The $143 million in the District’s capital improvement plan (CIP) for Banneker HS could fully modernize the Euclid Street facility for 700 students AND provide a modern middle school at the Shaw site for families. This option is educationally sound for Banneker and Shaw families. It can be implemented the quickest, and is the most fiscally and environmentally responsible. Let’s invest in and grow DCPS.
How is this possible? Isn’t the current Banneker building too small for 700 students? No, a modernized Banneker could comfortably serve 700 students.
The feasibility study compares the room sizes recommended in the educational specification for Banneker and the current room sizes in Banneker and the net square footage of instructional spaces in the current Banneker are low by only 4%, but there are still ample spaces with sufficient room size for the Banneker program.
There are 32 classroom spaces at Banneker, all with room sizes over 710 net square feet. If class sizes are per DCPS teacher contract of 25 students per classroom (as is currently used for Wilson capacity calculations) then at 100% capacity, Banneker has capacity for 800 students. Because of scheduling and variations in class sizes, it never works out exactly evenly, so high school capacities are adjusted using a multiplier. If Banneker were utilized at 88%, then its capacity would be 704 students.
It is also relevant to note that School Without Walls has 68,000 gross square feet and enrolled 592 students in 2017. Banneker has 146,644 gross square feet—over twice the area of School Without Walls, and 2017 audited enrollment of 482 students.
How could the $143 million in the CIP for Banneker HS possibly pay to modernize the existing Banneker to high standards AND provide for a modern middle school at Shaw? The 2015 cost to fully modernize Roosevelt HS was $143 million for 332,000 gross square feet of space. Roosevelt is over twice the size of Banneker. If Banneker was also modernized at the same $432 per gross square foot of space, then the cost to modernize Banneker would be about $63 million. If we inflate this by about 10%, then we get $70 million for Banneker.
THEN…there is $73 million available for Shaw MS. The $73 million over-budgeting for Banneker should cover the middle school costs for a 575-600 student MS if the city selectively down-sizes the existing Shaw building and modernizes it for a high quality middle school.
Does modernizing Banneker slow down the Banneker Project? In fact the full modernization of the current Banneker building should be possible using a summer, school year and summer, meaning students and staff would be out of the building for only 1 school year. Whereas it is likely to be a full three years for the design, demolition, and construction to take place for an entirely new building at Shaw.
Which options are most environmentally sustainable? Continuing to use the foundations and structure of the existing buildings and doing only selective demolition of the Banneker interiors and of the Shaw building, which is structurally sound–although a design challenge–is by far the most ecologically responsible. In the options proposed, there is tremendous amount of landfill created. There are also tons in new materials used when starting from scratch, which has major carbon impact, as well as cost.
The Save Shaw Middle School Committee has started a petition in support for a new middle school on the old Shaw Junior High School site and renovating and expanding the existing historic Banneker High School Building. Please click here to sign the petition.
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