June 12, 2008
After eight years as a Pre-Kindergarten through 8th grade program, Capital City Public Charter School is planning a new campus to expand our middle school and add grades 9 through 12. The Upper School will open this September with 129 students in grades 6-9. In each subsequent year, the school will add a grade until it is fully enrolled with grades 6-12 in 2011; at that point, the Upper School will serve 275 students and their families.
One of the most important reasons for embarking on the addition of an Upper School is to provide a high-quality high school education in a small-school setting that is open to all students in the District. As we graduate 8th graders from our Lower School, we have come to realize that there are limited public school options for those parents who would like to send their children to a small college preparatory high school with a philosophy comparable to Capital City. The Upper School’s small size will allow for the personalization of learning, in order to meet the needs of a diverse group of students. The school’s educational supports include two teachers per class, a period of “intensives” offering remediation and enrichment opportunities each semester, and special education/English Language Learner (ELL) services provided through the inclusion model.
Upper School Location
Capital City’s current PreK through 8th grade program will continue at our location at 3047 15th St. NW. The Upper School will open one block away, at 3029 14th St. NW, in leased space that we originally rented in 2000 to house the Lower School. This facility, which has been continuously occupied by charter schools since then, requires limited renovations and upgrades over the summer.
Capital City has already begun its search for a permanent location for the Upper School. A facilities subcommittee of our Board of Trustees has been exploring the commercial real estate market to identify viable properties; we have also been approved as a qualified applicant for DCPS surplus school buildings, but the process and timeline for decisions regarding these buildings remains unclear.
Upper School Program
The Capital City Upper School will be the first high school in Washington, DC affiliated with the Coalition of Essential Schools (CES), a national network of small, progressive high schools that follow Ten Common Principles. Several of these principles address the central role that students should play in taking ownership of their learning and participating actively in the successful running of the school. To help us design an exemplary high school program, Capital City has established a relationship with a CES mentor school to help us with curriculum and program development. Our mentor school is called School of the Future, a 6th-12th grade program located in New York City. SOF, now in its 14th year and serving a student demographic similar to that of Capital City’s current population, has a track record of sending 100% of its students to college and has developed a dynamic academic program for both its middle and high school students.
Upper School
Leadership
The Upper School’s founding principal is Kathryn Byrd. Kathy is the former Director of Curriculum, Instruction and Training at Paul Public Charter School. She previously worked as an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher at Paul and at Murch Elementary, and served as an ESL mentor teacher for DCPS interns in elementary grades through adult education. Kathy began her role as principal on May 13 and has already led orientation and testing sessions for 110 newly enrolled Upper School students.
The group primarily responsible for planning the new campus is the Upper School Design Team, which has been meeting twice per month for almost three years. Participants are current Capital City staff and administrators, parents, community members, and Board members. Core Design Team members from outside Capital City include a staff member from the DCPS Chancellor’s Office, a researcher from the Education Trust, a freelance education journalist, and two former teachers at the high school and college levels. These individuals possess a wide range of expertise and community contacts that have helped with the planning stages of the Upper School.
