It is clear from the preliminary Banneker High School concepts now available (April 24th, and May 1st) that an 800 student high school doesn’t fit on the Shaw site and meeting the program requirements for Banneker will be far better on its current site. Here is why: Building Massing Problems: The concept design concludes that for energy efficiency, the best…
Read More »From the 1920’s through the 1960’s the District of Columbia built extraordinary Jr. High School buildings for 7th, 8th and 9th grade students. There were two dozen of these large Jr. high buildings. Each one had all the components of a standard high school including performing arts spaces, choral and instrumental music spaces, art studios, athletic spaces, cafeterias, career/tech and…
Read More »As Mayor Bowser advances Banneker’s right to take the Shaw MS site, a response to neighborhood objections has included the recommendation that Shaw MS should switch locations with Banneker and the promised Shaw Middle School should be located at Banneker. There are two significant problems with this suggestion. PROBLEM #1: Like Cardozo, Banneker is not centrally located to the Shaw,…
Read More »One factor in the decision on siting Banneker Academic High School is the availability of athletic space. At both the proposed Shaw and the current Banneker location, the outside space is controlled by DC Department of Recreation, so use of athletic fields and courts would have to be coordinated between agencies at either site. However, approximate measurements (Google Earth) show…
Read More »We urge the Public Charter School Board to provide 90 days’ expanded notice to ANCs of school opening, closing and siting decisions, hold this comment period open for another month and notify all ANCs of this proposed change. A 30-day ANC notice is insufficient. A 90-day notice is a minimum. ANCs (Advisory Neighborhood Commissions) are important civic entities, but voluntary….
Read More »If yesterday’s proposals for school modernization in the 2018 budget recommendations from the Education Committee last through today’s mark-up (see page 34), DCPS’ Eaton Elementary in Ward 3 will abruptly cut the line. It will move in front of 12 other schools from a start in 2023, to 2018 – – 6 years earlier. Eaton will be finished with its modernization in…
Read More »In Ward 7, there are now 6,484 students in DC charter schools and 5,648 students in DCPS schools, 836 more students in charters than in DCPS schools. DCPS calculates its building capacity in Ward 7 schools at 8,300 seats; charter LEA capacity is reported at 7,716 seats. With 2016-17 enrollment, there currently are about 3,884 open seats in Ward 7….
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A virtually re-built Lafayette Elementary School opened its doors with a ribbon-cutting celebration on the second day of school, as hundreds of parents, students and community members looked on. For photos of the ribbon-cutting event and the on-going construction go to 21CSF Facebook. We look forward to community tours of the new facility later this year. Lafayette (Ward 4, 5701…
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Mayor Muriel Bowser and a team of local dignitaries cut the ribbon Friday, August 19th, 2016 on the totally transformed Roosevelt High School in the heart of Petworth (Photographs can be seen at 21csf’s Facebook page). Scores of alumni and neighbors, as well as representatives from the architects, project managers and contractors, cheered from the school’s neo-colonial portico on 13th…
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After decades of neglect of its PS-12 facilities, beginning in 1994-under community pressure and with technical assistance from the 21st Century School Fund, the District of Columbia started planning for the full modernization of all of its public school facilities. Facilities initiatives started with major repair “blitzes” and then building “stabilization”, in 2000, and, finally, it began a multi-billion dollar…
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