On Election Day last year, a referendum was on the ballot for FCPS to take out a $10 million bond to begin the process of building a new high school in southwest Fairfax County.
“This is a long-term acquisition, and it will be a number of years before anything happens,” FCPS facilities management representative Dave Porter said.

This new high school is supposed to bring relief to the already overcrowded high schools in the area. By the 2018-19 school year, Westfield will be at 105 percent capacity, 5 percent more students than the school was designed to hold. Other schools’ enrollment numbers will be: Centreville at 111 percent capacity, Chantilly at 103 percent capacity and Herndon at 121 percent capacity, according to an FCPS study.

“It will take three years to build the school, but we haven’t even found the land yet,” Porter said.

Once built, the school is expected to enroll around 2.000-plus students. Unfortunately, the new high school won’t even start the enrollment process until 2020, when enrollment will be even higher in the already overcrowded schools.

In the eastern part of the county, Lake Braddock and other schools had a similar problem with overcrowding more than 10 years ago. In response, South County High School was built, and now the schools in our area will only be between 85 and mid-90 percent capacity in the next 10 years, leaving plenty of space for more students.

Overcrowding in schools shows up on students’ report cards.

Stuart High School, has one of the highest overflows in the county and is the lowest performing school in the county. On the contrary, the least-crowded school, Langley, has some of the highest test scores in the county.

“Students in school buildings in poor condition had achievement that was 6 percent below schools in fair condition and 11 percent below schools in excellent condition,” according to the Department of Education website.

The Department of Education study looking specifically at DC Public Schools, where a school considered “in poor condition” was seen as overcrowded and bad repair.

Building one new school may not be enough to relieve all the heavily overcrowded schools in the vastly developing area of western Fairfax County. Fairfax County has already projected that 135,000 people will move into the county by 2025, a number that will just keep increasing each year.