Benched C&O Canal Barge Reveals More Problems
• May 17, 2012

The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park faces more problems besides its decommissioned mule-pulled barge, The Georgetown, up and dry on timbers in the canal between 31st and Thomas Jefferson Streets. There will be a smaller motorize boat for the canal, but it is not seen as a long-term solution.

According to Charles Pekow, writing in the Washington Examiner, “the already cash-strapped budget for the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park may face a sequestration of nine or 10 percent next January. To avoid that, Congress will have to come to a budget resolution. If not, the backlog for upkeep and maintenance of the historic structures along the 184.5-mile linear park between Georgetown, D.C., and Cumberland, Md., would only worsen and the already barebone number of interpretive programs would shrink even further. So warned Park Superintendent Kevin Brandt, at the annual meeting of the C&O Canal Association in Williamsport, Md.”

“The barge in Georgetown no longer gives rides,” Pekow wrote. “The National Park Service (NPS) is trying to figure out what to do with the boat, including possibly moving it to Williamsport. The list of structural problems in the historic park continues to mount and the cash-strapped park service can only do so much. For instance, structural damage was recently found on the Arizona Avenue Bridge because a truck hit it. It would cost $400,000 to patch it together and $1 million to repair it completely, Brandt said. But neither NPS nor the District Department of Transportation contains the money in budget at the moment. The only vehicles allowed to use the bridge are emergency, law enforcement and NPS maintenance vehicles. It’s mainly used by trail users.”

Pekow, who is a member of the C&O Canal Association, also reported that the gate at locks 4 (near Thomas Jefferson Street) and others along the canal need to be replaced.

Shops at Georgetown Park Set for Demolition Work
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After much speculation in the media about the future plans for the Shops at Georgetown Park, the real reconstruction is set to begin with the needed demolition work.

According to public documents., the Washington Business Journal reported, “The D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs awarded mall co-owners Vornado Realty Trust and Angelo Gordon & Co. demolition and interior renovation permits March 9 to break down the large sections of the mall’s mid area.”

Representatives from Vornado were not immediately available for comment and details of the developer’s plans were not available for review, the Business Journal further reported. “But a public report on building permits issued in March describes the work as ‘interior non-structural demolition’ to the mall’s lower, middle and upper level of parking garages and to the canal, Wisconsin Avenue and M Street level retail space.” The newspaper had also been told by a Vornado official that the aim of the renovation was to convent the space “into a big-box format.” igniting past rumors on the arrival of such stores as Target or Bloomingdale’s.

Almost all retail tenants have gone except for those with entrances on Wisconsin Avenue or M Street.

36th Street Burglar Attacks Home Resident
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Here is an alert from Georgetown University’s Department of Public Safety — burglary in the 1400 block of 36th St., N.W.:

DPS learned today that on Wednesday, March 14, at approximately 9:20 p.m., a student living in an off-campus townhouse confronted a burglary suspect with a backpack who said he was looking for someone. When the student asked to look into the backpack, the suspect punched him in the face and fled the residence. Taken during the burglary were two laptops, one camera, and a watch. MPD responded and are currently investigating the incident. 

There have been eight residential burglaries in the Second District during the past two weeks. The Metropolitan Police Department and DPS encourage students living off campus to be extra cautious and practice good personal home security by keeping their doors and windows locked at all times. Promptly report any suspicious activity or circumstances to the appropriate police jurisdiction. Do not directly confront a burglar; instead, get to a safe place and call 9-1-1 immediately. If anyone has information regarding this or any other incident(s), or who noticed any suspects before or after the incident(s), call 202-687-4343.

Can You Smell It? Water System Gets Spring Cleaning
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Here is a news alert from D.C. Water:

From March 26 through May 7, the disinfectant in drinking water will temporarily switch from chloramine to chlorine. 

The annual switch in water disinfection is part of a routine program to clean and maintain water distribution systems in the District of Columbia, Arlington County and Falls Church. During the temporary switch to chlorine, local water authorities will also conduct system-wide flushing to enhance water quality. This program is standard practice for many U.S. water systems that use chloramine during the majority of the year.   

Individuals and business owners who take special precautions to remove chloramine from tap water, such as dialysis centers, medical facilities and aquatic pet owners, should continue to take the same precautions during the temporary switch to chlorine. Most methods for removing chloramine from tap water are effective in removing chlorine. Individuals with special health concerns should consult with a health care provider on the use of tap water.   

During this time, individuals may notice a change in the taste and smell of their drinking water. Local water authorities recommend running the cold water tap for approximately two minutes and refrigerating cold tap water for a few hours to reduce taste and odor. Water filters are also effective in reducing chlorine taste and odor. For more information,  contact www.DCWater.com.

Finding Passion in His Soles
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Stepping inside the Running Company near Key Bridge in Georgetown as a runner is like stepping in to Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory for candy lovers. The space might be small, but the contents inside are top-of-the-line shoes and apparel to make every runner’s experience on parkland paths or marathon routes not just a success but a stylish race, right on time for spring.

Much of this can be credited to the store’s manager, Edoardo Rincon, who says he cannot imagine working anywhere else. “I’ve been doing this for almost ten years, and I don’t think I want to do anything different,” he said.

An avid trail runner while growing up in Colombia, Rincon brings personal expertise to the shop on the corner of 34th and M streets. All his wisdom comes from his passion for the sport and the time he has spent experimenting with gear from different companies.

“Find what you like to do, and you never have to work. A lot of people like to run but do something else for work but not me,” he said.

For almost ten years now, Rincon has helped communities around the globe find the right pair of shoes and articles of clothing for the sport. He also puts on races all along the East Coast, including a 5k race each December back in South America.

Once a week, the company has experienced athletes lead nightly runs around the area. “It is great for people who are new or don’t know where to run, what is safe,” he said. All paces are welcome to join in on the three- to six-mile loop on Wednesdays at 7 p.m.

Rincon is also a huge supporter of the non-profit, D.C. Road Runners. While proudly wearing one of its t-shirts, Rincon says that the organization offers training programs for beginners to highly skilled runners.

He hand delivers shoes to children back in Colombia twice a year and sends shoes through the mail to his home country as well as to Africa whenever he receives a phone call that someone is in need. Rincon says people are encouraged to drop off their old sneakers at the store so that they, too, can help make a difference.

“Changing people,” he said. “You know, that’s my favorite thing about working here. The people in the community and the feeling that I’m changing a lot of lives for the people here.”

“A lot of people think I own this store,” he said laughing. “I don’t.” He just simply loves what he does.

For more info on running, visit DCRoadrunners.org.

Space Shuttle Discovery Flies Over DC (photos)
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The space shuttle Discovery, attached to a modified NASA 747 aircraft, flies over Washington, D.C., Tuesday, April 17, 2012, as it makes its way to its permanent new home, the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, VA. (Photos by Jeff Malet)

Click on the icons to view the photos.
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McGovern’s MUSE: DreamHome Designers On Renwick’s ’40’
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Forty artists under forty years of age will be featured at the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery this summer, exploring the evolving notions of craft within traditional media such as ceramics, metalwork, sculpture, industrial design, fashion and sustainable manufacturing.

The artwork selected for the display were all created after Sept. 11, 2001. The exhibit will reflect the changed world that we live in today, posing new challenges and considerations for artists. These artists are united by philosophies for living differently in modern society with an emphasis on sustainability, a return to valuing the hand-made and what it means to live in a state of persistent conflict and unease.

To help gear up for the opening, the D.C. Design Center, which opened its 2012 DreamHome March 15, celebrating eight emerging interior designers, chosen to create rooms inspired by the works to be featured in the “40 Under 40: Craft Futures” exhibit at the Renwick Gallery this July.

Each room in the DreamHome provides inspiration for how the store’s furnishings, fabric and decor can be combined into spectacular residential spaces. The designers were each given a piece of artwork that will be on display this summer and were asked to base their room off of it by exploring color, texture, scale and perspective.

William McGovern, one of the eight chosen interior designers, was assigned the bedroom. His piece of art used for inspiration was Stephanie Liner’s “Momentos of a Doomed Construct.” Created in 2008, Liner uses upholstery, plywood, fabric, sequins, yarn, embroidery, adhesive, cardboard and a live model to illustrate the constrained psyche and tension between masculinity and femininity, architecture and fashion, contemporary and classical.

This piece, although intimidating McGovern at first, couldn’t have been a better selection for the young designer. His passion has always been historic preservation, although he does a lot of modern work. After graduating from Pittsburgh University with a bachelor of arts degree in art history and architecture and then having received a double masters of arts in interior design and historic preservation from Savannah College of Art and Design, he moved to D.C. to work for ForrestPerkins, a architecture and design firm on Wisconsin Avenue. It opened his eyes to a vast array of projects, he said, teaching him more than his own graduate program did.

“I got to do a lot of good high-end projects,” he said. “The Nines Hotel in Portland, Ore., was a lot of contemporary, nostalgic modern, glamourous, but with traditional touches. The Jefferson Hotel, a career maker for me, was a lot of interior architecture details, custom finishes and furnishings.”

McGovern, who left ForrestPerkins after six years to work on his own and stays inspired by and current with the latest trends. He reads magazines, domestic and international, always keeping an eye on what is hot in Europe, knowing that it will eventually become popular in the U.S. “I think if you just work and work and work and don’t look up, your work starts to become stale,” he said.

For him, knowledge of the fashion world and global markets are on his news lists. “The economy has effects on the color palette,” he said. In the early 1980s, the favored color was beige. It became brighter and punchier when the U.S. picked up, moving to luxury textures and patterns. “Then, with the most recent recession, colors went to gray and white,” he said.

No matter the mood of the nation and the most recent trends, McGovern said, “I kind of pride myself in that each project has its own unique set of standards. We’ll talk about concepts, clients, reflecting a sense of history, aesthetics, market appeal, depending on what the property is.”

Lately, McGovern has discovered the need to go green isn’t as much a request as it is a demand. “There are always still needs for incandescent lighting, but it really has almost become kind of an unconscious decision now,” he said in regards to always choosing the most sustainable products when designing. “It has gotten to a point where I almost don’t even think about it first because most companies just have sustainable materials now.”

McGovern Design Studio has revamped several multi-million dollar homes in the city as well as businesses, such as Nectar Skin Bar on the 1600 block of Wisconsin Avenue. His studio is also working on Lafayette Square’s Decatur House, owned by the National Trust and soon to house the history of the White House.

There is no doubt that William McGovern is successful and is being noticed by those in the design world. He believes the D.C. Design Center discovered him after it nominated him in 2011 as one of the “Ones to Watch.”

He has more than earned that title in this year’s DreamHome as he creatively captured exactly what inspired artist Stephanie Liner in her work. “It’s all about tension,” he said. “She uses really feminine patterns symbolizing beauty and then very rigid architecture to make the structure symbolize masculinity. We took that approach very literally in the design of the room.”

McGovern matched the art piece’s whimsical and surreal mood. Liner created an orb with wood and medal and then upholstered it with a floral fabric. Inside the structure is a live model, indulged by her surroundings, wearing the same fabric as the exterior. To turn this art into a bedroom, McGovern showed the balance of tension by using masculine colors like black and white but contrasting them with a lipstick red painted French poster bed, patterned draperies and a black woven wall covering, but with silver metallic threading to make it sparkle with a touch of femininity.

The room also features a mannequin, whose dress is coming from the flow of the drapery on the window behind her, capturing the same essence of the model’s dress being the exact fabric as the orb.

“As with Ms. Liner’s work, the room we created symbolizes the universal notions of beauty, fashion, gender and the internal struggle to impose societal pressures upon one’s self,” McGovern said.

This bedroom, and the rest of the 2012 DreamHome, will be on display at the D.C. Design Center through Nov. 30.

THE OTHER DESIGNERS:

Shanon Munn, of Ambi Design Studio, designs sophisticated, comfortable spaces while enhancing the client’s personal style. She prefers to highlight surrounding architecture and use eco-friendly materials whenever possible, such as low- VOC paint, when designing any space from residential to hospitality to commercial properties. The DreamHome team chose Munn to design the office space. Munn wanted to evoke a strong, powerful, feminine presence. “Vera Wang was our muse,” she said. “Like our inspiration piece (Crane Chair by Christy Oates, an inlaid wall-art piece that turns into a functional chair), we utilized a fairly neutral palette with pops of color.” She said her projects are always very tailored as she asks to see inspirational pieces, which have been as varied as handbags and table settings. “In that regard,” she said, “this was a very natural way for me to design.”

Scott Cooke of Scott Cooke Design, started out in the fashion industry before attaining a BFA in Interior Design. A multi-faceted designer, Cooke credits his grandfather who commissioned famed architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, to build the house he spent many years in as a kid in Virginia Beach. The home impacted Cooke and the designs and styles in the home stay with him today as he works from his studio in Logan Circle. He created the living room in the DreamHome, which is inspired by Cristina Córdova’s “Dulce.” He produced a nineteenth century drawing room, keeping the backdrop of the room neutral but made bright and bold colors pop for dramatic effect in the drapery panels, pillows and artwork on the walls.

Jeff Akseizer and Jamie Brown, of Akseizer Design Group, look to always create a great functioning room paired with outstanding form. Aksiezer has been a design professional in Washington for over 10 years and has won local and national awards. Brown has completed projects all over the east coast and has been featured in both the Washington Times and Washington Spaces magazine. The Akseizer Design Group purchased and developed their own millwork factory in Boswell, PA in 2008 to produce custom case goods to use in their homes and buildings. Akseizer and Brown created the Modern Lounge room in the DreamHome, inspired by an art piece by Shawn Smith.

Miriam Dillon leads the interior design department of Barnes Vanze Architects, Inc. She has practiced architecture and interior design for over 18 years. For the DreamHome, Dillon designed the modern study with comfortable furniture, mixed metals, decorative accents and a splash of color inspired by artist Sabrina Gschwandtner’s Hula Hoop piece.

Catherine Hailey, of Hailey Design LLC, specializes in contemporary residential work as well as restaurant and retail design. She has traveled all over the world to design in cities like Miami, Aspen, Paris and Hong Kong. Hailey has designed DC area restaurants like Rustico, Buzz, Evening Star, Masa 14, Birth and Barley/Churchkey. She believes her contemporary style and texture and material choices are part of the reason she was chosen to help design the DC DreamHome. She worked on the dining room and entertainment area at the Design Center, inspired by Uhuru’s Cyclone Chaise Lounge. She hopes to continue working on contemporary spaces using green products. She said clients mainly seem to be concerned with the bottom line cost and the end aesthetic result of the project, however, she hopes the green trend will continue so that the cost of the materials will go down and the variety will increase.

Christine Philp, of Palindrome Design, has worked on properties in D.C., Bel-Air, Calif. and Southampton, N.Y. She’s been told she has an eye for color, scale and form and designs rooms that delight, while remaining sensitive to budget. Her breakfast room in the DreamHome was inspired by Lara Knutson’s “Soft Glass Basket,” a woven basket made from reflective glass fabric and steel wire. When designing the room, Philp played off of the natural curved lines and organic feel of the piece, incorporating elements of metal on various pieces of furniture in the room.

Kori Keyser, of Keyser Interiors, Inc. brought her 16 years of experience in designing homes to DC DreamHome’s Sitting Room inspired by Andy Paiko’s Spinning Wheel, made from blown glass, cocobolo wood, steel, brass and leather. She said the room is perfect for someone to read or enjoy a glass of wine alone, but is also inviting for a small gathering. Keyser holds a Bachelor of Science in Interior Design from La Roche College in Pittsburgh and is a professional member of ASID and NCIDQ certified. In the future, she’d love to design a line of furniture. [gallery ids="100716,120598,120591,120584,120577,120569,120561,120555,120548,120540,120530,120523,120612,120515,120616,120623,120507,120629,120604" nav="thumbs"]

Getting to the Heart of the Georgetown House Tour
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If you’re one of those persons who’ve been on a few Georgetown House Tours, you begin to get a notion about some of the things the tour might be about.

The tour is about history, for sure—about the homes being shown, about the people who have lived in them and live in them now, about change in Georgetown and change in how people live.  For all the historic, stately qualities of Georgetown, it’s a remarkably fluid place, and you can see that in the homes that are being shown.  Those houses, acting like official greeters, may show a part of the past, and a part of the present to visitors all at the same time

Georgetown is after all a historic district where wholesale physical change is difficult to achieve—but things are often going on inside that speak to the modern and to the future, as well as individual style and taste.

People flock to the Georgetown House Tour with expectations that they will see a portion of the lives and looks of the persons who occupy and own these houses and that they will reflect the village of people with residents who know how to live with style and grace.   They also expect to see the living breath of history—the occasional antique piece of eye-popping furniture, paintings, gardens, the work of fabulous interior decorator, the timeless touch of the history of the homes themselves.  To visitors, Georgetown can seem like Brigadoon, separate from its surroundings.

All of these elements come together in the annual spring Georgetown House Tour, sponsored by historic St. John’s Episcopal Church and benefits many of its long-time charitable activities. Like many “festive” or “tour” events in the city, it has grown and branched out over the years, adding social occasions—the Patrons’ Party, for instance—and mini-events on the day of the tours like the hugely popular afternoon tea at St. John’s.

And every year, there are people who gather together to lend their resources, talents, time and efforts to ensure the event’s success.  There are volunteers, quasi-docents, ticket-takers, information providers and so on. There are corporate sponsors, such as Washington Fine Properties, and there are the folks who lend their name and their time and effort as the co-chairs and the kind folks who open their homes.

This year, the co-chairs — Frank Randolph, a renowned interior designer and Stephanie Bothwell, who heads her own business called Urban and Landscape Design — combine with Frida Burling, long the soul and inspiration of the Georgetown House Tour, to bring together themes of history, interior and exterior designs, i.e., how we live in our homes and communities and share the best of those qualities with each other and the world.

Randolph, known for his enchanting interior designs, is ideally suited for his role as co-chair: He is, without a doubt, one of the village’s most unabashed boosters, a native son,  born and raised in Georgetown, a student at  Western High before it became Duke Ellington School for the Arts.  Bothwell  is a relative newcomer to Georgetown, having lived here with her family for 12 years, but she brims with a passion for the village and ideas about achieving ideal and workable designs for urban living.

Burling, who for years with an energy that surprises people to this day, made sure that the tour would come off every year—by marketing, by cajoling, persuading, charming, pushing and using her considerable contacts to make it happen. She became the face and voice of the tour, it’s most able, articulate promoter. In 2001, when Ben Bradlee and Sally Quinn hosted the tour’s patrons’ party, the Georgetowner newspaper arrived at their N Street home to take a cover photo. An editor asked Bradlee why he was involved, and the Washington Post executive editor roared back: “Because Frida told me to.”

The combination of the three speaks the best of Georgetown, a sense of a community with historic offerings that presents a graceful face to the world and to itself, for that matter.

“It goes without saying, “ Randolph says. “One of the key components is the fact that all of us, the residents of Georgetown, get to visit each other at one time or another. It’s a community thing that way.”

Of course, Randolph combines the historic with designer know-how and appreciation as well as an articulate, busy knowledge of his favorite place. “I can think of only a few houses in Georgetown that I’ve not been in,” he says. “And, over the years, I’ve done the interior design for, I don’t know, 30 or 40 homes.   Of course, that includes my own home.”  It is on 34th Street near Dent Place and has a certain cache beyond his own ownership, which is no small thing either. “Henry Kissinger lived here for a few years,” he says. If you want cache, or just history chat, talk with Randolph. His father was a senator from West Virginia. Randolph was asked to redecorate the Vice President’s Residence when the Cheneys lived there. “I had a privileged upbringing, you could say, but not spoiled or extravagant,” he said. “I was and still am very appreciative of the opportunities.”

 The world comes to tour the nine Georgetown homes on Saturday, April 28. It used to spread over two days on a spring weekend but has since been held on Saturday only.  “Georgetown presents one of the better illustrations of livable urban design, I’m not talking about showing off a collection of solar panels or being green.  It’s about ease of movement, access and connection,” Bothwell said.

“The house tour shows people the history here, sure, but I think it also shows how you can manage change in interior ways, what you can do with old homes to make them more contemporary while keeping the history and beauty,” she said. “We have a remarkable variety in housing stock here—it’s not all mansions and big properties, although we have plenty of that here. It’s livable, manageable homes, some quite small. And the homes are very deceptive from the outside; they give off the historic feeling without revealing their depth or size.”
           
Echoing that theme, Randolph said, “I absolutely love Georgetown. I have everything here I need. I can walk to the Safeway or Whole Foods and restaurants galore.  We have the firemen at Dent Place nearby.  It’s fluid, it changes and the people change.  But it has tradition. It has history that’s permanent.  And I think you can see that reflected on the tour. I’ve lived here most of my life, and I wouldn’t live anywhere else

Randolph, a Georgetowner par excellence, can tell you about the various schools—Hardy, Hyde, Western—and the people who have lived here.  He knows lots of people and has a host of friends.  “I live by myself,” he says. “I don’t even have a pet. I have a porcelain dog. He’s the perfect pet. You don’t have to walk or feed him, and he’s always there for you. But I share this place with my friends, this lovely village.”

Frida Burling can tell you a little about life in Georgetown herself, too.  At 96, she’s seen and done a lot in her village. In a phone conversation, she tells you she’s slowing down—then rattles off a series of activities, meetings with relative, church, another meeting Sunday afternoon—that indicates she still keeps a busy schedule.  She is the tour chair emerita and is hosting the Patron’s Party on April 25. 

She recalls how she first got involved in the house tour, which had begun during the Depression as a small thing, probably with people in a bus going by houses. “My husband and I  (the late Edward Burling, whom she still refers to as Eddie) used to go on weekends out to Middleburg, but that’s hunt country, and it’s not Georgetown.  I got involved with St. John’s which is so much a center of all this with their many projects. Eventually, I got involved in the house tour, because that’s a way to support those charitable projects like the Georgetown Ministry.”

No question about it, she propelled the house tour into its next incarnation to the point where it has become an institution, a must-do event and an integral part of the community’s traditions. She did it by example—her energy became legendary as she got older. She remembers asking best-selling author and biographer Kitty Kelley, a Georgetowner to the bone, to host the first patrons’ party in the late 1990s. The patron’s parties were a Burling innovation, and it enlarged the image of the tour, created a higher profile.

“I think it’s one of the oldest house tours in the country,” she said. “I know it sets an example.  And, simply by being who she is, so does Frida Burling.

The 2012 Georgetown House Tour at a Glance:

From the east side to the west side, from 28th Street to 35th Street and from N Street to Q Street, the Georgetown House Tour spreads its welcome mat over Washington’s most historic neighborhood, Saturday, April 28, 11 a.m to 5 p.m.  For the price of $40 ($45 after April 20), visitors and residents may walk through nine homes and the home’s grounds.  It is a chance to glimpse some history, to get some decorating and home improvement ideas and to feel the ease of city living. Who would open their doors to strangers? Try at least three architects, an artist, a designer, a real estate developer and agent, a financial manager, a high-tech manager, a college dean, a lawyer and another lawyer who happens to represent Georgetown as the Ward 2 councilmember.

The following have opened their homes on behalf of the tour and deserve a big thank you from the community: Cherry and Peter Baumbusch; Kristin and John Cecchi; Pat Dixon; Michele and Jack Evans; Hugh Newell Jacobsen; Kristin and Greg Muhlner; Dale and Melissa Overmyer; Alice Hall and Peter Starr; Christian Zapatka.

There is a tea at St. John’s Church parish hall (O and Potomac Street), 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday, April 28, the day of the tour. The Patron’s Party is on April 25 at Frida Burling’s house on 29th Street.

For more information, visit GeorgetownHouseTour.com or call 202-338-1796. [gallery ids="100717,120652,120618,120644,120626,120639,120633" nav="thumbs"]

D.C. Schools Celebrate the Henderson Effect
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It has been a noteworthy week for D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson. She outlined a comprehensive plan for public schools, received an honorary doctorate from her alma mater, Georgetown University, and had six of her schools chosen to receive $4.5 million dollars over three years from Target to improve literacy.

With Mayor Vincent Gray, Henderson announced on April 18 a five-year, five-point plan to make public schools better or, as they put it, “to rebuild the District’s traditional public schools into a high-quality, vibrant system that earns the confidence of the entire community.” It is “an effort to dramatically increase student achievement, graduation rates, enrollment and student satisfaction.”

“This plan will move us into the District’s next phase of school reform, building on our recent successes and capitalizing on the dramatic population and economic growth our city has seen in recent years,” Gray said. The initiatives are part of D.C. Public Schools’ Five-Year Strategic Plan. Called “A Capital Commitment,” the plan helps guide spending and programmatic decisions through 2017.

“These commitments support our goals for the next five years and the promises we have made to the District of Columbia, to our families and our students, and to all our stakeholders to provide the students of this city with a world-class education,” Henderson said. “Behind each of these goals are real, specific financial commitments that will help us build on the momentum we have seen over the past five years and move forward aggressively toward dramatic improvements.”

Over the next five years, D.C. Public Schools has committed to the following five goals:

— Increase District-wide math and reading proficiency to 70 percent, while doubling the number of students who score at advanced levels of proficiency;

— Improve the proficiency rates for our 40 lowest-performing schools by 40 percentage points;

— Increase our high school graduation rate from 52 percent to 75 percent;

— Ensure that 90 percent of DCPS students like the school they attend; and

— Increase overall DCPS enrollment.

At Georgetown University on April 23, Henderson, who graduated from its School of Foreign Service in 1992, was in Gaston Hall to get her Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, in front of some teachers from her elementary school as well as family and friends and those from DCPS, Georgetown, Teach For America and the New Teacher Project.

“I stand on this stage today only because of the people sitting here in this room,” she said. “Each and every one of you has directly or indirectly made an indelible impression on my life.”

“The piece of the world that Kaya has chosen to affect is fundamental to the strength, progress, prosperity of our city, country and our interconnected global society,” said John DeGioia, president of Georgetown University. “It’s nearly impossible to speak with Kaya about education without understanding that her work is motivated by a deep sense of personal purpose and a clear, poignant set of values.”

Last November, Forbes magazine named Henderson one of the “World’s 7 Most Powerful Educators.” [gallery ids="100755,122613" nav="thumbs"]

Space Shuttle Discovery Retires to Air & Space Museum
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The Space Shuttle Discovery was officially received by the Smithsonian Institution April 19 and placed on permanent display, replacing the shuttle Enterprise at the National Air and Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center, next to Dulles Airport. The two crafts met nose-to-nose at a sunlit ceremony that celebrated the space program’s achievements with calls for greater education and for most space exploration.

With music by the U.S. Marine Drum and Bugle Corps and Marine Corps Color Guard, the “Star-Spangled Banner” was sung by mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves. Participants included 14 of Discovery’s 31 living commanders. Speakers included NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, Smithsonian Secretary Wayne Clough, National Air and Space Museum Director J.R. “Jack” Dailey, former astronaut and Senator John Glenn and chair of the Smithsonian board of regents France Córdova.

Discovery moves into the James S. McDonnell Space Hangar, and the Enterprise will move to the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum on the Hudson River in New York City. [gallery ids="100751,122274,122266,122245,122260,122254" nav="thumbs"]