An unusual set of administrative circumstances has led to confusion over how many students are allowed at a private school in Lyon Park.
The Arlington County Board earlier this month extended an existing use permit allowing Tyndale Christian School to operate with a maximum of 40 students. It did so even though the school at 716 N. Barton Street currently has an enrollment of 80 students.
“We were very confused,” said Anne Bodine, vice president for development of the Lyon Park Citizens Association, who spoke at the Dec. 16 Board meeting where the existing 40-student use permit was extended through next July.
Bodine was not alone.
“This has been a little confusing,” Board member Maureen Coffey acknowledged.
The following events led to the discrepancy:
- County Board members in June 2024 approved a six-month initial use permit for a maximum of 40 students at the N. Barton Street site, then in December 2024 renewed that permit until December 2025
- In January 2025, Board members approved an amendment doubling the allowed enrollment, but instead of setting a review for December 2025 to go along with the original use permit, review was scheduled for July 2026
With review dates for the original site plan and the amendment months out of sync, confusion followed.
“We did not even know there were two use permits running concurrently,” said Bodine.
Coffey said Board members themselves weren’t quite sure how to proceed in the days leading up to the Dec. 16 vote.
“We had a little conversation amongst ourselves about, why continue with the [40-student] use permit when you are enrolled at 80?” she said.
Board members opted to extend the main use permit to July 2026, so both it and the amendment will then be on the same cycle and could be acted on in unison to set a permanent maximum enrollment total. That final figure could be the current 80 students — or more, or fewer.
Coffey said action next summer should put an end to the confusion about the future of the school, located in a former church building tucked inside a single-family neighborhood just north of Pershing Drive.
“I think we’ll be able to clean that up this upcoming summer and get everything a little easier to understand going forward,” she said. “We will make all of these pieces come back together.”
Bodine said her civic association had no problem with the action being taken at the Dec. 16 meeting, but wanted to get other concerns on the record.
“What we’re saying is, go ahead and please approve this with no changes,” she told Board members. “But then going forward, we’d like the Board to commit to a few conditions, just to make this process go smooth for us in the future.”
One of those conditions: Giving the association a heads-up by May on what will be recommended for the site at the July meeting.
Cedric Southerland, a county planner involved in the matter, said staff would reach out to the civic association in late April or early May.
Tyndale Christian School serves students from kindergarten through eighth grade. Initially, school leaders had requested that 135 students be allowed to use the facilities, but concerns about parking and other issues raised in the neighborhood led to the lower cap.
During the January hearing on expanding student enrollment from the initial 40 students, school officials said 80 was the bare minimum they would need to make the facility viable. In January, when the expansion from 40 to 80 was approved, some neighbors expressed concern about parking, noise and a lack of communication from school leadership.
At the time of the January vote, a number of Board members told school leaders to do a better job addressing concerns of those in the neighborhood, or potentially face having the student cap lowered down the road.
Prior to the January meeting, the Lyon Park Citizens Association had split on whether to support expansion or keep the 40-student maximum. By a narrow margin, the body had voted to support no more than 40 students.
In her Dec. 16 remarks to Board members, Bodine said the civic association plans to study the situation in more depth before providing an updated recommendation in the summer.
“We didn’t have a chance to gather input from the neighbors consistent with our needs to give you an actual informed review” in time for the Dec. 16 meeting, she said.
The school is located in the 700 block of N. Barton Street. It is housed in the former Bloss Memorial Free Will Baptist Church.