For $150 million, FCPS purchased King Abdullah Academy, located in the western part of the county, to be opened as a public high school. Acquired on Aug. 15, the temporarily named “Western High School” is scheduled to open for the 2026-2027 school year.

“King Abdullah Academy was closing down, and they wanted to sell to an educational institution,” FCPS School Board Member Seema Dixit said. “When we heard about that, I started talking to the facilities [department] for our schools that this was something we [could] pursue. This was [a] historic acquisition because we have never bought a school.”

According to FCPS, the new school—whose official name will be voted on by the school board in January—is expected to save the district approximately $280 million compared to the cost of purchasing land and building a new high school from the outset. It is anticipated to support over 2,000 students and includes three gyms, an indoor pool and three outdoor classrooms. Additionally, the school aims to alleviate overcrowding of schools in the western part of the county, particularly Chantilly, Westfield and Centerville High Schools, according to Gordon Stokes, the executive principal of Region 5. 

“There’s been a need in this part of the county for a while to have another high school, because the high school is out in the western edge,” Stokes said. 

The purchase of the high school comes amid FCPS’s ongoing Comprehensive Boundary Review, the first reevaluation of the county’s boundaries that determine school attendance zones in nearly 40 years. As of the 2024-2025 school year, CHS was at 110% capacity. The proposed boundary review scenarios, not including the newly purchased high school, project an increase to 112% capacity at CHS. 

At the Nov. 13 regular school board meeting, the board decided in a 7-3-1 vote to pass Dixit’s motion approving “Western High School to be a comprehensive high school with traditional boundaries.” The school will include special programming and have an opt-in enrollment until its boundaries are finalized. 

“Staff are still working through potential [zoning] options for the new Western High School,” the FCPS facilities department said in an emailed statement. “Additional analysis and modeling are ongoing to determine how this will impact students at their current high schools.” 

The new high school is to open in August 2026 for freshmen and sophomores who choose to opt in. At the Nov. 13 board meeting, Superintendent Michelle Reid and Dixit both expressed optimism that student interest level to attend was high. 

“We likely will not have enough spots to accommodate the number of students who want to opt in,” Reid said. “We’ll have to craft a process to make sure that it’s equitable because we won’t take more than 500 ninth-graders and 500 tenth-graders.”

Following the vote, the new high school is expected to have additional opportunities as part of its special programming, similar to Lewis High School’s Leadership Program or Edison High School’s Global STEM Challenges Program. It is unknown whether students outside of the Western High School’s boundaries would be able to participate as a transfer student in the way Lewis and Edison’s programs offer. 

“[Specialized programming] could be based on AI, quantum science, computer science [or] could be aerospace,” Dixit said. “Everything is in the open right now for discussion.” 

However, some school board members expressed hesitancy over the approaching deadlines with high school registration beginning in January, possible lack of advanced courses for sophomores and the absence of specific data showing student interest. 

“I know that we can take up to 500 ninth graders and 500 sophomores,” school board member Mateo Dunne of Mount Vernon District said at the Nov. 13 board meeting discussion. “But if we get 50 each, or 100 each, or 150 each, I don’t think we’re going to open a new high school with only 300 kids total.”

At the board meeting, school board member Melanie Meren of Hunter Mill District, who voted against Dixit’s motion, voiced concerns over what funding the new school would require, noting the county’s “precarious situation” with its facilities funds. FCPS’s approved fiscal year budget was $121 million short of what the school board requested. 

“I don’t support this motion because I do not have a plan from the superintendent showing the details I need to make a decision encumbering taxpayer money,” Meren said at the board meeting. “We already moved funds from Centreville High School to purchase this [new] school, and that was within our authority, but now we are talking about digging deeper into those already allotted funds with no discussion from the board. I am not comfortable with making that decision.”

According to Stokes, as the student population shifts from school to school, there will be a proportional decrease or increase in staffing. The special programming aspect provides an additional complication for the new school, as staff will need to have specific certifications or experience. 

“There will have to be some process to staff the building,” Stokes said. “But at the end of the day, it’s a really modern-looking building [and] I think students would be super impressed with what they see and what they could experience.”