Leesburg, Virginia (DC News Now) — Two new schools will be built in Loudoun County at the southwest corner of Evergreen Mills Road and Red Hill Road, along with a 5,000-seat stadium, after county supervisors voted.
Funding for the school was approved last year. As the county finalized construction plans, it faced questions about the size of the campus' athletic fields and stadium — how many spectators they could accommodate.
The proposal to build a facility that could accommodate 5,000 people has been controversial, with some raising concerns about the impact on traffic and whether road construction for the project would be adequate.
“I have no concerns about a new school being built in our area, other than a giant super stadium,” Mayor Skip Edgemond told the Board of Supervisors last week ahead of the vote.
The stadium will be the largest high school stadium in the county, surpassing the 4,000-seat capacity of Tuscarora High School's stadium and matching the capacity of Segura Field, home of Loudoun United FC.
“We would be shooting ourselves in the foot by reducing the size of this stadium,” Superintendent Juli Briskman said. “We know the kids are going to be here.”
The high school would accommodate up to 2,100 students and the elementary school would accommodate nearly 1,000.
“It's a really big school, so it makes sense that we have a bigger stadium,” head coach Matt Letourneau said. “I think we over-think things sometimes, but it's really that simple.”
The board voted 4-4-1 to reject a proposal to make the stadium a 2,700-seat facility, then approved the original plan to build a 5,000-seat stadium on the school grounds by a 6-2-1 vote, with Superintendent Laura Techlony and Board Chair Phyllis Randall voting against the proposal.
They cited concerns about location and whether it was truly needed.
“I go to a lot of games,” Randall said.[The current] “Even back then the stadium wasn't full. And it was a stadium that could hold 4,000 people.”
“I believe the scope and size of a larger capacity stadium would be more appropriate in a central location that serves a larger population center within a suburban policy area,” Teclony added.
A typical high school in Loudoun County was built to accommodate 1,800 students.
