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 Broad Branch Road, NW) has long struggled with enrollment too large for its building and had used multiple trailer classrooms for years. With 700 students last year in October, it was DCPS’s second-largest elementary school (after Janney). The building capacity this opening year is about 800.
After spending the 2016-17 school year in an extensive trailer village on the adjacent ball field, students are back in the completely modernized building. The $78,650,000 modernization continues to finish exterior work to replace the ball field and install playgrounds and landscaping. This work is expected to be finished by the end of the year. Meanwhile, Lafayette continues to use the adjacent recreation center playground space for outdoor activities as they did last year during construction.
Originally built in 1931, Lafayette received additions in 1938, 1943 and 1978. The 1978 addition was an extensive open-classroom space, a style of school architecture where teaching spaces lack classroom walls – – now disfavored as it has proved generally awkward for teaching. Lafayette also suffered as one of a few DCPS schools where the original traditional classrooms were also retrofitted to remove the walls.
While retaining and completely renovating the smaller historic structure, the 1978 open-plan addition was demolished and new classroom wings and assembly spaces now make up the bulk of the school. While 6,400 square feet of space was added to the old total of 113,600 square feet of space, the new 120,000 square foot building is much more efficiently organized than the open-plan structure that it replaces.
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