Parent, Teacher and Community 

Letter from Parent Leaders 

October 27, 2026

District of Columbia elected officials and education policymakers,

We write as parent leaders from five of the the six DCPS elementary schools within one mile of 1291 Taylor Street NW: Barnard, Bruce-Monroe at Park View, Dorothy I. Height, John Lewis, Powell, and Raymond. Together our schools serve nearly 2,900 children in Petworth, Park View, Crestwood, and Columbia Heights. We are asking the Public Charter School Board to deny, or at minimum defer, E.L. Haynes PCS's request to raise its enrollment ceiling from 1,200 to 1,600 and open an elementary campus at 1291 Taylor Street NW. We are asking for you to use your influence to encourage that denial or deferral.

E.L. Haynes is a valued neighbor, and this letter is not a criticism of its program. Our concern is that, in the context of projected declines in birth rates and subsequent declines in elementary school enrollment, roughly 380 new elementary seats in our neighborhood will depress enrollment at all of the elementary schools in the area, including E.L. Haynes's own, and in doing so lead to declining budgets and cuts to personnel and services. This proposal, and the potential negative impacts on surrounding schools, is also evidence of the need for a systemic, cross-sector approach to school planning that ensures robust enrollment and high-quality programming at all schools. 

Our Concerns

Quite simply, when taking into account enrollment patterns at nearby schools, the surrounding neighborhoods and communities do not need - and cannot support - additional elementary school seats.  Our schools already have more than 900 open seats. Based on SY2025–26 audited enrollment, the six schools that this letter represents have room for about 914 additional children, more than twice the capacity E.L. Haynes proposes to add. The District has invested or committed roughly $394 million to modernize these buildings so they can serve this neighborhood for decades.

The elementary school-age population is shrinking, not growing. E.L. Haynes' application points to Cluster 18's large number of school-age children and its growth over the past decade. Policymakers should judge the need for E.L. Haynes’ proposed expansion against the projected changes in the decade ahead. The Deputy Mayor for Education (DME) projects 6% fewer children ages 0 to 2 citywide in 2030 than in 2020, with Brightwood Park/Petworth (Cluster 18) and Columbia Heights/Mount Pleasant (Cluster 2) seeing the steepest declines of any clusters. Our schools draw from both. The Master Facilities Plan supplement projects enrollment declines of about 1,200 students in each sector by SY2030–31. In that environment, new seats do not create access. They divide a shrinking pool of children among more classrooms. Essentially, allowing E.L. Haynes to expand in this way will dilute funding across all of the elementary schools in the neighborhood, leading to cuts in necessary services and personnel as described below.

Waitlists show preference, not unserved children. E.L. Haynes reports 241 elementary students on its waitlist. Nearly all of those children are already enrolled in a school, many of them in the schools represented on this list, and families commonly sit on several waitlists at once. Filling the new seats would largely move children out of nearby schools that have room for them. It would largely not reach children who lack a seat.

The first seats land where we are most exposed. The expansion's first year (SY2027–28) adds about 80 seats in PK3, PK4, and kindergarten. Those are the grades where families choose a school and usually stay through 5th grade. Schools rarely are able to fill open seats in PK3 in subsequent school years. Two of our schools, Bruce-Monroe and Powell, run dual-language immersion programs that depend on full, balanced cohorts in the earliest grades, since families rarely join immersion in the upper grades.

DCPS school budgets follow enrollment, and so lost enrollment means lost teachers and lost resources that every school - regardless of size - might need. For example, loss of a dozen students across grades can cost a school a teacher, an aide, or a specialized support position, which can impact the ability of a school to provide well-rounded, high-quality educational programming. The effects compound: fewer staff and programs make a school less attractive, which drives further enrollment losses. Spread across six schools, a few dozen students per school could mean dozens of positions and programs these neighborhoods’ families rely on. Nearby charter elementary schools would face the same pressure.

Our Requests

We respectfully ask the Board to deny this request. If the Board is inclined to approve any expansion, we ask that it first require:

1. A completed facility plan for 1291 Taylor Street that specifies classroom capacity and analyzes impact on neighborhood traffic patterns.

2. An analysis of the enrollment and budget impact on nearby DCPS and charter elementary schools, using DME's current population projections.

3. A smaller ceiling increase, revisited against actual enrollment, in place of a 400-seat increase approved up front.

To the officials copied on this letter: we ask that you urge the Board to defer its vote until these conditions are met, and that you press for cross-sector planning so that new seats are added where children actually need them.

Thank you for weighing the effects of this decision on every family in our neighborhood.

Respectfully,

Amelia Hogan, Parent, LSAT Secretary, Barnard Elementary School

Melissa Luce, Parent, LSAT Member, Barnard Elementary School

Sandra Borak, Parent, LSAT Member, Barnard Elementary School

Bill DeBaun, Parent, LSAT Co-Chair, Bruce-Monroe at Park View

Frances Miller, Parent, LSAT Co-Chair, Bruce-Monroe at Park View

Rodrigo Treviño, Parent, LSAT Secretary, Bruce-Monroe at Park View
Teresa Ellis, Parent, PTU Board Member, Bruce-Monroe ES at Park View
Alvina Yeh, Parent, PTO President, Dorothy I. Height Elementary School, on behalf of PTO

Kristin Sinclair, Parent, LSAT Member, PSCO Advocacy Committee Co-Chair, John Lewis Elementary School

Executive Board, John Lewis Elementary School Parent School Community Organization

Leyla Castillo, Parent, PTO Co-President, LSAT Member, Powell Elementary School, on behalf of Powell’s LSAT parent representatives