Last month Chancellor Antwan Wilson released DC Public Schools’ new five-year strategic plan entitled, “A Capital Commitment: 2017-2022”. The plan includes six goals to measure the system’s progress toward achieving its vision, mission and strategic priorities. The sixth goal, “90% of students re-enroll and DCPS serves 54,000 students,” shows that DCPS plans to grow by over 5,000 students from 48,510…
Read More »Roughly 55% of DC public school students attend a DCPS school and 45% attend a public charter school. With such an even split between the two sectors, as well as ongoing issues related to mid-year mobility, school facilities, and the distribution of at-risk students, the city needs greater coordination between each side. The Mayor’s Cross-Sector Collaboration Task Force aims to…
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The Office of the D.C. Auditor (ODCA) released its annual report this week on the city’s school modernization program as managed by the Department of General Services (DGS). The auditor found that DGS cannot prove that it complies with the federal Davis-Bacon Act, which requires contractors to pay prevailing wages on all federal and District construction projects totaling over $2,000….
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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In partnership with the Education Facilities Clearinghouse and the National Council on School Facilities, the 21st Century School Fund has released a best practice video on energy and environmental-management planning for school districts. The video is presented by Bob Gorrell, the Executive Director of the New Mexico Public School Facilities Authority and a past president of the National Council on…
Read More »The District of Columbia’s $3.7 billion initiative to modernize all DCPS school buildings, which began in the late 1990s, has not equitably allocated its school construction funding. Schools in more affluent areas have had far greater investment than those in less economically privileged neighborhoods. This problem is illustrated below, in the comparison of the lifetime budgets (FY1998 to FY2021) by…
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May 31, 2016, the Office of the District of Columbia Auditor released a report on the DC Department of General Services management of the modernization of the Duke Ellington School of the Arts. The Auditor found that the cost of the modernization project grew from $71 million to $178 million without a comprehensive review by the D.C. Council—the decision making…
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