On September 10, 2013 The Loudoun County School Board took advantage of a new Virginia law and voted to approve moving forward with an application to transform Middleburg Elementary into a Charter School. Their decision avoided a potentially lengthy application review by the Virginia State Board of Education.

Janelle Stewart, President of the Middleburg Elementary Parent/Teacher Organization has been working with dedicated parents and other supporters of the school for well over a year on the project.

Seven members of the School Board voted in favor of the decision. Only one, Sterling representative Brenda Sheridan, voted no. Blue Ridge representative Jill Turgeon, Vice Chair of the Board Education, was absent.

Middleburg Elementary is the smallest of the county's small schools, with an enrollment that hovers around 50 students.

Over the next few weeks a special committee and senior staff will work to review, critique, revise and improve the Middleburg application before its final presentation to the full School Board in February.

If approved, the newly designated "charter school" will offer a year-round schedule, a longer school day, full-day kindergarten, and a multi-age after-school program with tutors and special interest clubs.

Current thinking on the new curriculum focuses on the special interests and creativity of Leonardo DaVinci, thematically integrating math and science classes, reading programs, English and art.

August 2014 has been set as the target date for opening the new school. Middleburg Elementary will be designed to serve around 60 students. Because of its new "charter" status, any student in the county system will be able to apply to attend. If there are more applications than openings, qualified attendees will be selected using a lottery.

As late as June of this year Vice-Chairperson Turgeon was still hopeful that the school could remain open without using the charter option. She told a Middleburg Town Council work session that money, primarily the $2.7 million per year the School Board had been advised it could save by closing five of the county's smallest schools, including Middleburg Elementary, would be a critical, if not absolutely deciding issue. At that time she still believed the Board could find $2.7 million in savings elsewhere.

See www.middleburgcharterschool.org for further details on plans for the school as well as the text of the formal charter application.