King Abdullah Academy Closing: FCPS Buy for HS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ya'all should be concerned over the lack of transparency over this sale. Guaranteed it was an inside job for a long time coming and you should be holding your fcps people responsible because there were many bids even higher than fcps that were denied and turned down with legitimate funds in place. this was absolutely not a sale that happened by luck in the past few weeks. and if that is the inside dealing i would be concerned about the transparency of fcps to begin with.

Well I'm just happy that FCPS was able to right the wrong they did in selling both this property years ago and in selling the land in the Fairfax/ Fair Lakes area. It was their land to begin with. Now we can stop worrying about aquiring the last high school property needed in Fairfax for some time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ya'all should be concerned over the lack of transparency over this sale. Guaranteed it was an inside job for a long time coming and you should be holding your fcps people responsible because there were many bids even higher than fcps that were denied and turned down with legitimate funds in place. this was absolutely not a sale that happened by luck in the past few weeks. and if that is the inside dealing i would be concerned about the transparency of fcps to begin with.

Well I'm just happy that FCPS was able to right the wrong they did in selling both this property years ago and in selling the land in the Fairfax/ Fair Lakes area. It was their land to begin with. Now we can stop worrying about aquiring the last high school property needed in Fairfax for some time.

Exactly. The shady dealings were whatever transpired for KAA to get this land in the first place when it had already been earmarked for the future western HS. It was a gut punch when it was taken away with no input from the community. I don't care how the county got it back, I'm just glad they did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ya'all should be concerned over the lack of transparency over this sale. Guaranteed it was an inside job for a long time coming and you should be holding your fcps people responsible because there were many bids even higher than fcps that were denied and turned down with legitimate funds in place. this was absolutely not a sale that happened by luck in the past few weeks. and if that is the inside dealing i would be concerned about the transparency of fcps to begin with.

Who knows, maybe the agreement was due to the fact that the County sold the land to the Saudi's with no real discussion to build the school many years back. Maybe the sale to FCPS was a return the favor. the article I just read said that the others bidding for the land where data centers and private users. I am fine with FCPS getting the school, especially since there should have been a HS built there over 10 years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ya'all should be concerned over the lack of transparency over this sale. Guaranteed it was an inside job for a long time coming and you should be holding your fcps people responsible because there were many bids even higher than fcps that were denied and turned down with legitimate funds in place. this was absolutely not a sale that happened by luck in the past few weeks. and if that is the inside dealing i would be concerned about the transparency of fcps to begin with.

Who knows, maybe the agreement was due to the fact that the County sold the land to the Saudi's with no real discussion to build the school many years back. Maybe the sale to FCPS was a return the favor. the article I just read said that the others bidding for the land where data centers and private users. I am fine with FCPS getting the school, especially since there should have been a HS built there over 10 years ago.

DP.

Rubber stamps are a big problem in this country, at all layers of government.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ya'all should be concerned over the lack of transparency over this sale. Guaranteed it was an inside job for a long time coming and you should be holding your fcps people responsible because there were many bids even higher than fcps that were denied and turned down with legitimate funds in place. this was absolutely not a sale that happened by luck in the past few weeks. and if that is the inside dealing i would be concerned about the transparency of fcps to begin with.

Who knows, maybe the agreement was due to the fact that the County sold the land to the Saudi's with no real discussion to build the school many years back. Maybe the sale to FCPS was a return the favor. the article I just read said that the others bidding for the land where data centers and private users. I am fine with FCPS getting the school, especially since there should have been a HS built there over 10 years ago.

DP.

Rubber stamps are a big problem in this country, at all layers of government.

This is a lot less expensive then buying land and building a new building. And it is significantly faster. So the process saved time and money and we ended up with a new HS right were one was planned to be built years ago. I can see why you are concerned....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ya'all should be concerned over the lack of transparency over this sale. Guaranteed it was an inside job for a long time coming and you should be holding your fcps people responsible because there were many bids even higher than fcps that were denied and turned down with legitimate funds in place. this was absolutely not a sale that happened by luck in the past few weeks. and if that is the inside dealing i would be concerned about the transparency of fcps to begin with.

Who knows, maybe the agreement was due to the fact that the County sold the land to the Saudi's with no real discussion to build the school many years back. Maybe the sale to FCPS was a return the favor. the article I just read said that the others bidding for the land where data centers and private users. I am fine with FCPS getting the school, especially since there should have been a HS built there over 10 years ago.

DP.

Rubber stamps are a big problem in this country, at all layers of government.

This is a lot less expensive then buying land and building a new building. And it is significantly faster. So the process saved time and money and we ended up with a new HS right were one was planned to be built years ago. I can see why you are concerned....

Sure, but with a lacking process it’s worth asking some questions about the $150 million transaction that just popped up out of nowhere and approved with little discussion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ya'all should be concerned over the lack of transparency over this sale. Guaranteed it was an inside job for a long time coming and you should be holding your fcps people responsible because there were many bids even higher than fcps that were denied and turned down with legitimate funds in place. this was absolutely not a sale that happened by luck in the past few weeks. and if that is the inside dealing i would be concerned about the transparency of fcps to begin with.

Well I'm just happy that FCPS was able to right the wrong they did in selling both this property years ago and in selling the land in the Fairfax/ Fair Lakes area. It was their land to begin with. Now we can stop worrying about aquiring the last high school property needed in Fairfax for some time.

Exactly. The shady dealings were whatever transpired for KAA to get this land in the first place when it had already been earmarked for the future western HS. It was a gut punch when it was taken away with no input from the community. I don't care how the county got it back, I'm just glad they did.

I agree!

[Anonymous]

Maybe that was the point - Saudis did an experimental project for 10 years - they probably knew the county would be interested in buying an established school. So they just did this and now happy to get KAA off their hands.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ya'all should be concerned over the lack of transparency over this sale. Guaranteed it was an inside job for a long time coming and you should be holding your fcps people responsible because there were many bids even higher than fcps that were denied and turned down with legitimate funds in place. this was absolutely not a sale that happened by luck in the past few weeks. and if that is the inside dealing i would be concerned about the transparency of fcps to begin with.

Well I'm just happy that FCPS was able to right the wrong they did in selling both this property years ago and in selling the land in the Fairfax/ Fair Lakes area. It was their land to begin with. Now we can stop worrying about aquiring the last high school property needed in Fairfax for some time.

Where was the fair lakes land? I didn't know about that one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ya'all should be concerned over the lack of transparency over this sale. Guaranteed it was an inside job for a long time coming and you should be holding your fcps people responsible because there were many bids even higher than fcps that were denied and turned down with legitimate funds in place. this was absolutely not a sale that happened by luck in the past few weeks. and if that is the inside dealing i would be concerned about the transparency of fcps to begin with.

Sorry, if FCPS got some kind of great deal on this property, I'm not going to be mad about it.

The Saudis got this property in a very underhanded and secretive way to begin with.

[Anonymous]

Anyone have an article about the purported shady dealings that led to KAA getting the site in the first place?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ya'all should be concerned over the lack of transparency over this sale. Guaranteed it was an inside job for a long time coming and you should be holding your fcps people responsible because there were many bids even higher than fcps that were denied and turned down with legitimate funds in place. this was absolutely not a sale that happened by luck in the past few weeks. and if that is the inside dealing i would be concerned about the transparency of fcps to begin with.

I don't know any facts about "inside job". The sale is from a private owner to FCPS. The private owner can decide to or not to sell to anyone, as long as they don't have discrimination intent.

[Anonymous]

But why would the county agree to Saudis getting that land in an underhanded way? That means FCPS didn’t have capacity to develop on that land at that time. Yet the county profited from the tax collected from KAA existing.. so it’s not like the county lost anything tbh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

There was actually discrimination according to some parents. They didn’t consider anything from the current KAA community apparently so they didn’t actually want to sell it to the community, which is discrimination.

Anonymous wrote:Ya'all should be concerned over the lack of transparency over this sale. Guaranteed it was an inside job for a long time coming and you should be holding your fcps people responsible because there were many bids even higher than fcps that were denied and turned down with legitimate funds in place. this was absolutely not a sale that happened by luck in the past few weeks. and if that is the inside dealing i would be concerned about the transparency of fcps to begin with.

I don't know any facts about "inside job". The sale is from a private owner to FCPS. The private owner can decide to or not to sell to anyone, as long as they don't have discrimination intent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ya'all should be concerned over the lack of transparency over this sale. Guaranteed it was an inside job for a long time coming and you should be holding your fcps people responsible because there were many bids even higher than fcps that were denied and turned down with legitimate funds in place. this was absolutely not a sale that happened by luck in the past few weeks. and if that is the inside dealing i would be concerned about the transparency of fcps to begin with.

Who knows, maybe the agreement was due to the fact that the County sold the land to the Saudi's with no real discussion to build the school many years back. Maybe the sale to FCPS was a return the favor. the article I just read said that the others bidding for the land where data centers and private users. I am fine with FCPS getting the school, especially since there should have been a HS built there over 10 years ago.

DP.

Rubber stamps are a big problem in this country, at all layers of government.

This is a lot less expensive then buying land and building a new building. And it is significantly faster. So the process saved time and money and we ended up with a new HS right were one was planned to be built years ago. I can see why you are concerned....

Sure, but with a lacking process it’s worth asking some questions about the $150 million transaction that just popped up out of nowhere and approved with little discussion.

Sometimes opportunities arise that move faster than holding 800 hearings. Not to mention publicly advertising what the County was going to offer so that others could use that information to bid. The article I read said that the cost of buying the land and building the new school would have absorbed the entire CIP budget for at least 2 years. This is significantly less expensive, so Centerville and McLean can get their renovations still. and it should save us money since Centerville shouldn't need that expensive expansion.

I know people are griping about the other expansions, I would point out that most of the schools with expansions will still be at 90% capacity even after the new HS. I believe Herndon might be the exception.