Banneker vs. "Shaw middle school" matter as another illustration of failures from the lack of public capital planning processes in DC

Earlier this week, the DC City Council voted to build a new school for Banneker High School in the Shaw neighborhood (the school is currently in Columbia Heights).

-- "After a heated fight about race and schools, D.C. Council decides: Banneker will move to Shaw," Washington Post

It's controversial for three reasons.

1.  It will convert park space to a building.

2.  Residents in the area were asking for the creation of a public middle school (the old Shaw Junior High was merged into another school and the building torn down some time ago), in order to provide better public school feeder options for the high school.

3.  Residents preferring the creation of a middle school were derided as gentrifiers and against Banneker, which has a predominantly African-American enrollment.  Sadly, even Mayor Bowser pushed this narrative (#BackBannekersMove).

(When the school system under Chancellor Rhee destroyed the "junior highs," merging them with elementary schools, it ended up "breaking the chain of feeder schools" for high schools, pushing parents to enroll their children in charter schools, and then keeping them in charter schools when it came time for high school.  Separately, the city made a commitment to build a new junior high school for the Shaw area.)

Ward 4 as a similar example: a new middle school for Coolidge.  As an aside, I'd forgotten that I almost single-handedly ended up warding off a similar kind of process in Ward 4, which has lost most of its public middle schools to charter schools, and the desire to create new feeder schools for the ward's high schools, Coolidge and Roosevelt.


Fields at the Takoma Recreation Center, with Coolidge High School in the background

Education activists proposed to build a new middle school for Coolidge on the backside of the school, by converting land from what is a large, well-used public park.

I said this was ridiculous given the fact that Coolidge's enrollment is about half or less of the school's capacity and the same is true of Roosevelt.

That it would be better to use non-park space first if you're going to build a new school (I suggested parking lots at Fort Totten Metrorail station as one option), but more importantly with huge under-enrollment in the ward's two high schools, look at using those properties.

Eventually the latter was the course that was chosen, and the new Ida Wells Middle School will be opening soon, as part of the renovation of Coolidge.

(I live a few blocks from Coolidge, although my use of the park mostly comes from picking up litter on its perimeter, and occasionally going over there with children of the neighbors.)

Lack of capital budgeting processes means the city constantly wastes money.  Fortunately for DC, the city these days is comparatively wealthy, which means that money can be wasted with impunity.

DC has carried over from its parent the federal government the failure to create a separate public process for capital budgeting.  I've written about this a lot:

-- "Another example of the need for more formal and open capital budgeting planning practices (in DC)," 2019
-- Capital/civic asset planning, budgeting and management processes," 2015

Typically, city and county governments separate capital budgeting from the annual operating spending process.  Usually it runs on a six year cycle, with updates over a two-year cycle. From the Montgomery County Capital Improvements Planning webpage:

The Montgomery County Charter (Section 302) requires the County Executive to submit a comprehensive six-year program for capital improvements, called the Capital Improvements Program (CIP), not later than January 15 of each even-numbered calendar year. The Charter requires that the annual capital budget be consistent with the six-year program. In odd-numbered calendar years, the approved CIP, together with any amendments, continues to guide capital investment.

The CIP includes all capital projects and programs for all agencies for which the County sets tax rates or approves budgets or programs. The CIP includes:

• a statement of the objectives of capital programs;
• the relationship of capital programs to the County's long-range development plans;
• recommendations for capital projects and their construction schedules; and
• estimates of costs, anticipated revenue sources, and impacts of the capital program on County revenues and the operating budget.

The County Charter (Section 302) also provides that the CIP may be amended at any time. In practice, amendments to the CIP are limited to conform to the requirement for a biennial, or every other year, CIP. Criteria for amendments generally include: use of funds from external sources; projects which address significant health or safety requirements; and economic development opportunities.

Lack of a public process is accentuated by rather than having a separate process for capital budgeting, like the federal government, it's folded into the annual appropriations process.

In DC, the Mayor's office and the Chief Financial Officer have capital planning units.  But there isn't a public process for making decisions outside of processes for individual projects, which don't always have public planning process.

By contrast public processes consider constraints, making choices, and judicious use of financial resources ("Town-city management: 'We are all asset managers now'").

Building more schools, when most of the city's high schools are under-enrolled.  DC has spent billions renovating and rebuilding public schools, including tearing down and completely rebuilding two high schools, even though most of the city's high schools are under-enrolled by 50% or more compared to overall capacity.

The rebuilding of Dunbar High School is one example, which was rebuilt a few years ago, even though all of its nearby high schools were equally under-enrolled.

Instead of rebuilding the school its students should have been redistributed to McKinley, Eastern, and Cardozo, helping to create three stronger schools instead of maintaining four weak schools.

-- "DC wastes $122 million on new high school: evidence of failures in capital improvements planning and budgeting," 2013
-- "DC high school that wasn't needed and rebuilt at a cost of $122 million wins sustainability award," 2015

Note that with debt financing, the cost of the school, once it pays off, will end up being around $350 million.

Similarly, Ellington High School for the Arts was rebuilt, even though it is a "city-wide" school lacking Metrorail station access, while Wilson is over capacity.  Instead Ellington should have been shifted to an existing school building accessible to Metrorail, and the school building converted to a "neighborhood" high school taking capacity pressure off Wilson High School.

Save money by reconstituting Dunbar High School as an expanded Banneker High School.  High schools in the city's core: Cardozo; Eastern; McKinley;and Dunbar are still seriously under-enrolled.

Why not use one of these schools for an expanded Banneker?

Of the schools, Dunbar is the most centrally located, with proximity to Metrorail, albeit a few blocks from the NoMA station, I'd say convert Dunbar.  (Although there is issue of crossing New York Avenue.)

McKinley is reasonably close to NoMA station also.

Of course, that isn't an option, since the City Council just voted in favor of spending millions of dollars to build a new school.

And alumni groups for Dunbar or McKinley would fight the change as well, and usually elected officials aren't willing to buck that kind of sentiment... which is why you have objective capital planning processes, which make it easier to do the right thing, rather than the popular thing.

Yard sign campaign.  Source: "SaveShawMiddle gains traction as a community movement," DC Line.

Shaw still needs a middle school.  And there still is demand for a public school middle school in Shaw.  Note that last weekend, Post columnist Colbert King suggested building a combined middle school-high school to assuage both demands ("Opinion | Quit the posturing in the Banneker-Shaw school dispute").

And parkland will still be lost.  Given that the city can't create new land, taking of park land should always be a choice of last resort, especially when other alternatives exist.

Other problems resulting from DC's lack of public capital planning processes.  What is happening with Banneker vs. Shaw, the continued under-enrollment of high schools in the core, the rebuilding of Ellington in a place disconnected from Metrorail are not one-off problems but an indicator of structural problem that goes beyond capital planning for the schools.

It extends across the entire portfolio of capital-related projects undertaken by DC Government, including:

- Dealing with what to do about the RFK campus ("Yes, modify and extend the RFK Campus lease; No, don't do it for the Washington Redskins football team")
- Dealing with what to do about United Medical Center ("Update on DC's plans to build a new United Medical Center")
- the fact that the independent Public School Charter Board doesn't have to take enrollment demand into consideration when approving new schools, and new schools are being approved at a rate far higher than demographics of the student population warrants ("Getting it backwards" and "Applying CEQA urban decay concept to DC charter school approval process")