Future Cell Phone Towers At Loudoun Schools Restricted

ASHBURN, VA — While several Loudoun County schools have cell phone towers on site, future cell phone towers at other school sites won't be considered for now.

The Loudoun County School Board approved a policy revision that would not allow any new wireless network facilities on Loudoun County Public Schools elementary, middle or high school property as of Oct. 1, for five years. All School Board members voted in favor of the motion, except at-large member Anne Donohue, who abstained.

Donohue attempted to introduce a motion that would allow the school board to continue considering cell phone towers on school properties on a case-by-case basis. No other school board members supported that amendment.

"My reasons for those concerns are that the cell phone towers bring in tens of thousands of dollars of revenue to our system, to our division every year," said Donohue. "That limiting addition of cell phone towers on our school owned properties could have a detrimental effect on connectivity for cell phones or wireless access in our LCPS facilities, which would have other harmful effects for our students and our staff. And I am generally constrained about limiting the future authority of this board in this way."

Chair Melinda Mansfield (Dulles) said the policy revision doesn't apply to any LCPS non-school properties.

Vice Chair Arben Istrefi (Sterling) had been going "back and forth" on his stance, noted the intent of the cell phone tower at Wood Grove High School was for better emergency management and connectivity.

However, I'm going to stand by my original vote, because I believe that as things continue to develop in Loudoun County, and just defaulting to our public schools for cell towers, as space is more limited and seeing the space that is available at our public schools, I just don't think that matches the aspirations of our community," said Istrefi.

Member April Chandler (Algonkian), noted her district was where cell phone towers were proposed — Dominion High School and Riverbend Middle School. She cited largely opposition from the community and a petition with over 850 signatures.

We had a great deal of community input. We had people show up at both sites," said Chandler. "Not everyone agreed, of course, but I did ask the community to please provide feedback to help me make the decision with my vote on this issue, and overwhelmingly, the feedback that I've heard from the community is opposed to having towers on school sites."

Opposed community members concerned about the health impacts of wireless radiation. Chandler said the FCC continues to have standards from 1996 and even applied it to a judgement on 5G networks. According to Chandler, the Environmental Health Trust's 2021 lawsuit win against the FCC involved the court ordering the FCC to explain why it didn't follow evidence about radiation's harm. While WHO research so far hasn't suggested a widespread risk of cancer from the wireless radiation, Chandler is awaiting more studies from WHO, including on cell phone towers.

Environmental Health Trust versus the FCC, the US Court of Appeals in Washington found that the FCC had failed to meet even the lowest threshold of reasoned analysis, with the court noting in the decision that the court's perspective, from the court's perspective, the FCC had waved off any concern for protections for children and the environment. The court ordered the FCC to explain why it ignored scientific evidence showing harm.

LCPS already approved cell phone towers at Woodgrove High School, Rock Ridge High School and the non-school, county-owned Mickie Gordon Park. Woodgrove High School's cell phone tower was approved in June 2022, and construction was completed in August 2023, according to school board documents. Woodgrove High School's cell phone tower was intended to address dead spots and limited connectivity issues with the LCPS school bus radio system, emergency alert system, and maintenance vehicle radios, the school board documents state.

The Woodgrove High School site license agreement is up for renewal in December 2027. Rock Ridge High School's agreement is up for renewal in October 2026, and Mickie Gordon Park's agreement is up for renewal in February 2028.