Woodrow Wilson Senior High School reopened its doors to the public yesterday, August 18, after a two year $124 million modernization project. The ribbon was cut at 11:30am and people were finally allowed to take a look at the new world of Wilson. As a graduate from the class of 2004, I was in utter shock. It's hard to believe that when I was in high school, the walls of the swimming pool at Wilson collapsed and were not fixed until years later when the renovation of the Wilson Aquatic center began shortly before modernization for the rest of the building. At the old Wilson, the gym made peoples skin look yellow because of terrible florescent lighting. In most classrooms, the paint was peeling off the walls. In my English class, students had peeled the paint into a shape resembling Africa. It was normal for a desk to be covered in graffiti or be broken. I don't even want to talk about the bathrooms. Now, all of this has changed. 

This notice comes to us from Audrey A. Williams:

Parents will have additional charter schools to choose from when four new schools open in the District of Columbia later this month. The new schools are: Inspired Teaching Demonstration Public Charter School, Mundo Verde Bilingual Public Charter School, Shining Stars Montessori Academy Public Charter School and Richard Wright Public Charter School for Journalism and Media Arts.  The D.C. Public Charter School Board approved these charter applications in April of 2010.

COUNCIL CHAIRMAN KWAME R. BROWN’S STATEMENT ON TWO DCPS SCHOOLS MAKING NEWSWEEK’S LIST OF AMERICA’S BEST HIGH SCHOOLS:

“I want to congratulate the students, parents, teachers, and administrators at Benjamin Banneker Academic and School Without Walls Senior High Schools for being named two of “America’s Best” by Newsweek magazine. Acting Chancellor Kaya Henderson also is to be commended for her leadership of the public school system that produced these outstanding results.  Listed respectively at numbers 239 and 269 from among more than 1,000 schools studied for their ability to prepare students for college and for life, these institutions have graduation and college bound rates near or at 100%.

This is a rewarding day for DCPS.  As a proud parent of two DCPS students, I am glad to know that our education reform efforts are taking hold and delivering the kind of outcomes we had hoped for.”