While community members are still weighing in on what should be done with the massive number of D.C. school facilities shutting down after this academic year, the fates of some have already been set, according to officials.
Neighbors who attended a Thursday night public meeting learned about plans for a half-dozen of the sites, they told The Examiner.
For instance, a flier distributed at the meeting noted that Bowen Elementary School in the District’s Ward 1 is set to be turned into a police substation and homicide victims’ unit.
Meanwhile, a smattering of school facilities — Park View Elementary, Garnet-Patterson Middle, Bunker Hill Elementary, Green Elementary and Wilkinson Elementary — are scheduled to be used for “swing space” for existing D.C. Public School programs. Those schools will continue as extra spaces until 2010 or 2011 when their ultimate purposes are decided, according to information provided at the meeting.
It was also revealed Thursday that Stevens Elementary downtown will be used for an unspecified economic development function.
Anita Hairston, chief of staff for the city’s Office of Planning, whose office is co-hosting the repurpose meetings, referred questions to the mayor’s office. Dena Iverson, Mayor Adrian Fenty‘s press secretary, did not return requests for comment Friday about the established uses for the buildings.
Ultimately, what happens to each of the 23 school buildings shut down this spring lies in the hands of Fenty.
Iverson said at this point “all options are on the table” as it’s too early in the process to identify which facilities will be devoted to city functions.
“No final decisions will be made before the community engagement process is completed,” she wrote in an earlier e-mail.
There also is a right of first refusal offer for charter schools for city-owned buildings not used for government purposes.
Some education stakeholders hope this rule will allow charter schools, which have long struggled to find homes, to move in.
Parents and community members have also batted around a wide range of ideas for the facilities from creating foreign language programs at Backus Middle School to converting a number of the available schools to libraries, senior citizen centers and music centers.
Altogether the schools account for almost 1.5 million square feet.
