Upgraded Facilities, Academics Part of 15-Year Plan

D.C. School Superintendent Clifford B. Janey outlined an ambitious 15-year plan yesterday to transform the city's dilapidated schools into gleaming, new facilities with model academic programs, a move designed to raise student achievement and attract parents back to a school system with declining enrollment.

The $2.3 billion modernization plan would build 23 schools, renovate 101 and close 19 by 2019. Officials said the school system would be smaller -- with 121 buildings compared with 146 -- but more educationally rigorous and better organized into campuses and clusters.

High schools would have more Advanced Placement courses, and some would focus on themes, such as the hospitality industry, construction trades and foreign language immersion. Officials said the renovations would also address the system's soaring special education costs with classrooms designed to bring students in private placement back into the city's public school classrooms.

This plan, which for the first time identifies the schools that would be closed, is a result of months of research and consultations with city and school officials as well as business and community leaders and experts on social demographics. Officials said they hope the modernization plan will help to stem the flow of students into charter and private schools.

Although the funding has been approved, the specifics of Janey's proposal face final authorization by the D.C. Board of Education. In the spring, it directed him to identify 3 million square feet of excess space in a system that has lost 10,000 students in the past five years, many to public charter schools. Meetings for community feedback on the proposal begin next week.

"Parents will fight this," said Elaine Farley, who has two daughters at Park View Elementary in Northwest. It's scheduled to close in 2007. "Park View is a good school," she said. "They should figure out a way to keep it open."

But school board members and several community advocates praised the modernization plan yesterday, saying that physical changes tied to academic improvements are long overdue in a system where most school buildings are old and worn, and 80 percent of the schools are performing below academic standards.

"This will create healthy learning environments," school board Vice President Carolyn N. Graham said. "Our goal is to make D.C. public schools the first choice and the only choice for parents who live here and pay taxes here."

Work on the first 20 projects would not begin until at least April, when the first wave of $250 million in annual funding would become available. The legislation that approved the financing also requires the D.C. Council to review Janey's plans for managing the projects.

Council member Adrian M. Fenty (D-Ward 4), who won this week's Democratic primary for mayor, said he had not had a chance to review the modernization plan. But Fenty, who pushed for a school renovation effort, said he plans to support the closings "as long as the superintendent works with the community."

McKinley Technical High School in Eckington is an example of what's to come. After remaining closed for years, it was renovated and reopened in 2004 with a new program focused on broadcast, biotechnology and information technology careers.

Students in computer labs work with college-level computer animation programs, future scientists separate proteins in high-tech labs that rival those in professional offices and others create documentaries and work on a radio programs in a media lab with a studio.

The renovation designs will not take place until the proposal is approved, said Cornell S. Brown Jr., executive director of the Office of Facilities Management. Already, however, certain features are planned. Anacostia High School in Southeast would be outfitted with new science labs to accommodate new health and medical science programs, officials said.

The school system plans to convert some low-performing senior highs such as Eastern on Capitol Hill and Spingarn in Langston Terrace into specialty or theme schools. Furthermore, students would be required to earn 27.5 credits to graduate, rather than 23.5.

Spingarn would focus on trades in building and construction. It would offer college-prep and AP classes as well as courses in landscaping design, facilities management, horticulture and pipe fitting. The hilltop campus includes Young Elementary and Browne Junior High, which would be converted into a middle school. Young and Browne would offer trades-related courses to prepare students for Spingarn.

The proposal would convert M.M. Washington Career Senior High in Northwest into a school specializing in the hospitality industry and Wilson Senior High in Northwest into one focusing on international studies. Orthopedically impaired students would go to schools equipped to serve them, including Dunbar Senior High in Southeast, Miller Middle in Northeast and Davis Elementary in Southeast.

Staff writer Nikita Stewart contributed to this report.