School Board Approves Options for High School Seats

The Arlington School Board approved the Superintendent’s recommendation to provide 1,300 additional high school seats, which includes renovation of the Education Center building to provide 500-600+ seats, and adding to the Career Center to provide 700-800+ seats (to be known as Career Center Phase 2).

For both projects, the Superintendent will make recommendations to the School Board no later than December 2017 for the Ed Center and May 2018 for the Career Center regarding the following:

1. Program and instructional focus
2. High school boundary revisions, if applicable
3. Estimated total project cost, with low, middle and high cost alternatives, within the funding limits approved by the School Board
4. Two community engagement processes to develop:
   • A design concept for renovating the existing Education Center building that does not preclude a possible future addition or additions
   • A vision and plan for the Career Center site that could include further additions and renovations that might develop in phases into a comprehensive high school, and that includes Arlington Tech and existing programs, to be developed through a community engagement process in concert with the County.
5. Options for common space, including recreation and performance spaces, that might also be shared with the community
6. Parking requirements including additional structured parking
7. Physical education programs and field space
8. Timelines and funding requirements, with potential acceleration of the Education Center to complete the project before 2022.

The Building Level Planning Committee (BLPC) and Public Facilities Review Committee (PFRC) processes for both projects will not commence until the School Board has received and acted on the Superintendent’s recommendations.

The Board also directed the Superintendent to include options, describing cost, timeline, capacity, location and program for a fourth comprehensive high school in the proposed FY2019-28 CIP to be developed during the 2017-18 school year.

A presentation about the recommendation along with the high school options analysis and ratings are available on BoardDocs.