At about this time last year, Dr. Edgar B. Hat-
rick and Loudoun County Public Schools were facing a dilemma not entirely unlike the ones staring down many school systems across the nation. Tings would soon get even worse. Te board of supervisors for the county just
south of Fairfax and outside of Washington, D.C., made it known that they were planning to appropriate the county’s share of state public education dollars in the fiscal year 2011 budget in order to lower property taxes. Raising taxes is never popular, especially upon coming out of one of the worst recessions in U.S. history. So you can imagine what happened when Hatrick suggested a $0.03 tax increase per household to fully fund the school board’s budget request. “Tey ended up cutting us,” said Hatrick, who
is also the standing president of the American Association of School Administrators. Te supervisors’ decision left
the school
system in a bind. While property owners kept a couple of hundred dollars a month in their pockets, the school district essentially saw $22 million in funding vanish. Unlike the neigh- boring counties of Fairfax and Prince William, Loudoun County’s board of supervisors decid- ed to reduce the local transfer below the fiscal year 2010 level rather than use new state rev- enue and savings from the Virginia Retirement System. Meanwhile, the district has grown its enrollment by 6,000 students over the past two school years. Last year, Loudoun County also opened two new high schools and a new elementary school. Hatrick has seen it all during his 45 years as
a teacher, principal, administrator and super- intendent in Loudoun County. But no matter the influx of new students or the loss of funding from year to year, at least one thing remained constant: transportation. More than 90 per- cent of the district’s 66,000 students take the school bus, and the 520-square-mile service
area includes suburban D.C. to the east and very rural areas to the west that have their share of hazardous walk routes to and from school. For the past 15 years, the task of ensuring that school busing ran smoothly fell squarely on the shoulders of Transportation Director J. Michael Lunsford, who passed away suddenly last July 8. He was only 57. To say it was a blow to the district is a vast
understatement. Lunsford essentially spent his entire life in Loudoun County Public Schools, first as a student and then in transportation. Lunsford’s death certainly brought the budget issue into its correct light. Hatrick knew Lun- sford for more than 40 years, and his wife taught Lunsford in high school. Lunsford was part of the Loudoun family. In fact, he began his school transportation
career in September of 1968 as a 16-year-old school bus driver while still in high school, back when the state allowed teens to obtain CDLs. Lunsford picked up his fellow classmates in the Leesburg area and drove them home from Lou- doun County High School, a role for which he was handpicked by then-Superintendent Clar- ence M. Bussinger. Lunsford became a computer operator, com-
puter programmer, transportation coordinator, and transportation operations supervisor be- fore becoming the transportation director in 1995. Te school board honored him for 40 years of service in 2008. “I came from Prince William [Public Schools]
to work with Mr. Lunsford because he was so well known and so good,” said Alvin Hampton.
❝ It's very easy to manage after
Mike Lunsford set it all up for you.❞ -Alvin Hampton, Loudoun
County Public Schools transportation director
www.stnonline.com 29
The success of the transportation department is owed to J. Michael Lunsford, Loudoun County Public Schools transportation director for 15 years until his sudden death last summer.
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