The top elected school official in Fairfax County said the system may sue to force the Army to recognize that an upcoming job influx at Fort Belvoir will bring a flood of new students.
A potential suit would center on one of the largest disputes between the military and local governments over the federally mandated shift of 19,000 new workers to Belvoir: the number of new school-age children, and who should pay for them. Estimates between the two sides vary by thousands; Fairfax says 3,200 kids, the Army says 265.
Fairfax County School Board Chairman Dan Storck told The Examiner that school officials are also considering organizing local communities to rebut the Army’s lower estimates and seeking intervention from the area’s congressional delegation.
His threat signaling that the prospect of reaching a consensus on the figure after months of argument has all but disintegrated.
“We’re talking to people, we’re looking at how we move this forward,” Storck said. “We recognize that the Army’s made its point known. We don’t expect them to change until others force them to change.”
The argument first sprouted from the Army’s early planning documents that estimated 3,200 students will accompany the jobs, which will arrive by 2011 as part of Congress’ 2005 Base Realignment and Closure orders.
School officials, who want the Army to help build the needed new facilities, hold to that figure.
The military whittled that number down to a net 265 in August after a George Mason University study forecast only a trickle of students in Fairfax as part of BRAC.
The study said Prince William and Stafford counties would see a larger enrollment increase.
Storck called this reasoning “absurd.”
“The size of the Pentagon moving into our community is not going to generate additional students?” he said.
A Fort Belvoir spokesman declined comment on Monday. Belvoir commander Col. Brian Lauritzen, in an April 25 letter to Fairfax County School Superintendent Jack Dale, argued the destination of new students will be based largely on local land-use decisions, not the Army.
