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Thursday, June 26, 2008

Fairfax County School Board Votes To Build South County Middle School

The Fairfax County School Board has voted to move forward on the proposed South County Middle School project and has directed Superintendent Jack D. Dale to investigate the possibility of exchanging the currently designated property for other county or Fairfax County Park Authority property directly adjacent to the current South County Secondary School site for construction of the new middle school.  Building the middle school adjacent to the current South County Secondary School would enable both schools to share the same athletic fields and, ultimately, reduce the cost of the new school.

The School Board also accepted $5 million for FY 2009 and $5 million for FY 2010 from the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, approved for the purpose of building a middle school in the South County area.  Those funds will be added to $2 million previously allocated by the School Board.  The Superintendent was also directed to investigate sources of additional new funding or financing, which could include bridge financing or public-private partnerships, to cover the cost of the new school.

Dan Storck, School Board chairman and Mount Vernon District representative, thanked Board and community members for their support and said, “I am very pleased that the Board has approved the building of the long-sought-after middle school in the South County community.  Since South County is one of the fastest growing areas of Fairfax County and BRAC (the Defense Department’s Base Realignment and Closure Commission) is expected to bring many more students to this area, this school will make a real difference in meeting the educational needs of this community and its students.”

The School Board motion specified that operating funds would not be used to pay interest on future bond funding.  Construction of the new middle school is to be included in the FY 2010-14 capital improvement program (CIP), which will be presented to the Board in December.  The School Board intends that the new school be built by 2012. 

South County Secondary School, which was originally built to serve as a high school with a capacity of 2,500 students, has been operating as a secondary school with 2,900 students enrolled in grades 7-12 during the 2007-08 school year.  The school is currently operating on a nine-period day in order to accommodate the extra students.  Other solutions the School Board considered to help alleviate crowding at South County include changing boundaries, relocating programs to nearby schools, and building an addition to the existing school.

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Note:  For more information, contact the Fairfax County Public Schools Department of Communications and Community Outreach at 571-423-1200.