School board to consider school renovation needs

The design for Falls Church High School. [Perkins Eastman/FCPS]

Fairfax County Public Schools’ Capital Improvement Program for 2022-28 outlines projects at six schools in the Mason District/Annandale area. 

The school board is holding a work session on the CIP on Jan. 5 and a public hearing on Jan. 7. The school board is scheduled to make a decision on the CIP on April 4. 

The Falls Church High School community has been advocating for the renovation of the school for years, but action had been delayed as the school had been too far down on FCPS’s renovation queue, which sets the priorities for school infrastructure projects. 

Planning for the FCHS renovation has been underway for the past year and-a-half. The 265,000-square-foot building will be expanded with about 160,000 additional square feet. The project is expected to be completed in 2025.

The school will have a new science wing, about 20 new classrooms, new collaboration space for project-based learning, a new larger gym, a new lecture hall, new music wing, new culinary wing, and new administrative offices. The school will also have new windows, ceilings, mechanical systems, and lighting. 

The total cost is estimated at $142.6 million. The planning costs, $10.1 million, were covered by a school bond approved by voters in 2017. Construction has not been funded yet but is expected to be included in a school bond on the 2021 ballot. 

A $19.7 million addition for Justice High School has been fully funded by bonds approved in 2017 and 2019. 

The addition is needed, as the school is currently at 116 percent capacity. The 54,000-square-foot addition will have classrooms and labs. The work is expected to start in fall 2021 and should take about two years. 

A $35.6 million project to improve and add about 38,000 square feet to Braddock Elementary School is fully funded by 2017 and 2019 school bonds. The additional space means a modular structure can be removed. The work is estimated to be completed in 2024. 

A project to renovate and expand Annandale Terrace Elementary School has just been completed. The $27.7 million project was funded by bonds passed in 2015 and 2017. 

Planning for the renovation of Wakefield Forest Elementary School was funded by the 2019 school bond. Construction has not been funded yet. The total cost is estimated at $30.7 million, including $1.6 million in planning funds.

A $59 million project to improve and expand Frost Middle School was fully funded by bonds approved in 2017 and 2019. The project would add over 70,000 square feet and remove modular and temporary classrooms. 

The CIP notes that Bren Mar Park Elementary School will need renovation within the next five years, but that project hasn’t been funded.

In addition to outlining infrastructure projects, the CIP outlines enrollment trends and suggests boundary adjustments to relieve overcrowding. 

Primarily due to the impact of the COVID pandemic, FCPS enrollment dropped by 8,859 students from 2019-20 to 2020-21. Most of that decline is at the elementary school level, which saw enrollment plummet by 7,729 students.

Among school capacity studies planned for 2021-22, the CIP calls for addressing overcrowding at Glen Forest Elementary School. Possible solutions include reassigning instructional spaces within the school, program changes, minor interior facility modifications, and a boundary adjustment.