District of Columbia Public Schools

DCPS is committed to the idea that schools be effective and inspirational places to learn. This means in addition to providing the students of the District of Columbia with an academic curriculum that promotes excellence and learning, we believe that it is important to have school facilities that are exemplary. Good educational space is pleasant; it is clean, bright, and inviting. It is safe and healthy. It supports the kinds of activities that make for good education: lively inquiry, hands-on learning, multi-disciplinary thought processes, and multiple learning styles. It is scaled for children and young adults. It supports the use of technology. It serves as an anchor and a gathering place in our communities. It is a backdrop that supports and expresses a celebration of learning. When it works, it may go remarkably unnoticed. Good school buildings are silent, supportive partners in education.

We have initiated an ambitious 10-to-15-year plan to modernize our inventory of schools. Modernization is an essential term. We intend not just to renovate, but also to modernize our facilities. Renovate means to bring a facility to its original state, as when it was new. For our buildings, that means 1890, 1920, 1960, or 1980. None of these eras provided access for children with disabilities, or space for parents to meet with each other and build empowered communities. Few provided for authentic science education. Many of our schools were built before teachers drove to school. Students went home for lunch. Pre-kindergarten had not been invented. Our newest schools, designed during the energy shortages of the 1970s, were built in an era when fresh air was thought to be too expensive to provide in sufficient quantities to maintain a healthy indoor environment and views to the outdoors were considered distracting.

In order to implement an efficient and effective program, we have developed new standards for state-of the art facilities, providing a benchmark to ensure adequacy and equity across the school system and parity with our neighbors. Because not all schools can be modernized simultaneously, capital improvements must move forward on three tracks, as follows.

1. The School Modernization Program. This program includes the redesign of existing facilities and the building of new facilities according to the schedule presented in the plan.

2. The Component Replacement Program. The component replacement program will replace failed building systems, including roofs, boilers, windows, and other discrete building systems or components. As new buildings are built and schools are modernized, this program will be replaced by a Lifecycle Replacement Program.

3. The Small Capital Project Program. This "small cap" program will make necessary health, safety, and quality of life improvements to schools waiting their turn for modernization.