School board supports an AAP Center at Poe

The Fairfax County School Board on Sept. 25 voted to move forward on a plan to establish an Advanced Academic Programs (AAP) Center at Poe Middle School in Annandale.

A new AAP Center is needed because the Annandale High School pyramid is only one of two pyramids that doesn’t have an AAP Center in a middle school or elementary school, says Mason school board member Ricardy Anderson, who proposed the motion to create one at Poe.

If approved, the new center would provide continuous full-time AAP services to students in the AAP programs at Annandale Terrace, Braddock, and North Springfield elementary schools.

Currently, those students must transition to Canterbury Woods Elementary School for grade 6, then transfer to the AAP Center at Frost Middle School.

Students at Bren Mar Park, Columbia, and Weyanoke elementary schools – and most students at Mason Crest – who currently go to the AAP Center at Glasgow Middle School would instead go to the new one at Poe.

Related story: AAP center proposed for Poe Middle School

Students in grades 6-8 at Glasgow and Frost would complete their middle school education at those sites.

The AAP Center at Poe would be implemented for sixth graders in the 2026-27 school year. Grade 7 would be added in 2027, and grade 8 would be added the following year.

Community meetings will be held on Oct. 22 and Oct. 28, although details have not yet been announced.

In November, the superintendent is expected to present a recommendation to the school board on the new AAP Center. The school board will vote on the proposal on Dec. 18.

After the school board vote on Sept. 25 on the AAP Center for Poe, the board adopted a follow-on motion by Kyle McDaniel (at large) calling for the superintendent to develop a comprehensive plan for establishing AAP Centers at every middle school in the county.