South West County HS?

[Anonymous]

Just flipping through FCPS CIP 2023-2027 and saw that $10 million is assigned to "South West County HS" for the site acquisition. This is in addition to the $13.5 million for Western High School.

So what is this South West County HS??? Are the FCPS thinking about adding TWO high schools?

By the way the 2026–27 Capacity Utilization projection also shows that the most crowded schools would be Chantilly and Centreville High Schools, two schools that are located in the Southwestern area.

[Anonymous]

Chantilly HS is not in the southwestern part of Fairfax.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just flipping through FCPS CIP 2023-2027 and saw that $10 million is assigned to "South West County HS" for the site acquisition. This is in addition to the $13.5 million for Western High School.

So what is this South West County HS??? Are the FCPS thinking about adding TWO high schools?

By the way the 2026–27 Capacity Utilization projection also shows that the most crowded schools would be Chantilly and Centreville High Schools, two schools that are located in the Southwestern area.

This came up during the School Board meeting where Jeff Platenberg gave the CIP presentation. Elaine Tholen specifically asked about this (it's a topic of interest if you live in Great Falls) and Platenberg said this only refers to one high school.

My take-away is that the project was described differently in two different bonds and FCPS now effectively has a total of $23.5M earmarked for site acquisition for a new high school somewhere in the western part of the county. People can continue to debate whether it will actually get built.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just flipping through FCPS CIP 2023-2027 and saw that $10 million is assigned to "South West County HS" for the site acquisition. This is in addition to the $13.5 million for Western High School.

So what is this South West County HS??? Are the FCPS thinking about adding TWO high schools?

By the way the 2026–27 Capacity Utilization projection also shows that the most crowded schools would be Chantilly and Centreville High Schools, two schools that are located in the Southwestern area.

Centreville (projected to be at 131%) is in the CIP for a renovation with construction between 2026 and 2030.

They have not identified a solution for Chantilly, projected to be at 132% in 2026, other than the potential new western high school, or for McLean, which is projected to be at 121% and currently has fewer permanent seats than either Centreville or Chantilly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just flipping through FCPS CIP 2023-2027 and saw that $10 million is assigned to "South West County HS" for the site acquisition. This is in addition to the $13.5 million for Western High School.

So what is this South West County HS??? Are the FCPS thinking about adding TWO high schools?

By the way the 2026–27 Capacity Utilization projection also shows that the most crowded schools would be Chantilly and Centreville High Schools, two schools that are located in the Southwestern area.

Centreville (projected to be at 131%) is in the CIP for a renovation with construction between 2026 and 2030.

They have not identified a solution for Chantilly, projected to be at 132% in 2026, other than the potential new western high school, or for McLean, which is projected to be at 121% and currently has fewer permanent seats than either Centreville or Chantilly.

^ Just to add to this, they still show Centreville at 131% because the renovation/expansion wouldn't be finished until 2030, and they haven't decided how much they'll expand the school. They just finally came out in this CIP and stated that Falls Church, which is going to be renovated before Centreville, will be expanded to 2500 seats.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just flipping through FCPS CIP 2023-2027 and saw that $10 million is assigned to "South West County HS" for the site acquisition. This is in addition to the $13.5 million for Western High School.

So what is this South West County HS??? Are the FCPS thinking about adding TWO high schools?

By the way the 2026–27 Capacity Utilization projection also shows that the most crowded schools would be Chantilly and Centreville High Schools, two schools that are located in the Southwestern area.

This came up during the School Board meeting where Jeff Platenberg gave the CIP presentation. Elaine Tholen specifically asked about this (it's a topic of interest if you live in Great Falls) and Platenberg said this only refers to one high school.

My take-away is that the project was described differently in two different bonds and FCPS now effectively has a total of $23.5M earmarked for site acquisition for a new high school somewhere in the western part of the county. People can continue to debate whether it will actually get built.

Thanks. I think it's politically much easier to build a new HS in Southwestern area, somewhere in Centerville or Clifton, which would probably mean no boundary changes for Herndon and Great Falls areas.

The proposed CIP for 2023-2027 projects that Herndon, Langley, Oakton, South Lakes and Westfield would be at or under capacity for 2026-2027. It also omits the usual language that the new school in the western area of the county would provide capacity relief for high schools in the Centreville, Chantilly, Herndon, Oakton, South Lakes, and Westfield areas.

So it looks like if a new high school is ever built, it's going to be in the Southwestern area. In other words, Langley parents will score another win.

[Anonymous]

Thanks. I think it's politically much easier to build a new HS in Southwestern area, somewhere in Centerville or Clifton, which would probably mean no boundary changes for Herndon and Great Falls areas.

This would make sense. Some of the Chantilly kids could then go to Centreville to relieve Chantilly and they could also absorb the Fairfax High kids who live in Centreville's backyard. That would genuinely help the overcrowded schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just flipping through FCPS CIP 2023-2027 and saw that $10 million is assigned to "South West County HS" for the site acquisition. This is in addition to the $13.5 million for Western High School.

So what is this South West County HS??? Are the FCPS thinking about adding TWO high schools?

By the way the 2026–27 Capacity Utilization projection also shows that the most crowded schools would be Chantilly and Centreville High Schools, two schools that are located in the Southwestern area.

This came up during the School Board meeting where Jeff Platenberg gave the CIP presentation. Elaine Tholen specifically asked about this (it's a topic of interest if you live in Great Falls) and Platenberg said this only refers to one high school.

My take-away is that the project was described differently in two different bonds and FCPS now effectively has a total of $23.5M earmarked for site acquisition for a new high school somewhere in the western part of the county. People can continue to debate whether it will actually get built.

Thanks. I think it's politically much easier to build a new HS in Southwestern area, somewhere in Centerville or Clifton, which would probably mean no boundary changes for Herndon and Great Falls areas.

The proposed CIP for 2023-2027 projects that Herndon, Langley, Oakton, South Lakes and Westfield would be at or under capacity for 2026-2027. It also omits the usual language that the new school in the western area of the county would provide capacity relief for high schools in the Centreville, Chantilly, Herndon, Oakton, South Lakes, and Westfield areas.

So it looks like if a new high school is ever built, it's going to be in the Southwestern area. In other words, Langley parents will score another win.

Hard to say. If you look at the FCPS on the potential student yield from new and approved housing units, the largest number of additional high school students would be coming from the areas zoned for Westfield near the Phase 2 Silver Line stations and the third largest would be coming from new development in Reston feeding into South Lakes (Marshall and McLean would pick up the second and fourth highest numbers from Tysons developments). Not sure how much of that is reflected in the 2023-2027 projections.

So, depending on what actually gets built, there could be enrollment pressure in other parts of the county besides southwestern Fairfax in the coming years.

[Anonymous]

They changed the reference from “South West County” HS to “Western” HS when they realized they might need to build at the Hutchison site in the southern part of Herndon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They changed the reference from “South West County” HS to “Western” HS when they realized they might need to build at the Hutchison site in the southern part of Herndon.

Terrible location.. Have they considered the traffic patterns? One way in and one way out. All the traffic would be from the same direction and competing with the commuter traffic going to the new Metro stop.

[Anonymous]

Will people volunteer for their houses to be condemned at a different location?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Will people volunteer for their houses to be condemned at a different location?

So, you wish to get rid of affordable housing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Will people volunteer for their houses to be condemned at a different location?

If they build at Hutchison some of the houses around the school would likely be taken in eminent domain. That land would be needed for the larger building and for parking as well.

I don’t know how many of the houses are occupied by renters vs. owners. Presumably those holding the houses as investment properties wouldn’t fight selling them, and if that’s most of the neighborhood then easily done.

If the county is worried about traffic they could use some of the purchased land to cut another road.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Will people volunteer for their houses to be condemned at a different location?

If they build at Hutchison some of the houses around the school would likely be taken in eminent domain. That land would be needed for the larger building and for parking as well.

I don’t know how many of the houses are occupied by renters vs. owners. Presumably those holding the houses as investment properties wouldn’t fight selling them, and if that’s most of the neighborhood then easily done.

If the county is worried about traffic they could use some of the purchased land to cut another road.

Another road? Where? 28 and Centreville are both parking lots at rush hour--at least, before the pandemic. The new Metro will bring more traffic.

[Anonymous]

The 2013 bond had $10M for the South West County HS. The 2021 bond had $13.5M for the Western HS. Since they've confirmed it's just one HS, it clearly means they aren't limiting themselves to building in the southwestern part of the county. I know that may not sit well with one group in particular, which wants the new HS as far from its current boundaries as possible. But it is what it is.