School Without Walls Elementary - Just give it a 3 yr. trial! There is no doubt the city and the local community deserve a great elementary school in the FoggyBottom / Dupont / WestEnd neighborhood and the physical infrastructure at Francis-Stevens and its location are exceptional for so many reasons. School Without Walls is recognized as one of the finest schools in our city and many of us hope our kids will be accepted there come high school time. However, too many kids coming up through the DCPS system can not make the cut because they have not been prepped properly. School Without Walls' principal, Richard Trougish, really wants to change that. So, why not have Principal Trougish oversee a new K and up option at Francis-Stevens? He has run two other very successful school systems including elementary grades and has expressed an openness to this very idea in the past. If we hang the Walls logo on our building and let parents know Principal Trougish is now in charge I promise we will have a PACKED applicant pool and far better performance than the school has ever seen. And, isn't that what we all want? Principal Trougish understands best practice and knows well what it would take to inspire and train our young kids so they truly have a shot at Walls and the world class universities graduates of Walls get into. I am not suggesting a feeder relationship, just a school overseen by Richard Trougish and administered by Principal Kennard or anyone willing to work constructively with Trougish. I believe this is the solution. I further understand that SWW only requested 3 to 4 classrooms at Francis-Stevens, not the whole building. So, perhaps we share a portion of the school too? Moreover, if Francis-Stevens adopts some of the "future-school" principles of school architects Fielding Nair International, we can easily increase the student capacity of the school by 20% - 30% inexpensively and accommodate everyone's needs.
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