Via Certified Mail & E-Mail

Dear Chairman Bulova,

The purpose of this letter is to respectfully ask the Board of Supervisors to return the Willston Elementary School property(Tax Map 0513-18-0001) to Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS). The School Board owned the property until July 1983, at which time ownership was transferred to the Board of Supervisors. Returning the property will allow the site to be used to establish a public school that would alleviate overcrowding in Mason District schools.

Rationale for the Request. Mason District is well known for its overcrowded schools. Recently, conditions improved somewhat with the opening of the Bailey's Upper Elementary School, a renovated five-story office building on Leesburg Pike at Seven Corners. Last year, 19 trailers on the Bailey's school property were required to accommodate its 1500 students. Now, 800 of the students in grades 3 through 5 go to school in the renovated office building. While it's an improvement over the trailers, the building lacks many of the basic features of county public schools, including a gym and green space, and the rooms are small and crowded. As originally proposed to the community in November 2013, the office building would serve 400-500 students. When the school opened in September, its advertised capacity had increased to 700 students and 795 were enrolled, 14 percent over capacity on the first day and nearly twice the student population thought appropriate for the building in the 2013 proposal.

Apparently, the funds for the renovation of the Bailey's Upper office building were provided by proceeds from the 2013 school construction bond referendum that included $20.9 million for a new school in Eastern Fairfax (Bailey's area). Curiously, the funds were used to renovate an office building on the south side of Seven Corners rather than to establish a new purpose-built school on the all-but-vacant, five-acre Willston School site on the north side of Seven Corners.

In an e-mail, I asked Mr. Jeffrey Platenberg about the decision to renovate an office building instead of building on the Willston site. He told me that the Willston site is not in the FCPS inventory and therefore it was not available for consideration as a site for a new Bailey's school. Mr. Platenberg is the Assistant Superintendent of the Department of Facilities and Transportation Services within Fairfax County Public Schools. Supervisor Penelope Gross made a similar statement at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for Bailey's Upper on October 15. She stated that she and Sandra Evans, the Mason District School Board Representative, spent four years searching for a school site before finally finding the vacant office building. Remarkably, they failed to select the conspicuouslyidle Willston School property as the appropriate site for a new school.

It is apparent that the Willston site will be recognized as appropriate for a school only if ownership is transferred back to Fairfax County Public Schools, hence my request for the transfer.

Willston Site Background. The Willston School site was donated to the county in a deed dated June 20, 1949 (Deed Book 695, Page 225). The deed states that the site was donated expressly for the purpose of establishing a public school with the condition that the Fairfax County School Board shall not sell, transfer, or convey the property to anyone with the exception that the School Board may gift the property for school purposes to the City of Falls Church bureau having charge of school grounds.

Notwithstanding the condition in the 1949 deed, on July 14, 1983, the School Boardtransferred the property to the Board of Supervisors in a quitclaim deed (Deed Book 5801, Page 1732). The quitclaim deed states that the School Board had declared the property surplus to public school needs in a resolution dated March 12, 1981. At the time the quitclaim deed was executed, the School Board was not an independently elected body. Rather, School Board members were appointed by and served at the pleasure of the Board of Supervisors. On the whole, the effect of the Board of Supervisors’ quitclaim agreement with its subsidiary School Board was unilateral transfer of the property to the Board of Supervisors in violation of the condition in the 1949 deed that the property remain with the School Board.

County Plans for East County Center. Apparently, the county is considering using the Willston school property as the site for a new government center. In particular, the county is planning to construct a new government center in the eastern part of the county. This East County Center is described on pages 177, 179, and 209 of the “Fairfax County Advertised Capital Improvement Program (CIP) for Fiscal Years 2015-2019” dated February 25, 2014. The CIP states that staff currently is working on a master plan for the 180,000 square foot facility.

Coincidentally, the Seven Corners Visioning Task Force convened by Supervisor Gross to develop a community vision of the future of Seven Corners released its report on September 23 in the form of a proposed amendment to the Comprehensive Plan. The report recommends that office space for a new East County Center may be developed on the parcel that currently includes the Willston School site. Inasmuch as the school site is the only county-owned land on the parcel that could accommodate the government center, it is apparent that the county considers the school site a principal candidate for the facility.

Conclusion: The county is home to more than 18 million square feet of vacant office space, space that offers the county community a choice. We can construct government offices like the East County Center on the Willston School site and put our schools in renovated office buildings, or we can establish a school on the school site and put the government offices in renovated office buildings. I believe that the vast majority of county residents would elect to use the school site for a school, exactly the purpose for which the site was donated to the county. Consequently, I am asking the Board of Supervisors to return the Willston School site to Fairfax County Public Schools.

Please notify me by e-mail of the disposition of this request. In particular, notify me that the Board has agreed to the request and will return the school property to FCPS by a certain date; that the Board disagrees, will not transfer the property, and why; or that the Board has taken some other action, and the rationale for that action.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Clyde A. Miller

CC via e-mail:

Mason District Supervisor Penelope Gross (Mason@fairfaxcounty.gov)
Fairfax County School Board Chairman Tamara Derenak Kaufax (tdkaufax@fcps.edu)
Mason District School Board Representative Sandra Evans (ssevans@fcps.edu)