Up until the immediate days before opening, the media was full of warnings that many of the schools would not be ready for students on opening day. In Ward 6, the pressure was on to have construction  projects completed for those schools receiving new as well as returning students under the DCPS consolidation plans.  In Ward 6, Amidon Elementary, and Elliot Middle School were the schools undergoing major upgrades of air conditioning and heating, restrooms, painting, repairs and beautification,   The DCPS goal was to have construction and schools’ instruction tasks on track for opening day.

The Friday before the Monday opening day, the Washington Post declared that Elliot would not be ready, based on their on-site visit and review of the unfinished work they observed. Two staff members from this office also toured Elliot with the Smoot Construction Co. project manager.  Our report back to Councilmember Wells was that we believed Elliot would be ready.

Early Monday morning, Councilmember Wells, accompanied by several staff members, a Washington Post reporter and camera man joined students and parents on their walking route to Amidon elementary in SW.  The merge of Bowen and Amidon created longer distances for former Bowen students to travel safely.

We immediately recognized a safety issue at M and Delaware Ave SW.  The traffic light on busy M St lasted only long enough for the group of students and parents to reach the median strip.  The crossing guard then had to manage that group crossing from the median to the other side of the street.  In the meantime, other parents and students were crossing the first half of the cross walk without the assistance of a crossing guard.  Having parents with baby strollers and small children bunched on the median while rush hour traffic whizzed by was a high risk situation.  Upon arriving at Amidon, Commander Kamparin was spotted and asked to send a  police car to assist the crossing guard to manage the traffic during the rest of the morning and to assess the after school travel challenges as well. 

In recognition of these very challenges, Amidon applied for and was awarded a Safe Routes Grant   funded through the Department of Transportation.  Throughout the new semester, work will proceed on refining the safest routes for children coming from all parts of the SW neighborhoods as well as installing effective safety measures that ensure safe travel for children and parents to and from school.

The readiness of the physical site at Amidon was immediately observable.  Every part of the facility was ready for students and teachers to begin the new year in a pleasant environment.  All teachers had reported and the school leadership was busy greeting children, parents and the many community supporters.  Two historical figures, Anthony Bowen and Margaret Amidon were represented in costume by community members, to further denote the merging of the two schools.  Breakfast sandwiches were made available for parents and teachers from the Potbelly Sandwich shop in SW, as a community benefit arranged by the ANC 6D Commissioners.

Elliot Middle School was our next stop.  With great delight, we found that the construction challenges had been met, and then some. There were even flowers freshly planted in the front of the school, courtesy of the city-wide School Beautification day on Saturday.  The beautiful wood work at the entrance foyer was even restored.  The entire building was a stunning surprise in view of the dire predictions sounded only two days before opening.   Students were all in classes and teachers were engaged with the first day instructional tasks.  All was well at Elliot Middle School.

A quick visit to Eastern High School followed.  While the facility was not as magnificent as the consolidated schools, it was clean and the students and teachers were in place and in action.  Bright colored shirts embossed with the Eastern High emblem were worn by students, different colors denoting the grade of the student.  The shirts, worn with tan colored bottoms were to serve as the school uniform.  Parents will purchase additional shirts in the same color for the child’s grade for everyday wear, as the school purchased the first one to get the school  year started, with students knowing and exhibiting their status of grade and pride in their school.

We returned to the office, confident that those schools in Ward 6 that faced the greatest challenges succeded.

Please share your thoughts and experiences with us from opening day.