FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 23, 2019
Contact: Alexandra Simbana
Save Shaw Middle School Coalition
202-907-5518
Save Shaw MS Coalition Opposes Mayor Bowser’s Proposal
to Build Two Schools on Shaw Site
WASHINGTON, D.C. – In a closed-door meeting yesterday with ANC 6E Commissioner Alex Padro, the Mayor proposed a plan to build both Shaw Middle School and Banneker High School on the Shaw JHS site.
The Save Shaw Middle School Coalition strongly opposes this plan. “This proposal is a profound disservice to both the Shaw Middle School and the Banneker High School communities”, declared Alex Padro, ANC 6E Commissioner.
The Council has consistently voted for the modernization of Banneker at Euclid Street and has supported the rebuilding of Shaw at Shaw. These decisions are consistent with the educational facility master plans, the approved capital budgets, and the recommendations on feeder patterns and student assignment that then Mayor Gray accepted and the Council approved in 2014 and should not be delayed.
A high school with a middle school like the one designed and built in Ward 4 to include Roosevelt High School and MacFarland Middle School involves about 17.5 acres for a middle and high school with total capacity for 1800 students.
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Source_ Google Earth_ both juxtaposed pictures taken at 965m
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Another public school campus is the Columbia Heights Education Campus, built in 2006 with a 1400 student capacity for both an application high school and a neighborhood middle school sites on a tight 8 acres. The Columbia Heights Education building is 325,248 gross square feet, a building that is larger than is permitted to be built on the Shaw site. In addition, the Columbia Heights Education Campus schools were constructed and opened at the same time, which was the only way to fit on their small site.
Maggie Koziol, parent at Seaton Elementary DCPS said “Building two schools on this small site would deprive children and community critical access to outdoor and athletic facilities. I don’t understand why Banneker would want to make this move to the Shaw site. We have no tennis courts, no track, no baseball or softball fields. There are only 6.1 acres for the Shaw school and recreation areas, but there are 13.1 acres of school and athletic areas at the historic Banneker site.”
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About the Save Shaw Middle School Coalition:
The Save Shaw Middle School Coalition (https://twitter.com/saveshawms) was born in response to the Mayor’s decision in October 2018 to build Banneker High School on the site of the Shaw Junior High which had been promised to the community since the school was closed in 2008. We believe all children – at Banneker and in the schools that feed into Shaw Middle School – were promised modernized schools and deserve a thoughtful long-term solution that meets their needs.
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Ward 6 Public School Parents Organization