Rippon Middle to see additional classrooms, county deals with lack of space for new schools

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As part of Prince William County’s Capital Improvement Program (CIP), Rippon Middle School is undergoing an addition of eight classrooms, while the county tackles the issue of running out of space for future school sites.

According to Phil Kavits, Communication Director for Prince William County Schools, the addition at Rippon Middle School is being done to deal with overcrowding.

“[Rippon’s addition] is slated to open in September 2016, as at cost of approximately $7.4 million. It will relieve overcrowding stemming from enrollment growth. Rippon has a capacity of 1139 students. By 2016, it is projected to be at 109% of current capacity, which would obviously addressed by the new space,” said Kavits.

While the Rippon Middle School addition is just one of the school projects mapped out in the CIP, there is currently a struggle to find enough space to build future schools in the county.

There is currently a requirement that 80 acres must be available for a school site, and this is a challenge, particularly in the eastern end of the county.

“If you look at our CIP [Capital Improvement Program], it provides a comprehensive listing of how many [school] sites we need. If you look forward through the next ten years, we need another 10 or 15 sites. There is an acknowledgment that with less space, we’ve got to take the building up…the footprint of a building, like in a high school, the building itself is one thing – but the other part is a football stadium, softball stadium, baseball stadium, practice fields…it’s just a substantial amount of land to do it,” said David Cline, Associate Superintendent at Prince William County Public Schools.

Cline stated that nearby Fairfax County Public Schools has purchased commercial office space to accommodate students, but there is an issue with this, as there is no open space for recreation functions on the site.

According to Cline, the county is looking at several options, including working to reduce the required acreage to build a school site.

“If it’s a matter of moving it from 80 [acres] to…60 acres, it would reduce the number of fields on it. Not eliminate them – but reduce them. That’s certainly an avenue. The other one that we probably would be considering…we may well be building on a 60 to 80 acre site in the county, but adjusting boundaries, in order to provide those facilities to kids,” said Cline.