Drew, Hartwood, Rising Star Replacements Top Stafford Schools' Capital Project Priorities
School division presented 10-year capital improvement plan to the Board of Supervisors this week.
By Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
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The Stafford County school division has trimmed $47 million from its capital project requests for the next 10 years, staff informed the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.
Superintendent Daniel Smith, who is in his second week as the new school division leader, and deputy superintendent Chris Fulmer presented the School Board’s approved 10-year capital improvement plan (CIP) to supervisors at this week’s regular meeting.
Supervisors will approve a county-wide 10-year CIP that includes education projects as part of the budget process for the upcoming new fiscal year.
Fulmer thanked supervisors for funding the three school construction projects that are now underway—high school #6 and elementary schools #18 and #19—and said the School Board was “adamant that they don’t want to make a lot of changes” to the CIP.
“We don’t have a lot of new projects” in this year’s request, which covers fiscal years 2026 to 2035, Fulmer said.
One of the projects that has been removed from the School Board’s proposed CIP is a stand-alone public day school. Instead, Fulmer said, the Board wants to add space for the Heather Empfield Public Day School—a public separate day school for children with autism and emotional disabilities—at the new Rising Star Early Childhood Center, which the division would like to open in August of 2030.
The plan is also to expand the day school from 25 seats to 46, Fulmer said, “which would bring more students in from the private day schools.”
Public schools in Virginia place more students with disabilities in private day schools than do public schools in other states, according to a 2020 Virginia Mercury article, and the cost to state and local governments of these private placements more than doubled within a decade.
Fulmer said it’s both less expensive for the county and better for students who need a separate setting to be educated in the public day school rather than a private day school.
“Staff feels strongly that the best atmosphere is in our public day school program and not in private programs,” he said.
Adding the public day school to the new Rising Star Center will increase the estimated cost of the project by $17.8 million, bringing the total cost to $90.9 million—but combining the two projects reduces the total cost of the 10-year CIP by about $43 million, Fulmer said.
The other projects that have been removed from the proposed CIP are a dedicated activities and aquatics center, “high school only bus access roads,” and a bus parking lot, which has been incorporated into the elementary school #18 project.
All of the three projects currently under construction are on time and within or under budget. Elementary schools #18 and #19 are each under budget by $10 million, which Fulmer attributed to an “efficient” prototype design that is “easy to build.”
The Drew Middle School replacement, which will open in August of 2028, is in the design phase and the cost of that project may increase by about $16.5 million, Fulmer said. That’s due to the cost of acquiring the proposed site—58 acres on Clift Farm Road in the Falmouth district—and road improvements required by the Virginia Department of Transportation.
The school division is also asking for $6.5 million in contingency funds for the Drew replacement project. Fulmer said that amount would cover project costs at the state average cost per square foot for school construction, but he stressed that the three ongoing construction projects have come in below that average.
“That $6.5 million for additional contingency is just if the market continues to rise and we can’t keep our cost per square foot as low as we did,” Fulmer said. “We’re trying to be ahead of it and let you know.”
He added that the total increase for the Drew project is offset by the $20 million in savings from the two elementary school projects.
After the ongoing construction projects and the Drew replacement, the school division’s next four top priorities in order are:
New Hartwood Elementary School in the Westlake neighborhood, with a needed opening date of August of 2028 (the county’s approved CIP has it opening in August of 2032). The estimated cost is $72.8 million.
New Rising Star complex (with Day School), to open in August of 2030, at the site of the current Drew Middle School. The estimated cost is $90.9 million.
North Stafford High School fine arts wing, to open in August of 2028, at an estimated cost of $8.2 million. This project is not in the county’s approved CIP.
Elementary school #20, to open in August of 2030, in the Embrey Mill neighborhood, at an estimated cost of $80 million. The county’s approved CIP has this school opening in August of 2034.
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