The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors is seeking the county circuit court’s approval for a $460 million school bond referendum to be included on the Nov. 4 ballot.
The Fairfax County School Board formally requested on June 12 that the supervisors approve a referendum, a request that was granted without comment at a board meeting last Tuesday (June 24).
If approved by voters, funding from the bond sales will support the school system’s adopted 2026-2030 capital improvement program (CIP).
The school bond referendum will be the only one going to voters this year. County officials are planning to seek voter approval of bonds for libraries, parks, human services and early childhood education facilities in November 2026, with the next school bond referendum coming in 2027.
While Fairfax County Public Schools shows which projects will be prioritized for bond funding in its CIP, the referendum won’t list them specifically. According to county staff:
“It is important to note that while the projects listed in the FCPS CIP represent the current proposals regarding what projects to fund, the ballot question is phrased more generally. This allows the Board flexibility as to which projects to fund with the bond proceeds, so long as the projects are within the uses described in the ballot question.”
According to FCPS, the 2025 bond referendum will provide additional funding for several ongoing renovation projects, including for Willow Springs, Cub Run and other elementary schools and Franklin Middle School. It will also support projects that are in the CIP but haven’t been previously funded.
The current CIP, which was adopted by the school board on Feb. 6, includes two new elementary schools, some modular building relocations and renovations for 18 elementary schools, two middle schools and two high schools among the projects that FCPS is or will need to fund in the coming years.
When asked for specific projects slated for funding through the upcoming referendum, FCPS only shared the language that will appear on the ballot:
Shall Fairfax County, Virginia, contract a debt, borrow money, and issue capital improvement bonds in the maximum aggregate principal amount of $460,000,000 for the purposes of providing funds, in addition to funds from school bonds previously authorized, to finance, including reimbursement to the County for temporary financing for, the costs of school improvements, including acquiring, building, expanding, and renovating properties, including new sites, new buildings or additions, renovations and improvements to existing buildings, and furnishings and equipment, for the Fairfax County public school system?
Circuit Court approval of the referendum is largely pro-forma, but it’s required by state law to get the measure on the ballot.
If approved by voters — which has been the norm in recent decades — the bonds will be sold over the course of several years.
Changes made to voting precincts
At Tuesday’s meeting, the Board of Supervisors also approved county staff recommendations to split the Huntington voting precinct in two and adjust the boundary between the Marshall and Shreve precincts in the Idylwood area.
The changes will go into effect for the upcoming Nov. 4 general election.
The Huntington precinct in the Mount Vernon District currently has 4,637 voters who vote at Fair Haven Community Center. The county will now shift approximately 1,300 voters to a new Montebello precinct based at the Montebello Community Center (5905 Mount Eagle Drive).
In the Providence District, supervisors approved a plan to ease crowding at the Marshall precinct, where more than 5,000 voters currently cast ballots at Marshall High School, by moving 1,107 voters into the Shreve precinct, which has polls at Shrevewood Elementary School.
Under Virginia law, both actions must be reviewed and approved by the office of Attorney General Jason Miyares (R).
The Board of Supervisors also approved a relocation of the Virginia Hills precinct in Rose Hill to the Franconia Recreation Center.
The current polling place — the Virginia Hills Center at 6520 Diana Lane — is being repurposed as office space and no longer will be available for voting, according to a county staff report. The Franconia Recreation Center is located about a half-mile away at 6601 Telegraph Road.
That change does not require review by the attorney general’s office.
The Fairfax County Electoral Board had planned to propose changes to voting precincts in the Hunter Mill, Dranesville, and Sully districts, but held off because the death of Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-11) necessitated a special election set by Gov. Glenn Youngkin for Sept. 9.
Kate Hanley, who chairs the electoral board, said it would’ve been logistically difficult to have changes to precincts in the 11th Congressional District reviewed by the attorney general’s office in time for the special election. There was also concern about “the confusion voters would feel” from changes less than three months after the most recent election, she said.
Electoral board members will instead bring back those items to the Board of Supervisors in early 2026.
“We may have additional things to add after that,” said Hanley.
Fairfax absentee ballots end up in Arlington
Fairfax County election officials received two presents last week from their counterparts in neighboring Arlington.
A pair of Fairfax City voters used Arlington’s early-voting dropboxes to submit ballots in advance of the June 17 Democratic primary conducted across Virginia.
Arlington officials also received two ballots for Alexandria races mixed into dropbox submissions. Those were delivered to election officials in that city.
The situation is relatively uncommon but does transpire in most elections, Arlington’s general registrar said.
Out-of-jurisdiction ballots are collected by each election office and then hand-delivered or mailed to the appropriate jurisdiction. So long as they arrive by the final deadline of Friday at noon after Election Day, they will be counted.
Ballots deposited into Virginia voting dropboxes from out of state, however, are not forwarded. Last November, Arlington received ballots from approximately 30 states, county officials said.
