Creating a Climate for Success: A Look Back on Loudoun County Public Schools

(At the end of my second summer interning at Loudoun County Public Schools (2012), I completed a paper overview on the school system's history. This was to help my colleagues continue work on our LCPS History film project. Recently, I was looking through some old files on my computer, and rediscovered the paper. I don't remember exactly why I never posted it here. Either I wanted this to be the final post for the blog, or I wanted to post in conjunction with the film project premiere. I present it to you now.)

Second Street School in Waterford, VA

Creating a Climate for Success:

A Look Back on Loudoun County Public Schools

By A.J. Jelonek, August 24, 2012

   Loudoun County was a quiet county at the top of Virginia in the late 19th Century. Mostly agriculturally based, the county’s population remained stable around 21,000 people. Many little towns and villages dotted the landscape.

   In 1869, Virginia’s General Assembly mandated that public education be provided for the children of the state. In the fall of 1870, the Loudoun County Public School District held its first year of classes. 55 school buildings were already in the county at the time. Three years later, another 55 schools had been built, an early example of Loudouners strong desire for education. Many of the schools were one room schoolhouses. Schools were community-based, and the school year worked around the farming schedule. As Virginia was in the South, schools were segregated between whites and blacks. The county itself was divided into six school districts: Leesburg, Mount Gilead, Mercer, Jefferson, Lovettsville, and Broad Run. Each one had its own school board and paid different tax rates for public education. The Jefferson District, for example, was so well off, it could afford to offer its students transportation via horse drawn busses in 1911.

   In the 1890’s, high school level classes were offered to white students (blacks would have to wait another 20 years). In 1909, the schools at Leesburg, Lincoln, and Waterford received the first state accreditations for four-year high schools in the county. High schools at the time started at 8th grade, so high school only went up to 11th grade. 12th grade would be added in 1945 for whites, 1949 for blacks.

   Consolidation became the name of the game. In 1916, there were 12 small regional high schools and over 60 grade schools, most still one room schoolhouses. In 1917, Oscar L. Emerick became Loudoun County’s 5th superintendent. He led a push for better education but a smaller building count. By 1922, Loudoun had one consolidated school board. Many people felt very attached to their one room schoolhouses and regional high schools and protested when the decision came to close their particular school. But change came. Closing the schools happened either politically (ordering a closure of a school due to lack of attendance to cut costs) or in a few cases naturally (fire).

   In the 30’s, while white students attended schools such as the brick Leesburg High School, African Americans had the Loudoun Training School down the road on Union Street, a wooden two story frame building built about 1884. Hazardous conditions and a lack of the school’s ability to support a curriculum equal to the white school’s prompted a push from the African American community for a new high school. The movement led to the creation of a Loudoun Branch of the N.A.A.C.P. and a County-Wide League. These groups called upon Charles H. Houston, a well-known civil rights attorney, to help them. By the end of 1940, the African-American community raised $4000 (equal to $58,600 today) and bought a land deed for a new black high school in Leesburg and presented it to the School Board. In 1941, Douglass High School opened its doors. It became the first accredited public black high school in the state of Virginia. Along with a new school, bus transportation also became available to blacks.

   In 1953, the last white one room schoolhouse, Mountain Gap by Oatlands Plantation, closed. In 1957, Second Street School in Waterford, the last black one room schoolhouse, closed its doors. At the high school level, 12 white high schools were whittled down to four regional high schools located in Aldie, Leesburg, Lincoln, and Lovettsville. The students of these schools became one with the opening of Loudoun County High School in 1954. The new consolidated high school was the first building in Loudoun County to cost over a million dollars.

   Superintendent Emerick retired in 1957, effectively marking the end of consolidation. He was superintendent for 40 years, the longest term in the county to date. Ten years later, he was honored by the school system with the opening of his namesake school in Purcellville. The next superintendent was Clarence M. Bussinger, who would lead the schools through the era of desegregation.

   Like consolidation, integration in Loudoun schools came slowly. The Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court decision declared segregation in schools was unconstitutional. Loudoun County took a wait-and-see approach. The decision did not present any immediate action, so segregation continued. The Board of Supervisors did vote that if forced to integrate, it would close the schools (a decision they rescinded in 1962). To avoid integration for as long as possible, the school board introduced token desegregation in 1959. Black or white students could choose to go to any school of their choice. Starting 1962, a few black students started to transfer to white schools. Not one white student ever transferred over to a black school. In 1967, Loudoun County was still operating a dual school system, with hundreds of black students remaining at the four black schools, George W. Carver, Banneker, Douglass Elementary, and Douglass High. A federal judge ordered Loudoun County to integrate its schools by the 1968-69 school year. The last graduation at Douglass High School was in May 1968. Complete integration finally came the following school year, 14 years after the Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court case.

   For many decades, Loudoun’s population had remained consistent, but big changes were on the way. 1962 marked both the opening of Dulles International Airport and the creation of Sterling Park, the first planned living community in Loudoun County. These led to Loudoun’s first major population boom. No longer was consolidation possible; many new schools were needed. Loudoun County High School had already begun to feel overcrowded, so Loudoun Valley High School opened in 1962, which served the entire western half of the county’s high school population until 2010. With much of the growth happening in the east, Broad Run and Park View High Schools opened by the end of the 70’s. A few different new school design concepts were tested, including the round school design at Hillsboro and Catoctin Elementary Schools.

   Superintendent Bussinger shortly left after the integration of schools. His successor, Robert E. Butt, experienced a much more peaceful tenure than his predecessors. Loudoun’s population continued to grow into the 70’s. In 1971, LCPS inaugurated its middle school level, grades 6 through 8, with the opening of Blue Ridge and Sterling Middle Schools. The 70’s also ushered in the opening of the Charles S. Monroe Technology Center, the school system’s consolidated vocational school.

   While new schools were being built, LCPS retired some of its older fleet of schools. Some, like Bluemont and Purcellville Schools, were acquired by the newly formed County Parks and Recreation department and converted into community centers. Other schools, such as the former Leesburg High School and Douglass Elementary, were reused as administrative support facilities for the school system.

   A short recession in the 80’s put housing construction on hold. The population fell during this time, so no new schools were needed or built. Superintendent Butt retired in 1988, and was replaced by David N Thomas. Thomas held one of the shortest times in office at less than three years. Edgar B. Hatrick III, a Loudoun County High School graduate and already a 24 year LCPS employee, became the current superintendent in 1991.

   With the help of low interest rates and the new Dulles Toll Road, the housing market blossomed again in the 90’s, drawing hordes of people to Loudoun. The county was faced with unprecedented growth. Whereas in the 80’s school enrollment stayed between 12,000 and 13,000 students, by 1998 school enrollment had doubled to 26,000. By 2007, school enrollment had doubled from that to 54,000 students. New elementary schools swelled from 70,000 to 100,000 square feet during this time. Middle schools and High Schools took in similar growths. There were many years in a row in which 3-5 new schools opened each year. From 1995 to 2012, 51 schools were built and opened.

   With new schools came the reorganization of administrative space. Administrative departments were scattered around the county in cramped former schools. Since the late 80’s, the school system had tried to get a new consolidated admin building in the budget so everything would be located under one roof. They finally succeeded in 2005 with the opening of the new five-story Administration Building in Ashburn.

   New schools also gave the school district an opportunity to become more energy efficient. 1992 marked the beginning of the school system’s formal energy conservation program. They became Energy Star Partners in 1998 and have since been named Energy Star Partner of the Year for several years. Many schools, new and old, have been praised for their energy excellence. Over 50 million dollars (and counting!) have been saved.

   Today, Loudoun County continues to be one of the fastest growing counties in the nation. Over 68,000 students come to school every day, with an average of 2,800 new students enrolling each year. New elementary schools and middle schools are now two stories with a larger capacity and less strain on their school sites. As of the 2012 school year, LCPS operates and maintains 82 school facilities and 8 support facilities.

   From the school system’s humble beginnings, to the superpower industry leader that it has become today, Loudoun County Public Schools has taken a very dynamic journey. Its schools, ranging in age from the newly-opened to over 100 years at Middleburg Elementary, will continue to meet the demands of its growing population. It will continue to change, continue to evolve, and continue to inspire. But above all else, today’s schools will continue to educate tomorrow’s leaders upon the foundations that were first laid out in 1870.

Frederick Douglass Elementary School in Leesburg, VA