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Here are some solutions:

1/ As proposed, FSEC can share space and facilities with School Without Walls.

2/ A comprehensive enrollment plan should be developed to grow the student body. Retain families through quality of educational outcomes. FSEC parents will make the best sales people!

3/ Expand the Elementary School and its offerings to serve Ward 2, especially in light of demographic growth and the coming school boundary revisions. A robust ES option in Foggy Bottom will help DCPS attract and retain Ward 2 students otherwise destined for Charter Schools.

4/ Build up Middle School and its offerings to serve other Ward 2 neighborhoods.

5/ Engage community organizations and West End businesses to support FSEC through entrepreneurial partnerships and alliances.

Also, let's re-examine issues that argue against consolidation of FSEC:

DEMOGRAPHICS and ENROLLMENT: This plan fails to anticipate demographic trends in Ward 2. Ward 2 will witness the net addition of 836 elementary school-aged children by 2015. This boom shows no sign of abating: As of the 2010 Census, there were 149% more newborns than five-year-olds in Ward 2. DCPS Strategic Goal #5 is to increase enrollment. Consolidating Francis-Stevens will be a serious setback for this goal.

FINANCIAL: Francis-Stevens Educational Campus may be under-enrolled, but is $10,500, only slightly more than schools cited before the Council as paragons of efficiency (Janney ES, Deal MS, Wilson HS, where the spend is $8,600 per-pupil). Francis-Stevens will be below average in terms of cost per-pupil once it reaches enrollment targets, especially once Title I and ELL funds are backed out per-pupil figure.

TEST SCORES: Francis-Stevens has the Highest DC CAS test scores of any Elementary School or Middle school slated for closure. These scores are above the citywide average. DCPS Strategic Goal #1 is to Improve Achievement rates to 70% by 2016. Francis-Stevens is right on track.