End the Delay on Hyde-Addison Renovations

The parents and supporters of Hyde-Addison Elementary School on O Street are to be commended for their unwavering commitment to the best education possible for their children and everyone’s – and for their patience.

Hyde-Addison stands for excellence. It is a point of pride for Georgetown, its only public elementary school. The school is over capacity, with 59 percent of its students attending from outside its boundaries. Indeed, Hyde-Addison has students from all eight wards of the District.

The school also desperately needs a real gymnasium, more classroom and meeting space and a connection between the two buildings. The time for delay is over.

We agree with Council member Jack Evans, with the Georgetown-Burleith Advisory Neighborhood Commission and, most importantly, with the parents and teachers of Hyde-Addison. The construction needs to get underway by this time next year.

Here is what an online petition by Hyde supporters argues: “Our Hyde-Addison E.S. community is grateful the Mayor’s FY16 Budget Proposal includes $22.8 million for the completion of our campus modernization. However, our community was stunned to see the proposed budget delays the funding and construction start date for our Hyde-Addison Addition until 2017 despite being assured on March 26, 2015, that construction would begin in May-June 2016.

“Without this re-allocation of the funding into FY16, our campus modernization –which Department of General Services has been working on since fall 2012 – will be stopped mid-way and our children will suffer. Our modernization has already been delayed three times. It was originally scheduled to start in 2013, then 2014 and most recently in 2015.

“Simply put, our children and community must not be expected to wait three more years before having access to a fully resourced campus – complete with sorely needed athletic space, additional classroom space, an updated media center, all-school meeting and performance space and ADA-compliant fixtures.”

We couldn’t agree more. Contact the Office of the Mayor, District Council Chairman Phil Mendelson, At-large Council member David Grosso as well as Chancellor Kaya Henderson and make your voice heard. To support Hyde, for the sake of our children, visit www.gopetition.com/petitions/mayjune-2016-start-for-hyde-addison-es-addition.html.