Why does Fairfax County not seem to build new schools, especially high schools?

[Anonymous]

I live in Loudoun County and it feels like new schools are being built every year. There's always referendums in elections asking whether some school building project should be funded and they pretty much always pass. Yet in Fairfax County it seems that new schools, especially high schools, are not being built. This is even stranger when you consider that high schools in Loudoun County are on average smaller by population than high schools in Fairfax County. Does this happen because Fairfax County's population is not growing as fast as Loudoun County's population or is there some other reason?

[Anonymous]

Because Loudon is rapidly shifting from rural to suburban. Fairfax made that shift decades ago.

[Anonymous]

It's a lot easier to build a new high school in the middle of an open field than it is to fit it in already built-up (and expensive) land.

[Anonymous]

Fairfax County population is declining. There is no need for a new high school in the next 10-15 years.

[Anonymous]

Loudoun can buy land to build new schools, FCPS cannot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Fairfax County population is declining. There is no need for a new high school in the next 10-15 years.

I wish they did though.

At least, for the secondary schools. My kids' secondary school is so overpopulated, not the school itself per se, but the fields for sports, the parking lot areas and the horrible traffic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Fairfax County population is declining. There is no need for a new high school in the next 10-15 years.

The first part is not true. The county population dropped with Covid but is increasing again, and FCPS had 182,626 students in March 2024 compared with 181,927 students in March 2023.

As for the second part, it's debatable whether FCPS could use a new high school. A new high school could reduce the average HS enrollment, but the obstacles are significant - finding a suitable location, paying for the land, and convincing people they'd prefer a new HS than their current one. Loudoun has more potential locations, cheaper land, and generally more homogeneous demographics.

Since FCPS has talked about a new HS for years and never done anything about it, continuing to expand schools when they are renovated seems like the most likely path going forward.

[Anonymous]

Land and construction costs have increased astronomically over the past few decades. renocatinf the existing Fall Church HS in Fairfax County cost $130 million. Construction of the new Meridian HS in Falls Church City, which has a capacity of just 875 students (compared to 2000-3000 students for Fairfax County high schools) cost $120M.

Building a new high school for say, Tyson’s, would cost $60M to $120M for the land and then perhaps another $160M to $200M for construction.

[Anonymous]

^Renovating

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Loudoun can buy land to build new schools, FCPS cannot.

+1

[Anonymous]

The other thing which I find strange is how bunched up some of the high schools are. Fairfax HS and Woodson HS are very close together and that causes them to have strange boundaries. It would have been better if Woodson HS were located a bit more to the west. That way you could cut the current Woodson district in half and make the City of Fairfax plus the eastern part of the Woodson HS district as the Fairfax HS district and then take the western part of the Woodson HS district along with the remaining part of the Fairfax HS district and call it the new Woodson HS district. That way the boundary between the two would make more sense.

[Anonymous]

As another example, Langley HS and McLean HS are located close to each other as well. If Langley HS were located more to the center of its current district, its location would make more sense.

Of course due to Loudoun County's uneven population growth the school boundaries there can also be quite strange as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As another example, Langley HS and McLean HS are located close to each other as well. If Langley HS were located more to the center of its current district, its location would make more sense.

Of course due to Loudoun County's uneven population growth the school boundaries there can also be quite strange as well.

As Loudoun has built new schools and redrawn boundaries, it now has a number of high schools located right at the edge of the school's boundaries. It happens.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The other thing which I find strange is how bunched up some of the high schools are. Fairfax HS and Woodson HS are very close together and that causes them to have strange boundaries. It would have been better if Woodson HS were located a bit more to the west. That way you could cut the current Woodson district in half and make the City of Fairfax plus the eastern part of the Woodson HS district as the Fairfax HS district and then take the western part of the Woodson HS district along with the remaining part of the Fairfax HS district and call it the new Woodson HS district. That way the boundary between the two would make more sense.

Woodson and Fairfax are 3.3 miles apart, and Langley and McLean are 3.5 miles apart, but the winner is Madison and Oakton, which are only 1.4 miles apart. That - along with the requirement that all Fairfax City students attend Fairfax - has a lot to do with Oakton having boundaries that stretch from Vienna to Herndon.

[Anonymous]

Fairfax is not growing in areas where there is room to build a school. There is however population growth in the older suburbs like Seven Corners and Baileys X Roads where many new apartments are coming on line. Parts of Western Fairfax county is growing, but the growth will be accommodated by recently finished or upcoming school expansions.

Re new construction, FCPS prefers to renovate with phased construction over a few years vs tear down rebuild, even if renovation comes out a little more in terms of cost. (The exception is the historic Dunn Loring School which will be demolished.)

MCPS is currently building multiple new middle and high schools for its growing population.

Locally, MCPS and APS prefer to tear down and rebuild their secondary schools (unless they are historic or part of a historic district).

DCPS renovates all of its historic school buildings (for obvious reasons).