it was over my favorite or its duplicate on the opposite side of the building.

A brick pile laying by pebbles and yellowing grass. In the foreground is a section of bricks still connected by mortar. The piece is intentionally curved.

Part of one of the brick arches!!

Close-up of the backside of a rusted bell in the brick pile. Some wires and machinery are visible.

Also found in a pile was a rusty school bell

This light pole that used to be in the middle of the parking lot is still there.

A light pole surrounded by four smaller faded-red poles. The weeds are mown down. In the background is a yellow field of grass and, further away, trees and larger foliage.

2024 light pole

Picture of a rundown brick building with overgrown plants. To the left is a light pole in a gravel parking lot. Grass is starting to grow through a portion of the gravel. Four little faded-red poles around the light pole's base are mostly obscured by weeds.

2023 pre-demo photo with the same light pole (left)

The baseball backstop and its infrastructure are untouched, still used as the main parking lot on the site.

Cars are parked next to a baseball backstop on both sides. The backstop is partially obscured by overgrowing foliage.

Baseball backstop and parked cars

Near the site's corner, the brush has been cut back so utility lines can be identified. This has also uncovered some of the wooden rail fence.

Some overgrown foliage that has been cut away next to a road. A graying wooden rance fence is partially visible. There are bright orange and red spray-painted lines and mark on the remaining foliage and road.

Finally, by the former playground, the forest continues to grow. The fence that surrounds that little area is still in place, but slowly disappearing behind the foliage.

Overgrown foliage. A line of stakes with rolled-down black plastic tarp runs diagonally from the view. On the right is a wooden post, partially obscured by foliage.

So, that's what you can find at Sterling this year. Not what I expected, but still interesting. I'll see you back here one last time (knock on brick?) next year.

A field of yellow grass. Futher beyond are green trees and foliage.

Read all Sterling Annex Posts:
Sterling Community Center Annex (2012)
News on the Sterling Annex Building (2013)
Sterling Community Center Annex - 2016 Update
Sterling Community Center Annex - 2017 Update
Sterling Community Center Annex - 2018 Update

Sterling Community Center Annex - 2019 Update

Sterling Community Center Annex - 2020 Update

Sterling Community Center Annex - 2021 Update

Sterling Community Center Annex - 2022 Update

Sterling Community Center Annex - 2023 Update

Sterling Annex DEMO DAY 1

Sterling Annex DEMO DAY 2

Sterling Annex DEMO DAY 3

Saturday, March 16, 2024

LCHS 70th Celebration Events!

Logo courtesy of LCHS

If you have read many/any of the posts here, you can probably guess I have a huge love for my alma mater Loudoun County High School. Well, this year is the 70th anniversary of school's opening, and the school administration is throwing a year-long party!!

Here is the full lineup of events:

February 3rd - 70th Anniversary Winter Fest [open to students only]

Week of April 8th - Decades Spirit Week [open to staff and students only]

April 12th, 6pm - Concert on the Lawn: This is the main kick-off event of the 70th Anniversary Celebration, taking place on the picturesque front lawn. The concert will include the staff band Staff Infection, current student Sela Campbell, and LCHS 2013 alumna Emma Rowley. Food trucks will also be on-site.

April 13th, 12pm - Afternoon Tea and Tours: Like the late Queen Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee for her 70th year on the thrown, this is the 70th year of LCHS's reign as the crown jewel of LCPS. In that grand tradition, the school is hosting a Jubilee tea, accompanied by historical tours open to alumni and former staff. Archival photographs, artifacts, and stories from the past 70 years will be on display.

April 19th - Prom [open to students only]

May 4th - LCHS Marching Band performs in the Apple Blossom Festival's Grand Feature Parade: The annual festival and parade is located in Winchester, Virginia. Come to support the marching band, stay for all the additional festival fun (and apple blossoms)!

June 18th - 70th Graduation Ceremony (the hands-down best high school graduation venue in Loudoun County) (unless it rains *knock on wood*)

Week of September 16th - Homecoming Spirit Week [open to staff and students only]

September 19th, 6:30pm - Homecoming Parade and Food Trucks: Bringing back a classic tradition, the Homecoming Parade! The parade route will be from the Safeway (437 S King Street) to the LCHS bus loop

September 19th-20th - Additional School Tours!

September 20th - Homecoming Football Game and Tailgate [Tailgate only open to students and staff; football game open to all] Go Captains!

September 21st - Homecoming Dance [open to students only]

There are other ways to get involved. The school's literary magazine The Crow's Nest typically only allows submissions from current students/staff. This year for the 70th, they are also accepting submissions from future and former students/staff!! This is a really exciting opportunity to share art from multiple generations! Learn how you can submit HERE. Last day to submit is March 18th!

Then, there is sponsorship! If you are able to give back to your alma mater, consider doing so! This will honor your time and memories, as well as positively impact future generations of learners! Funds raised will go towards school improvement projects, including (but not limited to) new professional hallway murals, and an update to popular seating areas on the school grounds. For more detailed information on sponsorship, please check out LCHS's 70th Anniversary Sponsorship Page.

Can't wait to see you all at County this year, it'll be a blast!

Sunday, January 28, 2024

The Cooper Caper of 2010, aka Driving a Car Into LCHS

The front of car sits on the inside of a building with a tiled floor. Behind it is doors to the outside, framed in marble, and an american flag. A banner of the doors say "LCHS."

Cooper Caper of 2010

This year is the 70th anniversary of the opening of my alma mater, Loudoun County High School. While I don't have plans (yet?) to do anything to celebrate that fact, I thought I would share another one of my favorite stories from my time in high school. It's been shared online before, but I've never written about it here: enjoy The Cooper Caper of 2010!!

During the 2005-2006 school year, English teacher Ms. Toni Rader purchased a Mini Cooper car. She thought it looked small enough to drive right into Loudoun County High School. So on a teacher workday (and after receiving principal approval), she tried to do just that. The car ended up being a smidge too big to fit through the doors, but the attempt was documented in the yearbook.

From inside a building, looking through an open two-door doorway. A black car sits just outside the threshold. A tree with green leaves can be seen in the background.

Picture from LCHS's Lord Loudoun 2006 yearbook
Mini Cooper trying to fit through the school's double doors.
Yearbook caption: "Mrs. Rader trys [sic] to fit her new Mini Cooper into the school on a teacher work day. Unfortunately, her plan to drive through the main hallway back-fired when it didn't fit."

Fast forward four years, I was working on a self-appointed Drama Club project that involved going through every LCHS yearbook to date (some things never change) when I came across the picture. I shared this find on my Facebook wall, tagging Ms. Rader for more information. "Well, if it hadn't been so new, and if I'd pulled in the mirrors, I think it would've fit, [but] I chickened out," recalled Ms. Rader. But now four years later, the car wasn't as new and Ms. Rader was up for a second attempt.

On a drizzly August 13, 2010, the Mini Cooper drove up from the bus loop.

A black car driving between two planters in a pedestrian walkway area from the parking lot.

After folding in the side-view mirrors, it was go-time! The car inched through the double doors, but the mirrors still prevented it from proceeding fully into the hallway.

A black car is 1/3 of the way inside of double doors. A lady holds out her hand towards the left side-view mirror, which is touching the open door.

After backing away from the doors, the building engineer removed the Mini Cooper's side-view mirrors.

A man is leaning over, removing the right side-view mirror on a black car.

A woman with glasses is driving a black car.

Ms. Rader driving her car towards the school

This time, the car fit through!

A black car is 7/8's through a double doorway.

Success!!

Once in the building, the car was turned off so its exhaust wouldn't set off any fire alarms. With the car in neutral and Ms. Rader steering, the group that had assembled helped push the car down the hall. When it reached the foyer, it was time for photos!

A black car sits parked in a hallway intersection

A black car is parked inside a building. People mill about.

Looking down a hallway at a black car parked in the middle of it. A woman is crouching down, facing the car.

A black car is parked in a building. A desk name plate (which reads "Mr. Oblas") rests on the hood of the car.

Principal Oblas' desk name plate on the car
(He was out of the building at the time)

At one point, the car was repositioned to look like it drove out the front doors!

Two women hold open double doors to a brick building. A black car is within the dim interior. The doorway is framed by a broken pediment and white Tuscan columns.

"Wouldn't it be cool if it could go out the front?!"
(But it couldn't, and didn't)

After a successful caper, we turned the Mini Cooper around, carefully avoiding walls and columns, and pushed it back towards the exit.

The roof of a black car is pictured in a hallway lined with lockers.

POV: taking a photo while also pushing the car down the hall

A black car is exiting a building through double doors.

Driving out the doors

A black car is driving past two planters in a pedestrian area, towards a parking lot

Driving away...

And so the Mini Cooper drove away, into the distant parking lot, never to be seen inside the school again. Yet, some say on rainy days, you still can hear the wet rubber tires rolling down the hall.

Moral of the story: Do that ridiculous thing that makes you happy. And if at first you don't succeed, try to do that ridiculous thing again.

THE END!

Wednesday, August 9, 2023

Sterling Annex DEMO DAY 3

Sterling Annex School, August 9, 2023

Is everything gone? No, not yet. Some trees block out the piece that remains. They were still working on the site, so I kept my distance.

Only one end of the school remains today. Tomorrow, it will most definitely all be rubble.

The brick wall on the right might be one of the walls from
the basement stairs, but honestly it's hard to tell at this point

Yesterday, I stood here to capture the back wall of the auditorium

Piles of cinderblocks and metal

Picking things up and putting them down

As I am unavailable to visit tomorrow, this will be my last demolition coverage post.

I will be back next year to check out Lindsay Automotive's Service Detailing Center and adjoining pocket park, which will reuse some of the bricks into a memorial for the school building.

Thank you everyone for joining me on this annual pilgrimage to Sterling. I've loved making the trip. It's sad to see this cute-as-a-button school gone, but at least it's not in decaying misery anymore.