It's Official: Shaed Awarded to Inspired Teaching and Lee Montessori
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Anonymous
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Shaed Elementary School Awarded to Public Charter Schools and Two Additional School Buildings Released for Offers
Inspired Teaching/Lee Montessori to Open New Site (WASHINGTON, D.C.) – The Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education (DME) and the Department of General Services (DGS) today awarded Shaed Elementary School at 301 Douglas Street, NE to a partnership between Inspired Teaching Demonstration and Lee Montessori Public Charter Schools. The unique partnership at Shaed Elementary will include community access to the facility for recreational purposes. This will be a permanent site for Inspired Teaching and a start-up location for Lee Montessori to begin growing a new program in the District. “This is more evidence of my administration’s continuing commitment to providing students and families with strong school programs across the District,” said Mayor Vincent C. Gray. “Shaed Elementary represents an exciting opportunity to put a building back into service as a school while also serving the broader needs of the community.” The partnership between Inspired Teaching, Lee Montessori and Building Hope will bring approximately 500 pre-k to 8th grade seats to Ward 5. Inspired, currently located in Ward 1, opened its doors in 2011 and has posted strong gains in student proficiency. As a demonstration school, Inspired Teaching trains teachers and requires them to serve in District schools for five years after leaving the training program. Lee Montessori is a new program that will begin serving students next year. It plans to build its program at Shaed Elementary and eventually move to a permanent site elsewhere, serving up to 350 students at full enrollment in grade pre-k to 5th grade. The reuse of Shaed Elementary is also exciting in that it will provide an opportunity for additional community services. Inspired Teaching and Lee Montessori have begun discussion with the Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR), as well as non-profit community partners, about programming parts of the facility for community uses including recreation and community meetings. “Inspired Teaching School is thrilled to have the opportunity to establish a permanent home at Shaed Elementary and we look forward to joining the vibrant community surrounding it,” said Deborah Dantzler Williams, Executive Director of Inspired Teaching Public Charter School. “The Board and staff of Lee Montessori Public Charter School are extremely excited at this opportunity to partner with DC government to increase the number of high-quality seats in our city,” said Lee Montessori PCS Board Chair Dominique Fortune. “This is also a wonderful opportunity to bring additional services to the Edgewood community." “It is great news to be reactivating the Shaed building with such strong service providers. I am particularly excited about the plans for partnership that will allow the community to use the building,” said Deputy Mayor for Education Abigail Smith. D.C. Public Schools (DCPS) closed Shaed Elementary School in 2011 due to low enrollment. The building has been vacant since then. The two schools plan to open their programs at Shaed in time to welcome students for the 2014-15 school year. Yesterday, the Department of General Services also released a Request for Offers (RFO) for Shaed Elementary School at 5601 East Capitol Street SE and Sharpe Health School at 4300 13th Street NW. DCPS stopped using the Shaed building in 2011. Since then it has been occupied by the University of the District of Columbia and DC Scholars Public Charter School. The current program at Sharpe Health will be moving to River Terrace for the 2014-15 school year. Public charter schools are invited to submit proposals for Sharpe and Shaed by November 25th, 2013. |
Anonymous
| Excellent! |
Anonymous
| Too bad they couldn't make the spelling distinction between Shaed and Shadd in the press release. |
Anonymous
| Who would bid on Sharpe? That's a great location. |
Anonymous
| Fantastic news! Will they open in 2014-2015 there? If not, I wonder where Lee will go for the first year. And does this mean that in the year that it opens, IT will have more spots? |
Anonymous
What's your point? It is called Shaed. |
Anonymous
I think Bridges is bidding (or has already bid on) Sharpe. When is that decision going to be made? |
Anonymous
Bridges has got to have the inside track on Sharpe. They already occupy part of the building, and have their main location a few blocks away. The RFO said they are looking for more high quality PK3-5th grade seats, which is what Bridges will grow into. |
Anonymous
Read further down to the part where they have opened Shadd on E. Capitol for bids. Shadd, not Shaed. Now does this make more sense? |
Anonymous
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Shaed is at 301 Douglas Street NE. Shaed was just awarded to IT with Incubator space for Lee Montessori
Shadd is at 5601 East Capitol Street SE. It is up for bid. DCPS has a penchant for similarly named schools: Langdon and Langley Elementaries (both open) HD Cooke and JF Cook Elementaries (first open, second closed) MC Terrell and RH Terrell Elementaries (both now closed) Browne Elementary and Brown Middle school (first open, second closed) Wilson HS and JO Wilson Elementary |
Anonymous
Bridges. |
Anonymous
Lee's first year is 2014-2015. It will be IT's fourth year. They are both occupying the Shaed school building come fall. Lee will be on the basement level with its founding classes. IT will be on the top three levels. Lee will move out once it expands past the space allotted and another school will likely take its place, much as IT took up the basement in the Potomac Lighthouse building its first year and moved out once it needed more space. |
Anonymous
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IT will accept new students in PS3 and its second grade, as it adds one class per grade with that group as it moves up. It also will add a 6th grade next year, on up to 8th grade in two more years. At this point in time, as a current family, we were told it doesn't have plans to have more than two classes per grade level.
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Anonymous
| So does this mean that IT will have more PS3 spots in the upcoming lottery than it did this year? (I know you said they will accept new students for PS3, but just curious if there will be more spots than if they stayed in their current space.) Thanks! |
Anonymous
No, just the two classes of 22 students apiece. Siblings get first priority and the rest will be lottery. If they accept more students, then they have a large class that has to move itself up. The idea, for now, is two classes per grade. They will also accept students for spaces opened up in all grades by children who choose not to return and also to fill up space in the elementary grades which aren't full. |