Last week, Ward 4 Councilmember Janeese Lewis George submitted her fiscal year 2025 budget request letter to DC Mayor Muriel Bowser. The mayor was expected to submit her proposed budget to the council on March 20, but there may be a delay in the mayor’s submission.

Councilmember Lewis George notes that her requests are informed in part by her neighborhood listening sessions and CARE day events. The requests address “housing and health, investing in our educators and our youth, and investing in public safety and community needs.”

Items of note regarding the neighborhood copied from the letter and pasted below.

Add Capacity Near Whittier Elementary School for Swing Space and Relieve Nearby Crowding. Whittier Elementary School’s overdue modernization will begin in school year 2025-26, meaning students and staff will be learning in temporary swing space for two years. DCPS’ current plan is for Whittier to occupy the former Sharpe Health Campus on 13th Street, over two miles away from Whittier. That distance is likely to cause enrollment declines and staff turnover as families depart what would otherwise be a neighborhood school. Simultaneously, students at Ida B. Wells Middle School and Coolidge High School, who share a building across the street from Whittier, are experiencing severe overcrowding. Last year Ida B. Wells was at 119% utilization and Coolidge was at 125% utilization – two of the top five most crowded schools in the city. We can solve both problems by either constructing a temporary modular campus on District-owned land near Whittier, Wells, and Coolidge, or leasing/purchasing another building nearby. This additional capacity can be used first as proximate swing space for Whittier and then space to relieve overcrowding at Wells and Coolidge – supporting our Ward 4 neighborhood schools and community.

Retain the School Connect program at LaSalle-Backus Elementary School and Ida B. Wells Middle School. The fiscal year 2024 budget included funding for a Department of For Hire Vehicles School Connect route between LaSalle-Backus Elementary School and Ida B. Wells Middle School. Students living in the Lamond-Riggs community of Wards 4 and 5 do not have a direct or safe route from home to their neighborhood middle school, Ida B. Wells. This program is particularly important for students who are often late or even absent because they must accompany their younger siblings to school before their own classes start. The recently opened School Connect program helps eliminate this gap for a select number of students and families identified by each school’s administrators most in need of support. We must continue this Safe Passage investment.

Invest in our DPR recreation centers and programming. Parks and recreational activities are important for our communities. I had the opportunity to tour many DPR recreation centers and there are improvements needed throughout the District. However, there are numerous facilities in Ward 4 that are seriously overdue for modernization and need to be upgraded. Our families and seniors deserve clean and well-maintained parks. Ward 4 centers that need upgrading include:

• Riggs-LaSalle Recreation Center: a new environmentally friendly turf field; repair or replace the gymnasium roof

Fund Broad Branch Road, Eastern Avenue, and Grant Circle Rehabilitation Projects. DDOT has announced plans to rehabilitate Broad Branch Road between Linnean Avenue and Beach Drive; Eastern Avenue between New Hampshire and Whittier; and Grant Circle. Each project will bring critical infrastructure upgrades and traffic safety improvements to key transit corridors. I am asking for these important projects to be fully funded.

Metropolitan Branch Trail. Design a trail connection between the Metropolitan Branch Trail (MBT) at Fort Totten and the future Prince George’s County Connector. In 2023, the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission secured funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation to develop a shared-use path between the Northwest Branch Trail of the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail in Chillum to Avondale Community Park, which borders Eastern Avenue in the District. To complement this project, DDOT should begin planning its own trail connection to the Metropolitan Branch Trail along Eastern Avenue and Gallatin Street N.E.

Keep modernizations on time and maintain their funding. A number of projects in Ward 4 are scheduled for upcoming modernizations. It is important for all of the projects to remain on schedule and that the community is updated. The Ward 4 community is excited for these projects and it’s important that we continue to invest in our neighborhoods with modernized facilities.

• LaSalle-Backus Elementary Modernization