King Abdullah Academy Closing: FCPS Buy for HS?

[Anonymous]

Where are they going to find admin and teachers to staff a brand new school??

[Anonymous]

Memory Lane:

This was going to be Western High School and BOS and School Board gave it to Saudis due to political pressure.

It will relieve Chantilly. There will likely need to be some middle school adjustments depending on capacity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Another shitshow.

+1. Total incompetence and possible malfeasance.

No, we need a western hs and have for years. This is a rare opportunity and I’m glad they seized it. Let’s hope they don’t go to their usual ways and screw it up.

Why is it needed? Is that to deal with the overcapacity at Herndon high?

Seems like it's a HS that would pull from Coates, McNair, Floris, Oak Hill, and Fox Mill. Westfield can then pick up more of Centreville and the Centreville expansion can be scaled back significantly (while still allowing it to pick up Willow Springs).

People will go along with moving to a school with those feeders in a way they never would have gone along with a new school near Hutchison.

They can still move part of Coates into the Herndon pyramid. It just means Herndon isn't part of a solution to overcrowding at Chantilly and increases the likelihood that at some point they will move part of Langley into Herndon.

Left out Crossfield. All of Franklin Farm should be included,

Franklin Farm goes to Chantilly, where the numbers are dropping. There is no reason to move them to the new school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The smartest thing would be to send everyone from Carson to this new high school - make it a secondary school of sorts. They'll have to tear down the trees in between the schools for sports fields and a parking lot anyway.

Is it large enough to handle all the Carson kids? Probably if the AAP kids go tot heir base HS. That would mean Floris, Coates, McNair, and Fox Mill for the new HS. Since the Floris kids are a split feeder maybe shift the rest of Floris to the new HS.

Please tell me they can do this in 2 years. I would be thrilled to not need to pupil place out of SLHS IB program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just because many FCPS families are entitled jerks doesn’t mean this wasn’t a good acquisition for FCPS. This fills a long term need and the details will be worked out and people will whine and complain and accuse and I hope we just ignore them.

I’d be thrilled, too, if FCPS just tossed the CIP aside and said they were going to spend $150-250M in my neighborhood that we’d previously been told couldn’t happen for many years because there isn’t enough money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just because many FCPS families are entitled jerks doesn’t mean this wasn’t a good acquisition for FCPS. This fills a long term need and the details will be worked out and people will whine and complain and accuse and I hope we just ignore them.

I’d be thrilled, too, if FCPS just tossed the CIP aside and said they were going to spend $150-250M in my neighborhood that we’d previously been told couldn’t happen for many years because there isn’t enough money.

There has been money set aside for building a Western HS for ages. They can pay to renovate Centerville without the expansion, which wouldn't be needed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just because many FCPS families are entitled jerks doesn’t mean this wasn’t a good acquisition for FCPS. This fills a long term need and the details will be worked out and people will whine and complain and accuse and I hope we just ignore them.

I’d be thrilled, too, if FCPS just tossed the CIP aside and said they were going to spend $150-250M in my neighborhood that we’d previously been told couldn’t happen for many years because there isn’t enough money.

There has been money set aside for building a Western HS for ages. They can pay to renovate Centerville without the expansion, which wouldn't be needed.

The only money that had been set aside was about $25 million for land acquisition.

Everything else was just an estimate of how much a new school would cost, with no plans to begin construction for many years.

This will completely upend both the ongoing boundary study and other projects in the CIP, of which Centreville is just one example.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just because many FCPS families are entitled jerks doesn’t mean this wasn’t a good acquisition for FCPS. This fills a long term need and the details will be worked out and people will whine and complain and accuse and I hope we just ignore them.

I’d be thrilled, too, if FCPS just tossed the CIP aside and said they were going to spend $150-250M in my neighborhood that we’d previously been told couldn’t happen for many years because there isn’t enough money.

There has been money set aside for building a Western HS for ages. They can pay to renovate Centerville without the expansion, which wouldn't be needed.

The only money that had been set aside was about $25 million for land acquisition.

Everything else was just an estimate of how much a new school would cost, with no plans to begin construction for many years.

This will completely upend both the ongoing boundary study and other projects in the CIP, of which Centreville is just one example.

Fine, upend away. It is right in the area that needs to have kids shifted around. Parklawn and Coates are massively overcrowed. Centerville is overcrowded enough that they are talking about expanding the school to 3,000 seats. SLHS is near capacity with a recent expansion. Westfield, Oakton and Chantilly are near or over 100% capacity.

Buying a building that is ready to be used saves construction costs and time. It allows kids to be shifted to a new school as a unit so everyone is a new location at the same time, which decreases the pain of moving because all of the students are in the same position. And it so happens to be at the very location that was supposed to be used for the new HS that was stupidly squandered years ago. Carson will have a school that it can feed into.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just because many FCPS families are entitled jerks doesn’t mean this wasn’t a good acquisition for FCPS. This fills a long term need and the details will be worked out and people will whine and complain and accuse and I hope we just ignore them.

I’d be thrilled, too, if FCPS just tossed the CIP aside and said they were going to spend $150-250M in my neighborhood that we’d previously been told couldn’t happen for many years because there isn’t enough money.

There has been money set aside for building a Western HS for ages. They can pay to renovate Centerville without the expansion, which wouldn't be needed.

The only money that had been set aside was about $25 million for land acquisition.

Everything else was just an estimate of how much a new school would cost, with no plans to begin construction for many years.

This will completely upend both the ongoing boundary study and other projects in the CIP, of which Centreville is just one example.

Fine, upend away. It is right in the area that needs to have kids shifted around. Parklawn and Coates are massively overcrowed. Centerville is overcrowded enough that they are talking about expanding the school to 3,000 seats. SLHS is near capacity with a recent expansion. Westfield, Oakton and Chantilly are near or over 100% capacity.

Buying a building that is ready to be used saves construction costs and time. It allows kids to be shifted to a new school as a unit so everyone is a new location at the same time, which decreases the pain of moving because all of the students are in the same position. And it so happens to be at the very location that was supposed to be used for the new HS that was stupidly squandered years ago. Carson will have a school that it can feed into.

Centreville wasn’t going to be expanded to 3000 because of overcrowding at Centreville.

But, yes, if this is the right school in the right location, then scrap the current boundary study and all the useless shit in the last CIP and start from scratch, recognizing that this school will change a lot of boundaries and chew up funding that FCPS was previously planning to spend over the next five years on other projects.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hope many students can the school accommodate?

Google says recent enrollment was 739 with an 8:1 student/teacher ratio.

1200 students currently at KAA

Private schools have much lower class size caps than FCPS.

How many classrooms does that school have? FCPS will pack the classrooms with 30-35 students in a class.

[Anonymous]

Any idea on when this would be ready for FCPS use? Maybe 2026-2027 school year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Any idea on when this would be ready for FCPS use? Maybe 2026-2027 school year?

No way. First they need to purchase the property. Then they need to set aside funds in next years budget to plan for renovations. Then they have to fund the renovations and complete the build. I’d say 2028-29 school year with 2027-28 being an ambitious timeline.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just because many FCPS families are entitled jerks doesn’t mean this wasn’t a good acquisition for FCPS. This fills a long term need and the details will be worked out and people will whine and complain and accuse and I hope we just ignore them.

I’d be thrilled, too, if FCPS just tossed the CIP aside and said they were going to spend $150-250M in my neighborhood that we’d previously been told couldn’t happen for many years because there isn’t enough money.

No. We were told there was no land. Again, it KAA site 2as initially supposed to be for Western High.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any idea on when this would be ready for FCPS use? Maybe 2026-2027 school year?

No way. First they need to purchase the property. Then they need to set aside funds in next years budget to plan for renovations. Then they have to fund the renovations and complete the build. I’d say 2028-29 school year with 2027-28 being an ambitious timeline.

It's a fairly new property. How much in renovations could it need?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just because many FCPS families are entitled jerks doesn’t mean this wasn’t a good acquisition for FCPS. This fills a long term need and the details will be worked out and people will whine and complain and accuse and I hope we just ignore them.

I’d be thrilled, too, if FCPS just tossed the CIP aside and said they were going to spend $150-250M in my neighborhood that we’d previously been told couldn’t happen for many years because there isn’t enough money.

No. We were told there was no land. Again, it KAA site 2as initially supposed to be for Western High.

Let's be clear.

The last CIP indicated that the cost of a new western HS would be about $455 million, and that construction would start no earlier than 2034 (a date that FCPS was regularly postponing, leading many to believe the school would never open, especially with all the other schools getting expanded).

Of the $455 million, the only part that was funded was $23.5 million for land acquisition. Nothing else was funded.

Now they have a deal to buy the property/school for $150 million. Millions more (they haven't even provided an estimate) will be required to make it fit-for-purpose as an FCPS school.

They will have to come up with the money to fund what's unfunded, and this means canceling, deferring, or scaling back other projects. Some of their other projects are wasteful, so that's great. Other projects are not wasteful, so their getting bumped may not be well received.