2.5.1 Citizen Committees

  • January, 1940:  Report of the Survey Committee on Long-Range Planning for Loudoun County, Part I and II.  Sidney Hall, Superintendent of Public Instruction requested a study on September 25, 1939.  There is a significant amount of statistical information in the study, covering population trends from 1890 forward to 1930. Tables speak to these trends for districts and towns and also between white and “colored” races.  School population figures including enrollment are also covered. There are also notes on the closings of schools.
  • Donny School Commission, 1947. Contained many recommendations to improve schools in general and had specific recommendations for “negro education.”
  • Waterford Community Citizens Association:  See 2.7 Consolidation:  1947, Exchange of Letters Between Oscar Emerick and Waterford Community Citizens Association.
  • Citizen’s Committee 1948/49.  Committee was formed as part of state-wide program of school study.  The report was submitted on 15 July 1948 and appears to be the first major review of the school system after the close of World War Two.  A lot of recommendations were made on school closures, lighting needs and sanitation, etc.  The citizens also wanted an upgrade in teacher qualifications, noting that during that during the war the average qualification declined sharply, due to the need to staff the military.  The report also asked for two high schools, one in Leesburg and one in Purcellville, reflecting the then dominant agricultural character of the county.  There wasn’t any mention of “colored” schools; but the report is still very instructive.  Sanitation was in fact a topic that came up much earlier, such in the White, 1914 Teacher Institute[1]. Note that while specific recommendations for colored schools were missing, the Black community of Loudoun did participate in 1949 in discussions of the school study committee at Front Royal in the form of John Wanzer of the County-Wide League and others.
  • Petition, Undated asking for two high schools, one near Leesburg and one in Purcellville.  Location:  2.5.B (w) Purcellville/School Board Unk.
 

[1] See  4.2A  White Teacher Institute, Oct 1-2, 1914