King Abdullah Academy Closing: FCPS Buy for HS?
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Anonymous
It was heavily subsidized by the Saudi govt. |
Anonymous
The Saudi Government heavily subsidized the tuition. The Saudi Government decided to stop doing that. The school closed because the Saudi Government would not support the school. No offense, but take it up with them. Families will find a more supportive crowd for the closing of the school in the Private School forum. Families can choose to pupil place into IB, SLHS is nearby and has IB. There are other IB programs at different HS and MS in FCPS, parents who are interested can look them up on the FCPS website. |
Anonymous
| I do think that there is a private Islamic school in the Fox Mill area, over by the Goldfish swim school. |
Anonymous
So you're analogizing this to a residential property being sold "as is"? LOL. FCPS still needs to do a fair amount of due diligence, which is why the agreement in principle to acquire KAA allows for closing through mid-August. It may be smart in the long run, but at this point no one has a clue how this fits into FCPS's longer-term plans or if FCPS even has longer-term plans. They just saw something at a price that seemed too good to be true, and snapped it up. And we know the short-term effects will include (1) rendering much of the boundary work that's been done over the past year irrelevant; (2) deferring or canceling other capital projects that FCPS has been claiming are priorities; and (3) creating substantial excess capacity in multiple high schools in western Fairfax, which calls into question much of FCPS's facilities planning over the past 15 years. As county residents and taxpayers we deserve a lot more robust explanation than we've been provided to date. |
Anonymous
The majority of the funds were supplemented by Saudi. |
Anonymous
1. Great Falls families concerned that this will create even more capacity at Herndon for them to be moved to. 2. The people who hate on FCPS for everything. Everyone else is excited about this opportunity and believes it smart that FCPS jumped on it. And some of us are surprised that the did the right thing this time! |
Anonymous
Are you a parent with a child in that school? It should be KAA's responsibility to help place all of its students. The administration are the ones who decided to close the school in the middle of the school year, FCPS just bought something no one else wanted. |
Anonymous
1. How will this create more capacity at Herndon when no one has suggested moving anyone at Herndon to this school? Every suggestion involves moving people at Westfield, South Lakes, Chantilly and/or Oakton to this school. 2. It's both false and lazy to suggest anyone outside Great Falls asking questions here hates on FCPS for everything, even if FCPS is certainly giving people plenty to dislike. The waste, along with the lack of transparency and consistency in FCPS's decisions, is enough to make anyone paying attention uncomfortable with current FCPS stewardship. |
Anonymous
You nailed it. THIS is the only reason the Great Falls Citizens Association is concerned. |
Anonymous
PP suggested on the other thread that they would move Hutchinson to this new school. |
Anonymous
This affects only the western part of the county - there is a ton of boundary stuff in other parts of the county (southeastern part) that have zero impact from this. I don't know why you keep going on and on about this when it's not true. |
Anonymous
You're being a ridiculously argumentative tool about something minor that ought to be a simple courtesy given the ongoing discussions that FCPS will be having with KAA. All it need entail is making sure KAA staff is aware of resources and contacts within FCPS for affected families to speak with if interested. |
Anonymous
It's absolutely true for several reasons. First, you typically don't open a new HS without adjusting many boundaries. You look at the boundaries for the new school, the schools that will feed into it, and the schools that may need to send kids to the schools that are feeding to the new school. There are typically a lot of domino effects. So, for example, Westfield may send as many as three feeders (Floris, Coates, and McNair) to "McLearen HS." That likely means moving kids from Centreville to Westfield, even if no one from Centreville goes to McLearen. And, then, with the additional space at Centreville, you'll have Willow Springs asking to be moved from Fairfax to Centreville, and people considering whether they need to move kids from Woodson to Fairfax to keep Fairfax afloat. That's just one example, but pretty soon they'll be looking at many boundaries. It's a big undertaking, and anything Thru was doing to look at boundaries in those areas is now moot. Second, the broader justification for the county-wide study was that FCPS couldn't "build its way" out of overcrowding anywhere in the county because it was cash-strapped and already had massive long-term capital commitments, including over $450M budgeted to acquire land and construct a new HS in western Fairfax. Now, FCPS is flipping that narrative and saying it can "buy its way" out of overcrowding at some schools in western Fairfax, and free up roughly $300M in the process to be used elsewhere. If we are to take Mateo Dunne and others at their word, then FCPS should not be changing boundaries in southeastern Fairfax or elsewhere without first fully exploring how those savings can be deployed. You only see the potential benefits to your part of the county, and clearly would be more than happy if FCPS pushes everything aside to open McLearen, even if that means doubling down on screwing others. If this is really the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that FCPS is claiming it is, then they should proceed very carefully, and focus on the McLearen-related boundary adjustments and then the benefits that can eventually accrue to others in the county from these purported cost savings. |
Anonymous
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FCPS can use this property as a stand alone special ed or alternative school, or a magnet HS. They aren't locked into using it as a regular HS.
Given that they looked high and low for ten years for land suitable for a Western HS, this property being for sale and basically turnkey is incredibly lucky. I agree this is a rare smart call by fcps admin. |
Anonymous
You've lost the plot. At one point FCPS was looking at a site near Hutchison ES (not "Hutchinson"). Had they pursued this, kids at Hutchison ES clearly would have attended the new HS. That idea was dropped. KAA is near Carson MS, not Hutchison ES. I don't think anyone has suggested Hutchison would move to a school near the KAA site. |