Fairfax County’s school board has approved a plan to buy property from a closing private school in Herndon, paving the way for Virginia’s largest school district to open its first new high school in decades.
The proposal, which was approved during Thursday’s board meeting, involved buying the infrastructure of what’s been operating as “King Abdullah Academy” in Herndon.
The school district is paying $150 million to acquire the land, including school buildings, furniture and equipment. The sale is scheduled to close in August.
The plans come as the school district has grappled with how to address overcrowding and create a new high school in the western portion of the county.
School Board member Mateo Dunne said schools in the western part “have some capacity constraints, and we need a new high school to ensure that the high schools that exist can have their student populations rebalanced to match the increasing development.”
Talks of building the new school caused some concern, because the school district estimated building a new campus would cost over $431 million. But taking over the private academy’s existing infrastructure enables the division to save money and allocate it toward other school renovation projects, Dunne said.
“It is a unique opportunity to be able to capture a school property that is almost complete,” Board member Sandy Anderson said at Thursday’s meeting. “It offers an elegant solution to a problem that we have been grappling with for a very long time, trying to figure out a location for a western high school.”
The campus includes robotics and ceramics labs, multiple cafeterias, an Olympic-sized swimming pool, athletic fields and two amphitheater-style outdoor classrooms. It also features two administrative buildings across the street, which Dunne said could either be used as office space or early child care centers.
Because the infrastructure is in place, Dunne said the campus could be ready for students as early as the fall of 2026.
Calling the step a “once-in-a-generation” opportunity, Board Chair Karl Frisch said there are still lingering questions the district will have to answer. For one, the district will have to determine what type of facility it will be.
It could be a magnet school, similar to the prestigious Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Dunne said. It’s unclear how the new campus could impact the ongoing boundary review process, but if it becomes a general high school, “it would require some rezoning for local high schools in the area,” he said.
The process of determining the best use for the school will be done with community input, Dunne said.
Through the monthslong process, he said the school system was likely “betting against people who, I think, wanted to maybe tear it down and build homes here or build data centers. And that is not the optimal use.”
Money saved on construction costs for a new campus “can be reallocated to accelerate the renovation of other school properties across the county,” he said.
