News / The Northern Virginia Daily/nvdaily.com
Officials take tour of possible school site
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Extension of road key to building new John Kerr Elementary facility at location
By Alex Bridges -- abridges@nvdaily.com
WINCHESTER -- An alternate site for a new John Kerr Elementary School likely comes with some costly hitches, according to city officials who saw the property Friday.
Members of the School Board and City Council, along with other officials, toured the heavily wooded, 10-acre parcel south of Sacred Heart Academy and west of Glen Burnie Historic House and Gardens currently eyed as a possible location for a new John Kerr.
Representatives with Grimm & Parker Architects joined the group to look at the terrain with the intention of giving the division cost estimates of building a school on the site.
The division has plans to build a new John Kerr to house approximately 600 pupils -- nearly twice the number in the current school that officials say has outlived its useful life span after 40 years.
Extending Meadow Branch Avenue remains key if the school division wants to build the new facility on a 10-acre parcel south of Sacred Heart Academy, next to Glen Burnie off Amherst Street.
"So how that would all work and the triggers for the development of that roadway are crucial for this thing to work," said Kevin McKew, executive director for Winchester Public Schools. "So that's something that if, you know, working with city council and school board, if it's something that they really is gonna be pursued I think that whole issue oughta be talked about."
Whether the site would work for a school remains unknown.
"Well we're looking at both options obviously, but I don't know enough about the site yet," said John Kerr Principal Anita Jenkins. "We need to hear back from the architects and get more information about any obstacles that might be there."
Erica Truban, a member of the panel that looked at the options, agreed, and noted the need to extend Meadow Branch.
"You could have a very large price tag that might bump us off the plate right away," Truban said. "It's exciting but it's not something you want to hang your hat on right now. There's a lot of factors we need to look at."
Melanie Hennigan, an architect with Grimm & Parker, explained to officials the firm would try to calculate a cost per linear foot to extend Meadow Branch Avenue. Hennigan and other architects noted the property slopes toward Glen Burnie, requiring grading, and the amount of rock could affect costs.
The city and the school division also would need to look at the utilities needed for the site and the cost involved, McKew explained.
While the division also could build the new school on space it owns on the current John Kerr property, School Board member Vincent Di Benedetto said he preferred the alternative site. Di Benedetto said that traffic would only get worse if the new school is built at the present site.
The 10 acres allows just enough space for a new John Kerr, according to McKew.
"It is doable but it is a compact site -- it means a two-story school," McKew said, comparing the property to that of Virginia Avenue-Charlotte Dehart Elementary School.
The site is part of a large parcel conditionally rezoned in 2005, according to city Planning Director Tim Youmans. The development called for 40 single-family homes as proffered then, Youmans said. The property owner who sought the rezoning for the site and other adjacent parcels did not proffer the construction of the Meadow Branch extension, he said.
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