Unhappy LOCCA members to address missing trees at Antietam Elementary

WOODBRIDGE — The loss of trees at Antietam Elementary School will be discussed Thursday night.

The Lake Ridge-Occoquan Civic Association (LOCCA) take up the matter at is 7:30 p.m. meeting inside the development services building at the Prince William County Government Center.

Residents and LOCCA members are upset after the school division removed trees from the front of the school earlier this year in the process of constructing 13 new classrooms. They say the trees provided not only cover for students, and served as a buffer between the road and homes, but also as a natural classroom that was meant to connect students with the woods.

“This was our nature school and they ruined that,” said Dr. Jack Kooyoomjian. “It looks like a bomb went off in the front of the school.”

The school was built in 1990, and at the time it was dedicated as a nature school where children would use the wooded area around the building as an outdoor classroom, Kooymoomjian. 

In an email sent to residents and elected officials, the school division said the trees needed to go to make room for more parking spaces, a water line and to make a place for contractors to park their equipment during construction of the new classroom addition.

The school division also said the school is safer now with the trees gone because, in the era of school shootings, potential shores will no longer be able to hide behind the trees.

LOCA’s meeting is open to the public and will take place in Room 107 A and B on the first floor of the Development Services building. The Antietam school issue is third on the agenda.