Burleith Just Really Doesn’t Like Hyde Apparently

The Georgetown Current reported this week that Burleith and Glover Park families are urging the city to step in and purchase the historic Fillmore School, which will soon be put on the market due to the dissolution of the Corcoran.

Brian Cohen, a former Stoddert and current Hardy parent, argued to the Current that since it’s already a school building it could address the overcrowding issues at Stoddert. Hmm, if only there were some other building that’s already a school that the city already owns that could be used to relieve Stoddert overcrowding.

Wait a tick! There already is an existing school building that the city already owns that could be used to address overcrowding at Stoddert: Hyde-Addison! And in fact that is exactly what the Deputy Mayor for Education was thinking when she recommended Burleith be rezoned into the Hyde-Addison district.

But Burleith parents convinced the Stoddert PTA, the Glover Park ANC, and (unfortunately) the Georgetown ANC to oppose that proposal. Now instead of shifting future Burleith families to Hyde-Addison, they would rather the city buy them their own school. Keep in mind that in the middle of the real estate crash, Eastbanc was apparently willing to spend $6 – $9 million for the property. Expect the price now to be even higher.

That’s a would be a whole lot of public funds being spent just because Burleith families just can’t for some reason accept Hyde as an option. Besides, the city already owns another historic school building that could be converted back to school use if the need were genuine: the Jackson School.