Braddock District board member Megan McLaughlin said this year’s Capital Improvement Plan shows the Fairfax county Board of Supervisors the challenges the school system faces. Photo by Reena Singh.
Several new schools may be added to the Fairfax County Public Schools system in the next decade.
The School Board listened to an annual Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) presentation by Assistant Superintendent Jeffrey Platenberg on Dec. 18, 2014, describing the need for four more elementary schools and one high school to meet the demands of rapidly rising enrollment.
The board will not vote on the plan until Jan. 22. The meeting will be in the board chambers at Luther Jackson Middle School at 7 p.m.
“It’s a large, large student body,” said Platenberg.
More specifically, he said between September 2013 and September 2014, enrollment rose by 2,000.
“Both our Board of Supervisors and the public, if they ever wanted to understand the complexity of a county of over a million people and almost 200 schools, open up this brochure and understand what we’re dealing with,” said Braddock District board member Megan McLaughlin.
The elementary schools proposed are in the Route 1 area, Fort Belvoir, the Fairfax area and in the northwestern end of the county. The high school was named “Western High School” in the presentation. Two of those schools already have funding thanks to a Department of Defense federal grant for 80 percent of the construction cost. The county will be funding the remaining 20 percent.
Platenberg said that program changes in addition to boundary changes may be needed in addition to the new schools.
He also proposed new additions to Westbriar Elementary, Vienna, and South Lakes High School, Reston, totaling $14 million. Construction is expected to start by 2021.
McLaughlin said she was worried about boundary changes, going into her own experience about her grade school experience in North Carolina. Additionally, she said she hoped the Board of Supervisors will be more of a help to fund the CIP.
“We can’t build our way out of it with additions and modulars and continue with very expensive transportation and bussing,” she said.
Mason District board member Sandra Evans was worried about how much “orange” and “red” she saw in the report for her areas, indicating a high overcapacity in the schools she represents. She was also concerned about how the current birthrate boom will affect elementary schools in five years.
Platenburg said he will go further in detail on the matter at the next work session, which will take place on Jan. 12.
Dranesville District board member Jane Strauss commented about the report, reminding the public that this is the school board’s way of reassuring that a plan is being made to reduce classroom sizes.
“There is a limit at each school in what the buildout is,” she said.