Join DCPS Facilities Team as they present the latest on Eliot-Hine’s modernization project. They will cover design developments, summer construction plans, and project timeline. This is the final modernization meeting for this school year.
This blog post information is provided by the DCPS Facilities team. View the full Eliot-Hine modernization webpage here.
A letter was sent home to Eliot-Hine community earlier this month with some updates on Eliot-Hine’s modernization. View the full letter here. Although the timeline for the modernization remains the same, there is a change in the swing space plans. Eliot-Hine Ms will now swing in the trailers that Maury currently occupies rather than an internal swing. This will create a better “buffer zone” between active construction and learning. From this new outcome, Facilities is conducting a survey to gather feedback from the Eliot-Hine community (including Eliot-Hine feeders) and Maury ES. Please share your feedback here.
Facilities held community meetings for both Eliot-Hine MS and Maury ES about how these changes may impact them. There will be one more Eliot-Hine meeting on Wednesday, April 18th in the library from 5 – 6 PM. Please contact Oni Hinton from the Facilities Team with any questions: Oni.Hinton@dc.gov or cell phone: 202-907-8358.
At the first Stevens School Community Working Group (CWG), we enjoyed discussing School Without Walls’ campuses, the facilities background and historical context of Stevens School, and enrollment data for SWWFS and SWW HS. Our Stevens School CWG dove into the proposal for Stevens School and down the line will also cover details of the expansion model, naming and branding of the schools, recruitment and enrollment for the campuses, and more.
More project specific information, including our presentation from the CWG meeting, can be found on the Thaddeus Stevens tab on the Facilities modernization website. Our next meeting is slated for early January 2018.
On October 18, 2017, Facilities hosted the first Eliot-Hine School Improvement Team (SIT) meeting of the school year. In this meeting, Facilities presented the revised educational specifications (ed-specs) and current EH leadership, EH staff, EH families, and feeder families provided feedback on this verion. The SIT presentation, ed-specs, and updates can be viewed on the Facilities Eliot-Hine MS modernization website here. The SIT also received an update on the Maury swing schedule. Below is the timeline for the modernization:
The next meeting is scheduled for tentatively December 2017/January 2018, once the architecture team is hired. At our next meeting we will meet the architecture team and review the revised ed-specs.
This post breaks down the details of the potential Ward 4 Middle School opening. One important note is that if the middle school is opened, it wouldn’t happen until School Year 2019-2020. Not this year, the next year, or the year after that. Current third graders at the feeder education campuses would be the first sixth graders if opened.
In 2014, the Deputy Mayor for Education’s office recommended the opening of a new middle school in Ward 4 (New North) as part of its final boundary and feeder assignment recommendations. This recommendation would open a new middle school in northern Ward 4, converting the four education campuses that currently feed into Coolidge to elementary schools (PK-5th grade instead of PK-8th grade). Those schools are Brightwood, Whittier, Lasalle-Backus, and Takoma Education Campuses.
Two driving factors behind this recommendation were parent/community input and the space constraints at the four education campuses. During the boundary and feeder recommendation community engagement process, parents and community members expressed desire for more stand-alone middle school options, giving both elementary and middle school students more of a traditional elementary and middle school experience. In addition, the education campuses feeding into Coolidge are facing the challenge of growing enrollment that is approaching the capacity in their buildings. Opening a middle school and moving the middle grades there would relieve some of that pressure.
One of the biggest challenges in opening this potential middle school has been securing the space and capital funding to build it. The upcoming modernization of Coolidge High School is an opportunity to have both the space and funding for a middle school, by including a middle school build in the scope of the work being done on Coolidge. There is both money in Coolidge’s modernization budget of roughly $160 million, and space on Coolidge’s south lawn (see below) for middle school construction. In the recently completed feasibility study for Coolidge’s modernization, two of the three options include the construction of a middle school.
The Coolidge campus has sufficient space in its south lawn to construct a middle school.
Architect rendering from feasibility study of possible middle school build south of Coolidge High School building.
In addition to securing space and budget, another important piece in the decision on whether to open a middle school is parent, staff, and community input — do the parents at Brightwood, Whittier, Lasalle-Backus, and Takoma Education Campuses want a stand-alone middle school? Do the teachers and staff? Community members living in the Coolidge boundary? We on the School Planning Team have been working to answer those questions since last spring, with parent meetings, student focus groups, regular Coolidge Community Working Group meetings, and a survey we put out to parents and staff at Coolidge feeder schools.
As the DCPS Facilities Team collects feedback on the Coolidge feasibility study, the Planning Team will continue to analyze enrollment and academic data and meet with Coolidge Community Members, particularly parents from Coolidge’s four feeder education campuses: Lasalle-Backus, Brightwood, Takoma, and Whittier. DCPS will need to make a final decision on the potential middle school by late fall in order to stay on track with Coolidge’s construction timeline. We’ve met with parents at Brightwood and Whittier already, and have upcoming meetings at Lasalle-Backus (10/6) and Takoma (10/20). We are also meeting with school staff along with regular meetings with the Coolidge Community Working Group.
Whittier parents discussing potential middle school and building modernization.
Lasalle-Backus families filling out the survey at Back to School night
If you’d like to weigh in, please click on the relevant survey link for your language. The results of our survey up to 9/21/16 are below.
Ward 4 North Middle School Survey – English and Spanish
Ward 4 North Middle School Survey – French
Ward 4 North Middle School Survey – Amharic
The Coolidge Community Working Group (CWG) is coming together for its second meeting this Thursday evening for a building walk-through and a meeting with the feasibility study architects. We on the School Planning and Facilities teams at DCPS have had an opportunity to meet one on one with most of the group members, and are excited about the folks who have come together to engage around their neighborhood high school. The members, along with their connection to Coolidge High School, are below.
| Name | Connection to Coolidge SHS |
| Alexis Richburg | Coolidge Staff Member |
| Allen V. Banks | Coolidge Staff Member |
| Andrea Browning | Community Member/Neighbor |
| Andrella Smith | Coolidge Alumnus/Alumna |
| Charles Anthony Woods, I | Coolidge Parent |
| Courtney Savoy | Coolidge Staff Member |
| Dawn Person | Coolidge Alumnus/Alumna |
| Diane Jackson | Whittier EC Parent |
| Elizabeth Roen | Prospective parent |
| Frank Jones III | ANC Commissioner |
| Howard A. Burnett | Coolidge Alumnus/Alumna |
| Julie Lawson | Whittier EC Parent |
| MaryEllen McGuire | Community Member/Neighbor |
| Megan Fitzgerald | Prospective parent |
| Michael Cohen | Community Member/Neighbor |
| Nancy Smith | Community Member/Neighbor |
| Peter Sprunger | Whittier EC Parent |
| Randi Williams | Community Member/Neighbor |
| Ricardo Campos | LaSalle-‐Backus EC Staff Member |
| Robert Bettmann | Prospective parent |
| Sarah Raskin | Takoma EC Parent |
| Scot Knickerbocker | ANC 4B03 |
| Shawn Ruffing | Coolidge Alumnus/Alumna |
| Shirley Richardson | Community Member/Neighbor |
| Terry Goings | Community Member/Neighbor |
Applications are now open for the Coolidge High School Community Cabinet and School Improvement Team (SIT)! To learn more and apply, fill out the google form here. Below are informational links describing in more detail the responsibilities and function of each group.
Questions? Contact DCPS.Planning
DCPS School Planning 