Advocates for Shaw Middle School are seeking funding for the new school at 9th Street and Rhode Island Avenue NW, the site of the shuttered Shaw Junior High. They say the full modernization of Benjamin Banneker Academic High School's Euclid Street NW campus should go forward immediately. (Photo by Alexandra Simbana)

Shaw Middle School advocates: Two communities, two buildings and one red herring

By Commentary On May 13, 2019 Last updated May 13, 2019

Nearly seven months ago, two DC public school communities ended up pitted against each other with Mayor Muriel Bowser’s decision to move Benjamin Banneker Academic High School from its historic Euclid Street NW building to the former Shaw Middle School site on Rhode Island Avenue NW.

The Banneker community of high-achieving black and Latino scholars, whose students are chosen from a highly selective citywide application pool, was pitted against another community — the growing and improving by-right elementary schools in the center of our city. These neighborhood schools are mostly high-poverty with a substantial number of special education students and 44 percent of students classified as at-risk. They serve students from all eight wards and are among the most organically diverse in the city.

Source: FY19 information from the DCPS Data Center elaborated by the Save Shaw Middle School Committee

What seems like just another struggle over real estate has a deep history and long-term consequences. It is also a huge red herring.

When Shaw Junior High School was closed in 2008, the surrounding community was promised a new school would be built. Since 2008, middle school students have been hosted temporarily at the Garnet-Patterson site, at 2001 10th St. NW, and then, despite strong objections of parents and communities, under the same roof with high school students at Cardozo Education Campus, at 1200 Clifton St. NW, as a temporary solution.

The new Shaw Middle School was to be fed by nearby Cleveland, Garrison, Ross, Seaton and Thompson elementary schools, which serve in-boundary students from wards 1, 2, 5 and 6 and a significant out-of-boundary population. A Center City Middle School to be located at the Shaw site was recommended in the 2014 boundary realignment plan developed by the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education, DC Public Schools, education experts, and community and parent representatives from across the city, among others. In response, the mayor and DC Council put $54 million into the capital budget to build it. Shortly after taking office, however, Mayor Bowser transferred those dollars to a middle school in her home Ward 4.

Today, Cardozo Education Campus — currently under review for low academic performance — has the lowest in-boundary middle school participation in the entire city at a time of growing enrollment at its elementary feeders. Many parents take their children out of the Cardozo feeder system by the fourth or fifth grade as they scatter across the city in search of middle schools. This destabilizes the feeder system and, ultimately, DCPS. Clearly, what is missing is a middle school to capture the growth and keep students in DCPS.

The siting issue is a red herring because the needs of both communities can be met.

The city began its engagement with the Banneker community months before the mayor made her announcement. By then, the Banneker community was fully invested in a move to Shaw, leaving the Shaw neighborhood schools and communities blindsided and stunned. Such a school relocation is unprecedented in DCPS. Stripping a school community of its funding can be considered a temporary setback, but repurposing the only suitable site is a death blow. Why was the Banneker renovation put off for so long despite being fully funded since 2014? Why was the option of renovating Banneker at Banneker not honestly evaluated?

An analysis by the 21st Century School Fund, recognized nationally as school facilities experts, found that Banneker’s historic building can be expanded and modernized to accommodate up to 700 students, greatly expanding enrolment from the current population of 490. Redesigning Banneker with an addition would accommodate a healthy increase, and DCPS already controls the land on the south side of school — half a block all the way down to Barry Place. Moreover, the athletic facilities available at Banneker Recreation Center are larger than the green space at the recreation center adjacent to the Shaw school site: 571,000 square feet at Banneker versus 295,600 square feet at Shaw.

Aerial maps show the relative sizes of the two sites. (Courtesy of 21st Century School Fund)

Many historic school buildings across the city have been renovated and enlarged. Banneker’s modernization at its current site can proceed as originally proposed, planned and approved. Other high schools have been accommodated at swing space during their renovations. Cardozo moved to Meyer temporarily, and Duke Ellington School of the Arts used both Meyer and nearby Garnet-Patterson. Wilson had space at the University of the District of Columbia.

The DC Council has an opportunity to act now to ensure the needs of both communities are met. Doing so would be a true win-win scenario that satisfies the legitimate needs of both communities and restores faith in DCPS. Resolutions, petitions and letters demonstrate that council members, advisory neighborhood commissions, churches and civic associations representing more than 100,000 DC residents from across the city want to see Banneker and the Center City neighborhoods get what they need.

We are asking that the full modernization of Banneker’s Euclid Street building move forward immediately, as previously approved by the DC Council. We are also asking for funding for Shaw Middle School to be planned and built at the former Shaw site — the only place with adequate capacity and outdoor space.

Please help families and communities across Center City and beyond finally get a middle school back at the heart of the area served by their five elementary schools. Give the Cardozo feeder system and its more than 2,000 students a real chance to succeed.

Alexandra Simbana is a parent at Cleveland Elementary and a member of the DC Public Schools Innovation and Systems Improvement Advisory Board; Shermaine Ryan is a parent at Seaton Elementary and a Shaw Junior High alumna; Adrian Gardner is a parent at Seaton Elementary; Maggie Koziol is a parent at Seaton Elementary and a member of the DC Public Schools Strategic Planning Advisory Committee; Samuel Griffiths is a parent at Garrison Elementary and the upper grades liaison on the Garrison Parent-Teacher Organization; Doleta Starr is a parent at Garrison Elementary and at Cardozo Education Campus; Ayako Sato is a parent at Thomson Elementary; Ibrahim Mumin is a 43-year Shaw resident and activist; Alexander Padro is a 19-year advisory neighborhood commissioner in Shaw; and Evelyn Boyd Simmons was a member of the Deputy Mayor for Education Advisory Committee on DC Student Assignment.

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