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Advisory Council on School Facilities and Capital Programs (FAC)

Annual Report 2018-19

INTRODUCTION This is the annual report of the Arlington Public Schools (APS) Advisory Council on School Facilities and Capital Programs (FAC) prepared for the School Board of Arlington, Virginia. The FAC assists the School Board in the continuous, systematic review of school facilities and the biennial and long-range Capital Improvement Plan (CIP). Members are appointed to two-year staggered terms and may be invited to serve for up to three consecutive terms. APS staff actively assists the FAC in its work, as do liaisons from other Arlington councils and citizen groups. FAC meetings are held once each month from September to June. Additional work sessions are scheduled as needed. FAC members, who are seen as informed citizens, are regularly invited to serve as members of APS Building Level Planning Committees (BLPC), community and County groups, on special task forces such as the Career Center Working Group and also serve as Ambassadors to school communities on topics such as the biennial school bond drive. FAC members also assist at APS Community Forums, typically as small group facilitators. The members of the FAC seek to provide the School Board with a perspective that reflects Arlington County as a whole. All FAC meetings are open to the public. Agendas and minutes are posted on the APS website. Each meeting includes the opportunity for public comment, at which interested citizens are welcome to briefly address the FAC on issues of concern. Community groups may request an invitation to brief the FAC on topics of mutual interest. This school year provided a variety of opportunities for the FAC to engage with APS staff and leadership and collaborate with parents and community members in wide reaching public meetings. The FAC offered analysis and advice to the School Board on critical facility improvements, capacity and enrollment issues, and growth in the county, each of which impact the educational experience for our children. Working closely with staff in Facilities and Operations, the FAC provided input into APS projects and planning efforts at all stages of development.

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FAC INVOLVEMENT Throughout this school year the FAC has been involved in a discussion around the impacts of our growing enrollment on our school facilities and on planning processes that would best prepare APS for future growth. As an advisory committee to the School Board, we aim to provide a county-wide perspective that puts each decision into the context of how it impacts the capacity and facility needs for the entire school division. We approached each issue through the lens of how APS can accommodate current and future growth within the limits of our budget and available space.

Our committee spent a great deal of our time investigating the impacts of student enrollment growth on our school facilities, understanding that as our student enrollment grows the pressure on our existing facilities and the need to create new capacity increases the need to establish a planning process that responds to these needs while controlling both building and operating costs within our land constrained county.

As the FAC, we recognize the importance of clearly defining both our short-term and long-term needs, understanding where those needs are distributed throughout or concentrated within Arlington, and creating a comprehensive plan that effectively captures and defines those needs. We also recognize that we have reached the point where planning for school growth requires a greater degree of collaboration within APS and with Arlington County than was perhaps required in the past. New capacity solutions for APS will require additional space from and cooperation with the County to accommodate this growth. Projections Fall 2018 enrollment projections show APS’ student population is continuing its rapid growth. Projections anticipate continued growth, adding just over than 6,700 PreK-12 students to our division, an increase of approximately 24% over current enrollment in the next ten years. According to the projections (and including planned new capacity proposed within the current APS CIP) by year 2028 APS will have a deficit of 2,455 seats at the elementary school level (equivalent to more than three 725-seat schools), a deficit of 770 seats at the middle school level (equivalent to 0.75 1,000 seat middle schools), and a high school seat deficit of 105 for a total seat deficit of approximately 3,300 students. The above seat deficits are in addition to three new and two repurposed facilities APS will open in the fall of 2019, the new elementary school at the Reed site in 2021, and the new high school seats at the Education Center which will open in 2021, phased expansion of Arlington Tech in 2021, and 800 seats to be added to the Career Center site in 2025. Even with the major capital projects detailed above in place, this year’s projections show that we will suffer considerable seat deficits with more than 34,000 students projected by 2028, especially at the elementary school and middle school level.

These numbers indicate a need for a well-developed planning system to create additional capacity at the elementary school level within approximately the next four to five years. They also indicate the need to consider solutions for expanding capacity beyond the ten-year planning horizon as the elementary school students in 2025 will create capacity need at the middle and high school levels as they rise through the APS system. It is important to emphasize again that APS does not currently have enough permanent seats for our students. Continued growth, even without taking into account Amazon, could easily put APS on track to grow to 37,500 students or more within 15 years.

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Amazon After Amazon announced that it would be bringing 25,000+ new jobs to Arlington the FAC sent a joint letter to the School Board and the County Board urging them to implement a collaborative effort between the two Boards and planning staff in order to develop a strategic and comprehensive long-range plan for land use and capital projects across the entire county.

Amazon’s move to Arlington and Alexandria only increases the need to begin serious planning efforts now to make the most efficient use of the spaces that we have and to be prepared for continued student enrollment growth. While we cannot precisely predict how many students will come along with the 25,000+ new jobs and the new businesses that follow Amazon to Arlington, or where in the county they will live and attend school, Amazon’s arrival increases both our confidence level that we will continue to see substantial enrollment growth and the likelihood that we will ultimately reach the higher student enrollment projections.

Our challenge is exacerbated by the fact that our available space, budget and bonding capacity are limited. Granted, new revenue from the jobs and economic activity that Amazon will create should ideally result in increased revenue and bonding capacity for the County and APS. But, of course the one thing that Amazon cannot bring is additional land and available space for new schools or other community needs. As such, APS cannot address this challenge without active engagement from and with the County Board.

We have now reached the point where planning for school growth requires a greater degree of collaboration within APS and with Arlington County than was perhaps required in the past. APS and the County will need to look to alternatives, such as repurposing non-instructional facilities, building up (rather than out), sharing space with other enterprises, and other non-traditional options. In short, we need to be prepared for growth and to be in the best possible position to manage and successfully respond to any growth scenario that ultimately occurs.

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Understanding our Capacity Crunch through Data Visualizations Planning for school enrollment growth requires an understanding of where the growth is concentrated

within the county. The FAC spent time at our meetings working with staff and reviewing various ways of

illustrating enrollment growth. In previous Arlington School Facilities and Student Accommodation Plan

(AFSAP) reports and CIP presentations projected enrollment relative to capacity was illustrated in

quadrants: the SW, SE, NW and NE quadrants of Arlington County. While this was a helpful illustration,

there were limitations such as not all school boundaries fitting within a single quadrant and the number

of schools within a quadrant varied.

In order to better understand the areas of the county which are most likely to be impacted by the

continued growth in student enrollment the FAC reviewed data visualizations of enrollment projections

and areas within the county of concentrated growth. We looked at maps showing corridors and sectors

which more closely align with County planning corridors. The new methods for viewing the student

projection data provided good insight for FAC members and FAC members provided feedback to ensure

that the data illustrations do not inadvertently tell a misleading story.

Conclusions made from these visualizations include:

A. Elementary School Capacity Needs are greatest in the Rosslyn-Ballston Corridor, and in the

western Columbia Pike and Route 1 corridor. It is challenging to illustrate how the overall

number of schools within an illustrated zone (with the number of schools within a particular

zone varying) as well as the presence of option schools were impacting the capacity needs

by geography.

B. Middle Schools were not divided up into corridors and capacity was illustrated by

attendance zones. Gunston, Jefferson, Kenmore and Swanson showed significant deficits by

2028.

C. High School Capacity Needs were illustrated with attendance zones: Wakefield showed the

largest seat deficit in 2028. However, deficits shown within the maps did not include the

planned capacity at the Education Center (500-600) in 2021 seats and the Career Center

(700-800 seats) in 2025 and assumed current boundaries will remain.

MC/MM Once again, this year the MC/MM Committee was able to achieve the bulk of the project selection process in a single meeting with some further discussion and rankings done online. The FAC continues to recognize and applaud the consistently high level of MC/MM funding provided by the School Board even in this challenging budget environment. This fulfills the FAC’s stated aim of encouraging APS not to lose sight of protecting, maintaining and improving existing facilities despite the continued emphasis on adding permanent seats. Another encouraging factor is that the majority of chosen projects continued to emanate through a professional process consisting of central inspections, professional analysis, and trade supervisor recommendations. John Giambalvo continued in his role as the link between FAC and MC/MM. The Environmental specialist has now been pulled from MC/MM project management (PM) almost completely to afford him necessary focus on indoor air quality, leaks, mold, asbestos, lead, etc., and the remediation thereof. A contract construction advisor is filling the PM gap again this summer.

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Arlington voters continue to approve school bonds at historic high levels despite around only twenty percent of them currently having school aged children (though a higher percentage have had or will likely have students in APS at some time). The Infrastructure Bonds have now been merged into one funding stream so that maximum flexibility of use is permitted. This enabled the complete HVAC renewals at Gunston and Randolph to proceed; these are both on schedule to be completed this summer. Natural light will be introduced to several windowless spaces at Randolph via solar light tubes. Additional senior level technicians, recruited following the HVAC salary enhancements, have facilitated a significant improvement in “hot” and “cold” service response times this year in what the maintenance department still identifies as the most demanding aspect of its work. The first attempt at creating smaller synthetic year-round play surfaces at Barrett and Arlington Science Focus proved challenging due to increased storm water regulations and due to air temperature restrictions in the winter that delayed playing surface installation. But having now gotten them completed and operational the PE staff have expressed great satisfaction with them. Maintenance Services has another busy summer ahead. Besides the second phases of the Gunston and Randolph major HVAC projects, Arlington Traditional will get new flooring and paint, Oakridge and Claremont new PA systems, and Tuckahoe a new playground. Dorothy Hamm’s entry and main office will get an overhaul. Barrett will get a new fire alarm system and Key a new security panel. Eight other locations spread across the county will get large HVAC improvements such as new chillers, pumps and compressors. Food Services is updating the kitchen at Dorothy Hamm. This will include all new equipment, flooring and painting, and the creation of a second serving line. Drew will receive the next small, synthetic play surface, correcting the year-round mud patch to its east side. Security and safety continue to advance through the combination of our new Security and Emergency Manager leads. As well as achieving massive strides on the quality and quantity of cameras, the camera images are now viewable in real time by selected administrators and SROs at the schools and at the Office of Emergency Management (EoM) hub, satisfying a commitment by APS to the County and our Emergency services partners. Comprehensive new uniform APS wide radio systems and Visitor Management systems are also about to launch. FAC also notes the great collaboration of Information Services and Maintenance Staff in supporting much of this progress. This is finally the year in which APS will buy no new relocatable classrooms, and detailed financial analysis shows that the savings/cost avoidance in the “Buy-versus-Lease” strategy of the last several years has now surpassed $3 million and growing. Due to continuing student growth and instructional program transfers there will still be a lot of activity moving relocatable stock from locations now mainly relieved of crowding (i.e. Swanson) to locations in need (such as the Career Center and Gunston). These are just a few selected highlights from an extensive list of Bond and MC/MM projects to be completed this summer/fall. Most of these projects will be achieved while APS fully accommodates Summer School and Parks/Recreation camp needs. And, with extremely detailed inter-departmental collaboration and planning, there are even a few buildings which will be completely off-line with HVAC levels set well back for significant energy savings.

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Elementary School Boundaries Throughout the fall of 2018, APS underwent the process to create new attendance zones for South Arlington elementary schools in order to accommodate the opening of Alice West Fleet Elementary School in fall of 2019. The FAC provided guidance and feedback throughout this process, including a review of data and boundary scenarios. This boundary process will be followed by another process to accommodate the opening of the elementary school at the Reed site in 2021 which will further balance enrollment across Arlington elementary schools. The FAC presented a statement to the School Board at the School Board meeting on November 11, 2018. We urged the School Board not to view their decisions in isolation but as two parts of a county-wide process, and to identify all issues that remain for the 2020 Elementary School boundary process so as to identify possible interim solutions and alternatives to resolve these issues. In addition, the FAC discussed in earnest the need to consider the whole county in all of our future boundary processes. We recognized the goal of changing boundaries is to balance capacity to support the best learning environments for all APS students, teachers and staff, and make the most efficient use of our facilities. Balancing capacity and improving efficiency will make the best use of our facilities and allows for instructional opportunities for all students. We think it is important that APS look at the system holistically when it plans to build new schools, move programs, and redraw boundaries. Recommendation to Expand the AFSAP Given the projections that show continued long-term APS capacity needs we recognized the critical importance of ensuring that we have sufficient planning processes in place so that we are prepared for growth and are in the best possible position to manage and successfully respond to any growth scenario that ultimately occurs.

The current APS planning tool, the Arlington School Facilities and Student Accommodation Plan (AFSAP), has been a valuable tool for our school division for identifying needs for the Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) the following year.

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We saw the need to further develop the AFSAP to:

1. Include a longer-range vision within this plan, 2. Integrate elements of existing APS and County plans from the Departments of Teaching and

Learning, Transportation Services, and the County and APS Strategic Plans. 3. Create a plan where APS needs are clearly defined and that can easily be communicated and

aligned with County planning processes. 4. Refine some elements to better define current conditions such as revising the Facilities and

Optimization Study, including data on common spaces in each school facility and beginning the process of undergoing a needs assessment of all APS facilities.

Therefore, we recommended that the School Board initiate exploring the expansion and enhancement of the AFSAP, to include new elements and improve upon existing processes so that our short-term and long-term needs and vision for our future as a school system are more clearly defined, and in a way that more closely aligns with County planning processes. Understanding that the 2019 AFSAP Report will inform the work of the 2020 CIP and is due this June we recommend that this year’s report be seen as a first iteration, identifying elements that should be included or reviewed with the goal of creating a completed comprehensive planning document for the 2021 AFSAP. We recognized the ground work laid by previous plans, community groups and reports which have investigated and recommended new ways of approaching planning and collaborative planning with the County. These include the Community Facilities Study, the Master Planning Report, and our FAC Future Facilities Needs Report. We also recognized that to be effective the expanded plan that we recommend will require key stakeholder buy-in from the School Board, the County Board, the APS Departments of Teaching and Learning, Transportation Services, Finance, and other APS advisory committees, JFAC, and from the broader Arlington community. This recommendation can be tied to Operational Excellence Performance Objective 20 in the APS Strategic Plan which states:

20. APS Departments (Finance & Management Services, Facilities &Operations, Teaching & Learning and Planning & Evaluation) will collaborate to plan innovatively, cost effectively, and within budget to meet 100% of student seat needs through both permanent and temporary facilities, based on 10-year projections.

We created a sample outline of an expanded AFSAP that we see as a starting point. To create this outline we examined past AFSAP reports and planning documents from other school districts and worked with staff to identify new elements within the AFSAP that may need to be included, enhanced or updated. Education Center Renovation The FAC had a representative liaison that served on the BLPC for the Education Center renovation. In general, the FAC supported a plan that creates an adaptable facility, builds in common spaces to relieve overcrowded common spaces within the existing Washington-Lee facility, makes efficient use of outdoor spaces and creates as many new seats as possible.

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Common Spaces Subcommittee The FAC convened a subcommittee to investigate and create an inventory of common spaces at all APS facilities. As we grow as a school division, to ensure facilities are reasonably equitable across the division we will have a need not just for “seats” but, also for common spaces such as libraries, gyms, cafeterias, art rooms, meeting spaces, etc. We also considered the impact on these common spaces as enrollment grows and relocatable classrooms are added at an individual school, and whether there is a comprehensive strategy that could help determine a more accurate limit on capacity for a school. The data collected looked at interior spaces as well as exterior spaces. We were looking to draw broad and county-wide comparisons, examining the gross area per student first, then diving deeper into the ones that are below the average.

We looked at and discussed various ways to best use this data. We believe that this data should be leveraged to revise the Facilities Optimization Study, which currently only uses the cafeteria and the number of lunch seatings as factors in determining the limits of student enrollment at a school. We discussed how this data could help determine a more accurate calculation of school capacity, which is currently defined only by classroom space. We also discussed the common spaces relative to educational specifications and staff planning factors. The data could help support a facilities needs assessment and could help identify criteria for such a study.

We did not create a final report or reach a strong conclusion on the data. We recommend continuing to refine the data and to use it to help create the most accurate inventory of our current APS facilities. We believe this information should be used to establish clear criteria that define the maximum number of students who can attend at a particular site and still have equitable access to APS facilities that are in line with the rest of the APS system. With this information, APS will gain a better understanding of what we have, and what, when, and where we will need more capacity.

Swing Space As Arlington and APS continue to grow, available land will grow more scarce and more costly. Also, as new schools are added to our inventory it is important to give attention to our older schools that may be smaller or lack amenities that are offered at other schools. It may be necessary to maximize properties already owned by APS by extensively renovating or demolishing and rebuilding some of our existing schools (including possibly enlarging these schools). APS would identify such schools through a Facilities Needs Assessment which the FAC has recommended. In order to do this APS would need sufficient swing space to house students temporarily while projects are completed. When students remain in a building during renovation, as during the renovation of Abingdon Elementary School, costs and time to complete the project increase as does cause stress and disruption among students and staff. The FAC believes that identifying swing space and clearly defining the criteria for what is necessary for this swing space is a necessary step and will be a helpful tool to manage growing enrollment and create quality learning environments for all APS students. Streamlining Use Permit Conditions and Processes In the 2017-2018 FAC Report we recommended a strengthened collaboration with the County to look for ways to reduce the time it takes to build new capital projects from five years to four. The FAC had numerous discussions and made recommendations on streamlining the use permit processes and conditions. We supported a proposal by the County to remove the requirement for obtaining a use permit when adding a relocatable to an APS site and the need to amend the parking requirement. This

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gives APS flexibility to respond to student enrollment growth at an APS site in a timely manner and saves considerable time and resources. We recommend that APS continue to work with the County to investigate ways to make every process more efficient as APS student enrollment continues to grow. We also reiterate our recommendation to continue efforts to reduce the total time it takes to complete a capital project from five years to four.

Liaison Activities As in past years, FAC members served as liaisons to committees, councils, BLPCs and working groups.

• County Council of PTAs (CCPTA): Lois Thomas Koontz and Laura Saul Edwards

• Joint Facilities Advisory Committee (JFAC): Colleen Pickford

• Education Center Renovation BLPC: Lois Koontz

• Instructional Program Pathways (IPP): Miles Mason and Steve Leutner

• Minor Construction/Major Maintenance (MC/MM): John Giambalvo

• Subcommittee on Common Spaces: Stacy Snyder, Steve Leutner, Rosa Cheney, Andrew Greenwood

• Lee Highway Planning Committee: Laura Saul Edwards

• Advisory Council on Instruction (ACI): Miles Mason

CAPITAL CONSTRUCTION • Abingdon Elementary School

o The past year was spent closing out the project, which has a few tasks remaining to obtain the Master Certificate of Occupancy from the County. Nothing major is outstanding.

• Arlington Career Center (ACC) - Arlington Tech – Summer Work 2019 o Kitchen & Serving Line planned for construction during the summer to provide all

students the same opportunities for lunch options found on menus at the other secondary school locations.

o Minor interior renovations requested by the ACC Administration to maximize existing classroom spaces are planned for the summer.

o 8 Relocatable classrooms will be installed in the parking lot to accommodate next year’s growth in the ACC building, without compromising the planning for additional growth of the building for both Arlington Tech, ACC & the additional HS seats to be added.

o APS will continue meetings with county to talk on potential for sharing space in the library.

• Arlington Career Center – 800 Seats o Readying to begin the BLPC/PFRC Process in the fall of 2019. o Traffic Study & Historic report being prepared prior to the public engagement.

• Drew & Henry Refresh o These buildings will be prepared for new programs during the summer 2019. The

projects include: the creation of security vestibules, enhancements to lighting, as well as upgrades to painting and flooring upgrade to accommodate the new instruction provided in the facilities. These buildings will be ready to accept student September 3, 2019.

• Fleet Elementary School o Construction work continued through the year to prepare the new building to open as a

Community Elementary school on September 3, 2019. • Education Center

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o This past year included the BLPC / PFRC public engagement process and the design progress up to the Design Development phase of the project.

o Interior demolition is underway as an early phase to provide the design team with additional information on existing conditions.

o May 18, 2019: County Board approved the Use Permit. • New Elementary School at the Reed site

o 2018-19 saw the completion of the design process with 100% documents submitted for building permit in May.

o Construction planned to start in the fall of 2019. • Dorothy Hamm Middle School

o Construction began following the end of the 2017–18 school year including the start of renovations site work and a new addition.

o With weather delays of 68 days and existing site conditions, the opening of the addition will be delayed but all efforts are being made to have the addition complete as soon as possible during the 2019–20 school year.

o The existing building and planned renovations will be ready to accommodate the number of students on September 3, 2019 without the addition being completed.

• Gunston Middle School HVAC / Randolph HVAC o The mechanical and electrical upgrades which began last summer 2018 will be

completed this summer 2019 and ready for students on September 3, 2019. • Sequoia Plaza II – Syphax Building

o Punch list items have been completed and construction is underway, utilizing contingency funds for internal adjustments to spaces that will be completed this summer.

• Trade Center - Transportation Facilities o Demo of unused refrigeration units in the warehouse is complete. o Working with the architect and Transportation Services to make adjustments to the

budget which will allow for creation of additional space and facilities for 300+ employees.

• Wilson School o Construction work continued through the year preparing the new building for opening

as the new home of the H-B Woodlawn and Stratford Program on September 3, 2019. FAC MEETING VENUES The FAC continued its practice of regularly meeting at APS locations throughout the county to acquaint its members with representative school facilities, particularly those at the focus of current discussions. The principal of the school typically welcomed us and provided a tour of the building prior to the FAC business meeting, affording the opportunity to informally discuss how the facility’s design and maintenance impacts the program of instruction. We looked to find locations and schools that had recently completed capacity generating projects or were currently being considered for new capacity or capital improvements. This year the FAC met at the following locations: September 10, 2018 – Syphax Education Center

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October 8, 2018 – Arlington Career Center November 19, 2018 – Yorktown High School December 10, 2018 - Gunston Middle School January 30, 2018 – Syphax Education Center February 11, 2018 – Hoffman-Boston Elementary School March 11, 2018 – Taylor Elementary School April 8, 2018 - Discovery Elementary School May 13, 2018 – Dorothy Hamm Middle School/ H-B Woodlawn Secondary School June 10, 2018 – Jefferson Middle School

RECOMMENDATIONS Boundary Decisions As APS enrollment continues to outpace our available buildings and land we need to leverage every possible tool to balance enrollment across the schools in Arlington. Boundary adjustments will be a necessary tool to balance enrollment to more fully and fairly utilize the resources we have across the county. We urge the School Board to consider adopting a more routine schedule of boundary review and adjustment; one that is responsive to localized and system-wide growth with a goal of maximizing efficiency and ensuring that no single school ends up compromising instruction due to over-enrollment. The majority of FAC members feel that when boundary changes become a routine matter that is more frequent and predictable county residents will have a greater understanding that these changes are a part of life in a growing, urban community. To support future boundary processes, we recommend APS revise the Facilities Optimization Study to establish an equitable maximum number of students who can attend each APS school and identify areas of the county that have imbalance between the number of proximate elementary students and the number of available neighborhood seats (accounting also for common space constraints). We also recommend that as part of this process, APS focus on potentially minor straightforward improvements that would yield greater boundary flexibility for neighborhood schools. For example, APS should identify and publish locations where locating a crossing guard or making safety improvements will enable enough students to walk and to pay for the crossing guard/safety improvement, reducing transportation costs and maximizing walkability. Expanded AFSAP/APS Master Plan One of the most important acts of the FAC this year was to recommend expanding the AFSAP in order to create a comprehensive APS master plan-like document that will ultimately align with County planning processes and further prepare for a growing school division. In our recommendation we suggested that the process of expanding the AFSAP should begin this year and should work to become a completed document by 2021. We recommend that APS continue to work toward this goal.

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As part of the recommendation to expand the AFSAP, we recommended that some elements be included in the 2019 AFSAP and some be included or updated by 2021. We also recommend that some of the work that we focused on this year be included within the AFSAP:

- The FAC Subcommittee on Common Spaces data which can be used to inform a revised Facilities Optimization Study, help create criteria or considerations for a Facilities Needs Assessment and/or help to define available capacity at APS schools

- New maps illustrating projections and location of enrollment growth within the County - Capacity and Utilization Chart showing all ten years of projections at individual schools - Criteria and considerations for swing space - Define Educational Specifications as they apply to new construction and current facilities

It is important to understand where enrollment growth is projected to be most concentrated and to understand the tools available to address the growth. We also recommend continuing to engage in the necessary conversations with the County and with JFAC to implement within the next year new collaborative planning tools that best prepare APS and the County for future growth. Please know that we are committed to assisting and supporting you in creating the most effective tool for planning for the future of APS. Sites for New Schools and Swing Space Given that current projections estimate a 2,400 seat deficit at the elementary school level and a 1,000 seat deficit at the middle school level by 2028, it is critical to begin identifying sites for new schools and to consider APS sites that could be repurposed or renovated to add capacity and create amenities for school use.

We recommend beginning the process of identifying potential sites for two to three more elementary schools and options for additional middle school capacity as soon as possible. APS should strongly consider sites that could be repurposed to or renovated to add capacity and create amenities for school use. The three areas of Arlington where the need for elementary school seats is greatest are: 1) The Rosslyn-Ballston Corridor; 2) western Columbia Pike; and 3) Aurora Highlands. We also recommend beginning to think about adding middle school capacity or consider other alternatives to relieve over-crowded facilities. We recommend planning for this and ensuring that enrollment growth is not concentrated in small number of schools (as it currently is at Williamsburg and Swanson). Many APS elementary schools are in need of major refurbishment. Due to capacity strains APS no longer has swing space to temporarily house students during construction. The lack of swing space that affords the opportunity to empty a school of students for up to 15 months, makes it more difficult and expensive for construction to occur, and it can also impact the student learning environment. It is therefore important to identify sites for swing space for elementary schools. This could either be a temporary space that offers classroom, common space, and outdoor space for up to 600 students or a space that could potentially become a new school after it is used several times for swing space while other facilities are under construction.

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As APS moves forward to identify potential sites it is important to understand how we as a community can position ourselves to make forward-thinking decisions. Identifying future sites for schools well in advance can save time and therefore money in the planning process. Understanding both the number of available sites and the number of needed sites can also help direct a community conversation to investigate new and innovative sites and ways of building.

PRIORITIES FOR NEXT YEAR CIP and Expanded AFSAP/APS Master Plan Next year the FAC’s primary focus will be on the upcoming CIP. We will continue to investigate and examine the elements of our planning processes and tools to ensure they are effectively and efficiently defining the needs of our growing school division. We will look at the data to help define the facilities needs of our school system and to help define priorities such as which school level has the highest capacity need and where that need is located within the county. We understand that each CIP process brings changes; such as a new financial parameter and new projections. The upcoming CIP will be especially challenging as it will need to respond to new needed capacity at the elementary school and middle school levels. In the FY2019-FY2028 CIP, money was allocated for a new 725-750 elementary school in an existing building by 2029. The CIP also planned for a 300 middle school seat renovation/addition location TBD by 2030. Completion of both of these projects was planned to fall outside of the 10-year plan. With the increase in estimated student enrollment in this year’s projection in both the elementary school and middle school levels it will be important to address those needs in the FY2021-FY2030 CIP while balancing other planned projects and budget constraints. We will continue to provide input on and monitor the work to develop a comprehensive APS planning document by 2021. CLOSING The FAC encourages the School Board to lead the community in acknowledging the pressures of our enrollment growth and continue to do its best to further communication with the public about how this impacts our facilities and our entire school system. We urge you to create the most effective planning tools that best prepare APS for expected enrollment growth while maintaining the high-quality facilities and excellent educational standards we expect of our school system. The FAC encourages APS to continue to “show its work” and to fully explain to the public how and why they reach decisions and why other alternatives were not chosen. The FAC hopes to help in this process by providing research and feedback that will best enable the School Board and APS to be able to show that they based their decisions on data that supports the most efficient and effective use of money and space, and how each of those decisions fits into a long-term plan. The FAC further encourages the County Board to be a proactive partner in this work through collaborative long-term planning.