Will SLHS Pyramid See 2,914 New Students?

If the Reston Master Plan Task Force uses Scenario G to project future population growth in Reston, South Lakes High School will have close to 3,000 students in it by 2018, a Reston 20/20 blog post says.

The Reston Citizens Association advocacy group cites a December Fairfax County Public Schools' memo that uses the assumptions of 82 new single-family homes, 649 townhouses, 3,748 low-rise units and 20,000 high-rise units built in Reston in the next several years.

The development is expected to occur in relation to the late 2013 opening of Metro's Silver Line, which is expected to add high-density housing in many spots close to stations at Wiehle-Reston East and Reston Parkway.

The memo estimates an impact of 2,914 new students to the South Lakes pyramid. It adds that under this scenario, Reston would need two new elementary schools, a new middle school and one high school in or nearby Reston.

To see the full memo, click here.

Similar information was also reported in FCPS' Capital Improvement Plan, released in January. That outlook projected SLHS would be 40 percent over capacity by 2017-18. Read the Patch story here.

Read a Patch Blog by Reston Citizens Association President Colin Mills about Scenario G here.

Hunter Mill School Board Rep Pat Hynes said the school system is considering both an addition to South Lakes as well as an additional school in western Fairfax. Both will face challenges, though.

"South Lakes is over-enrolled now and projected to continue growing," Hynes said. "The same is true for other high schools in the western end of the county. One proposal is to build a new high school to absorb to growth. The challenges of that plan are cost, time and the availability of land. The school system is also considering an addition to South Lakes, which could save time and money."

The result of an addition,of course, would be that South Lakes would become a bigger school than we're used to. I would like to hear feedback on that. "

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