Thanks to Wayan for sending in the update:

“The fence is up and debris dumpster set – E.L. Hayes public charter school will soon start their construction and remodeling of the Clark School [4501 7th Street, NW] in Petworth. This will soon be the home of elementary and high school classes for E. L. Hayes students in fall 2010.

I only hope the paying field around the school stays open for community use.”

E.L. Haynes has a current school building located at 3600 Georgia Avenue, NW.

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Well it’s not a house anymore. It is now Tots Development School located on the 1300 block of Shepherd Street, NW. We looked it at once way back in the day but I wanted to show a proper photo of the building (at the time I only had a crappy cell phone pic). This is the spot where Fenty once sent his children. But back to the building itself, it really is beautiful. It is also striking because it is in a block of regular residential row houses.

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From an email:

“Date: Wed., Dec. 16, 2009
Time: 5-6 pm
Location: E.L. Haynes Public Charter School
3600 Georgia Avenue NW – School Cafeteria
Click here to RSVP.

Join us for the opening for the photo exhibit of students in the Explorations in Photography classes. Meet the talented young photographers and check out their beautiful photos.
To learn more about the exhibit, visit http://123clickexhibit.shutterfly.com or email roshanikothari@yahoo.com.”

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From NBC:

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From a reader:

“I am a volunteer with local charity Neediest Kids, an organization which helps provide tens of thousands of students in the Washington Metro Area, including Petworth, with the things they need to succeed. Last year, we were able to help more than 32,000 the 600,000 K-12 students in the area by supplying clothing, backpacks, eyeglasses, meals, healthcare, school supplies and more. Furthermore, Neediest Kids offers this assistance in a confidential manner with the student’s dignity and pride in mind.

This winter, we are working with the Washington Wizards to offer some amazing auction packages, the proceeds of which will directly help even more school children in the area. The online auction (at http://www.cmarket.com/auction/AuctionHome.action?auctionId=89736172) is live now through March 14, 2010. Some sample packages are:

Gimme Five:
Bid for Ten “High Five Kids” to line the tunnel and give a high five to Wizards as they enter court for Indiana vs. Wizards game. Also includes watching the game in a great suite for 18 fans; two Parking Passes; catered food; Wizards Swag and recognition on Jumbotron for your special event.

Rock n’ Roll in Cleveland:
Win 2 Round Trip AA tickets to Cleveland to enjoy an astounding Wizards vs. Cavaliers game with 2 club level seats. Have a smashing good time with this package that includes 2 nights at a Cleveland Marriott, dinner for 2 and 2 tickets to Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame.

Many of these packages are once-in-a-lifetime experiences, and the purchase of a single package could help hundreds of students.

For those unable to bid, but still interested in helping, Neediest Kids also has a text campaign for $5 donations directly through any major U.S. mobile carrier. To donate, text “NEED” to 90999, or use the widget on www.neediestkids.org. Also, Papa John’s is donating $1 for every pizza ordered online when you enter the promo code “NEED” before ordering at www.PapaJohns.com.

More information on the organization and these new campaigns can be found at www.neediestkids.org.”

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MJ, originally uploaded by Prince of Petworth.

“Dear PoP,

Tribute to the King of Pop in Petworth. Check it out.”

Nicely done kids! Anyone see any particularly unusual/unique pumpkins around town?

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From an email:

A small Quaker preschool at DuPont Circle needs volunteers Thursday, Friday and Saturday for a PLAYGROUND BUILD! We are replacing a 20+ year old playground at School for Friends, and we could use your help.

A group called Learning Structures helped design the new playground, and will be down this week guiding the build. We need some skilled workers for Thursday and Friday, and anybody who can come to help out Saturday is welcome.

Please contact Roxana Geffen (roxanag@gmail.com) if you can help! On Saturday, we need all skill levels for building, as well as help with child care and general logistics.

Skill levels:

1 I’m nice to be with
2 Basic drill-handling and hammering
3 I’ve built a deck and done a reasonable amount of carpentry
4 Skilled carpenter, worked professionally or equivalent

We also welcome donations of food, water, funds or tools (we can give you our tax id & receipt!).

School for Friends: http://www.schoolforfriends.org/

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building the bed, originally uploaded by Prince of Petworth.

Photos taken by Johnny Casana.

I bumped into some folks (Dan, John, Christen, Johnny and Natty) installing gardening boxes at the newly renovated Cesar Chavez Charter School. I love bumping into projects like this.

One of the participants, John, sent me the following by email:

“This weekend, we installed five large raised beds and filled them with compost; we will be building roughly ten more once we secure funding, and we’ll be painting them all so they look nice. The garden will be an educational garden for the school, which is one of the Cezar Chavez Public Charter Schools for Public Policy.

There will be a community open house that will take place at the school on October 30th, and we hope to have a sign up by then and educate DC council members, other VIPs, teachers and parents about the concept. We (that is, the folks you saw, five of us who are volunteering our time as the Columbia Heights Garden Club) plan to work with school administrators and faculty over the winter to engage the students in the planning and planting for these spaces next spring. Eventually, we hope to assist with incorporating the garden into the curriculum, teaching young people about growing food, native plants, storm water runoff, and more. And we hope to engage the community along the way.”

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Thanks to a reader for sending in the video of the old Gage School demolition in LeDroit Park (2025 3rd Street, NW). You can see the rendering options here. I’m terrified to say it, but yes there will be a dog park incorporated…

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Demolition begins this week on the old Bruce-Monroe School (not to be mistaken with the old Bruce School located at Sherman and Kenyon) located at Georgia Ave between Columbia Rd. and Irving St. The building is gigantic. And from what I hear from folks who live near by they are pretty excited about the demo. I hear that it was a high crime area due to the hidden view from the street:

DC MUD reports:

“According to ODMPED Communications Director Sean Madigan, the Mayor’s office will issue an RFP “in the next few weeks” to select a developer to turn the 119,000-s.f. site into what “could include new housing and retail on the site as well as a new school.”

More photos after the jump. Read Full Post

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DSCN1399, originally uploaded by Prince of Petworth.

Here’s what it looked like in June. It’s amazing what new window will do. I’m thinking their August opening is looking good.

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Ed. Note:  I’ve gotten lots of emails from folks asking where they can donate their old computers, this seems like a great cause!

“Dear PoP,

I was hoping I could appeal to your readers and fellow DC’ers.
I teach middle school Language Arts at Sacred Heart School in Mt Pleasant.  We need your help!

I work with amazingly creative and determined kids who have the odds stacked against them.  We work together day in and day out to tackle reading and writing skills.  We are a bilingual school with most of our kids on scholarships.  I watch my kids grow every day as they take advantage of all the opportunities given to them.  However, our lack of funds for technology in the classroom is limiting our success.

We are hoping that maybe some of you have just bought new computers and are looking to get rid of your old ones.  We are not asking for brand new state of the art computers, but we will definitely take those as well   Most of our students do not have personal computers in their homes and we do not have very many working ones in our school.  It is really hard for our kids to learn how to use computers and stay competitive in the growing trend of computer science when I don’t have a computer for them to use in the classroom.  If you have working computers or printers that you are trying to get rid of, we’ve got a home ready for them in my classroom!  We would appreciate it from the bottom of our hearts.

In the true spirit of an inner city teacher, I’m asking for another favor….!   If any of you are looking to donate Young Adult books, we would gladly accept those as well.  All books are welcome, but my kids do have a few requests:

The girls (and secretly some of the boys – shhh!) are asking for:

- The Twilight Series by Stephanie Meyer
- The Friends by Rosa Guy
- Lord of the Flies by William Golding
- American Tall Tales by Mary Pope Osborne
- My Life with the Chimpanzees by Jane Goodall

The boys and girls agree on asking for:

- Anything by Gary Soto – and other “Spanglish” books
- Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
- The Giver by Lois Lowry
- Monster by Walter Dean Meyers
- I, Robot by Isaac Asimov
- Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
- “We want to read funny books!  Ask for anything funny!”

Thank you so much to those of you who read this!  Your support is SO appreciated from the bottom of our hearts.

Much love,

Ms. Kullberg and the Sacred Heart Middle School Kids!

Contact: kristen.kullberg@catholicacademies.org

Sacred Heart School 1625 Park Road NW Wash, DC 20010

(202)265-4828″

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DSCN0018, originally uploaded by Prince of Petworth.

“Dear PoP,

They’ve been renovating that old school building at Sherman and Kenyon for a while now. Any idea what they’re turning it into?”

This is going to be the new home of the Cesar Chavez Public Charter School. We looked at it back in January. At the time the Principal, Andrew Touchette, wrote:

“it is still our plan to occupy the building in early August. Our students (about 230 in grades 6, 7 and begin school on Monday, August 24.”

When I walked by this past weekend, the scaffolding was new to me and I saw workers inside. Think they’ll be done by Aug. 24th?

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IMG00010-20090203-1359, originally uploaded by Prince of Petworth.
Thanks to all who sent emails. Here’s the Post write up.

“At the school, the president and Michelle Obama read to a group of second-graders in the school library from a picture book entitled “The Moon over Star,” an account of the first moon landing in July of 1969.”

And many thanks to the reader who caught the motorcade and sent the above photo. Our man on the scene writes:

“They was there for about half an hour, they came in the front door and then left through the side door in the alley. At first they had everyone on the Mt Pleasant side of 16th street, then they moved us all to the corner of 16th and Irving across from Bell Multicultural High School. There were about 50 people there on the corner waiting for them to leave the school. One we were all on the sidewalk they put up police tape. Once the motorcade started a police car pulled up right in front of us as well. As they were pulling away the Obama’s were in the second limo and he looked over at us on the sidewalk and waved.”

In less than a month the President has been to U Street and CH/MT. P – gotta love it.

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Well, this was pretty cool. I attended an MLK Day/Call to Service at Oyster-Adams Bilingual Elementary School this morning. I can see why so many folks want to send their children here. We probably waited an hour and a half (some folks even longer) for the main attraction to arrive and the children were incredibly well behaved and patient sitting in the auditorium.

There were many songs (of course in English and Spanish) and everybody genuinely seemed to be having a good time. There were also student presentations about what it means to be an American (in English and Spanish) that was also quite nice. And then, try to imagine 100+ elementary school students screaming at Shakira’s arrival. Quite a scene, man. I nearly fainted. Of course that may have more to do with the bars being open until 4am and not eating enough… Anyway, the unbelievably good looking Shakira said a few words and then read a children’s story. The event had another nice touch:

“Shakira, Oyster Principal Monica Liang-Aguirre and the students will also announce a sister-school relationship with a Colombian elementary school, Escuela Gabriel García Márquez, located outside of Bogota. Shakira’s Barefoot Foundation works with the school, which is largely attended by children who have been displaced by Colombian civil war.

For a little background, Shakira founded the Barefoot Foundation in 1995 at age 18 and is devoted to universal education and early childhood development around the world. Shakira is the Chair of the Global Campaign for Education and a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.”

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