If everything goes according to plan, the Potomac School will start building a new middle school next summer, its chief financial officer says.
After wrapping up advance utility work this summer, the private school took another step toward implementing the long-planned renovation on its McLean campus (1301 Potomac School Road) last month, filing an application with Fairfax County to allow temporary classrooms while the building undergoes construction.
“We are modernizing this building to meet the evolving academic and student-life needs of our fourth, fifth, and sixth grade students,” Potomac School CFO Dyana Conroy said by email. “Additionally, the Middle School is the only division that has not undergone a renovation, with an academic building that was constructed in 1954.”
Also Potomac’s associate head of school for finance and strategic initiatives, Conroy says the middle school renovation is part of a master plan adopted in 2003 to guide facility expansions and improvements on the school’s 90-acre campus.
Surrounded by parkland and residential subdivisions just south of Route 123, the Potomac School serves about 1,070 students in kindergarden through 12th grade. In addition to buildings for the lower, middle, intermediate and upper divisions, the campus includes outdoor classrooms, a performing arts centers, athletic facilities, a science and arts pavilion, a swimming pool and playgrounds.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved a special exception amendment in 2007 to allow various renovations, including a redevelopment of the middle school that would expand it by 46,495 square feet to provide additional classroom space.
While dropping previously approved additions to the performing arts center, gym and upper school, the plan also called for a field house and aquatic center, interpretative classrooms, a baseball field, additional tennis courts, new play areas, parking lots and five duplexes that would be rented to school employees.
The updated middle school building will include new classrooms “optimized for modern teaching methods,” upgraded science and robotics labs, a music room, additional community spaces, and a health services suite, Conroy says.
“The modernized Middle School will be a hub for learning and connection,” she told FFXnow.
However, the Potomac School says it needs more space for temporary classrooms to house middle school students during construction than anticipated in the 2007 plan.
According to its new special exception amendment application, the school plans to provide two single-story modular structures with seven classrooms that will take up approximately 16,500 square feet of space, but the development conditions approved in 2007 allow a maximum of three temporary modular classrooms.
The application also proposes placing the modular building on the school’s softball field instead of in a parking lot that’s actively used for admissions and carpooling.
“The relocation to the softball field ensures that we do not disrupt the movement of cars on campus and during carpool,” a Sept. 20 statement of justification says. “The proposed changes will allow us to maintain our current traffic patterns. As such, we estimate there will be no adverse traffic impact of the proposed use. The proposed changes will result in no increase in trip generation.”
In addition, the new location would be less visible from neighboring properties, more visible for administrators, and more accessible and safer for students, who will no longer have to cross in front of a construction site to get to their arts and science classes.
The temporary buildings will be removed once students can start utilizing the new middle school, according to the application, which was accepted by county staff for review last Friday (Oct. 4).
According to Conroy, the project timeline going forward depends on both the county’s permitting process and the success of Potomac’s fundraising efforts for the renovation.
“If these align, we anticipate breaking ground on the new Middle School building in the summer of 2025,” she said. “We expect construction would continue at least throughout the following school year and into the next summer.”
