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:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Web archive of KAA facilities description

https://web.archive.org/web/20250502091109/https://www.kaa-herndon.com/about-us/facilities

Hightlights (List of 11 items.)

Buildings and grounds on 40-acres

Fourteen learning communities designed to maximize individual and group work

Three gymnasiums suitable for basketball, volleyball, badminton etc.

Large multi-purpose halls

Indoor 8 lane heated swimming pool & weight lifting/fitness facilities

State-of-the-art theater and performing arts facilities

Library and study rooms

Dual dining room and cafeteria

Ceramics and robotics laboratories

Fine arts facilities

Soccer fields and Athletics oval

That sounds like plenty of space for a high school.

They can use trailers for overflow while construction is going on.

No, it sounds like tons of amenities for a high school.

It doesn’t address the actual capacity or how much classroom space there is.

What amenities? The only thing it has that other schools don't have is a pool. It's not like they're going to keep the dining room and three gyms. They will repurpose those into classrooms.

Wrong. There are a lot of special-purpose spaces and equipment (which conveyed) that typical high schools don’t have. And “repurpose” is an interesting word for the modifications that will be required for more classroom space. You can’t just snap your fingers and turn a gym into classrooms.

No. But you can put in desks and a white board and make do. Put in good soundproofing room dividers and you can likely get three or four classrooms.

Won't cost a fortune. Better than trailers.

It’s eventually going to cost a good bit on top of the initial purchase price, though not $200M more.

May or may not actually be better than trailers in the short term, if they are really committed to opening in the fall of 2026.

It will be fine. I taught in a system where there were not enough facilities. It's amazing how well you can adapt when needed.

Sure. But if the short-term fixes are as make-shift as some are suggesting it could be a somewhat chaotic classroom learning environment in the short term - and then they still may need to invest quite a bit on top of the initial $150M to get things to where they need to be.

This is what everyone who has actually toured the building has told me, by the way. There are things about the building that are fantastic and not found at any other HS, but at the same time there are things that are lacking. The same architects may have designed KAA as designed Wakefield HS in APS, but KAA was not designed as a 9-12 public school.

You forget that it will only be two grades the first year, three grades the second year, then four grades. And yeah, I'm sure you know TONS of people who have toured the building

I know several people who recently were given a tour of the facility and had similar reactions. I’m sorry if you do not, but there’s no reason to lash out like that.

Who are these people and why did they get tours?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Web archive of KAA facilities description

https://web.archive.org/web/20250502091109/https://www.kaa-herndon.com/about-us/facilities

Hightlights (List of 11 items.)

Buildings and grounds on 40-acres

Fourteen learning communities designed to maximize individual and group work

Three gymnasiums suitable for basketball, volleyball, badminton etc.

Large multi-purpose halls

Indoor 8 lane heated swimming pool & weight lifting/fitness facilities

State-of-the-art theater and performing arts facilities

Library and study rooms

Dual dining room and cafeteria

Ceramics and robotics laboratories

Fine arts facilities

Soccer fields and Athletics oval

That sounds like plenty of space for a high school.

They can use trailers for overflow while construction is going on.

No, it sounds like tons of amenities for a high school.

It doesn’t address the actual capacity or how much classroom space there is.

What amenities? The only thing it has that other schools don't have is a pool. It's not like they're going to keep the dining room and three gyms. They will repurpose those into classrooms.

Wrong. There are a lot of special-purpose spaces and equipment (which conveyed) that typical high schools don’t have. And “repurpose” is an interesting word for the modifications that will be required for more classroom space. You can’t just snap your fingers and turn a gym into classrooms.

You clearly don't know anything about this stuff - converting a gym into classrooms would be one of the easiest projects for them to do - put down flooring, put up thin walls.

It’s starting to sound less like a high school and more like a refugee camp, but do go on.

I will, thanks! Do you know anything about construction and renovation? Because it's obvious you don't. A gym is one large room. You can easily build partitions to turn it into several smaller rooms. Have you ever been in an office building? They build it out as one large open space, and add walls to create offices. Then when one company leaves and another ones leases the space, they rebuild the interior to meet their own needs. Sometimes that means tearing down offices and building cubicles or removing walls to create a large conference room. Other times it means, building offices where there were once cubicles or turning one large conference room into several offices. I've seen this happen many times, and nobody has ever compared these office spaces to refugee camps!

Everything you are talking about takes time and costs money. So we've very quickly gone from hearing about how KAA was a "turnkey" bargain purchase to knowing that a lot more money is going to be required to get KAA ready to open as a public high school (and it's also clear they still haven't figured out what kind of school it's going to be). And the classrooms you want to create in a gym with high ceilings and thin walls may still turn out to be sub-optimal learning spaces - they might actually do better if they were converting an office building like they did at Bailey's Upper.

This person is just going to be negative about everything. There is no placating them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Web archive of KAA facilities description

https://web.archive.org/web/20250502091109/https://www.kaa-herndon.com/about-us/facilities

Hightlights (List of 11 items.)

Buildings and grounds on 40-acres

Fourteen learning communities designed to maximize individual and group work

Three gymnasiums suitable for basketball, volleyball, badminton etc.

Large multi-purpose halls

Indoor 8 lane heated swimming pool & weight lifting/fitness facilities

State-of-the-art theater and performing arts facilities

Library and study rooms

Dual dining room and cafeteria

Ceramics and robotics laboratories

Fine arts facilities

Soccer fields and Athletics oval

That sounds like plenty of space for a high school.

They can use trailers for overflow while construction is going on.

No, it sounds like tons of amenities for a high school.

It doesn’t address the actual capacity or how much classroom space there is.

What amenities? The only thing it has that other schools don't have is a pool. It's not like they're going to keep the dining room and three gyms. They will repurpose those into classrooms.

Wrong. There are a lot of special-purpose spaces and equipment (which conveyed) that typical high schools don’t have. And “repurpose” is an interesting word for the modifications that will be required for more classroom space. You can’t just snap your fingers and turn a gym into classrooms.

You clearly don't know anything about this stuff - converting a gym into classrooms would be one of the easiest projects for them to do - put down flooring, put up thin walls.

It’s starting to sound less like a high school and more like a refugee camp, but do go on.

I will, thanks! Do you know anything about construction and renovation? Because it's obvious you don't. A gym is one large room. You can easily build partitions to turn it into several smaller rooms. Have you ever been in an office building? They build it out as one large open space, and add walls to create offices. Then when one company leaves and another ones leases the space, they rebuild the interior to meet their own needs. Sometimes that means tearing down offices and building cubicles or removing walls to create a large conference room. Other times it means, building offices where there were once cubicles or turning one large conference room into several offices. I've seen this happen many times, and nobody has ever compared these office spaces to refugee camps!

But, Robyn Lady also added that it would be a shame to get rid of those beautiful "small spaces" or something like that.

But, I agree. This building is as large as Centreville. It can work. Lady has spoken about how every available space at Chantilly has been redirected. That can happen here, as well. Some people just do not want it to work.
And, there are those two extra buildings.

You are wrong and silly. Again.

People are fine if it "works," but they ought to know what the real cost is going to be, what type of school it will be (the School Board already had to shoot down Reid's dumb proposal to make it a magnet admission to which would be restricted to kids otherwise zoned to just a few FCPS high schools), how it will affect the ongoing boundary study, and how it will affect the CIP and existing renovation queue.

At present, they can't or won't answer any of these questions, and they can't or won't even say what the school's current or anticipated capacity will be. It demonstrates incompetence and poor oversight, but that doesn't mean that people don't want FCPS to get its money out of the building, which it now owns.

Well, they are 65 bus drivers short. So there is a savings for you. They will need lots fewer bus drivers and buses. Maybe a drop in the bucket, but it is a savings.

They have to educate the kids no matter where they are. How many more kids do you think they can put in Chantilly/Westfield, Centreville? Oakton and South Lakes are also pretty full.

Ah, yes. Leave out the high school in western Fairfax that FCPS is projecting will have 850 extra seats by SY 2029-30.

You don't even try to be honest with the facts.

I don't see that happening. Do you know how much construction is going on in that area? It's insane.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Web archive of KAA facilities description

https://web.archive.org/web/20250502091109/https://www.kaa-herndon.com/about-us/facilities

Hightlights (List of 11 items.)

Buildings and grounds on 40-acres

Fourteen learning communities designed to maximize individual and group work

Three gymnasiums suitable for basketball, volleyball, badminton etc.

Large multi-purpose halls

Indoor 8 lane heated swimming pool & weight lifting/fitness facilities

State-of-the-art theater and performing arts facilities

Library and study rooms

Dual dining room and cafeteria

Ceramics and robotics laboratories

Fine arts facilities

Soccer fields and Athletics oval

That sounds like plenty of space for a high school.

They can use trailers for overflow while construction is going on.

No, it sounds like tons of amenities for a high school.

It doesn’t address the actual capacity or how much classroom space there is.

What amenities? The only thing it has that other schools don't have is a pool. It's not like they're going to keep the dining room and three gyms. They will repurpose those into classrooms.

Wrong. There are a lot of special-purpose spaces and equipment (which conveyed) that typical high schools don’t have. And “repurpose” is an interesting word for the modifications that will be required for more classroom space. You can’t just snap your fingers and turn a gym into classrooms.

You clearly don't know anything about this stuff - converting a gym into classrooms would be one of the easiest projects for them to do - put down flooring, put up thin walls.

It’s starting to sound less like a high school and more like a refugee camp, but do go on.

I will, thanks! Do you know anything about construction and renovation? Because it's obvious you don't. A gym is one large room. You can easily build partitions to turn it into several smaller rooms. Have you ever been in an office building? They build it out as one large open space, and add walls to create offices. Then when one company leaves and another ones leases the space, they rebuild the interior to meet their own needs. Sometimes that means tearing down offices and building cubicles or removing walls to create a large conference room. Other times it means, building offices where there were once cubicles or turning one large conference room into several offices. I've seen this happen many times, and nobody has ever compared these office spaces to refugee camps!

But, Robyn Lady also added that it would be a shame to get rid of those beautiful "small spaces" or something like that.

But, I agree. This building is as large as Centreville. It can work. Lady has spoken about how every available space at Chantilly has been redirected. That can happen here, as well. Some people just do not want it to work.
And, there are those two extra buildings.

You are wrong and silly. Again.

People are fine if it "works," but they ought to know what the real cost is going to be, what type of school it will be (the School Board already had to shoot down Reid's dumb proposal to make it a magnet admission to which would be restricted to kids otherwise zoned to just a few FCPS high schools), how it will affect the ongoing boundary study, and how it will affect the CIP and existing renovation queue.

At present, they can't or won't answer any of these questions, and they can't or won't even say what the school's current or anticipated capacity will be. It demonstrates incompetence and poor oversight, but that doesn't mean that people don't want FCPS to get its money out of the building, which it now owns.

Well, they are 65 bus drivers short. So there is a savings for you. They will need lots fewer bus drivers and buses. Maybe a drop in the bucket, but it is a savings.

They have to educate the kids no matter where they are. How many more kids do you think they can put in Chantilly/Westfield, Centreville? Oakton and South Lakes are also pretty full.

Ah, yes. Leave out the high school in western Fairfax that FCPS is projecting will have 850 extra seats by SY 2029-30.

You don't even try to be honest with the facts.

They don't have 850 extra seats now. Wonder why the future of Herndon High is so important to you?

They might have room for one elementary school. And, that school is not at Chantilly. And, that school does not have the demographics they desire for Herndon.

Chantilly is 3000 now. No Chantilly kids are a reasonable distance from Herndon High. Without boundary changes, Westfield will soon be at 3000 with all the new construction.

We understand your strong desire to fill Herndon. There are neighborhoods easily within 10 minutes who could fill it now. And, they are not near KAA.

They had over 500 vacant seats last year and that number is only projected to go up.

There is nothing in Policy 8130 that allows them to base redistricting decisions on “desired” demographics, but there is language that suggests they should take advantage of available capacity.

It would have been very simple to move part of Chantilly to Westfield and part of Westfield - about which you pretend to worry so much - to Herndon.

Instead they went ahead and bought a school that they still haven’t figured out what they’re going to do with, or what the final price tag might be.

We own it now, so it should not go to waste, but it’s just one more instance of gross incompetence on their part of Reid and the School Board.

They are not moving high FARMs ES into a HS that is already high FARMs. That would be awful for all of the kids. They could put the aviation academy there because there is room and there are students in the area that would benefit from the program. Or a strong auto mechanics academy, outside the traditional auto mechanics class that is at a bunch of schools. Some type of vo-tech program would be a great fit at Herndon.

They can shift McNair and Coates to KAA easily enough, which will make space at Westfield and then shift kids from Chantilly to Westfield. Floris is likely to end up at KAA, which relieves South Lakes and Westfield. They can shift Oak Hill to KAA, which will help Chantilly. Then shift some kids from Centerville to Chantilly, which should now have space for kids.

That is reasonable. Hopefully, they could also put Crossfield there in order to relieve the bus to Oakton.

But, if there is really a need for more kids at Herndon as some insist, there are kids in 20170 (same as Town of Herndon) that live less than 2.5 miles from Herndon High-some, even less, and more than 13 miles to Langley,

But, I think Herndon is okay like it is. Over 2000 is not a small school.

DP. “Grumble, grumble, great falls, Langley! Great falls, grumble grumble.”

Oh my god, you are the one who started by talking about capacity at Herndon and how it's easy to move kids who live close to the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Web archive of KAA facilities description

https://web.archive.org/web/20250502091109/https://www.kaa-herndon.com/about-us/facilities

Hightlights (List of 11 items.)

Buildings and grounds on 40-acres

Fourteen learning communities designed to maximize individual and group work

Three gymnasiums suitable for basketball, volleyball, badminton etc.

Large multi-purpose halls

Indoor 8 lane heated swimming pool & weight lifting/fitness facilities

State-of-the-art theater and performing arts facilities

Library and study rooms

Dual dining room and cafeteria

Ceramics and robotics laboratories

Fine arts facilities

Soccer fields and Athletics oval

That sounds like plenty of space for a high school.

They can use trailers for overflow while construction is going on.

No, it sounds like tons of amenities for a high school.

It doesn’t address the actual capacity or how much classroom space there is.

What amenities? The only thing it has that other schools don't have is a pool. It's not like they're going to keep the dining room and three gyms. They will repurpose those into classrooms.

Wrong. There are a lot of special-purpose spaces and equipment (which conveyed) that typical high schools don’t have. And “repurpose” is an interesting word for the modifications that will be required for more classroom space. You can’t just snap your fingers and turn a gym into classrooms.

No. But you can put in desks and a white board and make do. Put in good soundproofing room dividers and you can likely get three or four classrooms.

Won't cost a fortune. Better than trailers.

It’s eventually going to cost a good bit on top of the initial purchase price, though not $200M more.

May or may not actually be better than trailers in the short term, if they are really committed to opening in the fall of 2026.

It will be fine. I taught in a system where there were not enough facilities. It's amazing how well you can adapt when needed.

Sure. But if the short-term fixes are as make-shift as some are suggesting it could be a somewhat chaotic classroom learning environment in the short term - and then they still may need to invest quite a bit on top of the initial $150M to get things to where they need to be.

This is what everyone who has actually toured the building has told me, by the way. There are things about the building that are fantastic and not found at any other HS, but at the same time there are things that are lacking. The same architects may have designed KAA as designed Wakefield HS in APS, but KAA was not designed as a 9-12 public school.

You forget that it will only be two grades the first year, three grades the second year, then four grades. And yeah, I'm sure you know TONS of people who have toured the building

I know several people who recently were given a tour of the facility and had similar reactions. I’m sorry if you do not, but there’s no reason to lash out like that.

Who are these people and why did they get tours?

I would like to know this too - how do y'all know so many people getting tours of this school?

[Anonymous]

Do we have a full accounting of who seems to be pro magnet and who seems to be pro community HS? So far it seems like

Pro magnet:
Reid (there is no ridiculous pie in the sky idea she doesn’t like)
Lady
McElveen

Pro community HS:
Frisch
McDaniel

Where do the others seem to land? Dixit better know she will be hearing from her constituents if she is not vocally pro community HS. What about the rest of them? Or were they too focused on the naming to worry about actual important things?

I know the board ultimately gets to vote on it, but how often do they go against Reid on things? Feels like the mostly just rubber stamp her dumb ideas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Web archive of KAA facilities description

https://web.archive.org/web/20250502091109/https://www.kaa-herndon.com/about-us/facilities

Hightlights (List of 11 items.)

Buildings and grounds on 40-acres

Fourteen learning communities designed to maximize individual and group work

Three gymnasiums suitable for basketball, volleyball, badminton etc.

Large multi-purpose halls

Indoor 8 lane heated swimming pool & weight lifting/fitness facilities

State-of-the-art theater and performing arts facilities

Library and study rooms

Dual dining room and cafeteria

Ceramics and robotics laboratories

Fine arts facilities

Soccer fields and Athletics oval

That sounds like plenty of space for a high school.

They can use trailers for overflow while construction is going on.

No, it sounds like tons of amenities for a high school.

It doesn’t address the actual capacity or how much classroom space there is.

What amenities? The only thing it has that other schools don't have is a pool. It's not like they're going to keep the dining room and three gyms. They will repurpose those into classrooms.

Wrong. There are a lot of special-purpose spaces and equipment (which conveyed) that typical high schools don’t have. And “repurpose” is an interesting word for the modifications that will be required for more classroom space. You can’t just snap your fingers and turn a gym into classrooms.

No. But you can put in desks and a white board and make do. Put in good soundproofing room dividers and you can likely get three or four classrooms.

Won't cost a fortune. Better than trailers.

It’s eventually going to cost a good bit on top of the initial purchase price, though not $200M more.

May or may not actually be better than trailers in the short term, if they are really committed to opening in the fall of 2026.

It will be fine. I taught in a system where there were not enough facilities. It's amazing how well you can adapt when needed.

Sure. But if the short-term fixes are as make-shift as some are suggesting it could be a somewhat chaotic classroom learning environment in the short term - and then they still may need to invest quite a bit on top of the initial $150M to get things to where they need to be.

This is what everyone who has actually toured the building has told me, by the way. There are things about the building that are fantastic and not found at any other HS, but at the same time there are things that are lacking. The same architects may have designed KAA as designed Wakefield HS in APS, but KAA was not designed as a 9-12 public school.

You forget that it will only be two grades the first year, three grades the second year, then four grades. And yeah, I'm sure you know TONS of people who have toured the building

I know several people who recently were given a tour of the facility and had similar reactions. I’m sorry if you do not, but there’s no reason to lash out like that.

Who are these people and why did they get tours?

I would like to know this too - how do y'all know so many people getting tours of this school?

FCPS has lots of advisory committees, including some with a focus on facilities.

I suspect they got tours because someone wanted to show off what a nice building FCPS was buying but also highlight some of the challenges if they want it to be a traditional 9-12 high school.

[Anonymous]

Amazing that Lady went from the last board meeting praising the purchase because of the extreme crowding at Chantilly to hopping on the magnet train. She said at the work session that she would hate to see those beautiful small spaces be changed.

What happened between the Board meeting and the work session? Did they not take a look before they voted? Or, just maybe, Lady has a problem with her Dranesville District.
How many School Board members in other districts have promised people they would not be moved?

From the time they announced this purchase, a certain area has attacked it in the name of "transparency." However, on this thread and Nextdoor, it is clear their solution is to solve their concern on their boundary.

As for McElveen, Brookings was a big part of the magnet presentation (in the advance materials.) McElveen works or worked at Brookings for a long, long time.

So, once more, they are going to keep this area from relief.

[Anonymous]

Good grief. An aviation specific program is ridiculous for high school. Let’s let’s ramp up basic education and add some additional engineering 101 classes.

[Anonymous]

We need a plain old high school with good classes for all the kids.

Why prepare just a few kids in a magnet for the future?

We do not need a magnet school.

Relieve the overcrowding at Chantilly and Westfield and make it work. That is the need. They plan to start with ninth and tenth grade. Get ready for that and figure it out.

That is "imagining the possibilities." Here is a good chance to prove it!

If FCPS cannot figure out how to make a facility of this size work, how can they possibly execute a successful magnet?

Spend the time helping the struggling schools with good, strong instruction.
Reduce the bloat at the top and get the teachers into classrooms.

We don't need bells and whistles. We need strong instruction and curriculum for all kids--not a fancy magnet.

The focus should be focus on strong curriculum in all schools. Not a focus on a fancy school. And, kids need a school with a sense of community--not schools that require hours on a bus. That may be okay for TJ kids, but not for most.
Some of the THRU plans and some of the posters on here think overcrowding can be easily solved by sending kids further away. It's really hard to have successful extracurricular activities under those circumstances--especially for the kids who do not come from wealthy families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do we have a full accounting of who seems to be pro magnet and who seems to be pro community HS? So far it seems like

Pro magnet:
Reid (there is no ridiculous pie in the sky idea she doesn’t like)
Lady
McElveen

Pro community HS:
Frisch
McDaniel

Where do the others seem to land? Dixit better know she will be hearing from her constituents if she is not vocally pro community HS. What about the rest of them? Or were they too focused on the naming to worry about actual important things?

I know the board ultimately gets to vote on it, but how often do they go against Reid on things? Feels like the mostly just rubber stamp her dumb ideas.

If Dixit’s got centreville in her area then I disagree with your assessment. It’s clear that centreville isn’t getting an expansion and making KAA a traditional school would draw a good chunk of those centreville kids to Westfield. I bet those centreville families would rather stay zoned where they are with an option to go to the magnet.

I know people in the kaa area feel strongly, but I think a magnet would please a lot more constituents, even if they don’t feel as passionately about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do we have a full accounting of who seems to be pro magnet and who seems to be pro community HS? So far it seems like

Pro magnet:
Reid (there is no ridiculous pie in the sky idea she doesn’t like)
Lady
McElveen

Pro community HS:
Frisch
McDaniel

Where do the others seem to land? Dixit better know she will be hearing from her constituents if she is not vocally pro community HS. What about the rest of them? Or were they too focused on the naming to worry about actual important things?

I know the board ultimately gets to vote on it, but how often do they go against Reid on things? Feels like the mostly just rubber stamp her dumb ideas.

If Dixit’s got centreville in her area then I disagree with your assessment. It’s clear that centreville isn’t getting an expansion and making KAA a traditional school would draw a good chunk of those centreville kids to Westfield. I bet those centreville families would rather stay zoned where they are with an option to go to the magnet.

I know people in the kaa area feel strongly, but I think a magnet would please a lot more constituents, even if they don’t feel as passionately about it.

They won't move any Centreville areas to Westfield for the same reason they haven't moved Forestville to Herndon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Web archive of KAA facilities description

https://web.archive.org/web/20250502091109/https://www.kaa-herndon.com/about-us/facilities

Hightlights (List of 11 items.)

Buildings and grounds on 40-acres

Fourteen learning communities designed to maximize individual and group work

Three gymnasiums suitable for basketball, volleyball, badminton etc.

Large multi-purpose halls

Indoor 8 lane heated swimming pool & weight lifting/fitness facilities

State-of-the-art theater and performing arts facilities

Library and study rooms

Dual dining room and cafeteria

Ceramics and robotics laboratories

Fine arts facilities

Soccer fields and Athletics oval

That sounds like plenty of space for a high school.

They can use trailers for overflow while construction is going on.

No, it sounds like tons of amenities for a high school.

It doesn’t address the actual capacity or how much classroom space there is.

What amenities? The only thing it has that other schools don't have is a pool. It's not like they're going to keep the dining room and three gyms. They will repurpose those into classrooms.

Wrong. There are a lot of special-purpose spaces and equipment (which conveyed) that typical high schools don’t have. And “repurpose” is an interesting word for the modifications that will be required for more classroom space. You can’t just snap your fingers and turn a gym into classrooms.

You clearly don't know anything about this stuff - converting a gym into classrooms would be one of the easiest projects for them to do - put down flooring, put up thin walls.

It’s starting to sound less like a high school and more like a refugee camp, but do go on.

I will, thanks! Do you know anything about construction and renovation? Because it's obvious you don't. A gym is one large room. You can easily build partitions to turn it into several smaller rooms. Have you ever been in an office building? They build it out as one large open space, and add walls to create offices. Then when one company leaves and another ones leases the space, they rebuild the interior to meet their own needs. Sometimes that means tearing down offices and building cubicles or removing walls to create a large conference room. Other times it means, building offices where there were once cubicles or turning one large conference room into several offices. I've seen this happen many times, and nobody has ever compared these office spaces to refugee camps!

But, Robyn Lady also added that it would be a shame to get rid of those beautiful "small spaces" or something like that.

But, I agree. This building is as large as Centreville. It can work. Lady has spoken about how every available space at Chantilly has been redirected. That can happen here, as well. Some people just do not want it to work.
And, there are those two extra buildings.

You are wrong and silly. Again.

People are fine if it "works," but they ought to know what the real cost is going to be, what type of school it will be (the School Board already had to shoot down Reid's dumb proposal to make it a magnet admission to which would be restricted to kids otherwise zoned to just a few FCPS high schools), how it will affect the ongoing boundary study, and how it will affect the CIP and existing renovation queue.

At present, they can't or won't answer any of these questions, and they can't or won't even say what the school's current or anticipated capacity will be. It demonstrates incompetence and poor oversight, but that doesn't mean that people don't want FCPS to get its money out of the building, which it now owns.

Well, they are 65 bus drivers short. So there is a savings for you. They will need lots fewer bus drivers and buses. Maybe a drop in the bucket, but it is a savings.

They have to educate the kids no matter where they are. How many more kids do you think they can put in Chantilly/Westfield, Centreville? Oakton and South Lakes are also pretty full.

Ah, yes. Leave out the high school in western Fairfax that FCPS is projecting will have 850 extra seats by SY 2029-30.

You don't even try to be honest with the facts.

They don't have 850 extra seats now. Wonder why the future of Herndon High is so important to you?

They might have room for one elementary school. And, that school is not at Chantilly. And, that school does not have the demographics they desire for Herndon.

Chantilly is 3000 now. No Chantilly kids are a reasonable distance from Herndon High. Without boundary changes, Westfield will soon be at 3000 with all the new construction.

We understand your strong desire to fill Herndon. There are neighborhoods easily within 10 minutes who could fill it now. And, they are not near KAA.

They had over 500 vacant seats last year and that number is only projected to go up.

There is nothing in Policy 8130 that allows them to base redistricting decisions on “desired” demographics, but there is language that suggests they should take advantage of available capacity.

It would have been very simple to move part of Chantilly to Westfield and part of Westfield - about which you pretend to worry so much - to Herndon.

Instead they went ahead and bought a school that they still haven’t figured out what they’re going to do with, or what the final price tag might be.

We own it now, so it should not go to waste, but it’s just one more instance of gross incompetence on their part of Reid and the School Board.

They are not moving high FARMs ES into a HS that is already high FARMs. That would be awful for all of the kids. They could put the aviation academy there because there is room and there are students in the area that would benefit from the program. Or a strong auto mechanics academy, outside the traditional auto mechanics class that is at a bunch of schools. Some type of vo-tech program would be a great fit at Herndon.

They can shift McNair and Coates to KAA easily enough, which will make space at Westfield and then shift kids from Chantilly to Westfield. Floris is likely to end up at KAA, which relieves South Lakes and Westfield. They can shift Oak Hill to KAA, which will help Chantilly. Then shift some kids from Centerville to Chantilly, which should now have space for kids.

That is reasonable. Hopefully, they could also put Crossfield there in order to relieve the bus to Oakton.

But, if there is really a need for more kids at Herndon as some insist, there are kids in 20170 (same as Town of Herndon) that live less than 2.5 miles from Herndon High-some, even less, and more than 13 miles to Langley,

But, I think Herndon is okay like it is. Over 2000 is not a small school.

DP. “Grumble, grumble, great falls, Langley! Great falls, grumble grumble.”

Oh my god, you are the one who started by talking about capacity at Herndon and how it's easy to move kids who live close to the school.

Your statement is not true. You’re conflating multiple posters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do we have a full accounting of who seems to be pro magnet and who seems to be pro community HS? So far it seems like

Pro magnet:
Reid (there is no ridiculous pie in the sky idea she doesn’t like)
Lady
McElveen

Pro community HS:
Frisch
McDaniel

Where do the others seem to land? Dixit better know she will be hearing from her constituents if she is not vocally pro community HS. What about the rest of them? Or were they too focused on the naming to worry about actual important things?

I know the board ultimately gets to vote on it, but how often do they go against Reid on things? Feels like the mostly just rubber stamp her dumb ideas.

If Dixit’s got centreville in her area then I disagree with your assessment. It’s clear that centreville isn’t getting an expansion and making KAA a traditional school would draw a good chunk of those centreville kids to Westfield. I bet those centreville families would rather stay zoned where they are with an option to go to the magnet.

I know people in the kaa area feel strongly, but I think a magnet would please a lot more constituents, even if they don’t feel as passionately about it.

They won't move any Centreville areas to Westfield for the same reason they haven't moved Forestville to Herndon.

They would be moving lots of high FARMS OUT of Westfield to KAA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do we have a full accounting of who seems to be pro magnet and who seems to be pro community HS? So far it seems like

Pro magnet:
Reid (there is no ridiculous pie in the sky idea she doesn’t like)
Lady
McElveen

Pro community HS:
Frisch
McDaniel

Where do the others seem to land? Dixit better know she will be hearing from her constituents if she is not vocally pro community HS. What about the rest of them? Or were they too focused on the naming to worry about actual important things?

I know the board ultimately gets to vote on it, but how often do they go against Reid on things? Feels like the mostly just rubber stamp her dumb ideas.

Dixit was leaning towards Community HS. Ricardy was neutral. Sizemore Heizer did not say anything. Only Lady and McElveen were for the magnet.