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Articles
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| City proposes closing Hine school, building’s future uncertain |
VOICE writes, "
By Julia O’Donoghue
D.C. Public Schools’ facilities reorganization next year is likely to impact the landscape of the Eastern Market neighborhood.
Mayor Adrian Fenty, Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee and deputy mayor for education Victor Reinoso recently proposed closing Hine Middle School, located at 335 8th St. SE across from Eastern Market, as part of their school consolidation plan.
At the end of this year, the city wants to move Hine’s 379 students to Eliot Middle School, next to Eastern High School across from Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium. The Hine-Eliot consolidation was also part of former School Superintendent Clifford Janey’s 2006 plan, which proposed to shutter the school in 2007.
“I think people have been preparing for this for awhile,” said Kenan Jarboe, advisory neighborhood commissioner who represents part of the neighborhood. “Everybody has assumed for a number of years that it [Hine] was going to be closed.” "
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The enrollment at Hine Middle School, a junior high until this school year, has declined 44 percent over the past five years, and only 74 of its students live within the school’s boundary, according to statistics provided by D.C. Public Schools.
School staff will be able to pool Hine’s and Eliot’s resources and provide students with a better-rounded curriculum that includes art, music, physical education and counseling after the consolidation, said schools spokesperson Mafara Hobson.
“The whole point of the closures is to be to pool together our resources so we can afford to incorporate new academic programs,” Hobson said.
The closure would also provide Hine students with opportunities to share work with Eastern High School and a better school facility, said Ward 6 Council member Tommy Wells. Eliot has several outdoor amenities, including expansive green space and a baseball diamond, which Hine lacks on its constrained site, he said.
“Hine doesn’t have any place for its football and other sports teams to practice. You want children to be able to play football, baseball and be in the marching band, especially at the middle-school level,” said Wells.
“I supported Hine being closed when I was with the schools, and I support it now,” said Wells, who
represented wards 5 and 6 on the D.C. Board of Education when Janey first proposed the Hine-Eliot consolidation.
But several Hine parents and staff members were opposed to Hine’s closing last year. Parents from out of Hine’s boundary said they sent their children to the school near Eastern Market because it was a safe walk from the Metro station. They said then that students and teachers would not be as safe walking from the Metro to Eliot.
When asked about safety concerns this week, Wells said: “I am really not interested in writing off Eliot’s neighborhood as too unsafe for a child to go to school in. Safety appears to be a red herring.”
Wells pointed out that when some Capitol Hill residents started a charter school recently on a Florida Avenue site that may have been perceived by some to be “unsafe,” local children still attended the school.
The closure of Hine also brings up other issues, like what will happen to the site when it is vacated.
The 41-year-old complex faces 8th Street SE but runs along Pennsylvania Avenue and can be seen from the Eastern Market Metro station. Hine’s blacktop is also the site of a popular weekend flea market.
In the 2006 facilities plan, the school system proposed moving a portion of its central administration into Hine’s building after a renovation. But both Fenty and Rhee have not come up with plans for the site.
“We are definitely keeping all the school buildings that are vacant in the District’s inventory, but right now there is nothing on the table,” said spokesperson Hobson. She said there are no plans to sell the site to a developer.
The community only wants something “nice” on the site that resembles the rest of the neighborhood in terms of use and size, according to neighborhood commissioner Jarboe. It would be appropriate to have some residential units along 8th Street, retail along 7th Street and possibly an office building facing Pennsylvania Avenue, he said.
“Whatever you put there, make it look like the rest of the neighborhood. We don’t want an eight-story block of a building there,” said Jarboe.
The commissioner added that he would like to see additional parking and possibly a new entrance to the Eastern Market Metro stop as part of the site’s redevelopment.
Community input will help determine what will happen once the school is closed, said Wells, who added that he would find a creative solution to allow the flea market to stay.
Wells said he wants the community to look at constructing a new library on the site or some affordable housing for teachers and other public servants.
“I am concerned that teachers cannot afford to live in our neighborhoods anymore,” said Wells.
Whatever happens, both Wells and Jarboe agreed that Hine’s buildings – constructed in 1966 – should be knocked down.
“It is kind of an eyesore right now,” said Jarboe.
Fenty, Rhee and Reinoso have scheduled community meetings about school closures. The meetings addressing wards 1, 2 and 6 will take place Monday at Francis Middle School, 2425 N St. NW, and Jan. 9 in Miner Elementary School, 601 15th St. NE.
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Posted on Dec 13, 2007 04:06am.
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