Gt 11 26 2014

Page 1

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Serving Burleith, Foxhall, Georgetown, Georgetown Reservoir & Glover Park

Vol. XXIV, No. 18

The GeorGeTown CurrenT

Marion Barry, District icon, dies at age 78

GU effort aims to help homeless in bitter cold

CoMIC RELIEf

■ outreach team: Ministry

Center partners with students

By GRAHAM VYSE Current Staff Writer

Marion Barry, the civil rights leader who served four terms as the District’s mayor, spent 15 years as a member of the D.C. Council and distinguished himself as the city’s most iconic and polarizing politician, died Sunday at 78. Barry, who was still serving as the Ward 8 Council member, reportedly collapsed outside his home due to heart failure just hours after being released from the hospital. It seemed as though every Washingtonian paused to take stock of the former mayor’s life in the ensuing days, and a variety of public figures released statements to mark his passing. Mayor Vincent Gray, who obtained Barry’s support in this year’s competitive Democratic primary, said he was deeply saddened to have lost “not just a colleague” but also “a friend with whom I shared many fond moments.” Mayor-elect Muriel Bowser, for whom Barry recently campaigned in this year’s general election, said her See Barry/Page 22

By KAT LUCERo Current Staff Writer

When Mayor Vincent Gray activated the city’s first cold-emergency alert of the season last Tuesday, a new program in Georgetown dispatched student volunteers to comb the streets. The “Hypothermia Outreach Team” scoured the area to find people without shelter and make sure they got supplies or a warm place to stay on the cold winter night. The

Plan to alter Rock Creek historic district delayed ■ Preservation: Confusion

leads board to table decision

Brian Kapur/The Current

Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School staged the whodunit “The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940” last weekend.

By GRAHAM VYSE Current Staff Writer

NEWS

Photo courtesy of D.C. Public Schools

Mayor-elect Muriel Bowser and Chancellor Kaya Henderson suprised Powell principal Janeece Docal at an event Thursday.

honor. “I really wasn’t expecting that,” she said. “I just keep my head down and do the work.” The principal added that she thinks her award is proof that Powell

students can beat expectations about what they can achieve. Asked to explain how the Ward 4 school made its academic strides — which include improving standardized test scores — Docal said, “I think we’ve focused a lot on highquality teachers. We’ve focused a lot on recruitment and retention.” The D.C. school system notes that the principal has also increased outreach to parents during her tenure. Moving forward, Docal is enthusiastic about ongoing construction at the school building that will result in a new library, new space for science and arts education, and a new green roof. “I’m excited to open in 2016 with two additional wings of the See Powell/Page 22

SPoR TS

Council taps former legislator to lead D.C. auditor’s office — Page 5

Local basketball squads begin year with high hopes — Page 11

By ELIZABETH WIENER Current Staff Writer

Powell’s principal earns top D.C. honors Janeece Docal of Powell Elementary has been chosen as the District’s Principal of the Year. D.C. Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson made the announcement last Thursday, praising Docal for increasing academic achievement and doubling enrollment at the Upshur Street school since she became principal in 2009. “She holds incredibly high expectations for her students [and] has built a team of people who deliver on those expectations every day,” Henderson said in a statement. In an interview, Docal said she was shocked to be selected for the

team is made up of dozens of Georgetown University students in a joint initiative with the Georgetown Ministry Center. “We want to make sure people are safe,” said Ray Shiu, who runs the program at the school as associate director of Georgetown University’s Center of Social Justice Research, Teaching and Service. The city issues a cold-emergency alert when the actual or predicted temperature (including the wind chill) falls to 15 degrees, or to 20 degrees with precipitation. To protect homeless residents from hypothermia, city agencies put in place See Homeless/Page 23

A proposed expansion of the Rock Creek Valley Historic District is temporarily on hold while the National Park Service and local preservation office clear up some confusion about its implications for District residents and their roads. Here’s what the change will do, according to preservation authorities: allow the Park Service to more clearly catalog historic resources in the park, dating back to prehistoric times and forward to a major upgrade in the mid-20th century. It will also expand historic district boundaries — but not the park itself — to include some adjacent fingers of land, including stream valleys that flow into the creek. Here’s what it won’t do, officials say: prevent the Park Service from upgrading comfort stations and tennis courts, or interfere with local road projects abutting the park. And no, it won’t impact a perennial dispute over Klingle Road, the former

SHERWooD

Memories of Mayor Barry’s rich legacy in District politics — Page 6

Brian Kapur/The Current

The long-standing friction over Klingle Road entered the debate over the expanded designation.

east-west road that runs through one of those stream valleys, which the District is now converting to a trail. The confusion was evident at a Historic Preservation Review Board hearing last Thursday, where several residents shared fears that the boundary expansion would be a land grab to ensure the abandoned roadbed won’t ever be turned back into a crosstown route for cars. Though the board assured witnesses the expansion will have no practical effect on adjacent roads, chair Gretchen Pfaehler agreed to hold up a vote until nearby advisory neighborhood commissions can be briefed again. She also asked for clearer and more accurate maps to See Parks/Page 23

INDEX Calendar/18 Classifieds/26 District Digest/4 Exhibits/19 In Your Neighborhood/12 Opinion/6

Police Report/8 Real Estate/41 School Dispatches/16 Service Directory/24 Sports/9 Theater/21

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