On January 10, the Greenbelt City Council held a worksession with Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS) Superintendent Millard House II and several members of his team (see article on page 6 for more on the worksession). That evening House and his team shared news that the county has a plan to move Dora Kennedy French Immersion (DKFI) school from Greenbelt to Landover, use the old building as swing space for Springhill Lake Elementary (SHL) and then likely demolish it. At the end of January, the DKFI school administration and families had still not been consulted nor informed of the plan. Reached by the News Review on January 30, DKFI Principal James Spence said the plan for a move was “news” to him. “No one has communicated this to me,” said Spence.
Plans for Springhill Lake
Springhill Lake Elementary School is in Phase Two of the county’s Blueprint Schools Public Private Partnership (P3) program to receive a new school building by 2028. According to PGCPS enrollment data from September 30, 2023, the school has 757 students in a space with a state-regulated design capacity for 561 students, a building utilization rate of 135 percent. The old school building will be torn down and a new, larger, two-story school constructed on the same site, with construction beginning in 2026 and taking roughly two years. Under the current plan, in the time between demolition and completion of a new building SHL will move into the school building currently serving DKFI. (Housing schools temporarily in a different location while they await a new building is a regular practice, referred to as a “swing space.”) A swing space at the current DKFI location holds the advantage of being walkable for many SHL students and the school has a large walking population.
Another Old Building for DKFI
“To me it’s really a revelation to hear this proposal about moving Dora Kennedy,” said Mayor Emmett Jordan.
DKFI is a K-8 specialty school that serves students from across the north of the county and the majority of students already take buses to and from school. “What we’re offering them is a school that is even more modern,” explained Shawn Matlock, director of the Office of Alternative Infrastructure and Planning and Development for PGCPS and the director of the P3 program.
According to the most recent PGCPS enrollment data, DKFI has 680 students. No design capacity for their current building is recorded. The new home proposed for DKFI is the building vacated by Kenmoor Middle School, a school that received a new building in 2023. The building initially opened in 1973 as Kenmoor Junior High. It is currently housing Templeton Elementary School as their swing space as they wait for a new school building under Blueprint Schools Phase 2.
At the January 25 DKFI Parent Teacher Association (PTA) meeting, PTA officers shared that the school had been moved further down the list of those waiting for a new building. They had not been informed of any plans to move the school to another old building in two years’ time.
Kateri Baker, a Greenbelt resident with three children at DKFI, had also not heard of plans to move the school. For Baker, who grew up in Greenbelt, the move might feel like things coming full circle, though. The Kenmoor school, then the closest TAG program, was where she was bussed for middle school. (At the time Greenbelt Middle was located where her children currently go to DKFI.) However, “it wasn’t a new school 30 years ago,” noted Baker.
DKFI moved into their current location when it had been deemed unfit for Greenbelt Middle School. They had a new school constructed adjacent to the old one, which they expected to be torn down. DKFI has since lived with a host of infrastructure problems in the old building. The move to Kenmoor would again see them placed in an old building vacated by another school that received a new building.
No Major Updates for the DKFI Building
Councilmember Jenni Pompi noted that there have been problems in the past in the county with swing spaces not being communicated or communicated too late. She urged the PGCPS administration to talk with DKFI families as soon as they can. She also expressed concerns that DKFI’s building has many infrastructure problems including classrooms without heat, without air-conditioning and water fountains that don’t work. DKFI currently has all its water fountains turned off due to lead levels and only a single bottle-filling station in operation. Pompi asked that the infrastructure problems be addressed before moving SHL students into the building. “They need to be in a good, safe space for those two years,” she said.
“You have to understand something and I want to be clear,” said Matlock. “We’re not going to do a whole lot to the old Greenbelt Middle School, to Dora Kennedy. And the reason is we don’t have a lot of the resources,” stated Matlock. “As soon as those students are out of that building, we’re probably going to demolish that building,” he said.
“You can’t tear down our old high school!” interjected an alarmed Councilmember Rodney Roberts.
“I just want to say, I think children having working heat and air-conditioning and water – I don’t think those should be considered major renovations. I think … that’s the bare minimum that we should be giving our students to be in a habitable school,” said Pompi. “I really do hope that those updates will be made before you swing any kids into there.”
Concern for Historic Building
“The original Greenbelt high school is a historic building in Greenbelt and I personally don’t want you even thinking about tearing it down,” said Roberts, who noted it was original to the city. Roberts also suggested it was a folly to tear down schools when they keep finding themselves in need of more school buildings (which is how DKFI found itself in the building that was previously planned for demolition). “I personally am not a preservationist,” said Matlock, who argued that there are schools that currently have children in them that need new HVAC and infrastructure.
Roberts pointed to the renovation and restoration of Greenbelt’s Community Center, the original Center School as examples of successful historic preservation.
This author currently has two children attending DKFI in Greenbelt.