Lack of Funds to Push Back FCPS School Renovations?

Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) has a five-year Capital Improvement Plan (CIP), which covers new schools and renovations among other issues, but the system is struggling to find funding for many renovation projects.

The Department of Facilities and Transportation released its annual report for the 2011-2012 school year Tuesday and revealed that many of the projects won’t be completed within the required 25-year timeframe under current bond limits, according to the Washington Post.

The lack of funding could affect the system’s plans to alleviate capacity issues at schools across the county and push back the construction completion dates for many schools slated for renovations in the FCPS queue. 

FCPS uses a ranking system to determine the order in which schools are placed in the renovation queue. The rankings are determined by a list of weighted criteria ranging from how the buildings serve "Fundamental Educational Requirements (FER)," to their age and physical condition. The criteria to determine the order of schools in the queue was last approved in 2008.

Of the 63 schools in the renovation queue, six of those are in the Annandale-area:

Ravensworth Elementary School (ranked 10th), North Springfield Elementary School (ranked 13th), Annandale Terrace Elementary School (ranked 28th), Braddock Elementary School (37th), Wakefield Forest Elementary School (ranked 40th) and Falls Church High School (ranked 45).

Canterbury Woods Elementary School, Ravensworth Elementary School, North Springfield Elementary School, and Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology are included in the CIP for construction FY 2014-2018.

This isn’t the first time funding has raised issues with plans regarding school renovations. Back in May, the Fairfax County School Board decided to postpone plans to re-evaluate how the renovation queue is populated due to lack of funding to pay for consultants to help with the re-evaluation.

The Post also reports FCPS is running out of space for its school bus fleet.

Read the full FCPS report online here.