Private 'Micro-School' Seeks Permit To Use Space At Arlington Church

ARLINGTON, VA — A private “micro-school” for children in pre-kindergarten through 8th grade is planning to move into the Resurrection Evangelical Lutheran Church on Washington Blvd. in Arlington starting this fall.

The Village School will take over space previously used by a preschool at the church, which shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic and never reopened. With extra space available inside the building, the church was looking for another tenant to occupy the space.

"We are an independent private micro-school, and we are moving our K-8 classrooms into the former preschool at Resurrection Lutheran Church," the school wrote in an informational flier distributed to neighbors of the church.

In an application filed with Arlington County for a special use permit, The Village School is requesting permission to use about 9,000 square feet of space at the church.

The special use permit is on the Arlington County Board’s regular hearing item agenda at its meeting on Saturday. The school is seeking the special use permit to allow up to 60 children to attend the school at the church.

The county’s planning division initially misclassified the new school’s use permit at the church as a childcare center when it reached out to the Highland Park Overlee Knolls Civic Association.

"After recognizing the error, staff reached back out to the civic association to inform them of the corrections. The legal notification and postings around the site have been corrected to accurately describe the proposed use," Erika Moore, spokeswoman for the Arlington County Department of Community Planning, Housing & Development, said in an email to Patch.

When the preschool at the church closed during the pandemic, the church knew it would eventually want to find a new organization to use the extra space available at the church.

At its peak, Resurrection Evangelical Lutheran Church had 1,000 active members. Now, the church is down to about 150 active members, Jonathan Linman, pastor of Resurrection Evangelical Lutheran Church, told Patch.

In their conversations, Linman and other church leaders realized The Village School would be a good fit to replace the childcare center.

The school's style of pedagogy, which encourages collaboration among the children and learning how to serve others, matched the church's focus on serving the community through social outreach activities, Linman said.

Along with opening its doors to children and educators, Resurrection Evangelical Lutheran Church has served as a temporary polling place for the Overlee Knolls precinct on multiple Election Days.

Upon moving from its current location on Columbia Pike in Annandale to Arlington later this summer, The Village School plans to use the available space at the church from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. The school's regular day begins at 8 a.m. and ends at 3:30 p.m. After-school programs and activities will last until 5 p.m.

The school also plans to use the existing playground at the school and conduct other outdoor activities two to three hours per day.

"Given the school's small size, The Village School does not believe that it will have any impact on the neighborhood beyond the traffic brought by the previous tenant, which had the same number of students as The Village School," The Village School co-founder Maria Vogelei said in a statement of justification for the special exception use permit submitted to Arlington County.

The school will use a phased pick-up and drop-off of children at the school, with the times staggered in 15-minute intervals. No more than 10 cars will be outside the school at each interval, the school said.

The Arlington County Board meeting where the special use permit will be considered begins at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday on the third floor at 2100 Clarendon Blvd. County Board meetings are livestreamed on the county website and on YouTube and broadcast live on Arlington TV, the county’s cable channel.

Parents interested in The Village School can visit the school's website or email any questions about enrollment to hello@villageschoolnova.org.