Falls Church HS expansion cut back and delayed due to soaring costs
The renovation and expansion of Falls Church High School, currently underway, is going to cost millions of dollars more than anticipated.
As a result, some aspects of the original plan will be eliminated, and completion of the project has been pushed back a full year – from summer 2025 to summer 2026.
Officials from Fairfax County Public Schools’ Design and Construction department and principal architect Sean O’Donnell of Perkins Eastman presented an update at the April 24 PTSA meeting.
Construction and labor costs have gone up 30 percent since the original estimate, so several items have been dropped entirely or put on a list of things to be done later when other funding can be found.
One estimate puts the shortfall as high as $30 million. School board member Karl Frisch told the PTSA that a cost increase of this size would be unprecedented.
Related story: Falls Church HS renovation to start soon
Most of the items to be dropped affect athletics, including dugouts, press boxes, concession stands, and restrooms.
A part of the building with a gym dating from the 1950s was going to be taken out and replaced by a courtyard. That is not going to happen now.
Another component dropped from the original plan is a stairwell and a hallway on the second floor between the new science wing and the old part of the school. As a result, students will have a long walk to get from one classroom to another.
The project was designed and budgeted before Covid so the project didn’t account for the increased cost of materials and labor, supply chain issues, and the difficulty of retaining construction workers. Another challenge is the delay in getting HVAC units, as they are in high demand for data centers.
The PTSA is concerned that “the renovation will be inequitable” compared to renovations at other schools in the county and that “we will have to cut aspects of the renovation due to unfortunate timing,” said PTSA Vice President Paula Prettyman.
“We understand the challenges,” Prettyman said. “We need to know that our renovation at the end of the day will be what was in the original plan.”
Other school projects are affected by cost increases, too, Frisch said. A discretionary fund that used to be available for this type of situation no longer exists, but he said he is committed to finding a solution for the funding shortfall.
The PTSA and FCHS Athletic Boosters will be reaching out to the school board and FCPS administrators, Prettyman said, to find out “how FCPS will close the $30 million gap caused by inflation to make sure we’ll end up with quality construction and all the features initially included in the bond request and approved by the voters.”
“We’re almost a year into the project and this is the first we’ve heard about the cuts and the one-year delay and we don’t have assurances that our renovation will be made whole,” Prettyman said. “We’ve waited and waited for this renovation and it’s simply unacceptable to think there isn’t an equitable solution.”
12 responses to “Falls Church HS expansion cut back and delayed due to soaring costs”
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What the article doesn’t mention is that FCHS is the last school in the county to be renovated. It hasn’t received any since the 70s. Maybe if FCPS funded schools that actually need renovating instead of for the spoiled, privileged kids in Langley, this would not be an issue. This is dissapointing
This seems like a really whiny, petulant comment. Langley’s renovation cost $80M; the budget for the “scaled-back” renovation at Falls Church is still $160M. The reason why Falls Church’s renovation came later that other schools was because it was under-enrolled when the last renovation queue was developed in 2008. And when Falls Church’s renovation is finished, it will still be leaps and bounds fancier than the renovations that schools built in the 1950s like Annandale and McLean received in the early 2000s.
There was a small Renovation in 88-90, just added the handicapped wing and other things
In my opinion FCPS is Fairfax County’s best asset, however, although FCPS accounts for half the county budget, FCPS lacks the political support it deserves to fully execute its mission. The community benefits of a fully funded FCPS are long lasting and immeasurable. An educated and engaged youth bring value for decades. The FCHS shortfall will not be made up later(bureaucratic misleading) FIND $30 MILLION NOW!
I wholeheartedly agree, if we want a better future, the future needs to be educated, and with massive rises in our house assessments, the taxes gathered from that should be more than enough.
If FCPS really cared and respected the students and families in the Falls Church pyramid, this renovation would have been done 30 years ago. This is the *one and only chance* to bring the high school up to the quality and standards enjoyed at other county schools. Find the $30 million to finished what was promised. Try this: take the money from the next school renovation project on the list – that’ll drive other school parents mad, then it’ll start getting get attention from other parts of the county.
Some schools are on 3rd and 4th renovations and FCHS has barely been touched in 70 years! We have to get a complete, quality renovation done.
I agree with this commenter. Do what you committed to do. Stop screwing FCHS
The FCPS architecture /engineering and construction division is run by juniors and are not well paid thus keeping more senior experienced and seasoned professionals from being hired. So no surprise here, the County gets what they pay for……CRAP!
Usual incompetent contract administration of our local government. Contractors love doing business with ignorant government bureaucrats.
The Hoover Dam took 5 years to build. PreCovid Design and Budgeted for a expansion…should be completed by now. Someone was asleep at the helm..
This renovation is long overdue and should be completed as originally planned. My son graduated from FCHS in 2001. It needed renovation at that point but missed out because the Principal died and a temporary one did not respond to a query. Twenty two years later and nothing has been finished? This would not have happened in McLean!
This is so ridiculous. Again, we are at the mercy of bureaucratic BS making inadequate decisions. While sitting pretty in the high rise office, this is happening below. For the commenter that indicated it is costing $160M for the FC HS renovation, this would not have been the case if it had not be neglected for so long. This is what happens when you put a band aid on on a gushing wound. So shame on those that can’t figure how to find the shortfall. We pay a crazy amount of taxes so there should not be an issue in finding resolution and preventing renovations cuts from our plan.