Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Spingarn Likely to Close, Carbarn Implications?

The official list is embargoed until 4pm, but Loose Lips has slapped up an unofficial list of schools that DCPS wants to close. As I've been predicting on Twitter for the past several days, Spingarn High School appears on that list. Spingarn was already classified as a tier 4 school, putting it at high risk of closure (page 53 of that pdf has a good breakdown of the Cluster 23 school situation. Truancy is a HUGE problem at Spingarn, and the test scores aren't great either (14% proficient in math, and 13% in reading). The school has a capacity of 910 student, but only had 460 students enrolled at the time of the IFF report (I'm not sure if that includes the 194 listed as enrolled in the 16 years and older Spingarn Stay program).

As you know, DDOT plans to build a carbarn for the streetcar on the grounds of Spingarn. Some Ward 5 advocates objected that this could be dangerous for students, and that it would be a blight on the historic campus of Spingarn. One group launched an effort to have Spingarn designated historic, that could potentially delay the carbarn construction.

The Washington City Paper is supposed to have an article out shortly with info from DDOT about what a Spingarn closure could mean for the carbarn. I'm going to link to that when it comes out rather than simply speculating.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh man, those are gonna be some beautiful condos they're gonna turn that building into.

hiphopanonomos said...

kathy henderson head explodes...NOW

Taylor said...

Metro should repurpose the school into a training facility/technical apprenticeship facility for Metro.

Anonymous said...

Someone has to be blamed for the truancy rate since we know it won't be individual students or their parent at fault. Perhaps the Rosedale Civic Association will tell us the streetcar will make it easier for these otherwise model kids to ditch class. And besides, who needs basic math and reading skills these days anyway... lol. Kbye.

Unknown said...

A Few things:

KH isn't and won’t be the ANC for that area.

The Rosedale Civic Association isn't behind the Historic Preservation effort.

My chief concern is that DC quickly disposes of any of these properties if they are closed. I don't mean giving them to charters, for them sitting vacant for years, but actually selling them. DC Government needs to be more enterprising, well besides it's love affair with ticket cameras.

Wordup said...

robby: since when has that stopped KH? if its ward 5, she's on it like a bum on a ham sandwich.