http://www.dcpcsb.org/SchoolProfile.aspx?sid=169
Community Input is sought for the Bates Area Civic Association to vote on the proposed redevelopment of the J.F. Cook School building by Mundo Verde Charter School.
Mundo Verde is:
- Top performing charger school (see link to DCPSB scores above)
- A school focusing on earth and environmental preservation
- Looking to invest $12 million in rehabbing the building and making it a green school
- Looking to gradually increase students attending classes at J.F. Cook to around 400 students
- Has engaged community several times to discuss the project (including a tour of the building)
- Looking to make an abandoned building into something the community can be proud of and have access to
Some community concerns raised to the project:
- Is another charter school needed?
- What will this project do to traffic in the area?
- Local children have to enter the loterry system and may not necessarily be able to attend this school
- Can’t the building be redeveloped into commercial space?
Bates Area Civic Association 
It’s ironic that this call for feedback on Mundo Verde has been posted on the same day that the CAPCS board report news is released, announcing that the board recommends closure if CAPCS Amos 3 at the end of 2014 if it still has not met academic performance expectations. This is the elementary school at 1400 1st Street NW. I expect that there will be a larger discussion about this, with a larger part of the community, if Amos 3 does in fact close.
Has Mundo Verde addressed their community engagement plan? Both in terms of admitting neighborhood students and engaging with the broader community?
Board Report on CAPCS: https://batesareacivicassociation.org/2013/09/03/dc-public-charter-school-board-report-on-capcs/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BatesAreaCivicAssociation+%28Bates+Area+Civic+Association%29&utm_content=Yahoo%21+Mail
Maggie, that is another concern (thank you) that neighbors raised. The law prohibits a charter school to reserve spots for any group. So our neighborhood children will have to go through the lottery system and Mundo Verde already has a very long wait list for admission. The request for enrollment to Mundo Verde is very high and that is why they need a much larger campus. Mundo Verde has presented to the Bates and Hanover Civic Associations and also hosted a community open house at the J F Cook building and showed the drawings for the renovations. The DC Council still needs to approve the building being given to them, that is why community input is being sought so that the community can be heard at the Council Hearing. CAPCS actually owns the building (it was sold to them by DCPS) so it is private property.
Let’s not forget that if Mundo Verde does not move in, then likely A) nothing will continue to happen, and the lot will remain as lifeless as it is now, or B) something less appealing will end up there — commercial or otherwise — that we will regret. We can keep trying for the “Whole Foods with a rock-climbing-wall and craft beer pub,” but that kind of wishful thinking been going on a while, hasn’t it? I think we’ve learned that DC government procedures kind of favor a charter school in the space, in any event.
Does the CAPCS shell game mean Amos 2 will replace Amos 3 when/if Amos 3 loses its charter, and MBC continues to make itself unwelcome?
From everything I’ve heard and seen, Mundo Verde would bring us a far better school than we’ve experienced with the CAPCS operation, and Mundo Verde be act as a much better community citizen. If we make all of our decisions based on what we think is good for cars, driving and parking, our community will be stuck in the car-based 1960s. Traffic is going to get worse whether or not something moves into the J.F. Cook building. If our concern is traffic, maybe we should work for keeping our streets from continuing to be traffic sewers for Maryland commuters, and advocating for alternatives to single-occupancy vehicles.
From what’s been presented over the last months, Mundo Verde sounds like a good deal for Truxton/Shaw and DC at large.
Would like to see an adult education or job training program operate there as well as maybe art classes or job employment placement center operate at the school. Thanks.