http://dcvacantproperties.blogspot.com/2014/07/langston-school-vacant-forever.html
(The bldg. at 43 P Street)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FYI: Other neighborhood news: A new 120+ unit luxury condo building is going up on the site of the old Brass knob building on N St and Hanover, down the street from SOME. Building will commence later this year once the construction on MV is done. Designed by the same architectural firm as MV. So traffic will not be getting better anytime soon.

lets not forget that MV wants to partner with someone to renovate the old abandoned building across the street from the school.

Can you share what you know about that? The building is actually occupied, not "abandoned" though it looks like it's in bad shape. It's city owned but used by an educational non-profit who run a head start program there.

I was referring to the building to the right I think its 43 P ST. Was used as a school once upon a time but now it is to run down for a charter to renovate it on its own dime. They have a vision of one day being able to partner to renovate the building.. didn't make it clear if it was partnering with another school or a private entity. You are probably talking about the other building that is used as an early education center.

Both of those buildings are owned by the city. No-one can do anything with them until the city decides that they are surplus. It's not like they can just find a partner and do it. There are buildings like that all over the city and nothing can be done about them. In the meantime plenty of schools are looking for permanent locations.

The paperwork for the building says that it is up for grabs and that Charters have first dibs... No one can take he building because of the amount of work. The other building is said to be occupied.

What paper work? (Sorry for all the questions, just curious). Is the cost issue because it's a historic building?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FYI: Other neighborhood news: A new 120+ unit luxury condo building is going up on the site of the old Brass knob building on N St and Hanover, down the street from SOME. Building will commence later this year once the construction on MV is done. Designed by the same architectural firm as MV. So traffic will not be getting better anytime soon.

lets not forget that MV wants to partner with someone to renovate the old abandoned building across the street from the school.

Can you share what you know about that? The building is actually occupied, not "abandoned" though it looks like it's in bad shape. It's city owned but used by an educational non-profit who run a head start program there.

I was referring to the building to the right I think its 43 P ST. Was used as a school once upon a time but now it is to run down for a charter to renovate it on its own dime. They have a vision of one day being able to partner to renovate the building.. didn't make it clear if it was partnering with another school or a private entity. You are probably talking about the other building that is used as an early education center.

Both of those buildings are owned by the city. No-one can do anything with them until the city decides that they are surplus. It's not like they can just find a partner and do it. There are buildings like that all over the city and nothing can be done about them. In the meantime plenty of schools are looking for permanent locations.

The paperwork for the building says that it is up for grabs and that Charters have first dibs... No one can take he building because of the amount of work. The other building is said to be occupied.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FYI: Other neighborhood news: A new 120+ unit luxury condo building is going up on the site of the old Brass knob building on N St and Hanover, down the street from SOME. Building will commence later this year once the construction on MV is done. Designed by the same architectural firm as MV. So traffic will not be getting better anytime soon.

lets not forget that MV wants to partner with someone to renovate the old abandoned building across the street from the school.

Can you share what you know about that? The building is actually occupied, not "abandoned" though it looks like it's in bad shape. It's city owned but used by an educational non-profit who run a head start program there.

I was referring to the building to the right I think its 43 P ST. Was used as a school once upon a time but now it is to run down for a charter to renovate it on its own dime. They have a vision of one day being able to partner to renovate the building.. didn't make it clear if it was partnering with another school or a private entity. You are probably talking about the other building that is used as an early education center.

Both of those buildings are owned by the city. No-one can do anything with them until the city decides that they are surplus. It's not like they can just find a partner and do it. There are buildings like that all over the city and nothing can be done about them. In the meantime plenty of schools are looking for permanent locations.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FYI: Other neighborhood news: A new 120+ unit luxury condo building is going up on the site of the old Brass knob building on N St and Hanover, down the street from SOME. Building will commence later this year once the construction on MV is done. Designed by the same architectural firm as MV. So traffic will not be getting better anytime soon.

lets not forget that MV wants to partner with someone to renovate the old abandoned building across the street from the school.

Can you share what you know about that? The building is actually occupied, not "abandoned" though it looks like it's in bad shape. It's city owned but used by an educational non-profit who run a head start program there.

I was referring to the building to the right I think its 43 P ST. Was used as a school once upon a time but now it is to run down for a charter to renovate it on its own dime. They have a vision of one day being able to partner to renovate the building.. didn't make it clear if it was partnering with another school or a private entity. You are probably talking about the other building that is used as an early education center.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FYI: Other neighborhood news: A new 120+ unit luxury condo building is going up on the site of the old Brass knob building on N St and Hanover, down the street from SOME. Building will commence later this year once the construction on MV is done. Designed by the same architectural firm as MV. So traffic will not be getting better anytime soon.

lets not forget that MV wants to partner with someone to renovate the old abandoned building across the street from the school.

Can you share what you know about that? The building is actually occupied, not "abandoned" though it looks like it's in bad shape. It's city owned but used by an educational non-profit who run a head start program there.

MV definitely has a "Padres" group that does some fundraising and organizes social outings etc. I feel like it didn't totally gel this year but I expect once parents can hang out on the completed grounds, while their kids play, there will be some additional collaboration and networking.

Sorry you experienced a stressful incident today. This was the first week without the construction fence up, so maybe the neighborhood is adapting? Hopefully the permanent fence will go up soon.

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote]I agree with the security issue and I think it will be a discussion for the PTA[/quote]

I was at the school today and thoroughly confused about whether they have a PTA and if they do if it raises its own funds or just turns money over to the school. [/quote]

Yes, there is an extremely active parents association, called the Padres. It does not raise its own funds.[/quote]

Okay no 501c3 parent-group -- just dump the money in and let the managers spend it?

[quote=Anonymous][quote]I agree with the security issue and I think it will be a discussion for the PTA[/quote]

I was at the school today and thoroughly confused about whether they have a PTA and if they do if it raises its own funds or just turns money over to the school. [/quote]

Yes, there is an extremely active parents association, called the Padres. It does not raise its own funds.

[quote=Anonymous][quote]I agree with the security issue and I think it will be a discussion for the PTA[/quote]

I was at the school today and thoroughly confused about whether they have a PTA and if they do if it raises its own funds or just turns money over to the school. [/quote]

Yes, there is a parent group, the Padres that raises money among other things. The parent group is very organized consisting a committees for different activities related to the school, i.e., fundraising, transportation, academic, etc.

[quote]I agree with the security issue and I think it will be a discussion for the PTA[/quote]

I was at the school today and thoroughly confused about whether they have a PTA and if they do if it raises its own funds or just turns money over to the school.

Anonymous wrote:FYI: Other neighborhood news: A new 120+ unit luxury condo building is going up on the site of the old Brass knob building on N St and Hanover, down the street from SOME. Building will commence later this year once the construction on MV is done. Designed by the same architectural firm as MV. So traffic will not be getting better anytime soon.

lets not forget that MV wants to partner with someone to renovate the old abandoned building across the street from the school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the security question is more of a general inquiry than just basing it off of the one homeless guy.

How does the school handle visitors etc.?

Doors are locked throughout the day apart from 15 mins in the morning for dropoff. Any visitors need to pass through the main entrance and sign in at the reception desk. Eventually there will be fences around the perimeter of the school.

Cameras too...

[quote=Anonymous]I was at a Q&A and tour this morning with about 3 dozen other families admitted off the Waitlist. Overall was well run and an impressive new section and renovation (for a total of $15 million, DCPS could learn some tricks there!), but had a couple follow up observersations I'd love to hear from current families about:

• Why did they roll out a minor administrator who didn't have a lot of answers and who qualified every answer with "I can't speak for the administration"? I'd really prefer to hear from the organization's leader since that goes a long way in DC Ed circles. She was vague on native-Spanish speakers but made it sound as though 20% of the school 40% hispano/latin background speak it at home. Does this mean 8%?

• I have a few qualms about their decision to not hire security. I arrived after drop off and was harassed by homeless dudes both coming and going right in front of the school. That's just not cool. If you had security presumably they could manage and monitor loiterers. [/quote]

I agree with the security issue and I think it will be a discussion for the PTA

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oops, sent too quickly...

please don't waste their time on policy questions in hopes of changing them. They are very flexible, but this wouldn't be the right time to address such issues.

My bet is that about 40% of the student body is from families who identify as latino, but only 20% are from families that only (or mostly) speak Spanish at home. The other 20 percent are mixed Spanish/English speakers. In addition to that 40% though, there is another probably 30% in which the parents are not latino, but the parents speak Spanish fluently. Raised in Latin America, former Peace Corps, etc.

I have not had problems with anyone on the block of the school, although the neighborhood is not completely gentrified, and you will definitely see evidence of that. As for the security decisions, this is probably a question more for the chief operations officer, although again, I would approach it from the perspective of finding out information as opposed to changing the policy at this point.

30% non latino parents that speak Spanish? That is REALLY high estimate.

I agree that it is high, but I don't think that it is off. This generally isn't both parents, but one parent. The executive director would fall in this category, as would many families that I know. That leaves about 30% of families that have no fluent speakers, which is probably about right. Maybe it is 40%, but even that seems very high from my experience.