The Fairfax County School Board establishes Guiding Principles to steer decision-making with a focus on maximizing quality educational spaces for all students. Each school and community has unique needs and guiding principles are applied and adapted as appropriate.

• Unique program offerings should be made available in all division pyramids in order to keep students within their zoned pyramid throughout their K–12 experience, where conditions are conducive to program needs.
• Attendance islands will be alleviated.
• Utilize existing and/or projected surplus capacity in nearby schools by adjusting boundaries in order to address overcrowding in some schools.
• Add additional capacity to stated division standards when renovating small schools.
• Repurpose existing inventory of school facilities not currently being used as schools to address capacity challenges.
• Construct new schools only where surplus capacity or existing school inventory are not available in order to maximize limited capital monies.
• Community engagement and transparency are essential parts of the process. With any major capital improvement project, the community impacted by the project will be actively engaged as per FCSB policies and regulations.
• FCPS is committed to continue to take innovative and cost-effective steps to help our country achieve climate stabilization. That includes prioritization of systems and practices that maximize energy efficiency and provide for the cost-effective transition to clean and renewable alternatives to fossil fuels.