[Angela C. and Mike I.]
Clark Elementary School
Open House/Community Meeting to Keep Clark Open
Monday February 25, 6:30pm
4501 Kansas Ave NW
Please come see and hear about the significant turnaround that Clark ES has achieved in just 1 1/2 years under the leadership of Principal Wright and program partners such as the Center for Inspired Teaching, Fillmore Arts Center, and Sports4Kids. Clark is still being slated to close even though the space usage issues have been resolved, the almost a mile walk crossing Georgia Avenue to Raymond ES is unsafe for children, and Clark is the last remaining neighborhood elementary school in Petworth.
Co-sponsored by ANC Commissioner Shanel Anthony 4C07, UNTS Neighborhood Association, the Clark PTA and Friends of Clark.
Councilmember Bowser will be in attendance and the Mayor has been invited. Refreshments will be served.
Rudolph is also closing, so that's one less elementary school in Petworth. And while it would make perfect sense for kids currently at Clark to go to Barnard, the plan is for them to be sent to Raymond or Powell, both on the other side of Georgia Ave. (We live five blocks from Barnard, so I'm really hoping that we'll be re-zoned for that school before we have a child of school age.)
I wish I'd heard about this open house sooner--I would definitely have gone. I last visited Clark two years ago, and thought that it was incredibly depressing. If it has gotten that much better in two years, I'm really glad for the sake of all the kids in our neighborhood. Despite that, I do agree with Rhee and Fenty that there are too many schools in the system, and that it makes sense to focus on improving them, even if a few schools need to be closed in order to free up resources for that.
Posted by: ZetteZelle | March 03, 2008 at 12:36 PM
Barnard Elementary School isn't in Petworth? Isn't a neighborhood school? What? Cause it's like 3 blocks away and totally brand new. And since I think I live in Petworth -- I'm a little surprised to discover that the school that is a half a block from my house is apparently a figment of my imagination.
We have way too many schools in this city. And according to a quick Google search, Petworth has four: Clark, Barnard, Rudolph and Truesdell. Seems fairly excessive. My hometown of 10,000 didn't have that many. I don't think we have more kids in Petworth.
Posted by: Christopher | March 03, 2008 at 01:28 AM