Tonight at 7:00 p.m. at Jefferson-Houston School, the community is invited to the third in a series of community meetings about the potential redevelopment of the school. Tours of the school will be offered before the meeting, starting at 6:30 p.m.
According to ACPS's Web site, the agenda will focus on "discussion of Jefferson-Houston space needs; renovation and new building options, with a costs comparison analysis; and site analysis and studies regarding the options of renovations, a new building or open space. The meeting will conclude with a community dialogue and questions and answer session."
An article by Derrick Perkins in the October 7, 2010 Alexandria Times about the school says it all succinctly in its lede: "School officials say paying for a new Jefferson-Houston school through a public-private partnership is off the table — for now."
So no one attending the meeting should imagine that the notion of the public-private partnership or using development to pay for the renovations is dead. ACPS officials are simply going to try to seduce everyone into accepting density by flashing what they probably believe are irresistible designs.
The Growler notes with interest that the detailed agenda reveals architect Lee Quill will be returning. In fact, he will be running the meeting and presenting the case for new construction. The neighborhood grapevine reports (accurately or inaccurately) that ACPS and/or superintendent Morton Sherman have retained Mr. Quill to sell the new school concept to the neighborhood, and there is talk of a contract with a price tag of $100,000 being tossed around.
Let's hope that ACPS officials will open the meeting with a complete disclosure of Mr. Quill's current or potential financial relationship with the school district and by correcting any misimpressions ensure that the neighborhood can properly weigh the information being presented.
Readers may be interested in an article that appeared in last week's Alexandria Times revealing federal Department of Education officials are keeping an eye on reforms at perennially underperforming T.C. Williams High School. It's good to know that DOE Secretary Arne Duncan is taking an interest in Alexandria's only high school, where a new principal was recently appointed. But until there are measurable results showing improvements in test scores and a decline in the drop-out rate, many here in Parker-Gray will want to withhold judgment that Alexandria schools' problems are solved.
Here are some salient facts about Jefferson-Houston that are measured and tangible.
According to the Virginia Department of Education, 98% of the Commonwealth's schools achieved full accreditation and met current state standards for English, mathematics, history and science based on 2009-2010 assessment results.
However, out of 1,159 elementary schools across the Commonwealth — many of which are located in less affluent rural or urban communities than ours — Jefferson-Houston was one of only 10 primary schools across the state (or 1% of the total) that were accredited with warning.
Here also are the free and reduced lunch statistics for Alexandria's schools for the past 15 years, which several readers have inquired about. Note that Jefferson-Houston's proportion of students receiving subsidized lunches climbed rapidly following the controversial 1999 school redistricting. Today the percentage is 65% higher than it was before the boundaries for school attendance were gerrymandered by the School Board. Note also how George Mason's numbers fell by 40% and Lyles-Crouch's by 37.5%.
And let's not forget the Jefferson-Houston SOL results previously published by the Growler for the school both pre- and post-redistricting, which demonstrate that in the past the school achieved SOL with the same classroom layout it currently has.
Armed with this information, readers who attend tonight's meeting should ask themselves once again if a new building or a covered swimming pool for the community is really going to make a difference.
14 comments:
is it fair to say that part of the opposition to a new building for Jefferson-Houston Elementary School is that the current districting of the school creates a demographic of kids mostly from the nearby housing projects and that a new building will not change this or perform better regardless of how the building looks or functions?
Also is the other part of the opposition the loss of open space to increased density?
"is it fair to say that part of the opposition to a new building for Jefferson-Houston Elementary School is that the current districting of the school creates a demographic of kids mostly from the nearby housing projects and that a new building will not change this or perform better regardless of how the building looks or functions?"
Thats the fundamental issue for me. Do you believe that a new school building will improve school performance, or is there something else going on here? Thats very fair to say that parents possess this viewpoint; why are we worried about a new building when we have such an overt concentration of poverty in our area with such devastating effect.
And you forget the third part of the opposition related to this; why are you rushing to build a school when you have no guarantee that parents in Parker Gray will even send their kids to it?
In other news, http://dcmud.blogspot.com/2010/10/erkiletian-to-start-old-town-apartment.html
"the school creates a demographic of kids mostly from the nearby housing projects and that a new building will not change this or perform better regardless of how the building looks or functions?"
Why does the cynical one think Lee Quill and ACPS were fishing for tonight's intro? We're going to hear how the suburban pod if rebuilt will create a better learning environment for environmentally-challenged (you define it) children.
"Also is the other part of the opposition the loss of open space to increased density?"
To me its about balance and compromise. To hear it told on the previous thread, anyone who opposes this is an "elitist whiner"
Yet what the neighborhood really wants is balance and compromise.
Want to build a new school? Redistrict the school zone then so the new school has a better chance of success and is more "fair" to lower-income children.
Want to eliminate open space for tall buildings?
OK, move forward with other sources of open space then to replace it, like the long-talked about "park" at the Braddock Metro.
The reason this is generating such strong opposition (that is growing) is that there is no sense of priorities or balance in this proposal.
Its sounding like building a new school for the sake of building a new school.
i"s it fair to say that part of the opposition to a new building for Jefferson-Houston Elementary School is that the current districting of the school creates a demographic of kids mostly from the nearby housing projects and that a new building will not change this or perform better regardless of how the building looks or functions?"
Any physical change however it is justified is conditional on redistricting. Sherman doesn't have the guts to order redistricting father Quill copped out once redistricting was completed and neither now has the credibility argue need one way or the other. This exercise is eerily reminiscent of the Braddock process. Remember how we got to the end only to find out how we allegedly agreed (ha!) on Bland?
Heres a better way to frame your question on demographics:
Would Lee Quill send his children to JH?
Would Mort Sherman?
Would any ACPS board member send their children to JH?
Anyone in this City government willing to practice what it preaches?
We already saw their answer on the issue of public housing during Braddock East.
"In other news, http://dcmud.blogspot.com/2010/10/erkiletian-to-start-old-town-apartment.html"
Thanks for posting this update. I'll be happy to see this project get underway. I didn't see any floor plans listed on their website (http://www.theasherapts.com/). I guess we will wait and see them soon, hopefully.
I've been trying to drive by Old Town Commons at least once a week to see the progress being made there. Can't wait to tour a model.
The blog is quiet today so am I the only one who came away from last night's meeting aghast? Did I hear Sherman say that all will right itself once the new Congress nixes No Child Left Behind? Student achievement must be measured.
"Did I hear Sherman say that all will right itself once the new Congress nixes No Child Left Behind"
When do we officially get classified as "The Neighborhood Left Behind"
From Carla Branch alexandrianews.org
With the possibility of 1.2 million square feet of development through a public/private partnership on the Jefferson-Houston Elementary School site off the table, what might the community expect to see in a new school there? Last night, members of the community got a glimpse of what is possible.
“Right now, we have a one-story, 83,200 square-foot structure with lots of pockets of open space,” said Lee Quill, the local architect who was hired by the Alexandria City Public School system to draw some site lay-outs so that the community could better understand what Superintendent Morton Sherman and the Alexandria School Board are considering. “If we cut the building’s footprint in half and build vertically, we can increase the square footage and increase the open space at the same time.”
Jefferson Houston Elementary School, 1501 Cameron Street. (Photo: James Cullum)
Jefferson-Houston was built in the 1970s on an open classroom model, which was quickly discarded by educators as not optimal. “You hear every noise from classrooms around you, and it is very difficult to get young students to pay attention,” said Jefferson-Houston Principal Kim Graves at an earlier community meeting.
The new pre-K-8 education program that is being implemented at Jefferson-Houston will require more and different space. “We need to add a gymnasium with lockers, make the cafeteria bigger and provide science lab space for middle school students,” Quill said. “If we add a story on top of the existing building and add a gym and locker rooms on the ground floor, we will still have to renovate the existing building. That renovation will cost between $33 million and $37 million. Also, that design will take away some of the existing open space.”
A new three-story school, which would bring around 129,000 square feet of space, would cost between $30 million and $34 million. “Mt. Vernon Community School and Lyles-Crouch Elementary School are three-story buildings, so we have examples of how building vertically has worked in Alexandria,” Quill said. “In Virginia, there are no pre-K-8 models for ACPS to look at, although I am certain that there are schools of this type somewhere in the country.”
Three stories with 129,000 square feet of space would accommodate the pre-K-8 education model. “You would have a new, energy-efficient green building that would be designed for 21st-century learning, and you would have additional open space that could be used for a variety of sports and educational activities,” Quill said.
A three-story building would be around 36 feet tall. “The zoning allows for 45 feet in height on the site, and we believe that the three-story model is similar in height to many of the buildings around it,” Quill said.
At the next community meeting, Nov. 22, the community will see what a three-story building might look like from the street. “We are also going to talk about what it would mean to the size of the building if the School Board wants to move Central Office staff to this site,” Quill said.
“We are also going to talk about what it would mean to the size of the building if the School Board wants to move Central Office staff to this site,” Quill said."
IF the School Board wants to move to this site? If??? Puh-leeze. I refuse to believe the sudden urgency of a new J-H is all about the kids.
By the way, Helen Morris does send her daughter to Jefferson-Houston.
Beth Coast
PTA President, Jefferson-Houston
This is completely off topic, but has anyone noticed the head shop (drug paraphernalia) that opened up on Lee Street, next to Overwood. Can't hardly wait to hear the Mayor's views on it.
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