Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Awaiting the New Bruce Monroe


Several District agencies are currently in the midst of coordinating plans for the demolition and subsequent reconstruction of the recently closed Bruce Monroe Elementary School. The 36-year-old educational facility and recreation center, located at 3012 Georgia Avenue NW, closed its’ doors this past June along with several other neglected DC public schools after years of making do with shrinking budgets, overcrowding and/or deteriorating conditions.

In a Request for Proposals issued by the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development (ODMPED) this past autumn, the 121,000 square foot lot will be repurposed with a new school and, in the words of the Office of Planning, "a mixed-use development project which [is being] developed to fund the new school." Though the Mayor's office has yet to announce a development team, DC Public SchoolsOffice of Public Facilities Management has been tasked with overseeing the school's development, while ODMPED and the DC Department of Small & Local Business Development share the responsibility of seeking a partner for the project’s mixed-use component.

ODMPED’s Communications Director, Sean Madigan, tells DCmud that there is no firm timeline for when the demolition may take place, but the Deputy Mayor Neil Albert’s office is currently in the process of securing the necessary paperwork in order to expedite the process once an announcement is made.

At present, the bulk of Bruce Monroe’s former student body and staff have been consolidated into nearby Park View Elementary at 3560 Warder Street NW - which itself will be closed once school bells start ringing at Bruce Monroe Elementary’s newest incarnation. According to ODMPED, Ward 1’s newest old school is currently scheduled to be “open in time for the fall of 2011.”

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You can't get this project started fasted enough for me, but they should leave the school at Park View.

Anonymous said...

I think DC is just trying to get out of the school business by the way that they are managing the process of building and rebuilding schools

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