The Academy of Science, known as AOS, has been at Dominion since the second year the building was open, which was the academic year of 2004-2005. However, for the 2018-2019 year and beyond, AOS will be moving to a new 300,000 square foot facility off of Sycolin Road in Leesburgthat will also house the Monroe Advanced Technical Academy and the Academy of Engineering and Technology (AET). On the 119 acre plot of land owned by LCPS, site improvements began February 2016 and the new 3-story building, called the Academies of Loudoun, will be completed this summer and opening the fall of the 2018-2019 school year. Watch a drone video of the progress made on the building here.

At Dominion, AOS currently uses 10 classrooms in the upper level of Dominion, seven of which are labs, and one of which is office space. There is not a clear-cut and defined plan for what will be happening to the classrooms, but it may assist in reducing the sharing of rooms by teachers. “I’m not sure if we are going to be in a place where [we] have one teacher in one room, but it [the availability of more classrooms] is going to alleviate some of the overcrowding and some of the sharing relationships teachers have with each other,” Mr. Signorelli explains.

What is pretty certain about the new classrooms layout is that out of the seven labs that AOS uses, three of these labs will be converted into classrooms, with the other four staying as labs. Right now, it’s an open-book about what the rest of the rooms will be used for, although some ideas are a designated writing center,language lab, math lab, student learning lounge, teacher’s learning lounge, a “production space” that will be accessible to all students, or a designated makerspace room. These ideas won’t be solidified until summer and will be decided by the leadership team for the summer, and teachers will be invited to contribute ideas, or be on a “building committee” to assist in making decisions regarding the classrooms. “It’s a good opportunity for us, to rethink how we use our space and how it impacts students. We have to be really thoughtful about what we do this summer because we’re not going to be in a position again like this, where you have new classrooms available to you, or you have the chance to look at the building like a blank slate and really think about, strategically, where you want to put things” Signorelli said.

As for other layout changes at Dominion, the school will be getting a “tech-refresh” in which the desktop computers in labs 501, L308, L310, and possibly others, will be removed and converted into regular classrooms. This refresh is happening due to the new 1-1 Technology Initiativenext year, in which all students will be receiving personal devices. Labs L506 and L620 will remain with upgraded desktops for publications and graphic design.