King Abdullah Academy (artist rendering)
Media Release
June 13, 2025
Fairfax County School Board Announces Plans to Acquire a New Western High School
Citizens for Great Falls President John Halacy and Vice President Manny Dacoba responded today to actions taken last night by the Fairfax County School Board to authorize the $150 million purchase of the now-shuttered King Abdullah Academy in Herndon:
Citizens for Great Falls has learned that the Fairfax County School Board has authorized the acquisition of the King Abdullah Academy. Located in Herndon, the 40-acre site previously housed high school and middle school students for an enrollment of about 800 students. Currently assessed at $117,665,760, it is a fully equipped high school complete with state-of-the-art classrooms, labs, indoor and outdoor athletic facilities, and an eight-lane Olympic-style, 25-yard competition pool.
According to Halacy: “The timing of this announcement is incredible for several reasons. While the need for more high school capacity in the western area of the county has been under discussion for at least 20 years due to increased residential development, recently, the school board and administrators have been heavily engaged in the debate surrounding the means to redraw school boundaries to address capacity issues, given the differences in enrollments throughout the county. This action to acquire a new facility could have a sweeping impact on those planning efforts that have involved the administration and the community members of the Boundary Review Advisory Committee (BRAC).”
Dacoba added: “Based on the comments at last night’s meeting of the board, some board members may consider the purchase price a rare bargain. Given the current cost of land acquisition and construction, we should be cognizant of the fact that the county recently struggled to achieve a balanced budget, and severe cuts were directed to avoid adversely impacting the school system’s budget and other essential county services. I am not surprised, though, that the school administrators conducted this massive financial commitment without full public disclosure and debate, especially without including such plans in the current discussions with the Boundary Review Advisory Committee (BRAC) community members.”
Dacoba further stated that purchasing an entire high school by a county public school authority without adequate public disclosure and input from the community that has been involved in this effort for decades is an example of an administratively unsound choice by school authorities. Like the School Board’s negotiation of its labor agreements that granted a 7% salary increase for their employees without involving the Board of Supervisors (which is the county’s budget authority), taking this action behind closed doors is another striking example of the lack of transparency and disregard for citizen participation shown by the administrators.
Halacy concluded by stating, “…school board officials and Superintendent Reid should be reminded that they don’t operate in a policy and decision-making vacuum. Major policy choices like building new schools in our community or acquiring major new facilities should involve public engagement and not be decided behind closed doors. We are eager to learn more about how this planned proposal will fit into the overall strategy for addressing school capacity issues, boundaries, and budget.
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