Hearst Renovation Plan Looks Awesome

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When will the new building be in place?

Now that DC's budget has been approved, they should break ground on Phase II (of III) by the end of the year. However, my understanding is that it will be a 12-18 month build. So to answer your question, somewhere between December 2014 and June 2015. I have no idea when Phase III (includes full cafeteria, gymnasium, etc.) is planned to start. Most of the focus right now is just getting Phase II done so that the upper grade kids can get out of the trailers.

[Anonymous]

This is another city building project that is not offering enough new functional space for the money.
Consider that the new addition is planned to offer about twice as much square footage as the original building.
And yet, this new space is only planned to accommodate about 176 kids -- the overflow -- compared with the 300
in the original building. For all that extra space, why not have a design that could accommodate 200-300 kids?
In a few years, I bet that Hearst will again have the overcrowding problem found at Stoddert and Janney.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is another city building project that is not offering enough new functional space for the money.
Consider that the new addition is planned to offer about twice as much square footage as the original building.
And yet, this new space is only planned to accommodate about 176 kids -- the overflow -- compared with the 300
in the original building. For all that extra space, why not have a design that could accommodate 200-300 kids?
In a few years, I bet that Hearst will again have the overcrowding problem found at Stoddert and Janney.

No one can predict the future however, your scenario of Hearst attracting more in bounds students post renovations (as did Stoddert and Janney), is not out of the realm of possibility. (We had a record number of people show up in the pouring rain for our last open house which may have been a harbinger of things to come).

For now, Hearst really is a great little school, with wonderful teachers, small class sizes and an extremely active and dedicated parent community. The newly renovated main building and upcoming additions are simply icing on a cake that was already good. May Hearst continue to fly under the radar...at least until my kids graduate .