For information on DCPS facilities the OPEFM website is http://opefm.dc.gov/.  For analysis and data please go to www.21scf.  Following is the SHAPPE testimony at the DC Council Oversight hearing on the Office of Public Education Facilities Management.  

S.H.A.P.P.E. meeting with support from the 21^st Century School Fund between modernized and to be modernized high schools 

July 20, 2011

Roosevelt High School 

We had attendees who participated or will participate on the SIT teams from Eastern, Wilson, Anacostia, Woodson, Roosevelt, Cardozo, as well as concerned citizens and the Parent Information Resource Centers.

DCPS has now or will complete for this fall the following high school projects;

1. McKinley- full modernization – 66,000 square feet is adjoining not yet rented or claimed – school start up after closure
2. SWW – full modernization with addition – students in Logan during construction
3. Luke Moore- full modernization with addition – students in Evans during construction
4. Colombia Heights Education Campus- new building, Lincoln bused off campus, Bell in Lincoln during construction, schools have now merged.
5. Phelps- modernization with new wing; school closed and students at Spingarn and other schools during construction.
6. Eastern- fast track design build modernization; school phased out- remaining students in demountables; new enrollment building up slowly from 9^th grade, adding 1 grade for 4 years
7. Woodson – new building; students at Fletcher Johnson and Ron Brown during construction
8. Wilson – full modernization adding underground parking and some additional building space; school located at UDC Building 52 during construction
9. Washington Metropolitan High School – construction being completed over the summer for phase one – school is now permanently housed in the former Lewis ES
10. Youth Services Center- modernized space in Mt. Olivet facility
11. New Beginnings – the Maya Angelou Academy at New Beginnings, renamed from Oak Hill Academy in May 2009 and located in Lorton, MD, is an alternative school operated by the non-profit See Forever Foundation. It is the District of Columbia's secure facility for youth who are adjudicated as delinquent and committed to its Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services. Since they work closely with DCPS and return many students to DCPS they are included here.  The See Forever Foundation began management of the academy in June 2007^[2] upon winning a three-year $12 million dollar contract.

Schools in process or in planning:

1. Anacostia – students on site during phased construction of modernized building
2. Cardozo – modernized building, students to be located at Meyer Elementary using additional trailer classroom pods
3. Dunbar- new building to be constructed on existing field
4. Ballou – The funding for a new school has been identified. Request for design bids have gone out to architects. The School admin team has visited area schools in their effort to construct ed- specs. Students are hoping to remain on site.
5. Roosevelt to go into planning this fall

High Schools remaining

1. Coolidge
2. Spingarn
3. Banneker
4. Ellington
5. Incarcerated Youth Program
6. STAY programs- Ballou, Roosevelt and Spingarn

The high schools are pleased with the prioritization of their projects and they appreciate the high number of high school students now attending school in vastly improved spaces.  This meeting is to enhance the partnership process in place, hoping better informed participants going forward will be able to learn and support even better and more efficient projects for the high schools coming up.  Those present shared their reflections on the process and their buildings. They do not claim they represent the thoughts of everyone involved.

Technical Support; Modernizing or building a high school is a complicated and difficult task.  We are fortunate in DC to have a local/national organization (21CSF) that has partnered with the District and with school communities over many years to improve the quality and efficiency of school capital projects.  The 21^st Century School Fund is available for technical support. Email nhuvendick@21csf.org or mfilardo@21csf.org the phone number is 202-745-3745 website: http://www.21csf.org/csf-home/

Critical Questions on Planning:

Enrollment: This is a difficult and critical question. The Cardozo building is being designed for 847; this will drive some of the cost and square footage issues. It is over 200 more students than Cardozo currently has but tries to take into account a projected increase with a new building.  Dunbar was not at the meeting, and we don’t know the projected enrollment they are planning for, it was initially in the plans for 1600 which would be double. Cardozo and Dunbar share some of the same feeder schools.

The enrollment for the new Ballou has not yet been decided. With all of planning coming under the Deputy Mayor for Education, this issue will be under the purview of that office.  Those present agreed that DCPS should also have its own planning office where these issues are examined.  At this time, DC public schools are the schools of right and looking at them in a coordinated way will better inform this process and help the city planning process.  

Program:  The most important thing a school community has to contribute to the modernization process is a clear understanding and description of the educational program. The academic program, students support services and staffing need to be clear and agreed upon. Is there a 9^th grade academy that is physically defined?  Are there career and technical education programs and how are they integrated into the school? Is it important to have the science lab and lecture spaces in the same classroom?  These are just a few of the questions that those who have gone through the process either wished they had paid more attention to or wished they were more successful in defending.

New versus Modernized: While a new building appears attractive in terms of a fresh start, it will be designed and built at the agreed upon 192 square feet per student for the planned enrollment.  Those in the older buildings have the challenge of rearranging some spaces to better support the program but they have some flexibility with more square footage available.  For example Eastern was designed for over 2000 students, in 1962 the graduating class for this 10 thru 12 high school was 722.   Woodson is a new building,  like CHEC, it will be helpful for us all to look at what it has to offer and what Eastern, Wilson and McKinley have to offer -different challenges and different benefits.

SIT (School Improvement Teams): Each school forms a SIT team at the very beginning of the modernization planning process for that site.  It is ideally composed of administration, teachers, parents, community and for high schools hopefully some students.  The principal has been the point of contact for the Office of Public Education Facilities Management in many of the projects. For most principals it is extremely challenging to run the school and take on this responsibility. It is crucial for SIT teams to understand how important the local school information is to the success of the project and to find a way to make their voice heard respectfully  in the decision making. The success of communications between the architects, OPEFM, the SIT team and the principal as they set priorities and weigh in on details for the school community, is vital to the construction of a building that works well.  Finding individuals within the school community who can be tasked with understanding everything from educational program specifications through planning and construction and who can bridge the various constituencies presents a challenge to the current SIT process.  

Specific Advice

Wilson started the process 5 years prior to the actual beginning of the official planning and construction. The modernized building will be beautiful and far more functional than what they had.  There are many added features that will be wonderful. However, for those schools going forward they had some cautions. Despite the time and attention paid to the program description contained in the educational specifications and the strong advocacy of this community they were not able to address as well as they would have liked:

1. Elevations – the building has 11 different elevations, these are basically retained with 8 elevators installed to make the building ADA compliant or handicapped assessable. 
2. Line of sight to promote a safer school; the school has curved corridors and the design is square; they would have wished for more attention to the passive safety measures that might have been put in. This is an example of how difficult it is to juggle the different priorities. Science labs were bumped out some to the hallways, giving them needed square footage, this solved that issue but now there is less of a sight line in the hallway.
3. Program Fit is difficult in any existing building, the atrium is a new feature, it may count toward the classroom space, it is however not clear how it will be used in that way.

Note:  The historical designation of this building meant that in existing exterior walls, no windows could be installed.  This designation also carried other limitations which effected things like the line-of-sight safety issues.  Those present feel that the historical nature of the building could have been honored without the rigidity of this formal designation.

Wilson also suggested that schools do their best to advocate for a discussion of outstanding issues but that it was important to listen, clearly and forcefully articulate the concerns and possible solutions and then compromise where at all possible and move on. Everyone involved wants the schools to be facilities that better support the education of our young people.   

Eastern;

Eastern has been transformed, the alumni and current community was quite involved in the planning process. It was a 76 million dollar fast track design build one year project; it was finished in a single  year but 9^th graders will not be admitted till is fall with 9 and 10^th the following fall and so on.  Future projects done this way should ask to look at all costs up front. 

The issues that remain and may be helpful to others to be aware of:

The auditorium and gym were not fully renovated; they were painted and retain some of the functional problems.  For example, acoustics in the auditorium remain problematic and, there is also some question as to the height of the stage and its ability to support a pit for musicians during performances

Full lighting in the parking lot was not installed  in order to preserve the LEED certification.  It was noted that the LEED certification considerations sometimes put schools in conflict with important aspects of the program.

The Science labs were designed where the labs are separate from the lecture space, in practice this has made supervision difficult and limited the flexibility a teacher has in having groups of students engaged in different activities. 

Shared Advice

It is vital that the community of parents, teachers, administration and students be deeply involved and informed during this process and it is hard. It can be extremely boring and heavy on details.  However it is vital that someone be reading and thinking about these details getting technical advice and constantly circling back to the community. This allows for a responsible owner and in the end a project everyone is happier with.

Develop and use a checklist.

Take trips to see different schools and how the building supports the academic program; in addition to and with the 21csf look to professionals in your parent and neighborhood community for consultation and support.

Make sure there is a core of people that can attend every SIT  meeting ensuring continuity, one school started with attendance of 200 which dwindled down to 2;  be well informed and ensure that the school has a leadership role in this process otherwise it will be industry driven and meet general needs but maybe not your specific needs.

Swing Space Issues

Eastern felt the demountables worked out great; they had access to the gym, the classrooms had hooks for students’ items.  Walkways were well lit and spacious for the size student body Eastern had.  They did not take in a 9^th grade and then went down to a 10 -11 then an 11-12 and moved back into the building with the 12^th graders last year.  There were only 2 grades in the demountables for a year.  There were excellent lines of sight, they were easy to maintain with only one main door to secure. The trailers for students were off 19^th street; they used 6 to 8 4 pod classroom demountables. 

Wilson suggested that a core group fully examine what the priorities are for the time the school is under construction.  For Wilson they came up with four that guided their decisions. 

1. They wanted to be off campus, 1500 students with a phased approach seemed costly and potentially dangerous
2. They did not want if at all possible to split the student body and use multiple sites
3. They serve students from every area of the city and wanted to be near a metro
4. They hoped to be near the in boundary students

They tried on many different possibilities in the decision making process including locating over at Backus and Taft, having the 9^th grade in demountables at Deal etc.  It was only persistence and t tenacity that brought them to UDC building 52.  7.5 to 8 million of the funds allocated for the Wilson modernization went into that space and it was their hope that other high schools would be able to follow them and make use of the space.

The space met their criteria but also presented many challenges. A former student submitted her reflections as part of the meeting. There was no gym, only a small multipurpose room, the hallways and staircases were quite crowded producing more tension. The freshman who could not go off campus at all had more altercations. Some teachers extended their rooms to students so that sports gear or heavy packs did not have to be carried all day. Overall she would not wish it for other students – it should be noted that at 1500 Wilson is the largest high school. 

Anacostia

The Anacostia students have had access to the larger areas like the gym or cafeteria while whole sections of the building can be completely blocked off and worked on.  With lots of community input, they feel their needs have been met by staying on campus so far. They will go into the second year in 2011-12. 

Cardozo

Listening to the challenges of other schools there is concern that going to a former elementary school during construction will present some very difficult issues for a comprehensive high school.   Unlike Eastern they will not have access to a full size gym for athletics, unlike Wilson they will not be letting students leave for lunch.  To what degree will the integrity of the academy programs (Trans tech and Construction) be protected and how will Cardozo maintain and grow their enrollment during this time?  Each school struggled with science lab space. Wilson was able to provide access to college labs during hours they were not being used. 

This was a productive and useful discussion. We will have a second meeting in October to continue the discussion. Thank you to Roosevelt for hosting, to all those that attended and to the 21^st Century School fund for their