DC Private School Proposes Portables for Upcoming Year

• July 20, 2020

by Nena Perry-Brown

As school systems continue to figure out how or whether to welcome back students for on-campus learning this fall, a DC private school is taking to the parking lots.

Beauvoir, the private National Cathedral elementary school at 3500 Woodley Road NW (map), is applying to add temporary outdoor classroom space on its surface parking lots.

The proposal involves installation of four "learning cottages", and the 400-student school has applied for a zoning modification that would temporarily reduce the required parking minimums from 126 to 104 spaces.

On the parking lot adjacent to Beauvoir Circle, the first three cottages would be 50-by-14 feet, with a capacity of roughly 10 students and one teacher. The 28-by-8-foot fourth cottage ("Feel Good Cottage") would be across the street from a garden, providing space to evaluate any student who is experiencing COVID symptoms. The cottages would be removed at the end of the 2020-2021 school year.

Prior to the current public health emergency, the school had already touted that students go outside at least twice daily. The school head previously announced that the school is planning for students to return in early September.

The applicant is requesting a Board of Zoning Adjustment hearing to be scheduled next week.

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/northwest-private-school-proposes-portables-for-upcoming-year/17087