Arlington County will be getting a new public high school within the next five-and-a-half years.
That’s according to the Arlington Public Schools website, which details a planning process that will soon be kicking off for the new school.
A four-month process is planned to determine the instructional focus of the school, concluding in June with a staff recommendation to the School Board. Via APS:
By September 2022, APS will open the doors to a new high school.
Beginning in February 2017, we will launch a community engagement process to determine the instructional focus for the new high school. The process will include:
- February 15: Joint ACI and FAC meeting to share options considered for location and instruction
- February-March: Community Survey
- March 30 and April 4: Community Meetings
- May: School Board work session to review options
- June: Staff recommendation to the School Board
It has not yet been determined whether the new high school will be a specialized choice school, like Arlington Tech or H-B Woodlawn, or a comprehensive, community high school like Wakefield, Washington-Lee and Yorktown.
“That’s what we’re working to decide — it will be decided in the coming months with feedback from the community process and looking at available options, budget, etc.,” Assistant Superintendent Linda Erdos tells ARLnow.com.
Also this month, APS will begin the design and construction planning process, which will determine the location of the school, the architect, the design and the construction firm. The location and architect is expected to be selected later this year, while the design will be finalized in 2019. Construction is expected to start in 2020 and wrap up by August 2022.
The new high school is being built as part of the school system’s latest Capital Improvement Plan, which was approved last year and calls for 1,300 new high school seats by the fall of 2022.
“The 2017-26 Capital Improvement Plan, which the School Board adopted on June 16, 2016, included $146.71 million funding for 1,300 new high school seats to be completed in time for the start of school in 2022,” notes the APS website.
A petition launched last year called on APS to build a new high school rather than just staggering schedules and adding seats to Arlington’s existing high schools, as was under consideration.
APS is encouraging those with questions or suggestions about the new high school to email them at [email protected].