By Willem Dicke
On Thursday February 6, a Southwest community meeting was held at a packed Westminster Presbyterian Church during which Amidon-Bowen Elementary School parents and teachers voiced widespread concerns over DC Public Schools’ (DCPS) plans to bus Amidon-Bowen students to Meyer Elementary in Northwest for two years during the school’s reconstruction starting in school year 2027.
Meyer Elementary is 3.5 miles away from the current school location and the commute could take up to one hour both in the morning and afternoon, causing hardships for all Amidon-Bowen families. It would be especially difficult for parents with small children in Pre-Kindergarten and for those with special learning or accommodation needs. DCPS’s plan would cause severe disruptions in the schedules for many families, especially after the school day ends, since the fate of Amidon’s extensive aftercare programs upon which many working parents depend is unclear.
There was broad and vocal support among those who attended the meeting for building temporary modular units on the field behind the school. The field, however, is owned not by DCPS but by the DC Parks and Recreation (DCPR). DCPR declined Amidon’s advocacy team’s invitation to attend the meeting, although Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen, who was present, stated that he did not think DPR ultimately would be opposed to the school using the field.
Allen stated that “I do not think that Amidon-Bowen should swing (temporarily relocate) to Meyer. It is too far, and we have to find a different way to get this done.”
However, approval by DPR would have to occur within the next two months and is not the only hurdle for temporary units. Funding for the units would need to be included in the budget that DC Mayor Muriel Bowser will introduce to the DC Council in late March or early April.
DCPS Deputy Chancellor Patrick Ashley, while repeatedly telling the packed crowd that he was at the meeting to “listen to the community’s concerns” nonetheless seemed skeptical of building modular units on the DPR field. “We don’t want to put folks in swing spaces that don’t function as proper schools,” and added that because of the recent development boom in Southwest, empty space is difficult to come by. According to the Howard University News Service, Meyer had been in need of repairs since 1991 and was shuttered in 2008. It was reopened in 2011 after a 2010 fire at the Takoma Educational Center. It will also serve as a temporary home to Brent Elementary during its reconstruction over the next two years.
Amidon’s parents in the question and answer sessions were clear in their response: keeping students in Southwest, even if they were housed in temporary units, far outweighs concerns related to busing them to an existing school miles away from their homes.
Amidon parent Erica Walker enumerated a long list of problems with putting especially younger children on long bus rides. Walker told Allen and the DCPS representatives, “just on the disability issue, if your child has a seizure and they have a syringe that has to be administered rectally or if your child has an asthma attack and the people don’t know how to administer their inhaler there is no one on the bus qualified to do administer that.”
A number of parents indicated that they would leave Amidon and Southwest altogether rather than have them bused to Meyer, given that many currently walk or bike to the school.
The severe lack of nurses at DCPS schools has also required numerous parents and guardians to come to the school on a daily basis to administer medications to their children that nurse technicians–who have in most cases replaced full-time nurses–are not authorized to administer. Many of these parents and guardians worry about the extra time it would take for them to reach Meyer in an emergency and having to take off work, and others noted they would not be able to afford Ubers or taxis in such circumstances.
Amidon also serves as an important feeder school for Jefferson Middle School, and Jefferson teacher Leticia Nero emphasized the consensus of almost all at the meeting for the school staying in Southwest. To raucous applause, she emphasized that “Amidon has been one of the feeder schools that has consistently sent their students to Jefferson, just as the chancellor (Lewis Ferebee) has been asking. When Jefferson underwent its renovation trailers were built so our students could feel safe, where they could still pick up their siblings from Amidon. This a multi-billion dollar section of the city, and there is no way that the Wharf is more important than the children who grew up in Southwest.”
Former Amidon student and current Jefferson sixth grader Malakai McLaughlin added that “knowing Amidon was close by really helped our family.”
Southwest residents and Amidon-Bowen parents, guardians and teachers were urged to contact the mayor’s office to express their views on this issue.
Willem Dicke is a member of the Amidon-Bowen Elementary School PTA and a DC Scores coach.