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Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)
FCPS is turning the new high school purchased to fix crowding into an Aviation magnet school instead of a high school??
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Anonymous
| At the boundary meeting yesterday it was clear that decisions have been made when they said there was no need to update boundaries with the new school. |
Anonymous
I doubt they are going to conclude Education Drive in Herndon is some Nirvana of school safety and security. If something went wrong they’d be facing massive liability. They want to get kids out of trailers and they only put up with kids in modulars because otherwise they’d have to change more school boundaries and it would shed a light on the disparities in school facilities within FCPS. But that doesn’t mean they’ll replicate those conditions at a new school. |
Anonymous
The only inference I’d draw from that is they don’t want any decisions relating to KAA to slow down other changes they want to adopt early next year. Some areas could see boundary changes multiple times over the next five years. Policy 8130 carves out boundary adjustments relating to the opening of new schools, so they can make one set of changes relating to the county-wide review in early 2026 and another set of changes relating to KAA later in 2026 or thereafter. |
Anonymous
Have you been there? Doesn't sound like it. |
Anonymous
Yes. And I can't believe you're delusional enough to think FCPS will just turn it into an open, three-building high school campus. |
Anonymous
Suggest you drive around some other high schools. Many are pretty open. Education Drive is almost a private drive. The School Board and the Park Authority own all the property. There is no need for any thru traffic. Certainly, it wouldn't be as exposed as most high schools in Fairfax County. But, the main building is likely to be able to handle it, in any case. Extra buildings could be used for storage, academy or whatever. If you think that FCPS is going to get rid of all modulars and trailers, you must be new to Fairfax County. Facts matter. |
Anonymous
This is one stupid assertion after another on your part. The relative seclusion of Education Drive could make it more vulnerable from a security perspective. Let's not forget how close it is to a self-storage business right off McLearen and other commerical properties. But in any event the main security risks arise from having so many kids in buildings with limited security. That's what FCPS has been trying to address, and an open campus with three buildings runs directly counter to the thrust of their recent priorities and efforts. The new head of Facilities has repeatedly said the current capacity of KAA is in the 1200 to 1300 range, so stop pretending it's going to be a regular 9-12 high school any time soon. And of course they aren't going to get rid of all the trailers and modulars at EXISTING schools right away, but that doesn't mean they are going to open a NEW school with the same issues. Most likely this is going to be a multi-year project to redesign and expand KAA so it can function as a public HS. Some of those same bells and whistles that had you people salivating over sending your kids there rather than to, say, Westfield are probably going to be torn out to create more standard classrooms. We'll spend a lot of additional money and the end result will be a less attractive facility than KAA is today. |
Anonymous
Doesn't matter if it is less attractive. The best use is as a traditional high school. Westfield is crowded now. There is new construction and it is not part of the community. Big difference. Suggest you drive over and take a look. |
Anonymous
I've already seen KAA, thanks. It's no more secure than many other school campuses and probably less so than others. Westfield was at 97% capacity last year, not overcrowded. And that was before DOGE and the immigration crackdown. Let's wait for the September 2025 enrollment numbers before claims are made that it's overcrowded. Larger demographic trends are also expected to reduce enrollments in future years. Not to mention that Westfield shares a border with Herndon, which has hundreds of empty seats. Let's also not forget that it is Region 5 BRAC representatives who suggest KAA should be a magnet school. Region 5 includes Westfield. If the BRAC representatives for Westfield felt overcrowded was a big problem, they'd be pushing hard for KAA to take on Westfield neighborhoods to relieve overcrowding, but they aren't. |
Anonymous
| 97% IS overcrowded, GMAFB. No FCPS HS should be pushing 3000. |
Anonymous
What idiocy. In the past schools have needed to be over 110% capacity to warrant boundary changes, much less a new school. Now they've dropped that threshold to 105% for boundary changes, but no one thinks 97% is overcrowded. And they've purposefully expanded many schools to over 2500 seats. Westfield isn't even an outlier, when you look at the current capacities at Oakton, Herndon, and West Potomac. And of course they planned to expand Centreville to 3000, although they might end up dialing that back. |
Anonymous
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An excerpt from Reid's latest staff email:
"In early September, we announced the acquisition of our new high school in the western part of the county. As we begin to shape its identity, the first step is the naming process. This will be a community-focused process governed by Policy and Regulation 8170. Your perspective as staff is invaluable, and I invite you to participate! The School Board will hold a work session on Tuesday, October 7, to discuss the new high school’s programming and possible boundary status. On Thursday, October 9, the new high school will be covered as New Business during a board meeting, and the one-month comment period will begin. Details on how you can submit potential names for the new high school at a public hearing, community meeting, and via a survey will be available soon. Stay tuned!" |
Anonymous
In other words, "Figuring out what to do with this school is hard and expensive. Let's pretend we're moving forward with something performative and relatively easy!" |
Anonymous
If you're talking about focusing on a new name before more important decisions are made, yeah, that's putting the cart before the horse. But it sounds like staff is going to have to come up with a new and more substantive proposal for KAA's future before the 10/7 work session. The fact that the word "possible" precedes "boundary status" suggests they don't yet want to commit 100% to a neighborhood school, which would clearly have an impact on school boundaries. |
Anonymous
It would be easier and wrong to make it a "special magnet " school. However, it does not meet the needs of the local community. Office buildings get reorganized physically frequently. This school could be made to work as a traditional high school. There are people who know how to do it. But, rather than hire those people, FCPS hires groups like THRU to set boundaries. Hopefully, they will find someone who knows what they are doing for this process. This is NOT rocket science. It does take te right people to do it. |