We are members of the Columbia Heights and Tubman Elementary School community and we’re writing today to request an amendment of our school’s budget allocation and return at least half of the 1.2 million dollars we lost this budget cycle.

We are currently facing tremendous losses, these could include: 12.5 teachers, our dean of students, all assistant principals and all of our instructional coaches. These cuts are being cited as due to the decline in our enrollment as we’re in the old Banneker swing space for the 2024-2025, 2025-2026 academic years. Despite repeated requests from our principal and other leaders, DCPS did not provide transportation to our school from the original Tubman site nor safe passage. While the two don’t seem far apart, it’s notable that many Tubman students live in Columbia Heights Village, which is even further west than the 13th street location of Tubman Elementary. This location difference caused many families to temporarily enroll elsewhere due to historical violence that has directly affected our school community and the patterns still affecting the path students would travel to school. While that doesn’t impact all of the students who have chosen to enroll elsewhere, we’ve also lost our relationship with one of our largest before and aftercare providers, CentroNia, who were unable to secure transportation from their location to the swing space. This led to many students and families deciding to enroll in DCPS schools that were able to maintain stable aftercare for their children.

In previous years, schools were given funds, sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars, to make their budget right despite declines in enrollment while in the swing space. For example, both Hyde Addison and Francis Stevens had line items on their budget entitled “hold harmless” during the years they were in this swing space to allow for instructional continuity when they returned to their original location after renovation. While we can appreciate we are in a different budget circumstance, the contrast between a 0% cut and a 10% cut is staggering. We also find it necessary to name the demographic difference between those schools who were afforded that level of support and our school where staff, teachers and students have been left with no additional funding support through this process.

While we’re incredibly concerned by our current situation, we’re hopeful for what the future holds for our students and their futures. Through the strength of our community and partnership from leaders and stakeholders like you and your team, we know we will be able to fix a large part of our current budgetary situation.