Reply to King Abdullah Academy Closing: FCPS Buy for HS?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I think the Langley people are so worried they might get moved that they are on here pretending to be from other places trying to scuttle the deal anyway they can. They figured out that Westfield is likely going to come out with a raw deal and are trying to stir up the Westfield and Chantilly people to be against it. [/quote]

JFC, you people are frighteningly unwell.  I assure you, no one from Langley is trying to scuttle the new school.  But it absolutely figures you'd use them as your scapegoat if things don't go your way - when have you ever not?   :roll: [/quote]

Oh. There was a Langley poster on Nextdoor who came out strongly against the purchase of KAA.  It was all about the "process."  No matter that if the normal "process" (whatever that is) was followed, that the purchase would not have succeeded.
She wrote essays daily for a week or so.[/quote]

Yes, that was one person.  One.  Not an entire community or even a handful of people.  [/quote]

There were people on this thread.  And, the Nextdoor person had plenty of support from her neighbors on Nextdoor.  Didn't the Great Falls community group (the new one) come out with a statement?[/quote]

Again, you verifiably lie.[/quote]

CITIZENS FOR GREAT FALLS

Comments on School Board Plan to Acquire a New Western High School

Today, Citizens For Great Falls President John Halacy and Vice President Manny Dacoba responded to action taken last night by the Fairfax County School Board to authorize the $150 million purchase of the now-shuttered King Abdullah Academy in Herndon.

With nine members voting to support the motion and three abstaining, the Fairfax County School Board authorized the acquisition of the King Abdullah Academy. Located in Herndon, the 40-acre site previously housed high school and middle school students for an enrollment of about 800 students. Currently assessed at $117,665,760 by Fairfax County, it is described on the former school’s website as a fully equipped high school complete with state-of-the-art classrooms, labs, indoor and outdoor athletic facilities, as well as an eight-lane Olympic-style, 25-yard competition pool.

According to Halacy and Dacoba, “The timing of this announcement is incredible for several reasons. While the need for more high school capacity in the western area of the county has been under discussion for at least 20 years, due to increased residential development, the school board and administrators have been heavily engaged in the debate surrounding the method and policies involving a revision of school boundaries to address capacity issues, given the differences in enrollments throughout the county. The vote by the school board to acquire a new facility will have
a sweeping effect on current planning efforts that have involved a contentious relationship between the administration and the community. This tends to overshadow months of work and meetings by residents who have been participating in the county’s Boundary Review Advisory Committee
(BRAC).”

They added: “Based on the comments at last night’s meeting of the board, some board members consider the purchase price a rare bargain and characterize this as a windfall, given the current cost of land acquisition and construction. It could present opportunities to ease capacity issues and reduce time and effort in the process of addressing needs for the western part of the county. But
the decision to proceed with this by the Superintendent and her staff without engagement with the ongoing planning process is a disappointing factor. Even with the cost that has been reported, we agree with the school board members who did not vote for this because of numerous unanswered
questions and the lack of transparency surrounding this initiative.

The county recently struggled to achieve a balanced budget, proposing severe cuts to avoid negatively affecting the school system’s budget and other essential county services. So, initiatives like buying a new school are likely to have a significant budget impact going forward. Though we are
not surprised that the school administrators undertook this significant financial commitment
without full public disclosure and debate, particularly without including such plans in the current
discussions with the Boundary Review Advisory Committee (BRAC) community members.

Purchasing a high school by a county public school authority without adequate public disclosure and input from the community that has been involved in this effort for decades is an example of an administratively unsound choice. Just as the School Board negotiated its labor agreements that granted a 7% salary increase for their employees without involving the Board of Supervisors (which is the county’s budget authority), taking this action behind closed doors is another striking example of the lack of transparency and disregard for citizen participation typical of this school and its administrators.

School board officials and Superintendent Reid should be reminded that they don’t operate in a
policy and decision-making vacuum. Major policy choices like building new schools in our community or acquiring major new facilities should involve public engagement and not be decided behind closed doors.

We are eager to learn more about how this planned proposal will fit into the
overall strategy for addressing school capacity issues, boundaries, and budget.

Citizens For Great Falls looks forward to engaging with the community organizations like FairFACTS
Matters Foundation and the other organizations across Fairfax County involved in the efforts to
support high-quality education in our community. ”

###

Citizens For Great Falls is a newly formed community-based non-profit advocacy organization
engaged in a wide range of issues addressing transportation, land use, environment, school policy
on boundaries, and more.

Please contact CitizensForGreatFalls@gmail.com for information on membership and initiatives.

The responses also indicated a problem with the purchase.   I understand it was done behind closed doors, but had they not done it that way, they would not have secured the purchase.  Which, I guess, would have been a good thing to the Citizens of Great Falls.

While this certainly has an effect on boundaries, it resolves overcrowding in the area.  For some reasons, the Citizens of Great Falls don't like that idea.

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