By Cody Mello-Klein | [email protected]

Alexandria City Public Schools broke ground on a new building for the Alexandria City High School Minnie Howard campus, a long-in-the-works project that is scheduled to be completed for the 2024-25 school year.

The new building will increase capacity at the ninth grade campus and add an aquatic facility for the city as well as fields and courts that can be used by the school and broader community. Students will continue to attend class at the current Minnie Howard building during construction of the new building on the existing adjacent athletic field.

The capacity increase is designed to accommodate a projected increase in high school enrollment over the next five to 10 years, according to ACPS. Capacity challenges at the high school have long been a topic of conversation in Alexandria. In 2019, the School Board opted to approve a Minnie Howard expansion instead of building a second high school.

In addition to the Minnie Howard expansion, ACPS has a slew of other modernization projects in the pipeline for its elementary schools. The new Douglas MacArthur Elementary School is already under construction, with projects planned at Cora Kelly School and George Mason Elementary School.