For the first time in decades, Fairfax County is opening a new high school, one of its steps to alleviate overcrowding on several campuses in the Northern Virginia suburb.
The district finalized the sale of the former King Abdullah Academy in Herndon, spending $150 million on the private school campus and all of its furniture and technology. County leaders said they saved hundreds of millions of dollars by not having to build a new campus from scratch.
At a school board meeting earlier this month, board members approved a plan that will allow students zoned to attend Centreville, South Lakes, Oakton, Westfield and Chantilly high schools to choose to attend the new high school. The campus does not yet have a name.
“I’m excited to see that they’re going to start giving some outlet to relieve that overcrowding, but doing it in a way that seems to be taking it step by step and not making any quick moves,” parent Steve Pierce said.
The board vote came weeks after nearly 300 parents signed a petition urging Superintendent Michelle Reid to convert the King Abdullah Academy to a traditional high school instead of a magnet program. A plan for some type of special programming at the new site is expected to be developed in the future.
“My biggest concern, obviously, was to make sure it was a traditional school serving the local population, which has now been decided,” parent Kerin Hamel said. “So that’s great.”
The campus will eventually offer classes for all high school grade levels but will open by welcoming ninth and 10th graders in the fall.
The school system is expected to consider boundaries for the new campus next year, as part of the districtwide boundary review process. Reid said students choosing to attend the school but who live outside the official boundary, will have to arrange transportation to and from the school.
Once that process begins, Pierce said, it’s important “this traditional community school actually serves the community in which it sits.”
“In this community, in particular where that school sits and where I live and where my neighbors live, has been split between different high schools for decades,” Pierce said. “Now, we’re going to have these neighborhood boundaries. What exactly are the boundaries?”
Hamel, meanwhile, said there are unanswered questions about the type of extracurricular and social activities that will be offered.
“What do the sports teams look like?” Hamel said. “Are there not going to be varsity teams in the beginning? What is the social atmosphere there? Would we potentially partner up with another school in the short term to make sure that the kids have the same social opportunities? Prom and homecoming, and different things like that?”
The new school will be able to hold over 2,000 students, according to the division’s website. The campus has 32.7 acres of land, with about 7 acres of existing athletic fields.
In its first year, it won’t be a Virginia High School League member, allowing students to play sports at their base schools to avoid losing eligibility.
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