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Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2012 by Laura Peters | 17 comments | Email this story

From above the gym

where Loudoun Valley

High School

cheerleading andgymnastics teams

practice, there is no

other way to move

gym mats except by

tossing them over

this balcony into theauxiliary gym. School

administrators say

this is a safety

hazard and areasking for an elevator

to be installed to

move equipment.

Times-Mirror Staff

Photo/Beverly Denny

Loudoun Valley High School seems like its stuck in a time warp. As you enter the doors to the50-year-old school, you feel as if havent left the 1960s.

Outside the auditorium, which can fit more than 900 people for shows, there are twobathrooms with only two stalls for the girls and one for the boys, which according toValleys Athletic Director Kris Kelican, doesnt accommodate large crowds.

The locker rooms have minimal space and lacks the requisite bathrooms for the amount ofstudents using them. Kelican said that during tournaments at the school must force multipleteams in one locker room, with about ten to 15 students per team, with one bathroom for themto use.

Renovations at Valley are estimated between $30-38 million. During a tour of the schoolwith Vice Principal Vicki Dorsey, she pointed out many of the crammed storage areas in thefine arts wing have been cited by the fire marshal as a fire hazard, because things are stackedtoo high for the sprinkler system to work correctly. Valley has been put on the waiting list forLoudoun County Schools Capital Improvement Program for fiscal 2013-2018.

Celebrating their 50th year, Valley remains a staple in the Purcellville and western Loudouncommunity.

As a father of a graduate of a Loudoun Valley graduate of the class of 2010, an uncle toseveral future graduates, I do not have to tell you how important Loudoun Valley High Schoolhas been to Purcellville and the western part of the county for the last 50 years, PurcellvilleMayor Bob Lazaro said during a Feb. 21 school board public hearing. It is time that LCPSreinvest in the basic infrastructure of the school. Whether its renovating the 1962-era lockerroom, wrestling room, fine arts room, replacement of windows, athletic facilities, bathrooms,its time for Valley to receive the necessary improvements to bring it into the 21st century. I

believe its the fair and responsible thing to do.

Students and other spectators at basketball games or volleyball matches have to travelthrough the auxiliary gym to get to the main gym. Kelican says this becomes a major problemespecially during and after school because it interrupts other practices or classes. He alsosaid its just an inconvenience to everyone.

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Valley in need of renovations; put on back burner by administratio

8/2/2019 Valley in Need of Renovations; Put on Back Burner by Administration _ LoudounTimes

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3/6/12Valleinneedof renovationsut onbackburnerbadministrati

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The proposed plan would add a hallway making the main gym accessible as well as theweight room that is currently located outside in a separate building.

The fine arts department is also facing tight quarters. The bands practice rooms are beingused either as an office or storage, making it unavailable or cramped for students to use forpractice time. The stage is weighed down by leftover props stuck behind the curtain, making ithard to have the stage packed with musical instruments for concerts.

Overcrowding subsided after Woodgrove High School was built, but Valley was faced isfacing a new problem. It has lost many students and teachers to the new school because they

wanted the update facility rather than Valleys antique feel.

Clearly facility conditions matter to people, Valleys Student Council President Ashley Bairdsaid during the Feb. 21 meeting. Theres no doubt and no debate that any and all renovations

will be beneficial and appreciate by Loudoun Valley staff and students. I and many otherslove Valley. We love the teachers, the location, the building and especially the everydayatmosphere I feel when I go to school everyday.

Many parent and student complaints centered around how the administration and the schoolboard have seemed to have forgotten about Valley. When Loudoun County High Schoolcelebrated their 50th year in 2004, two years later their facility received a big overhaul inrenovations. Broad Run High School, which shares the same basic site plan as Valley and is

younger received much of the same renovations that Valley is asking for in their 2002-2003school year.

Valley has had additions through the years, but its just been quick fixes and Band-Aids tocover up massive problems, Ladonna Moore, Valleys PTO vice president and a parent of a

Valley student said at the meeting. But, now that our overcrowding has subsided and

Woodgrove is built and functioning, I feel like these other problems need to be addressed.

Since Broad Run, known as Valleys sister school, was renovated first, Dorsey feels for theirrenovations to come first isnt the right way to go about things. However, she doesunderstand the depressed economy has been, and she feels grateful for what they havereceived, its a matter of how much longer can the school wait.

Part of the proposed plan would also add a connecting hallway from the drama room to thestage. That would allow extra storage of stage equipment that is now violating fire safetyrequirements. It would also allow the movement of instruments through a hallway ratherthan having to take them outside then back into the building.

Dorsey voiced her concern with jumping up the list on the schools CIP, but said theres notmuch they can do it has to be decided by higher administration.

The Loudoun County School Board is set to approve the CIP during their Feb. 28 meeting,

after this publication was put to print.

Times-Mirror Staff

Photo/Beverly DennyLoudoun Valley High

School lacks the

space to store band

and orchestraequipment behind

the stage, leaving

this closet as the only

place to store it. The

school is requestingan add-on behind the

stage that would

connect the drama

room to the

auditorium.

Times-Mirror Staff

Photo/Beverly Denny

The storage roomand library of

Loudoun Valley High

School's band

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8/2/2019 Valley in Need of Renovations; Put on Back Burner by Administration _ LoudounTimes

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3/6/12 Valleyinneedof renovations; put onbackburnerbyadministration| Loudo

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department is filled

to the ceiling with

supplies, creating afire hazard that

needs to be removed

but t here is no other

place for it.

Times-Mirror Staff

Photo/Beverly Denny

A girls' shower room,

which was part of theoriginal struc ture of

Loudoun Valley High

School built in 1962,

is now used to storeyoga balls. The school

says they have

nowhere else to put

them and the

showers are nolonger in use.

Times-Mirror Staff

Photo/Beverly Denny

The band director'soffice at Loudoun

Valley High School

contains overflow

from the storage

room adjacent t o it,which is also filled to

the ceiling with

supplies.

Times-Mirror Staff

Photo/Beverly Denny

Loudoun Valley High

School's wrestlingroom, which was built

in 1962 when the

school first opened, is

one of the oldest and

smallest in thecounty.

Administrators say it

cannot accommodate

the growing s ize ofthe wrestling team.