Aldrin Elementary School opened on Center Harbor Road in north Reston in September 1994, the year Buzz Aldrin marked the 25th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing. It now enrolls about 455 students, and in October 2026 the Virginia Department of Education gave it the state’s highest rating.
Aldrin also belongs to the Herndon pyramid, the FCPS term for the group of elementary and middle schools that feed one high school. A Reston home assigned to Aldrin typically continues to Herndon Middle School and Herndon High School, rather than to Langston Hughes Middle School and South Lakes High School, which serve most of Reston, including parts of north Reston around Lake Anne.
Aldrin serves about 455 students from preschool through sixth grade
- Address: 11375 Center Harbor Road, Reston, VA 20194
- Grades: preschool, a Preschool Autism Class, and kindergarten through sixth grade
- Principal: Shane Wolfe, who has led the school since 2012. Assistant Principal Sarah Jimenez joined in August 2026.
- Enrollment: about 455 students, with a student-teacher ratio of 11 to 1, according to Niche
- Mascot: the Eagles
- District: Fairfax County Public Schools, Region 1, Herndon pyramid
- Feeder path: Herndon Middle School, then Herndon High School
- School day: 9:20 a.m. to 4:05 p.m. for kindergarten through sixth grade
- State rating: Distinguished, with an overall score of 96.30 out of 100, and fully accredited
- Main office: 703-904-3800
- Website: Aldrin Elementary School
Virginia rated Aldrin Distinguished, with a score of 96.30 out of 100
Virginia grades its public schools through the School Performance and Support Framework, the state’s accountability system, which scores each school on how well students master state tests, how much they grow from one year to the next, and how ready they are for the next stage of school. The state released this year’s results on October 7, and Aldrin announced on its homepage that it had earned Distinguished, the highest of the four ratings, with an overall score of 96.30 out of 100.
Statewide, 44 percent of schools earned Distinguished this year, up from 23 percent the year before, according to the Virginia Mercury. With that many schools sharing the label, the score is the finer measure. Aldrin’s 96.30 sits fewer than four points below a perfect 100.
Aldrin’s math pass rate rose from 80 percent to 84 percent between 2023-24 and 2024-25 on the Standards of Learning tests, Virginia’s annual exams in reading, math and science. Reading held at 85 percent both years, according to the Virginia School Quality Profile and state data published by Niche. In 2023-24, the most recent year with a science result on the state profile, 77 percent of students passed science.
Niche gives Aldrin an overall grade of A, ranks it 106th of 1,125 public elementary schools in Virginia, and ranks its teachers 95th of 1,113 statewide. Third-party rankings shift from year to year as their formulas change, so the state rating and the pass rates are the steadier figures to compare.
About one in four Aldrin students is learning English, and about one in four receives special education services
In fall 2023, the most recent breakdown on the state profile, Aldrin enrolled 450 students. About half were white, with 84 Asian students, 82 Hispanic students, 31 Black students and 30 students of two or more races. The same count included 121 English learners, 109 students with disabilities and 112 students from economically disadvantaged households, each roughly a quarter of the school.
The original plans set aside a separate suite in the lower level of the west wing for students with special needs. By the time the building opened, the first principal, Gina Ross, had turned that wing into a science and technology center, and the school placed students with special needs in general education classrooms from opening day, according to the school’s accounts of its design and construction and first twenty years. Today Aldrin runs Early Childhood Special Education and a Preschool Autism Class alongside its general education program.
Aldrin offers Advanced Academic Programs, preschool and a full slate of specials
Advanced Academic Programs. Aldrin offers Advanced Academic Programs, the FCPS services for students who need more challenge than the standard curriculum provides. The school has scheduled an AAP screening information session on Zoom for November 10, with the link going to families through Schoology and eNotify.
Preschool. Morning preschool runs from 9:20 a.m. to 12:40 p.m. and afternoon preschool from 12:45 p.m. to 4:05 p.m. The Preschool Autism Class meets half days on Tuesdays and Thursdays and full days on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
Specials. Students rotate through art, band and strings, library, music and chorus, physical education and STEAM, the combined science, technology, engineering, arts and math class. In 1999, Sports Illustrated named Aldrin’s physical education program one of the finest in the country.
Clubs and student support. This fall Aldrin started Eagle Minds Matter, a club for fifth and sixth graders built around coping skills and peer connection. In October the school is also running a coat, hat and glove drive through October 26 and a Digital Citizenship Week, with daily spirit days, from October 19 to 23.
Child care. Fairfax County’s School Age Child Care program, known as SACC, operates at Aldrin and stays open on some student holidays, including Indigenous Peoples’ Day on October 12.
Aldrin’s school day runs from 9:20 a.m. to 4:05 p.m.
Kindergarten through sixth grade starts at 9:20 a.m. and ends at 4:05 p.m., which leaves a gap at both ends of a standard workday. SACC offers before- and after-school care, so ask the program about space at Aldrin as soon as you have a closing date.
FCPS also cut the number of elementary early-release Wednesdays from eight to four for the 2026-27 school year, which leaves fewer midweek afternoons to cover.
The main office is open from 8:15 a.m. to 5:15 p.m., and the school lists separate lines for attendance (703-904-3818), the health room (703-904-3810) and its family liaison (703-904-3815).
FCPS opened Aldrin in 1994 and named it for the Apollo 11 lunar module pilot
FCPS began planning a 36-classroom elementary school at what administrators called “the Aldrin site” in 1986, and Fairfax County voters funded construction in the 1990 school bond referendum, according to the school’s account of its design and construction. The School Board awarded the $6.54 million construction contract to Falls Church Construction Corporation in April 1992, and work began that June.
The architecture firm Ward-Hall Associates had used the same basic design at eight Fairfax County schools by 1994. For Aldrin, the firm enlarged the building from 70,000 to 98,000 square feet and added sloped metal roofs over the entrance canopies. When the school opened, it was the largest elementary school in the county by square footage and had the largest gym of any elementary school in the county.
The School Board named the school for Buzz Aldrin on May 26, 1994, two months before the 25th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing. Aldrin flew that mission as the lunar module pilot, and the lunar module was named Eagle, which explains the school’s mascot.
Aldrin opened in September 1994 with about 540 students. Enrollment reached 731 by the 1995-96 school year, according to the school’s history of its first twenty years. Gina Ross, who hand-picked the first teachers from about 300 candidates she interviewed, led the school until 2003, and the School Board later named the library the Gina M. Ross Library-Media Center. Marty Marinoff followed her from 2003 to 2012, and Shane Wolfe has been principal since.
The Challenger Center, a business partner, installed a space simulator in the school’s science center, and in 1996 students joined a two-day program on living in space, building model habitats and holding video conferences with 13 schools in the United States and Canada.
Buzz Aldrin has visited his namesake school at least eight times
Buzz Aldrin came to a dinner in his honor a week before the school opened in 1994, then returned for the dedication on April 25, 1995. He told students that day that “no dream is too high for those with their eyes in the sky,” and then shook hands with every student, according to the school’s namesake page.
He came back for year-end celebrations in 1997, for the 30th anniversary of the moon landing in 1999, for a surprise visit in 2006, again in 2009, and for the school’s 20th anniversary in June 2015. In May 2017, in town for the Humans to Mars Summit, he gave the students a large map of Mars and stood on it with representatives from each grade, Reston Now reported. Staff printed a bracelet for him on the school’s 3D printer while he was there.
A Reston address at Aldrin usually leads to Herndon Middle and Herndon High
The FCPS school directory places Aldrin in the Herndon pyramid. Armstrong Elementary on Lake Newport Road is the only other Reston elementary school in that pyramid. Listing data for homes on Center Harbor Road, near Aldrin, show the full path: Aldrin, then Herndon Middle School for seventh and eighth grade, then Herndon High School.
Most of Reston follows a different path, through Langston Hughes Middle School to South Lakes High School. Two Reston homes a few miles apart can end up at different high schools. The street address sets the feeder path.
The opening of Skyview High School does not touch Aldrin’s path. The boundary the School Board adopted on July 16, 2026 draws Skyview’s students from Westfield, South Lakes and Chantilly, and the Herndon pyramid was not among the five pyramids whose students could opt in to Skyview for 2026-27. Our Skyview guide covers the phase-in by grade.
Sixth grade stays at Aldrin, as it does at most FCPS elementary schools. A child who starts kindergarten here spends seven years in the building before moving to Herndon Middle.
Check the boundary locator before you write an offer
FCPS assigns students by street address, and attendance lines do not always follow neighborhood names, cluster lines or ZIP codes. Before you make an offer on a home you are buying partly for Aldrin:
- Enter the exact address in the FCPS Boundary Locator. It returns the assigned elementary, middle and high school.
- Treat the listing’s school fields as a starting point. Listing agents fill them in, and they can be out of date after a boundary change.
- Watch for boundary reviews. FCPS posts proposed changes on its school boundary adjustments page, and a review can move streets between schools.
- Call the school with specific questions. The main office can tell you about class sizes by grade, SACC availability, the AAP screening timeline and whether your street falls in a bus zone or a walk zone.
At about 455 students, Aldrin is less than half the size of Hutchison Elementary in Herndon, which Niche counts at about 970. A smaller school generally means fewer homes in its boundary, so expect a limited number of listings with an Aldrin assignment at any one time.
Aldrin pairs a Distinguished rating with a Herndon pyramid assignment
Aldrin is a north Reston elementary school with Virginia’s top rating, a 96.30 state score, pass rates in the mid-80s for reading and math, and a namesake who walked on the moon and has come back to visit at least eight times. Its students continue to Herndon Middle and Herndon High, while most of Reston continues to South Lakes.
If you are weighing homes in north Reston and want to know which addresses land at Aldrin, reach out to us. We can pull the boundary for any listing you are considering and walk you through the feeder path before you make an offer.
See something missing or wrong? Email us at [email protected] and we will check it and update the post.
