Right now, Janney's campus has less land per student than two-thirds of all DCPS elementary schools. After this project is completed, it will fall from the bottom third to the bottom quarter, as the school adds 65 more students, while its outdoor athletics facilities (playing field, basketball courts) shrink to less than half their current size.
"Swing in place" was a reasonable strategy when a stand-alone school modernization project was contemplated, but this public-private project will double the time Janney kids spend trying to learn and play in the midst of a construction zone, surrounded by noise, dust, machinery, and equipment, and fenced off from much of their existing campus. If DCPS keeps the kids on site for the duration of the project, we're probably looking at four consecutive academic years in which the school has to function under cramped and disruptive conditions.
If every aspect of this public-private project goes exceptionally quickly and smoothly, incoming kindergartners will spend this year and most of next under existing conditions at Janney. Construction could start as early as the spring semester of their first grade year and is unlikely to end before they finish fourth grade. During at least part of fourth grade, they'd presumably be in the new wing, with the historic building closed for repairs.
Only in fifth grade would all of the school's facilities be available for their use once again. But at that point these now much bigger kids will find that they have much less space on campus to run and play than they did as 5-year-olds. And, among current Janney students, the kindergartners are the lucky ones - children in higher grades will share the pain but not the gain. Kids who first arrive once the dust has settled will find themselves on a campus that has only half as much land per student as neighboring Lafayette (and which abuts an apartment building rather than a rec center). Where would you rather send your child?
We don’t need to allow private development on Janney’s campus in order to get the school modernized and expanded. The March 31st consultant-authored draft of DCPS’s Master Facilities Plan envisioned and budgeted for a stand-alone reconstruction at Janney that would require only two years of construction and be completed by 2012 (rather than 2013 at the earliest). And, under that scenario, facilities planners would have at least 2/3 of an acre more land to work with as they expand and modernize the school than they will if there's a public-private development project.
The obvious and inescapable question: What's in this deal for Janney? Substandard facilities, delivered later, and through a process that is much more disruptive of the kids’ education. Tell the Council you’re not interested. And while you’re at it, cc the Mayor and the developer.
mcheh@dccouncil.us
vgray@dccouncil.us
schwartzc@dccouncil.us
kbrown@dccouncil.us
hthomas@dccouncil.us
pmendelson@dccouncil.us
dcatania@dccouncil.us
yalexander@dccouncil.us
mbowser@dccouncil.us
twells@dccouncil.us
mbarry@dccouncil.us
jgraham@dccouncil.us
jackevans@dccouncil.us
adrian.fenty@dc.gov, mayor@dc.gov, amf@dc.gov
TSmith@lcor.com
