ASHBURN, Va. — Despite being the wealthiest county in the region, Loudoun County also has the distinction of being the only jurisdiction that doesn’t provide full-day kindergarten to all students — however, that vestige of an earlier era could be eliminated next year.
Loudoun County has been phasing in full-day kindergarten in recent years, while building schools to handle meteoric population growth.
In the current school year, 89 percent of students have access to full-day kindergarten. Under next year’s proposed budget, 92 percent would have full-day, with the exception of Creighton’s Corner, Hillside, Mill Run and Lucketts Elementary.
However, Loudoun County’s School Board is considering a plan that would provide full-day kindergarten for those students next year at four nearby schools equipped with room and staffing.
According to the Loudoun Times-Mirror, a total of approximately 90 students from the four schools would be bused to off-site schools. The students would be chosen in a lottery.
One kindergarten class from Creighton’s Corner would go to Rosa Lee Carter, Hillside students would be transported to Newton-Lee, Mill Run would go to Sanders Corner and Lucketts students would either go to Ball’s Bluff or Waterford Elementary.
The board would consider two options for transporting the students: either they would be transported directly with a specific off-site bus route, or they could be brought to their home school and bused to the nearby alternative school.
School superintendent Eric Williams supports the plan.
Moving students to other schools would only likely be needed for the coming school year, since another elementary is scheduled to open in the 2019-2020 school year.
