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| The Graham Road Community Building |
Fairfax County Public Schools is planning to hold a community information
meeting in early 2013 on the Graham Road Community Building. A date hasn’t been
set.
At least a couple of things are already planned for the site: a new athletic
field and a cell tower, which would be relocated from its current location at
the Jefferson Volunteer Fire Station at 3101 Hodge Place, Falls Church. That cell tower has to be moved because the fire station will be renovated and
expanded.
The building, at the corner of Graham Road and
Arlington Boulevard, used to be the Graham Road Elementary School. That school was
relocated a mile up the road to a new facility on the site of the old
Devonshire administrative building. It opened in September. In October, the
school board rejected a proposal to use the Graham Road building for a charter
school, the Fairfax Leadership Academy.
The Graham Road building is currently used for several county programs. The Department of Community and Neighborhood Services (NCS) operates a teen center 4:30-7:30 p.m. on Wednesdays and 4-8:15
p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and a gym program weekday evenings and all day on Saturdays. The county’s Office of Family Services
operates a School-Age Child Care program there.
The FCPS Instructional Services Department provides
a family literacy program at the Graham Road Community Building Tuesday through
Friday, 9:30-11:30 a.m.
How about Head Start/Preschool? Statistics amply demonstrate the positive effect preschool has on high school graduation rates. The program at Baileys Elementary is badly overcrowded, so why not consolidate the programs from Baileys, Westlawn, Graham Rd (up the street) and Fairhill. The little kids don't need much room on the playground, so nothing would need to be done there. It would easily coordinate with the community programs, and SACC already there.
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