ALEXANDRIA, VA — Anyone who frequents the Bradlee Shopping Center in Alexandria cannot help but notice a tall structure being built behind it. It’s the expansion of the Minnie Howard Campus of Alexandria City High School, which reached a major construction milestone Wednesday.
Alexandria city and school district officials celebrated the topping out of the expansion, which signifies the final piece being placed on top of a new building. To mark the milestone, officials signed the structural beam that will top the new Minnie Howard Campus building.
The Minnie Howard Campus, down the road from the high school’s main King Street campus, is getting a new building to be completed in time for the 2024-2025 school year. The campus, currently home to ninth-graders, will be expanded to account for projected increasing high school enrollment in Alexandria.
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Alexandria City Public Schools 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.
“This campus is really going to provide a unique and very innovative experience for all of our students,” said Interim Superintendent Melanie Kay-Wyatt at the topping out ceremony. “We’re gonna have a great program for students. So we’re very excited for this project moving forward.”
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Alexandria School Board Chair Meagan Alderton noted the city has been planning for the project since 2018. The Minnie Howard Campus expansion was one of two options the Alexandria School Board considered in 2019 along with a completely new high school to address increased enrollment projections. In 2019, the Alexandria School Board voted for the Minnie Howard Campus expansion option instead of a completely new high school.
In the first phase of the expansion, a new school building is being constructed while students remain in the existing building on what will become athletic fields. That first phase is expected to be ready in spring 2024.
The second phase will involve demolishing the existing building and athletic fields installation. That is expected to be completed by summer 2025.
With the new building, there will be a new competition-sized pool for athletes and the community to use. In partnership with the city, there will also be additional early childhood education classrooms, services from the city’s Department of Community & Human Services and workforce development.
With the new school building, Alexandria City Public Schools officials had the opportunity to introduce new educational pathways for high school students. An educational design team is developing programming options that will get students ready for college, careers or civic life.
“When I see the progress from the groundbreaking to the steel topping, my mind actually turns in memories of robust debates between teachers, school leaders and division leaders grappling with the task of…how can we expand current pathways, while simultaneously imagining new ones?” Alderton said. “How do we shape the student experience by making use of smaller learning communities? How can the program of studies capture the true depth of all that we are able to offer our students, and can it communicate the essence of these offerings in a meaningful way?”
Alexandria Mayor Justin Wilson concluded the topping-out ceremony, noting the importance of planning for educational needs of the future.
“This says something about the priorities of this community at this time, as well as our priorities long into the future,” Wilson said. “We’re making a statement about what we think is important. And what we think is important is the children that will come from this community and children we will educate long in the future.”
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