May/June 2016 Start for Hyde-Addison E.S. Addition

TO: Chairman Mendelson, Chairman Grosso, Councilmember Evans, Councilmember Allen, Councilmember Bonds, Councilmember Alexander
CC: Mayor Bowser, Deputy Mayor Niles, Chancellor Henderson

Our Hyde-Addison E.S. community is grateful the Mayor’s FY16 Budget Proposal includes $22.8m for the completion of our campus modernization. However, our community was stunned to see the Proposed Budget delays the funding and construction start date for our Hyde-Addison Addition until 2017 despite being assured on March 26, 2015 that construction would begin in May/June 2016.

Without this reallocation of the funding into FY16, our campus modernization—which DGS has been working on since fall 2012—will be stopped mid-way and our children will suffer. Our modernization has already been delayed three times. It was originally scheduled to start in 2013, then 2014 and most recently in 2015.

Simply put, our children and community must not be expected to wait three more years before having access to a fully-resourced campus—complete with sorely needed athletic space, additional classroom space, an updated media center, all-school meeting and performance space and ADA-compliant fixtures.

**********************

FACTS ABOUT HYDE-ADDISON E.S:
-2014-2015 school year: enrollment of 305 students, facilities are >100% capacity
-41% in-boundary; 59% out-of-boundary
-students from all 8 Wards
-951 applications for SY2015-2016 Lottery
-strong year-on-year academic performance
-excellent teachers
-dynamic, visionary principal
-highly regarded special needs programming

WHY DOES HYDE-ADDISON NEED AN ADDITION?
-we do not have a gymnasium and/or athletic fields—of a total 58 DCPS elementary schools, we are the only one that does not have functioning indoor and/or outdoor athletic space
-we do not have any unused classrooms to accommodate new students—according to the most recent Master Facilities Plan, the City projects our in-boundary student population will double in the next couple years; in addition to this growth, last year’s School Boundary Plan expanded Hyde-Addison’s boundaries to take in more students from neighboring Burleith
-we have no indoor meeting space
-we have no performing arts space
-our library is under-resourced and sits in a small basement room
-our cafeteria is too small for our current enrollment
-our campus is not ADA compliant
-our campus’ two buildings are not connected—our children must walk through rain, snow, ice and heat in order to move from one building to the other for lunch, science, library, the front office or the nurse
-we cannot provide arts instruction on-campus
-our kids lose an hour instructional time each week because we must bus them off-site for curriculum-mandated arts instruction