Charter schools could soon occupy 4 campuses which housed DC public schools until the latest round of school closings. KIPP DC, part of the highly successful national chain of charter schools, plans to make a bid for one of them, the Hamilton school in Ivy City

near Ivy City and Gallaudet.

The 4 campuses. Map by the author from Google Maps base layer.

DC Public Schools (DCPS) and the DC Department of General Services (DGS) announced a request for offers (RFO) for the campuses: Hamilton, Shead Shaed Education Campus in Edgewood, Young Elementary School in Carver-Langston, and Winston Education Campus, in Hillcrest.

Existing public charter schools, or groups who have gotten conditional approval to create a public charter school, are eligible to bid. DC’s goal is to locate high-performing charter schools in these communities. Of the 4 properties, only the Young campus is in an area with several existing, high-performing schools.

KIPP DC met with residents at Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Peta-Gay Lewis’s Single-Member District 5D01 meeting Tuesday evening to discuss its plans. A new KIPP school, the Webb campus in Trinidad, will open this summer and serve 300 students, but there are 3,000 students citywide on KIPP’s waiting list.

Location of current KIPP campuses in DC. Image from KIPP DC.

The Hamilton site would become a high school that could serve students coming from middle school at the Shaw, Webb, and Benning campuses. Any slots not filled by KIPP 8th graders would accept enrollment from students citywide.

The location is close to many of KIPP’s existing middle schools, allowing it to feel more like a neighborhood school, officials said.

Parents of students at the nearby Two Rivers public charter school also said they have heard it may vie for the Hamilton site as well. Schools have to apply by August 14.

Corrections: The original version of this article misspelled the name of the Shaed school, and also said Hamilton is in Ivy City, when it is actually in the Florida Market or Union Market area near but (by most people’s conception of the neighborhood) not strictly in Ivy City.