Stone Bridge, Hayfield win appeals
By Dave Buschenfeldt
In Monday's meeting of the Virginia High School League's Redistricting and Reclassification Committee, Stone Bridge and Hayfield high schools had their appeals approved, while Loudoun Valley and Heritage had their appeals denied. As a result, Stone Bridge will remain in the Liberty District, Hayfield will move to the National District and Loudoun Valley and Heritage will each compete in the Cedar Run District of the Northwest Region beginning in 2009-10.
According to West Springfield principal Paul Wardinski, the Northern Region's representative on the VHSL R&R Committee, the committee voted 11-1 with one abstention against Loudoun Valley and Heritage's appeals, 10-2 with one abstention in favor of Hayfield's appeal and 7-6 in favor of Stone Bridge's appeal. Committee chairman David Melton abstained from the first three votes, but ruled in favor of Stone Bridge to break a tie.
While Wardinski could not be sure, he speculated on what swayed his fellow committee members in Stone Bridge's favor.
“My guess is that they saw Stone Bridge was already in the Northern Region and they never asked to leave,” Wardinski said. “The committee had kept the Loudoun schools together [in a previous vote], but according to the schools, they didn't need to.”
According to Northern Region chairman Mike Campbell, who spoke on two occasions during the meeting, Stone Bridge principal James Person gave a good argument as to why his school deserved to stay in the Northern Region.
“Jim Person made a good plea that their county had never advocated having everyone in the same district,” Campbell said. “[The committee] saw that Stone Bridge has been a member of the Northern Region and they've had a good relationship.”
Stone Bridge Director of Student Activities Dave Hembach was happy with the result.
“Obviously, we're pleased,” he said. “We wanted to stay in the Liberty District. We enjoy the district. We've been moved around since we opened. We never asked to be moved.”
Though the addition of Fairfax will give the Liberty District nine schools, Hembach said that because of Stone Bridge's small AAA size, it is not looking to join the six-team Concorde District.
“We're not really interested at this time,” he said. “We're a Division 5 school for football and the majority of the Liberty is Division 5. It's something that down the road, who knows what's going to happen.”
In the case of Hayfield, Wardinski said the Northern Region's vote of 25-4 in favor of the move was a big factor.
“A 25-4 vote was pretty powerful,” he said. “There wasn't a tremendous increase in distance for anyone. The size of the school put Hayfield in the middle of the [National] District.”
Hayfield DSA Steve Kewer felt the R&R Committee made the correct decision.
“I'm glad,” he said. “When things work like they're supposed to, and they do the right things for the kids and the school, it shows that the system does work.”
Kewer said the reaction from his coaches has been nothing but positive.
“They wish they could start next year,” he said. “There is a light at the end of the tunnel.”
The R&R Committee's decisions will now be passed on to the VHSL Executive Committee, which is scheduled to meet on May 7. Unless there is a large discrepancy found, the Executive Committee is likely to accept the R&R Committee's votes.