n LOUDOUN
4 | n LEESBURG
6 | n EDUCATION
8 | n OBITUARIES
17 | n PUBLIC NOTICES
24
FLOWER & GARDEN PULLOUT INSIDE
VOL. 8, NO. 20
We’ve got you covered. In the mail weekly. Online always at LoudounNow.com
Superintendent Holds Second Listening Session in Ashburn
An Easter Eggstravaganza
BY ALEXIS GUSTIN
agustin@loudounnow.com
“I will always pass the lowest property tax rate while still adequately funding county services,” County Chair Phyllis J. Randall (D-At Large) said. “This is a compromise document. We don’t each get to write it,” Supervisor Matthew F. Leatourneau (R-Dulles) said. “I think if we did, you’d have perhaps nine different versions that might be a little bit different.” Tuesday’s action capped off four years of budget votes which started amid deep uncertainty. In March 2020, COVID-19 hit the U.S.
About 40 people participated in an at times contentious March 30 community listening session held by Loudoun County Public Schools Acting Superintendent Daniel Smith. The 60-minute meeting was the second in a series of eight, planned to take place through all the election districts in the county. The Ashburn District meeting was held at Trailside Middle School and included School Board Vice Chair Harris Mahedavi (Ashburn), Deputy Superintendent Ashley Ellis, Acting Chief of Staff Neil Slevin, Chief Operations Officer Kevin Lewis and Director of Professional Learning Tina Howle. Smith said one of the priorities he was given as acting superintendent was to build trust and relationships. “Thinking about what I can do as acting superintendent during this time I really felt like we needed to get out. Let’s be visible, let’s listen to our parents, our students and our community so that is what tonight is all about,” he said. “We may not have all the answers tonight, tonight is a listening session, but we will be happy to take your questions and comments and use them to continue to inform our work moving forward.”
COUNTY BUDGET continues on page 33
LISTENING SESSION continues on page 33
Kids around Loudoun got an early start on the annual egg-hunting season last weekend including these treasure-seekers at Lovettsville on Saturday.
Hanna Pampaloni/Loudoun Now
County Board Adopts its Final Budget BY RENSS GREENE rgreene@loudounnow.com
County supervisors have passed the last budget of their term, closing four years of fiscal decisions through a once-a-century pandemic, creating a new county department, absorbing another one from the state, and levying nearly $7 billion in real estate and personal property taxes. On Tuesday, supervisors adopted a budget totaling about $4.7 billion across the county, schools, and construction programs, funded in large part by a real estate tax rate of 87.5 cents per $100 in assessed value. But with property values climbing,
APRIL 6, 2023
the tax rate is projected to mean $339 more this year on the average real estate tax bill. It also includes a five-cent cut to the personal property tax rate to $4.15 per $100, a rate that had been unchanged since 1987 and which applies to residents’ possessions like cars, campers and boats and businesses’ assets like the computer equipment inside data centers, the major source of the county’s revenue from that industry. Supervisors approved the budget 8-01, Supervisor Caleb E. Kershner (R-Catoctin) absent, with several remarking that while there are things they would have changed, it’s a good compromise.
Award-winning independent, university-preparatory school
Enrollment Now Open
Tour & Apply Today! 703-759-5100
2023-2024 School Year www.FairfaxChristianSchool.com
K4 – 12
Located in Dulles on Pacific Boulevard, near the intersection of Route 28 & Old Ox Road.
ECRWSSEDDM Permit #1374 Merrifield VA
PAID
PRESRT STD U.S. Postage