Modernization

Fall Community Engagement & SIT begins!

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With School Year 2019-2020 in full swing, the Stevens School Improvement Team (SIT) is back in session and had their first meeting of SY19-20 last week. The presentation materials are public and located on the DCPS Facilities modernization site here.

 

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This fall, the Strategic School Planning (SSP) Team, in partnership with Early Childhood Education and Community and Engagement Teams, have been engaging Ward-based organizations, phone banking families, and connecting with schools in the Stevens neighborhood. We have previously connected and presented at the HeadStart Policy Council, My School DC Parent Advisory Council, W6PSPO.

Below are our upcoming October meetings where DCPS will provide an overview on the Stevens Early Learning Center and seek community feedback on remaining decisions:

  • Wednesday, October 16th: ANC 2A meeting at 7 PM, West End Library (Facilities Team presenting)
  • Saturday, October 19th: Ward 1 Ed Council meeting at 2 PM, Cleveland ES (SSP Team presenting)
  • Thursday, October 24th: Ward 8 EdCouncil meeting at 6 PM, Martha’s Table (SSP Team presenting)

For questions or if you would to request a Stevens overview for your community group, please contact DCPS.Planning@k12.dc.gov or call (202) 520-2277.

Eliot-Hine Front Office Temporarily Relocates to Eastern HS for Summer

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The Eliot-Hine main office has relocated to Eastern HS for the summer (July 9 – August 13) while modernization work is underway this summer at Eliot-Hine MS. School staff are available during normal operating hours (9 AM – 4 PM, Monday through Friday), to address any of your enrollment and other school related needs. Families looking to enroll should come by Eastern HS instead.

If you have any specific questions you can contact the Eliot-Hine main office directly at (202) 939-5380, the DCPS central office at (202) 442-5885, or DCPS Facilities, (202) 907-8358. Also, the point-of-contact for the Eliot-Hine modernization is Oni Hinton and her email is Oni.Hinton@dc.gov.

EH Summer Office Move Signage

Next Eliot-Hine School Improvement Team Meeting, 5/23: Schematic Designs & Feedback Survey!

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Check out the presentation from Eliot-Hine’s 5/15/2018 School Improvement Team (SIT) meeting. It includes details on the project schedule (see below), design process, summer plans, and schematic designs. The presentation is also full of draft mock renderings! Eliot-Hine MS community members can provide feedback via this survey . 

Survey responses will be used to guide the next meeting: “Schematic Design – Feedback Review” SIT meeting on Wednesday, May 23rd- 4:30 PM. Full modernization project details for Eliot-Hine are on this Facilities modernization page.

EH Project Schedule.JPG

EH Floor planEH Heart of School

Updates to Eliot-Hine Modernization

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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.

 

 

 

 

 

Eliot-Hine Modernization Project Update: New Exit Path!

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Eliot-Hine New Exit Path Strategy_Dec. 2017

The Facilities Team will join the next PTO meeting on Wednesday, December 13, 2017 at 6 PM, and again on Wednesday, December 20, 2017 at 5:30 pm to discuss these changes with Eliot-Hine school community. Join for whichever meeting you can! For more information, check out the full project update: New Student Path to Metro. 

Project updates can be viewed on the Facilities Eliot-Hine MS modernization website.

  • Beginning Monday, December 11, 2017, students will exit the building towards 17th Place NE.
  • Eliot-Hine students will not be able to walk down constitution Ave NE to the Stadium-Amory Metro Station
  • Students will be redirected to walk along 17th Street NE, then along East Capitol Street NE (in front of Eastern SHS) to access the Metro Station
  • E-H students may not be able to walk across Eastern’s field

The two Facilities point-of-contacts for this modernization are Josh Tuch and Oni Hinton. Below is their contact information if you have any questions:

First Stevens School Community Working Group Recap!

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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.

Eliot-Hine Modernization Update: School Improvement Team 10/18/17 meeting

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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:

EH Project Schedule_Oct. 2017

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.

Eliot-Hine Middle School Modernization Project & Survey for Families

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eh-ms

Project Overview: The existing Eliot-Hine Middle School was built in 1931. The school is scheduled for comprehensive modernization with construction to begin in winter of 2018. Planning started last year in 2016 with the development of an educational specification and community engagement meetings. Additionally, a feasibility study is expected to roll out early 2017. The Department of General Services (DGS), DC Public Schools (DCPS), and the architect is working with the School Improvement Team (SIT) comprised of school staff, current and feeder parents, and members of the community to develop concepts for the school based on program, student, teacher and community needs. The building will meet or exceed sustainability guidelines for LEED Gold and be an asset to the neighborhood.

  • Location: 1830 Constitution Ave., NE
  • Ward: 6
  • Overall Project Budget: $87.7 million
  • Architects: TBD
  • Project Manager: Stephen Kitterman
  • DCPS Contact:  Josh Tuch (joshua.tuch@dc.gov)

To help gather feedback to inform our planning, we have created two short surveys. We encourage fill out your respective survey by Friday, January 29, 2017 and share with your network.

Lastly, our next SIT meeting will be late January/early February. We are looking for more feeder parent representation so any feeder parents interested in joining our SIT can fill out this SIT interest form. All resources from these SIT meetings are available on the Eliot-Hine modernization website here.

Next blog post: Q & A with parents of current 7th and 8th graders

 

Principal Vargas Q & A: Her passions and vision to broaden Eliot-Hine’s horizons.

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isamar-vargas  Isamar Vargas is the new principal of Eliot-Hine this school year.A native of Puerto Rico, she is bilingual in English and Spanish. Prior to joining DCPS, she was the principal of Maria Saucedo Scholastic Academy, a school in Chicago that serves approximately 1,100 preK-8 students, including 400 English-Language Learners. In 2010, she began the New Leaders principal preparation program and in 2011 was granted the Principal Achievement Award in Chicago Public Schools for her efforts to close the achievement gap. Vargas has also worked as a bilingual elementary school teacher and taught social science to students in 9th, 10th, and 11th grade. She received her bachelor’s degree in education from the Pontifical University of Puerto Rico and her master’s degree in school leadership from Concordia University in Chicago.

Check out her interview with the Strategic School Planning Team below:

  • What experiences led you to where you are in education today? “My mother was a social worker in Puerto Rico and inspired me to help those in need. Serving communities and seeing an interest for students’ needs, as well as the urgency in helping children of color has brought me to where I am today.”
  • Tell us a little about what you’re most passionate about. “I’m passionate about the socio-emotional aspect of education. It is not just about the subject areas, but also how students manage their emotions to be a successful and responsible citizen in and outside of school. Empowering them to overcome whatever they come from is what I’m passionate about.”
  • Previously you were a principal in Chicago. What are you most excited about as the new principal of Eliot-Hine with DCPS? “This is a transformative time for Eliot-Hine! We are actively engaging with different communities, both our community of current students/families and feeders and more broadly the Capitol Hill community. We are both learning from each other and that’s exciting.”
  • This is Eliot-Hine’s first full year as an IB MS. How does this IB program shape your vision for Eliot-Hine and its future? “IB is a smart teaching. You cannot teach subjects in isolation. With the IB requirements, we reinforce teachers are collaborating and what they learn in one class is transferrable to another subject. Connections to the outside world, all qualities of this IB program help prepare our students for the 21st century.”
  • In 2018, construction for Eliot-Hine’s $87.7 million modernization will begin. How will the new facilities support your IB MYP and vision? “We want to make sure the building reflects what it is to be a global thinker. This will include spaces to co-teach and other areas to engage in comfortable conversations about social issues. This building will also represent the world to our students and where they will learn more about their outside community. We hope this new facility infuses the issues and excitement of our global society into our learning and daily lives.”
  • What will be different about Eliot-Hine in school year 17-18? “We have done a lot of work with climate and culture along with differentiation in the classroom. We will continue to shape the school climate and culture to embrace the diversity of our students, while maintaining the emphasis of socio-emotion development and rigor.”
  • Are there specific things you want to implement at Eliot-Hine in the coming years? “One of my goals is to continue to increase enrollment so I can offer a second foreign language. Currently we offer Spanish to all our students. As one of the only two DCPS middle schools with an IB program, we aim to increase the world languages offered.”
  • What is something most people do not know about Eliot-Hine? “They care a lot about their environment and love coming to Eliot-Hine. This explains our high attendance rate! Our students are so loving and invested in their personal growth. They are typical teenagers, but also in tune with their emotions and learn quickly about how to be a successful teenager. It is so empowering to see them grow and become better at what they do.”
  • How would you describe Eliot-Hine in one word?: Pioneer!
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Principal Vargas and parent Amy Weedon at EdFest 2016!

Ward 4 Middle Grades Update

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In our last post on Coolidge and a possible Ward 4 North Middle School, we shared information about a middle grades option as a part of Coolidge High School’s upcoming building modernization. Over the past year we’ve gathered input from hundreds of stakeholders excited about the possible opening of middle grades alongside Coolidge. With nearly $160 million in Coolidge’s modernization budget, it’s an exciting time for an investment in Ward 4 schools.

Last night (12/19), DCPS Chancellor John Davis made the official announcement to the Coolidge Community Working Group that DCPS is opening these middle grades in School Year 2019-2020.

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Coolidge Working Group members weigh in on Chancellor Davis’ announcement of new middle grades as part of Coolidge’s modernization and possible application models at Coolidge (December 19, 2016 – Coolidge HS)

A new middle school is exciting to us at DCPS and for many of our parents, staff, and community members. We still have a lot of work to do. We’ll be gathering more input around grade configuration (6 to 12 model vs. individual middle and high school), possible application-based models for Coolidge, and the impact on the neighborhood education campuses at Brightwood, LaSalle-Backus, Whittier, and Takoma. We’ll be posting more about that process soon, so stay tuned and please reach out to us at DCPS.Planning@dc.gov with any questions or comments.

The announcement letter from DCPS Chief Operating Officer, Carla Watson is below in English, Spanish, French, and Amharic.

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