Schools
Alexandria's Minnie Howard Campus Breaks Ground On New Building
In the coming weeks, construction will begin on the new Minnie Howard building while students remain in the existing building.
ALEXANDRIA, VA — A groundbreaking was held Tuesday for the new Alexandria City High School Minnie Howard Campus building.
Alexandria City Public Schools will begin construction on a new building for the Minnie Howard Campus to be completed in time for the 2024-2025 school year. Alicia Hart, the acting chief of facilities and operations for ACPS, said the campus will provide additional capacity, an aquatic facility for the city, and multipurpose fields and courts for community and school use. The aquatic facility was added into plans with additional City Council funding.
The Minnie Howard Campus building, currently home to ninth graders, will be expanded to account for projected increasing high school enrollment in Alexandria. ACPS previously estimated enrollment could increase in the next five to 10 years, creating a need for space for a total 5,000 high school students. In 2019, the Alexandria School Board voted for the Minnie Howard Campus expansion option instead of a completely new high school.
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Sylvia Rahim, a student representative to the School Board, said at the groundbreaking the school has served as a buffer for ninth graders before they fully transition to high school at the King Street campus.
"Now as our population continues to grow and grow, it's not feasible to only utilize this campus for ninth graders," said Rahim. That is why the high school project is building a new campus so that Minnie Howard can no longer hold only ninth graders but it can hold all grades."
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Alexandria Mayor Justin Wilson said at the groundbreaking the project is the "crown jewel in a new era of investments in our school facilities." ACPS is currently working on a modernization project at Douglas MacArthur Elementary, planning modernization projects at Cora Kelly School and George Mason Elementary School, and closed on the purchase of an office building to be used as swing space and future school.
Students will remain in the existing Minnie Howard school building as a new building is constructed on the field.
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