Where did the 400 kids go? If that's just due to an aging population in the area, then expanding the capacity seems very foolish. |
+1? |
| Is Seema posting on here lol |
Centreville is not that overcrowded now (under 105%) and emptying it out would reduce the pressure to do what FCPS should have done already, which is reach an agreement with the Park Authority to renew the lease that allows for the current/planned student populations. |
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New-ish to this issue and trying to catch up. One thing I did just notice is that the numbers for Oakton HS are different in different docs on FCPS website. In the original "options" plans, it's listed at currently 98% current utilization, but in the zone map, it shows 103% current utilization. IMO that's a big swing/discrepancy.
https://www.fcps.edu/system/files/forms/2025-10/western_high_school_options.pdf https://fcpswesternboundary.org/ |
Over the long term, keeping high schools open and adding some capacity when schools are renovated has served FCPS better than closing high schools. That doesn’t mean Centreville still needs to be expanded to 3000, nor does it mean its enrollment should be reduced to 1800 now just so Westfield can remain at 2400. |
The first options may have been based on 2024-25 enrollment. The most recent options are based on 2025-26 enrollment. All the boundary changes approved in January 2026 were based on 2024-25 enrollments. |
tyty Maybe playing with everchanging program capacity? |
+1 Although they nixed the move of Fairfax Acres to Oakton based on the unexpected spike in enrollment for the 25-26 school year (and because they’d over enrolled Thoreau with Wolftrap kids.) |
No program capacity did not change. It was 2642 for both school years. Enrollment jumped from 2601 to 2711 between the 24-25 and 25-26 school years. |
Interesting, but still a big swing - that would equal an additional at least 126 kids in the 25/26 school year. There are currently 1,435 new housing units approved in the school zone, which would mean another at least 100/150 high schoolers and another 5% of additional capacity at Oakton. Is Oakton not being touched in this "final" recommendation solely because it's the involved parents complaining vs. Westfield? |
Westfield had 2750 students this year. |
So you don't think anyone should be moved out of Centreville? |
So you don't want to reduce overcrowding at Centreville--one of the reasons the new school was purchased--so you can keep pressure on FCPS to spend a fortune giving you a brand new school with a thousand unfillable seats? When there are 800 open seats right next door at Westfield? Fascinating. |
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The "final" scenario has centreville at 101% capacity with 2118 students **in a building that only holds 2098 students**
(Leaving CVHS with around 1850-1900 students would put it exactly in FCPS's right size guidelines for building capacity BTW). It has Westfield with 2083 students at 74% capacity in a building that holds 2800+ students. (And this includes the Brookfield walkers who everyone agrees should be moved back to Chantilly) It has Chantilly with 2642 students at 99% capacity in a building that holds 2649 students. These numbers are ridiculous. They need to pull more kids out of Chantilly and Centreville. |