Amazon will create a campus for Arlington Community High School—the first time the 92 year-old alternative school will have a permanent home. Construction for the campus is expected to be completed for the 2026-2027 school year. It will be located at Pentagon City’s 1o acre PenPlace development, which is part of the company’s second headquarters.
Founded in 1929, ACHS provides flexible scheduling for students who pursue high school degrees while working and supporting their families. Students can earn credits at their individual paces, and there is no upper age limit for students who can attend. A press release says that the school’s 2020-2021 student body was 79 percent Hispanic; 8 percent Asian; 7 percent Black, and 5 percent White. More than 80 percent of students were enrolled in the English Learner program and more than 35 percent qualified as economically disadvantaged. Eighteen percent of students were over age 30.
Amazon’s development proposal for PenPlace, approved in 2013, includes a 20,000 square foot community facility. In addition to the new school campus, it is slated to include a childcare facility, sustainably designed and affordable housing, and two and a half acres of public open space. The company’s planned helix building will also be located there.
Jane is a Chicago transplant who now calls Cleveland Park her home. Before joining Washingtonian, she wrote for Smithsonian Magazine and the Chicago Sun-Times. She is a graduate of Northwestern University, where she studied journalism and opera.
