The meeting discussed modernization plans for Roosevelt Senior High School. Key points of discussion included: - Ensuring the educational specification is revised to accommodate the school's ambitious academic programs and increasing enrollment. - Retaining community access to the historic auditorium while updating its facilities. - Designing separate, properly equipped spaces for the daycare center, family support services, and after school programs. - Incorporating recommendations to expand career/technical programs and art, music, theater and athletics facilities. - Confirming whether the school will continue serving as a production kitchen for other schools. - Arranging a tour of a recently modernized comparable school to inform Roosevelt's plans.

1. D R A F T
Roosevelt Senior High School
SIT (School Improvement Team) Modernization Meeting
Thursday, May 9, 2013
Cafeteria; 6:00
1
Ms. Eichelberger welcomed the group and thanked them for their participation. There were questions
on how the SIT discussions would come together to make changes to the Ed Spec. Ms. Eichelberger
indicated that they would send out the notes compiled by the faculty on the educational specificationas
well as the materials distributed last week on the justification and demographic information and the
section provided covering the STAY program. This information would go through Kyle Whitley, project
manager for DGS, to Deanne Newman the DGS contractor responsible for the Education Specification.
Her point of contact at DCPS would be Anthony de Guzman, Chief Operating Officer. Ms. Newman
expected to revise the document and return it to the SIT Team in two weeks to be available in advance
of the SIT meeting on Thursday, May 23rd
. (Note that this meeting date has been changed to the 23rd
from the regular last Thursday of the month.)
Mr. Alexander noted that he had shared the justification and demographic statement with higher
administration at DCPS with its proposed increase for the capacity of the building. They removed the
stipulation that certain parts of the building would be demolished and other parts not modernized. This
will give the architects an opportunity to design to the revised educational specification. Thus the
expectation expressed by the group that the square footage providing for Roosevelt’s complex and
ambitious program willremain flexible until the architects have a chance to work with the more
complete, revised Ed Specanticipated later in May.
Mr. Graae of Cox Graae and Spack indicated that the architects will follow through with their due
diligence on Ed. Spec. changes; they have not been directed to remove any portion of the building. The
1970’s infill and the windowless addition is a substantial portion of the building’s square footage now.
The concern was that the architects not be hampered in their determination of what would function
best for Roosevelt’s current complicated program requirements and allow for future growth. Ms.
Eichelberger reminded people to return feed-back quickly to herself or to the 21st
Century School Fund.
The group split in two for discussion with the educational program group to cover Day Care and Family
Support Space, and the Media Center, and with the facilities group to cover Career and College
Preparation, and the Auditorium. The entire group toured the auditorium before coming back together
to share their separate discussions.
Discussion Group Reports
Ms. Prather reported first on discussion of the Auditorium. Community access was very important as it
is now used for meetings, Black History Month presentations and festivals as well as graduation for
Roosevelt and the nearby middle schools and elementary schools. They were concerned that the phrase
“As Is” on page 96 of the Ed Spec would be too limiting. They would like it to be available to theater
groups for performances with a full complement of up-to-date sound and lighting properties. Retaining
as much as possible of the historic fabric of the space was important including the lobby and ticket
booth. It was not clear whether an orchestra pit space is available, but that might be an important
feature. It would also be good to investigate the projection booth to determine if it could be used,
updating in some wayits original purpose or put to a different purpose.Acoustics are very important.
The original wooden seats were renovated a few years ago.

2. D R A F T
Roosevelt Senior High School
SIT (School Improvement Team) Modernization Meeting
Thursday, May 9, 2013
Cafeteria; 6:00
2
They discussed the possibility of finding another space in the building for a college lecture hall
spacepossibly to accommodate distance learning. Similarly they discussed finding a way to incorporate
a black box type theater in addition to the auditorium to accommodate smaller, more informal
performances.
Roosevelt faculty and staff still have a vision for teaching drama and danceeven though they are offered
currently through afterschool programs (by the LAYC - Latin American Youth Center). Facilities to
accommodate dance and drama might better be located near each other rather than have dance as part
of athletics.
Ms. Reilly reported the discussion about the Day Care and Family Support space. Eastern High School
might provide a model. A parent center for the larger school requires a location near the main
administration so parents can find it easily; it should not be paired with the Day Care as that necessarily
needs to have its own separate entrance with immediate access to outdoor play space which isn’t likely
possible near the main administration.
New Heights offers services to students who are pregnant or who have small children and it currently
requires considerable storage. New Heights is separate from the Day Care Centerwhich needs sinks and
a kitchenette in addition to adult and child-sized toilets and enough space for infants and toddlers (up to
three years old) as well as the number of adults required for infant care. Outdoor play space should be
ample with shade and water available - - it needs to be a pleasant place but secure and lockable.
Storage for the day care is very important with requirements for storing large outside play equipment
and space to house the strollers that children may arrive in.
It is important that the day care facility be built so that it can be licensed. The expectation is that day
care will be managed by an outside contractor. The group briefly discussed the need to determine the
policy around who has access to day care services: clearly students have first priority but the question
was whether it should be limited to students or whether faculty or others could use it as well. STAY
students would also want to use the facility, possibly later in the day and possibly for older school-age
students.
The Media Center discussion focused on the requirements of a video production area; was the 800
square foot classroom type production space sufficient also for editing and production of a student
newspaper as well as video production on site, beyond editing extraneous video footage. This area and
the media center proper require secure lockable storage especially as equipment is getting smaller and
more easily subject to theft. The media center needs natural light and good acoustics so it can be used
as an alternative meeting space - - in this way it should be easily accessible to the public after hours.
Ms. Newman indicated that the DCPS central office library specialistwould provide a media center
narrative of the program for the Ed Spec. People asked that there be ample space for people and books
in the media center as several new school libraries had proved to be too cramped. Signage so that it can
be used for a community meeting space was also noted.

3. D R A F T
Roosevelt Senior High School
SIT (School Improvement Team) Modernization Meeting
Thursday, May 9, 2013
Cafeteria; 6:00
3
The group recommended that the Ed Spec incorporate notes from the ELL faculty about their program
which is substantial but did not seem to have been provided for specifically in the current Ed Spec. There
are 100 ELL students, five dedicated teachers and four ELL content area classrooms in this program. The
group would like to see a fuller description of ELL. Ms. Bruno, one of Roosevelt’s ELL teachers asked
that the bilingual counselor be located in the area near ELL.
Ms. Reilly referred to a short summation of the main recommendations from the SIT team; these will be
sent to everyone electronically. The largest issue is the proposed capacityand square footage of the
modernized school, which is now understood to be open to increase as required to properly encompass
the enriched program and increasing enrollment envisioned. . The planning concepts also included the
recommendation to re-open MacFarland Middle School to provide a direct feeder into Roosevelt that
can sustain the larger high school. Recapping,some of the additional points the recommendations
included were:
Include both a sensory room and a quiet room for special education and add a third autism
classroom
Expand foreign language offerings at Roosevelt
Fitness centershould accommodate some of the physical therapy space for special education
Career and Technical Education needs to be clarified; the recommendation is that Roosevelt
offer Business and Finance and Culinary Arts. The sense was that people wanted vocations
represented that would provide students with high level skills for entre into 21st
century careers.
There is a strong sentiment that there should be two art rooms and two art teachers with
storage areas for the STAY program.
Physical education requires both a fitness center AND a separate weight roomthat is equipped
specifically to provide weight training for student athletes. The gymnasium needs more
spectator space and two full-size practice courts as well as the exhibition space. It is understood
that it will be difficult to expand the gym but practice space might be managed separately.
Ms. Eichelberger asked people to e-mail additions to the recommendations to Ms. Reilly.
Roosevelt’s kitchen currently serves as the production kitchen for a number of the surrounding
elementary and PS-8th
grade schools. Whether it will continue to do so and if so, how many meals are to
be produced daily is something that has to be verified. Plans are currently predicated on the idea that it
will continue to be a production kitchen. Ms. Newman indicated that the architects would employ a
technical consultant who will work with DCPS central food service. Mr. Alexander will bring these
questions to the central office and try to have someone from food service address the next SIT meeting.

4. D R A F T
Roosevelt Senior High School
SIT (School Improvement Team) Modernization Meeting
Thursday, May 9, 2013
Cafeteria; 6:00
4
Arrangements had not yet been finalized for a tour of Wilson High School, a recently modernized
building that is very similar to Roosevelt; that re-design was done by the same team that is working on
Roosevelt. The tour will require about 90 minutes. The group’s first choice for a tour is next Thursday at
6:00 pm with a secondary preference being next Tuesday. Ms. Eichelberger will contact people when
the time and day have been secured - - the group is to meet at Wilson’s front entrance.
Mr. Patterson thanked the SIT committee for their support for Roosevelt.
Participants:
Kidest Albaari, Ed Spec Contractor for DGS
Renard Alexander, DCPS - Office of Chief Operating Officer
Jane Bettistea, Neighbor, Alumni
Yolande Bruno, Roosevelt Faculty, ELL
Angie Christophe, Neighbor, Ward 4 Council on Education
Dori B. Cook, Consultant - Bibb Cook Group
Terry DeCarbo, DCPS Instructional Superintendent, Cluster 11 (Sp. Ed)
Tracy Eichelberger, Roosevelt Chief of Transformation
Mary Filardo, 21st
Century School Fund
Robin Gerber, Washington Interfaith Network
Chris Graae, Cox Graae and Spack, Architects
Donald Gregory, Cox Graae and Spack, Architects
Ron Hampton, Roosevelt Family Community Resource Center
Nancy Huvendick, 21st
Century School Fund
Mike Ivey, Neighbor, Ward 4 Council on Education
Larry Juhans, Roosevelt PTSA President
Haregewoin Kefyalew, St. Miriam's Church, 14th and Buchanan
Cheryl Miller, DCPS, Roosevelt Parent
Deanna Newman, DGS Contractor
Bernadine Okoro, Roosevelt Faculty/Staff
Jerome Patterson, Roosevelt Faculty/Staff
Cynthia Prather, Alumni
Cathy Reilly, SHAPPE
Jeff Standish, ANC 4C03 Commissioner
Millison Toye, Roosevelt Faculty/Staff
Kyle Whitley, DCPEP, Project Manager, DGS