LoudounNow LOUDOUN COUNTY’S COMMUNITY-OWNED NEWS SOURCE
[ Vol. 2, No. 23 ]
[ loudounnow.com ]
Now • April 13,
ent to Loudoun
Special Supplem
2017
Flower and Garden Festival Guide Inside
Apr. 13 – 19, 2017 ]
Renss Greene/Loudoun Now
This is not your typical library. Sure, the new and improved Sterling Library has plenty of reading material, but it also features 3D printers, sewing equipment, and this pictured teen room where young guests can play games and watch movies.
New Library Signals Sterling Park Revitalization BY RENSS GREENE
I
f you haven’t been in a library in the past few years, the new Sterling Library may not look very familiar to you. Long aisles of books still line the floors. But they are interspersed with modern furniture, lighted by eco-friendly solar tubes, and surrounded by hightech conference rooms, study spaces, and a dedicated teen room with all the latest video game consoles. Branch Manager Katie Kalil said the newest branch of the Loudoun County Public Library is a pilot for a lot of ideas. “When they were originally planning the design of this facility, they did several community meetings to let the Sterling Park citizens have a choice in what’s going to be in the library, and what’s the need in the community,” Kalil said. That has resulted in a library with a focus on flexibility. It has a makerspace with everything from 3D printers, to machines for digitizing old VHS and film videos, to sewing machines and equipment. It also means having a staff that speaks
a variety of languages. Kalil said the library has focused on that when hiring, and depending on some pending hires, it could have close to 10 different languag-
es represented on its staff on opening day Saturday. The library has a big focus on Spanish, the second most spoken language in the Sterling area. Four people
on staff are at least conversant in Spanish, and three are fluent. “One of the recommendations that we STERLING LIBRARY >> 31
Small School Closure Threats Resurface BY DANIELLE NADLER
Danielle Nadler/Loudoun Now
School Board member Eric Hornberger (Ashburn) makes the case for consolidating Lincoln and Hamilton elementary schools into Kenneth Culbert Elementary at a budget work session April 6.
School Board talks over how to close a $5.5 million budget shortfall fired off Thursday with a heated debate over whether to close two of the county’s oldest schools, Lincoln and Hamilton elementary. Board member Eric Hornberger (Ashburn) made the motion to hold a public hearing on consolidating those two schools into Kenneth W. Culbert Elementary near Hamilton; the law requires the board give a 10-day notice ahead of a public hearing on potential school closures. “This vote is about keeping the
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conversation open,” Hornberger said during the April 6 meeting. “This is an opportunity for us to save $1.15 million of the $5.5 million that we have to cut.” The motion ultimately failed, with just Hornberger, Brenda Sheridan (Sterling), Debbie Rose (Algonkian) and Tom Marshall (Leesburg) in support, but only after an almost 45-minute debate. Eric DeKenipp (Catoctin) questioned the staff ’s cost-saving estimates of closing the two schools, and stressed that sending Lincoln and Hamilton students to Culbert would SMALL SCHOOLS >> 16
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