Dear Stoddert Community,
We have exciting news to share. Mayor Bowser took the first step in alleviating overcrowding at Stoddert by including funding for an addition to the school in 2024. As you know, Stoddert is the city’s most crowded school at 137% over capacity.
Mayor Bowser released the fiscal year 2019 budget on March 21st which included an updated Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) for schools. Included in the CIP was a $20 million investment in Stoddert to begin construction in 2024. The budget also included $500,ooo to start Stoddert’s addition design in fiscal year 2023.
The Mayor’s budget is a proposal and it must be approved by the full DC City Council.
We want to take the opportunity to recognize that this would not have occured without the hard work of our parent community. In particular, Juli Smith has led the overcrowding committee at Stoddert and has spent countless hours working with Councilmember Cheh’s Office and DCPS to make it very clear to the city that Stoddert is in dire need of this expansion. Thank you to all of you who filled out the overcrowding survey, wrote letters to city officials, and attended local and city-wide meetings. Thank you to our Ward 3 Network Representative, Jill Sanderson, who also helped advocate for Stoddert at the Ward 3 Network meetings. Thank you to our VP of Advocacy, Anita Crabtree, who will continue to work to advocate for us until the budget is finalized.
This is the first step in a long process that will need additional volunteers to see it through completion. Many of us with older children at Stoddert will not be here when the city needs to put together a School Improvement Team (SIT) to oversee the planning in 2023. We are calling on all of you with younger children, to raise your hands and volunteer to continue to advocate for our community as the walls of Stoddert expand to welcome future Stoddert wolves.
Thank you,
Jen Perry and Lisa McCluskey
PTO Co-Presidents
Click here to see the entire budget (Stoddert information on Page 147.)