FCPS is turning the new high school purchased to fix crowding into an Aviation magnet school instead of a high school??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So Reid's recognition is a hybrid school with a magnet program that would be restricted to kids otherwise zoned to a handful of western high schools?

How the hell does that square with "equitable access to programming" that is a priority in Policy 8130? Would it survive a legal challenge to deny access to kids in eastern Fairfax?

And she wants to use the two extra buildings for classrooms and labs when they making kids go through security checks to get into the main buildings now?

This woman is so full of shit. Just split the county into two of three parts and let Reid and these other idiots like Robyn Lady preside over western Fairfax.

So much for One Fairfax

It was a work session with no clear consensus, but the message that seemed to emerge was open KAA as a traditional high school; consider specialized programs in various areas like AI, aviation, and robotics; and introduce them a few years after the school has reopened at KAA with a view of ensuring similar programs are shortly thereafter available at schools in other parts of the county. I *think* they realize that having specialized programming available only at KAA and restricting access to students otherwise zoned for a few western high schools would infuriate people elsewhere in the county.

Reid just approached this as if it would be really cool to have some cutting-edge program that a private corporation might be willing to underwrite at any school in FCPS. It seemed like a resume-building exercise for her, advanced with no appreciation of the optics or how it would be received more broadly.

I watched the session and I had a different takeaway. There were many options discussed but no clear message emerged. In fact, while many paid lip service to the need to fix overcrowding in the area, others talked about how the layout just won’t allow for it to be a traditional school.

I think it’s still anybody’s guess what this school will be.

I only heard one person say that.

That was Robyn Lady. She'd toured the school.

Guess the question is whether she's right, and Reid and other SB members are just hiding the ball because they can't bring themselves to admit they just spent $150 million on a school that they said would relieve overcrowding in the immediate area, only to realize it would require a major investment to modify KAA so that it's fit for purpose as a public high school.

Everyone says KAA has an unusual design and unique features. The question is whether those are benefits or impediments to KAA functioning as a traditional high school serving 2000 or so kids.

1600 kids should be the bar because they've run Lewis at that size for years and they don't seem to think there's any issue there. 1600 is far more feasible and accommodating to unique features.

35 years ago, 1,600 student high schools were common in FCPS. So I don't think it's a big deal, but the sports boosters might.

[Anonymous]

School will need 200+ million dollars of renovations if it is made into a traditional HS. No way that gets done in less than a year. Part of the reason you are starting to hear about magnet options is that it would allow them to open the school on a small scale and fulfill their promise to open in 2026.
I’ve heard from 4 people who have toured the school and all say if it’s made a traditional school they will need 2 full years to renovate and make additions to athletics facilities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:School will need 200+ million dollars of renovations if it is made into a traditional HS. No way that gets done in less than a year. Part of the reason you are starting to hear about magnet options is that it would allow them to open the school on a small scale and fulfill their promise to open in 2026.
I’ve heard from 4 people who have toured the school and all say if it’s made a traditional school they will need 2 full years to renovate and make additions to athletics facilities.

So, now it's athletic facilities? They will be starting with ninth and tenth and won't need a stadium immediately. They can provide for that. They have lots of outdoor facilities already: track, fields, etc.

Until they get a stadium, they can schedule at one of the other schools. That has been done before.

You don't think these kids deserve a traditional high school? Again, Centreville is full, Westfield is almost full and will be soon without relief, Chantilly is overflowing. South Lakes is full.
Oakton and Herndon are both way too far.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:School will need 200+ million dollars of renovations if it is made into a traditional HS. No way that gets done in less than a year. Part of the reason you are starting to hear about magnet options is that it would allow them to open the school on a small scale and fulfill their promise to open in 2026.
I’ve heard from 4 people who have toured the school and all say if it’s made a traditional school they will need 2 full years to renovate and make additions to athletics facilities.

Dumbest comment of the day right here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lady has the biggest school problem in Fairfax County and she has apparently not made a serious effort to fix it. It is Coates. I've not heard her mention that much. But, she found time to meet with Great Falls Citizens. You know, the group that has opposed KAA from the start.

Coates relief should have had something done this year. Maybe not a permanent solution, but something should have been done. What they are doing there is inexcusable. But, I guess the constituents there do not have much power.

Lady is highly idiosyncratic, to put it mildly.

She is not carrying water for Great Falls. They do not trust her and nothing she can do or say will persuade them her ultimate goal is not to move them to Herndon.

Her views about KAA’s suitability as a traditional high school seemed to be a reaction to her thinking a lot of the facilities were TJ-quality and basically too high-end compared to what she’d seen at Chantilly. She worked at Chantilly a long time and it’s her reference point for just about everything.

In any event, it’s incumbent on Reid and her staff to let people know what the capacity of KAA currently is and how much it might cost to modify the school to accommodate an acceptable number of HS kids. It’s unclear whether they’ve even done that work since they were so enamored of exploring some type of specialized program within the building that presumably would have served a smaller number of students.

Until that information is public people can keep guessing about which schools will feed there and making statements that may or may not be accurate about how many kids KAA can handle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:School will need 200+ million dollars of renovations if it is made into a traditional HS. No way that gets done in less than a year. Part of the reason you are starting to hear about magnet options is that it would allow them to open the school on a small scale and fulfill their promise to open in 2026.
I’ve heard from 4 people who have toured the school and all say if it’s made a traditional school they will need 2 full years to renovate and make additions to athletics facilities.

Maybe but if so they’ve boxed themselves in because a magnet program serving only kids zoned to a few western high schools raises huge equity issues and it’s not like you can do that overnight even with a smaller number of kids because you have to have a specialized curriculum that passes muster and also a way to screen students for admission.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School will need 200+ million dollars of renovations if it is made into a traditional HS. No way that gets done in less than a year. Part of the reason you are starting to hear about magnet options is that it would allow them to open the school on a small scale and fulfill their promise to open in 2026.
I’ve heard from 4 people who have toured the school and all say if it’s made a traditional school they will need 2 full years to renovate and make additions to athletics facilities.

So, now it's athletic facilities? They will be starting with ninth and tenth and won't need a stadium immediately. They can provide for that. They have lots of outdoor facilities already: track, fields, etc.

Until they get a stadium, they can schedule at one of the other schools. That has been done before.

You don't think these kids deserve a traditional high school? Again, Centreville is full, Westfield is almost full and will be soon without relief, Chantilly is overflowing. South Lakes is full.
Oakton and Herndon are both way too far.

Seems like they’d need some meaningful community outreach to determine whether people would embrace a school that has nicer facilities in some respects and decidedly inferior facilities (at least for now) in other respects. You apparently would, but there might be a lot of others who’ve been operating on the assumption KAA would have everything that a typical FCPS high school has, and more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:School will need 200+ million dollars of renovations if it is made into a traditional HS. No way that gets done in less than a year. Part of the reason you are starting to hear about magnet options is that it would allow them to open the school on a small scale and fulfill their promise to open in 2026.
I’ve heard from 4 people who have toured the school and all say if it’s made a traditional school they will need 2 full years to renovate and make additions to athletics facilities.

It’s almost as if those Nextdoor posters were onto something.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School will need 200+ million dollars of renovations if it is made into a traditional HS. No way that gets done in less than a year. Part of the reason you are starting to hear about magnet options is that it would allow them to open the school on a small scale and fulfill their promise to open in 2026.
I’ve heard from 4 people who have toured the school and all say if it’s made a traditional school they will need 2 full years to renovate and make additions to athletics facilities.

So, now it's athletic facilities? They will be starting with ninth and tenth and won't need a stadium immediately. They can provide for that. They have lots of outdoor facilities already: track, fields, etc.

Until they get a stadium, they can schedule at one of the other schools. That has been done before.

You don't think these kids deserve a traditional high school? Again, Centreville is full, Westfield is almost full and will be soon without relief, Chantilly is overflowing. South Lakes is full.
Oakton and Herndon are both way too far.

Seems like they’d need some meaningful community outreach to determine whether people would embrace a school that has nicer facilities in some respects and decidedly inferior facilities (at least for now) in other respects. You apparently would, but there might be a lot of others who’ve been operating on the assumption KAA would have everything that a typical FCPS high school has, and more.

Funny you should mention community input. Robyn Lady suggested soliciting feedback with a requirement that the community members who respond need to visit the site first. It really seems to be a sincere concern of hers that the facilities are just not up to snuff for it to be a strictly community school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School will need 200+ million dollars of renovations if it is made into a traditional HS. No way that gets done in less than a year. Part of the reason you are starting to hear about magnet options is that it would allow them to open the school on a small scale and fulfill their promise to open in 2026.
I’ve heard from 4 people who have toured the school and all say if it’s made a traditional school they will need 2 full years to renovate and make additions to athletics facilities.

So, now it's athletic facilities? They will be starting with ninth and tenth and won't need a stadium immediately. They can provide for that. They have lots of outdoor facilities already: track, fields, etc.

Until they get a stadium, they can schedule at one of the other schools. That has been done before.

You don't think these kids deserve a traditional high school? Again, Centreville is full, Westfield is almost full and will be soon without relief, Chantilly is overflowing. South Lakes is full.
Oakton and Herndon are both way too far.

Seems like they’d need some meaningful community outreach to determine whether people would embrace a school that has nicer facilities in some respects and decidedly inferior facilities (at least for now) in other respects. You apparently would, but there might be a lot of others who’ve been operating on the assumption KAA would have everything that a typical FCPS high school has, and more.

There is far more athletic space than Chantilly. It can also share fields with Carson. A stadium is really the only need and a baseball field (might be one at Carson already?) They can raise the money quickly with sponsorship for a stadium and the community would likely be able to contribute also. Maybe, work out something with CYA.
And, I've been to games that were held at a neutral site because a school's stadium was not available for some reason or another.
Again, this would not have to be complete at opening with 9th and 10th grade.

I was a teacher in some pretty awful buildings. Things can be adapted. Robyn Lady has often spoken about how every closet, etc was being used at Chantilly. They can work that out. They could put administrative staff that does not need to have access to kids across the street. Band, theater storage, supply rooms, etc could be used in one of those buildings if not used for classrooms. Areas of a cafeteria could also be used. This is not rocket science.

It would be a whole lot easier than setting up a restricted magnet. And, it sounded like that magnet school would not have the traditional things like athletics, etc from the way Reid talked. Gee, even TJ has sports. Remember that bumper sticker? "I came for the sports"?

As for safety: do kids not go outside for activities at all?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School will need 200+ million dollars of renovations if it is made into a traditional HS. No way that gets done in less than a year. Part of the reason you are starting to hear about magnet options is that it would allow them to open the school on a small scale and fulfill their promise to open in 2026.
I’ve heard from 4 people who have toured the school and all say if it’s made a traditional school they will need 2 full years to renovate and make additions to athletics facilities.

So, now it's athletic facilities? They will be starting with ninth and tenth and won't need a stadium immediately. They can provide for that. They have lots of outdoor facilities already: track, fields, etc.

Until they get a stadium, they can schedule at one of the other schools. That has been done before.

You don't think these kids deserve a traditional high school? Again, Centreville is full, Westfield is almost full and will be soon without relief, Chantilly is overflowing. South Lakes is full.
Oakton and Herndon are both way too far.

Seems like they’d need some meaningful community outreach to determine whether people would embrace a school that has nicer facilities in some respects and decidedly inferior facilities (at least for now) in other respects. You apparently would, but there might be a lot of others who’ve been operating on the assumption KAA would have everything that a typical FCPS high school has, and more.

Funny you should mention community input. Robyn Lady suggested soliciting feedback with a requirement that the community members who respond need to visit the site first. It really seems to be a sincere concern of hers that the facilities are just not up to snuff for it to be a strictly community school.

.. but that’s what it was purchased for. All that patting themselves on the back for they great money saving decision they made to buy it..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School will need 200+ million dollars of renovations if it is made into a traditional HS. No way that gets done in less than a year. Part of the reason you are starting to hear about magnet options is that it would allow them to open the school on a small scale and fulfill their promise to open in 2026.
I’ve heard from 4 people who have toured the school and all say if it’s made a traditional school they will need 2 full years to renovate and make additions to athletics facilities.

So, now it's athletic facilities? They will be starting with ninth and tenth and won't need a stadium immediately. They can provide for that. They have lots of outdoor facilities already: track, fields, etc.

Until they get a stadium, they can schedule at one of the other schools. That has been done before.

You don't think these kids deserve a traditional high school? Again, Centreville is full, Westfield is almost full and will be soon without relief, Chantilly is overflowing. South Lakes is full.
Oakton and Herndon are both way too far.

Seems like they’d need some meaningful community outreach to determine whether people would embrace a school that has nicer facilities in some respects and decidedly inferior facilities (at least for now) in other respects. You apparently would, but there might be a lot of others who’ve been operating on the assumption KAA would have everything that a typical FCPS high school has, and more.

Funny you should mention community input. Robyn Lady suggested soliciting feedback with a requirement that the community members who respond need to visit the site first. It really seems to be a sincere concern of hers that the facilities are just not up to snuff for it to be a strictly community school.

So she has these “sincere concerns” but was one of the first out of the gate to want to buy the building because she thought it would help Chantilly? Lady needs to get her story straight.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School will need 200+ million dollars of renovations if it is made into a traditional HS. No way that gets done in less than a year. Part of the reason you are starting to hear about magnet options is that it would allow them to open the school on a small scale and fulfill their promise to open in 2026.
I’ve heard from 4 people who have toured the school and all say if it’s made a traditional school they will need 2 full years to renovate and make additions to athletics facilities.

So, now it's athletic facilities? They will be starting with ninth and tenth and won't need a stadium immediately. They can provide for that. They have lots of outdoor facilities already: track, fields, etc.

Until they get a stadium, they can schedule at one of the other schools. That has been done before.

You don't think these kids deserve a traditional high school? Again, Centreville is full, Westfield is almost full and will be soon without relief, Chantilly is overflowing. South Lakes is full.
Oakton and Herndon are both way too far.

Seems like they’d need some meaningful community outreach to determine whether people would embrace a school that has nicer facilities in some respects and decidedly inferior facilities (at least for now) in other respects. You apparently would, but there might be a lot of others who’ve been operating on the assumption KAA would have everything that a typical FCPS high school has, and more.

Funny you should mention community input. Robyn Lady suggested soliciting feedback with a requirement that the community members who respond need to visit the site first. It really seems to be a sincere concern of hers that the facilities are just not up to snuff for it to be a strictly community school.

.. but that’s what it was purchased for. All that patting themselves on the back for they great money saving decision they made to buy it..

Relieving overcrowding doesn’t mean it must be a traditional high school. I’m not advocating for it to be a magnet, but just pointing out that it wasn’t necessarily purchased just to be a community school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School will need 200+ million dollars of renovations if it is made into a traditional HS. No way that gets done in less than a year. Part of the reason you are starting to hear about magnet options is that it would allow them to open the school on a small scale and fulfill their promise to open in 2026.
I’ve heard from 4 people who have toured the school and all say if it’s made a traditional school they will need 2 full years to renovate and make additions to athletics facilities.

So, now it's athletic facilities? They will be starting with ninth and tenth and won't need a stadium immediately. They can provide for that. They have lots of outdoor facilities already: track, fields, etc.

Until they get a stadium, they can schedule at one of the other schools. That has been done before.

You don't think these kids deserve a traditional high school? Again, Centreville is full, Westfield is almost full and will be soon without relief, Chantilly is overflowing. South Lakes is full.
Oakton and Herndon are both way too far.

Seems like they’d need some meaningful community outreach to determine whether people would embrace a school that has nicer facilities in some respects and decidedly inferior facilities (at least for now) in other respects. You apparently would, but there might be a lot of others who’ve been operating on the assumption KAA would have everything that a typical FCPS high school has, and more.

Funny you should mention community input. Robyn Lady suggested soliciting feedback with a requirement that the community members who respond need to visit the site first. It really seems to be a sincere concern of hers that the facilities are just not up to snuff for it to be a strictly community school.

That’s not at all what she said. Perhaps you would link the video with the time stamp posted of when you claim she said this. Or maybe you’re just another great falls troll?

[Anonymous]

The building was built to have males and females on separate ends of the school. That alone will take some renovations to undue.
Also do the athletic facilities have lights? Are there multiple fields available for practice after school? Is there parking and if not would there be enough outdoor space left after building a large enough parking lot to accommodate the needs of a HS?
If all these things need to happen it is unlikely that could get designed, permitted, and built in 10 months considering they don’t even know what they want the school to be yet.