Capitol Riverfront parents organize to reopen a closed DCPS school

The newly revitalized Capitol Riverfront neighborhood has all the amenities a family could want, except one: a neighborhood school. But thanks to the efforts of a group of parents, DCPS has committed to reopening one that closed in 2006.

Capitol Riverfront, situated along the Anacostia River between the Navy Yard and Nationals Park in Southeast, is a planned community that seems to work. The neighborhood rose out of the ashes of public housing that was demolished 10 years ago, and it’s now home to over 4,000 residents.

With its welcoming parks and trendy restaurants, the area has become a magnet for young families. Strollers crowd the sidewalks, a Good Humor truck cruises at 5 pm, and the Friday night concerts at Yards Park are well attended by babies and toddlers, along with their parents. And thanks to the seamless inclusion of affordable housing in the redevelopment plan, the neighborhood is even socioeconomically diverse.

But about 4 years ago, some residents grew concerned about the lack of a school. Their zoned school, Amidon-Bowen Elementary, is on the other side of busy South Capitol Street and too far away to feel like part of the neighborhood.

The former neighborhood school, Van Ness Elementary at 5th and M SE, had closed in 2006, shortly after the demolition of the nearby Arthur Capper/Carrollsburg housing projects. But the building was still there, serving as office space for DCPS.

Relying on projections of increased growth in the area, DCPS eventually promised it would reopen Van Ness in the fall of 2015. Two years ago Chancellor Kaya Henderson said funds for the school’s modernization would be included in the 2014 budget.

Campaign to preserve renovation funds

Sure enough, the budget that Mayor Vincent Gray sent to the DC Council earlier this year included $15 million for renovating the Van Ness building. Then, during budget hearings, an off-the-cuff remark by DC Councilmember David Catania seemed to threaten that allocation. And the reaction to what he said revealed how deeply committed the Capitol Riverfront community is to a school that doesn’t yet exist.

Catania, chair of the Education Committee, was concerned because the mayor had eliminated almost $100 million in renovation funds from the education budget, according to a spokesperson, Brendan Williams-Kief. That money was supposed to go towards the modernization of several existing schools.

During the hearing, Catania suggested that some of the money earmarked for Van Ness could be diverted towards those other projects.

His reasoning was that Capitol Riverfront parents want Van Ness to be reopened in phases anyway, beginning with preschool through kindergarten or perhaps 1st grade. Since the whole building wouldn’t be needed right away, he suggested, perhaps the renovation could be done in phases as well. Catania never intended to delay or prevent the school’s modernization, according to Williams-Kief.

But a community organization called the Van Ness Parent Group (VNPG) whipped into high gear, urging residents to contact Catania and tell him to keep the allocation for Van Ness intact. The phone calls began the morning of May 1, with some coming from former neighborhood residents as far away as Houston and Virginia Beach who still felt ties to the area.

By 4:30 that afternoon, the parents had gotten the word that the entire allocation would stay in the budget. That decision wasn’t entirely due to the VNPG campaign, Williams-Kief says. Catania had figured out other ways to find money for the schools whose renovation plans had been derailed. But, he adds, the outpouring of support for Van Ness was impressive.

“They’ve got one engaged parent group already,” he says.

Van Ness Parents Group

The VNPG, created last year, has drawn about 60 families to its meetings, with about 100 kids between them. Meredith Fascett, VNPG’s president, says the group is seeking tax-deductible status and hopes to become the nucleus of a parent-teacher organization at Van Ness.

While the group is pleased that the renovation funds are still in the budget, they still have many unanswered questions. They’d like to know when the renovation will begin and what it will entail, whether DCPS will hire a principal for the planning year, and whether the school will open in phases, among other things.

Last week Fascett met with 3 DCPS officials, but she says the meeting failed to provide answers to any of those questions. A DCPS spokesperson called the meeting “productive” and said the school system looks forward to working with the community and to “sharing more details as they become available.”

I recently met with Fascett and two other members of the group in the community room of a condo in the neighborhood, while their toddlers took turns trying to set off a fire alarm just within their reach on the wall.

All three women expressed concern about whether the school will actually open in a little over a year, as promised. “There’s a lot of planning to do,” said Kelly Stormer.

The school building looks fairly dilapidated from the outside, although the women say when they’ve been inside to vote it hasn’t looked too bad. Then again, they only saw a hallway and the gym.

“I don’t know what I’ll do if Van Ness doesn’t reopen,” said Rebecca Sohmer.

All three entered the lottery this year to find preschools for their 3-year-old sons. Stormer lucked out: her son will be going to Eagle Academy charter school on New Jersey Ave. SE, just across the street from her condo building. But the school only goes through second grade.

Both Fascett’s and Sohmer’s sons got into schools that will require a commute. Fascett’s son will be at Inspired Teaching Demonstration charter school, currently located in the U Street corridor but soon to move to the Edgewood neighborhood in Northeast.

Sohmer didn’t even apply to Amidon-Bowen, her zoned school, because someone told her it was dangerous. (She admits she didn’t have time to do much research.) Instead, her son will be going to Walker-Jones Education Campus near Truxton Circle, about 2 miles away.

A school within walking distance

Sohmer and Fascett aren’t sure how they’ll get their children to school, and both would much prefer a school within walking distance. All 3 women live within 6 blocks of the Van Ness building.

“A big reason we live where we live is that we want to be able to walk to everything,” says Sohmer. “We love walking to the park, seeing our neighbors out in the street. We want to be able to walk to school, too.”

In an era of school closures, the phenomenon of a closed school being brought back to life is a rarity. But with many young families in DC committed to living in a walkable urban environment, it may become more common. That’s one reason DCPS is loath to part with its empty school buildings, which are often eyed covetously by space-hungry charters.

Then again, Capitol Riverfront may be an anomaly. Most neighborhoods aren’t razed to the ground and then rebuilt from scratch, with a cohort of children all approaching school age at the same time. It remains to be seen whether parents in communities whose demographics change more organically will organize around a closed school the way parents in Capitol Riverfront have done around Van Ness.