Three public charter school operators have submitted bids to lease the former Winston Education Campus in Hillcrest. But some neighborhood residents have petitioned DCPS to create an application-only school at the site.

The Martha H. Winston Elementary School. All photos by author.

Two of the operators, DC Prep and Eagle Academy, already have campuses in the District. The third bidder, Rocketship Education, doesn’t currently have a school in the District but has been authorized to open as many as 8 schools here by 2019.

The District’s Department of General Services (DGS) announced the bids at an August 27 meeting at Hillcrest Recreation Center, which is adjacent to the school building. All three of the operators bidding on the site said they would move into the Winston building by 2015 if approved. It’s possible, although not likely, that DGS will approve none of the schools, and bidding will go into a second round.

Members of the Hillcrest Civic Association have petitioned DCPS Chancellor Kaya Henderson to replace the former neighborhood school with an application-only school. The vice-chair of Advisory Neighborhood Commission 7B, Robin Hammond Marlin, who also represents the single-member district that includes the Winston site, has joined in that petition. To date, there has been no response from DCPS.

Some neighborhood parents at the meeting said they were interested in the services that the charter schools bidding on the Winston building might provide to local families.

The school, which was named after noted local educator Martha H. Winston, is drawing interest from the charter schools despite a forbidding exterior. The building appears to have only a few very small windows.

Of the three schools, only Rocketship Education might be subject to proposed legislation that would allow charter schools to give preference to students living in the neighborhood. That legislation, proposed by DC Councilmember David Grosso, would apply only to charter schools that are new to the District.

Rocketship’s school would serve first- through fifth-graders and partner with AppleTree Early Learning, which would provide classes for 3- and 4-year-olds. AppleTree currently operates 7 well-regarded early-childhood charter schools in DC.

Rocketship, founded in California, uses a combination of face-to-face and online learning and has won acclaim for the results it has achieved with low-income student populations. In addition to the network’s 8 schools in San Jose, Rocketship opened a school in Milwaukee just last week, according to Regional Director John Manahan. It has also been authorized to open schools in Nashville and is exploring possibilities in Indianapolis, Memphis, New Orleans, and Texas.

DC Prep hopes to open a new school at the Winston site serving pre-K through 8th grade. The organization currently has two campuses in Ward 5 and two in Ward 7, and, according to its CEO Rick Cruz, its Ward 5 middle school was the highest performing public charter school in the District on the 2013 DC CAS.

As many as 28% of DC Prep students gain admission to School Without Walls, a selective DCPS high school. And the school’s students are often placed in two other selective DCPS schools, McKinley Technical and Banneker.

If Eagle Academy is the successful bidder, it hopes to open an additional school serving three-year-olds to third graders initially, eventually expanding to serve fifth graders. Eagle Academy PCS received some of the highest third-grade scores in the District on the DC CAS.

All three schools bidding on the site put a high emphasis on technology, with smart boards in all classrooms. But Eagle Academy is exceptional in that it provides laptops and as many as 30 iPads in every classroom.

Both DC Prep and Eagle Academy would need to secure authorization for an additional school from the Public Charter School Board, but given the schools’ track records that shouldn’t be a problem.

Several residents who spoke at the meeting displayed a deep hostility to charter schools despite the impressive results that many such schools have been able to achieve with high-poverty student populations. They seemed to place blame for the growth of charters on the District government rather than acknowledging that a growing number of parents apparently prefer to place their children in those schools.

View from Hillcrest recreation center (which has plenty of windows):

The Deputy Mayor for Education, Abigail Smith, was scheduled to attend the meeting but was not able to be there. Neither was Mayor Vincent C. Gray, who resides in the Hillcrest community. Some at the meeting expressed frustration at his absence. Althea Wolford Holford, a real estate specialist with the DGS, invited residents who have concerns about the disposition of the Winston building to follow up with her via email at Althea.Wolford@dgs.com althea.holford@dc.gov. DGS has said that a decision on the charter schools’ bids will be forthcoming in September.