Act Now To Ensure Hyde’s Future!

As GM has detailed here several times before, Hyde-Addison elementary school is planning a significant expansion. It will add a gym (which the school lacks), a more significant library, a cafeteria that can fit more students, and several more class rooms. The expansion is crucial to the school’s future, which has grown in leaps and bounds over the last couple years. It will be a beautiful addition once it’s complete.

But due to budget confusion, just when it gets done is up in the air. It is absolutely critical that construction start right after the school year ends this June. Unfortunately, the expansion is only clearly funded starting next fiscal year (i.e. October). A delay of five months, might not seem like much but it puts many things into limbo. For instance, it’s not clear that with a delayed construction that the school will be able to fully function next year.

And if you’re like GM and have a three year old, it’s particularly troubling if the project isn’t approved to start in June. That’s because with the addition of the Pre-K3 program next fall, many spaces in the following year’s Pre-K4 program will be taken up by this year’s lottery. If, however, the construction timeline is clear, then the school can give parents like GM comfort that it can use the completed expansion for an additional Pre-K4 classroom in the fall of 2016.

Moreover, there’s always a chance that if the project slips further back that it may get delayed indefinitely. If you like the success that Hyde has achieved recently, you will appreciate the need for a modern campus to reflect the quality teaching the school is providing.

So please call or email Councilmembers Jack Evans and David Grosso (who chair the Finance and Education committees respectively) and let them know it’s important for shovels to go into the ground this June at Hyde. (Great photo op!)

-Jack Evans – jackevans@dccouncil.us – (202) 724-8058

-David Grosso – dgrosso@dccouncil.us – 202-724-8105

If you want to email them, here’s a message you can cut-and-paste for the email:

Dear Councilmember,

I am writing to express my concern that the planned expansion of Hyde-Addison Elementary School is not going to begin in time to avoid creating significant conflicts during the subsequent school year. The construction must begin this June in order to complete the most disruptive work while the school is not in session. I am hopeful that with your influence over the school expansion budget you can ensure that the project begins on time.

The community has been working on the planning of this project for over five years. While the school is wonderful and thriving, it has nonetheless a substandard physical plant. There is no gym; when it’s too cold or wet to play outside, the children play in a hallway. The library and cafeteria are too small and no one room can hold the whole student body. For school assemblies, they meet either on the playground or in a church off-campus. This is unacceptable.

The project has finally received the design approval after years of review. It is ready to move forward. We just need your help to get the shovels in the ground on time.

Regards,