Parents Pushing DCPS for Kindergarten in Navy Yard

A group of Navy Yard parents are organizing to make sure Van Ness Elementary School will have a kindergarten class when it reopens next year.

After closing in 2006 due to dwindling enrollment, the 1150 5th St. SE school is set to open in fall 2015. But D.C. Public Schools representatives have told parents they will only offer kindergarten at Van Ness if they can be sure at least 22 children will be enrolled.

Tracking down families who are seeking public kindergarten seats in fast-changing Navy Yard has proved difficult, Kelly Störmer, president of the Van Ness Parents’ Group said.

“We’ve put more blood, sweat and tears into this than DCPS could have imagined,” said Störmer, who has a son in pre-kindergarten 3. Parents run phone banks, canvass door-to-door and contact parents through neighborhood listservs.

Community meetings about the school will be held at 6 p.m. tomorrow (Tuesday) at Van Ness Elementary, and at 6 p.m. Thursday at the James Creek Resident Council Office (100 N St. SW).

Störmer said she and her group are pushing for DCPS to make a “data-based decision.” DCPS, which declined to comment on plans for a kindergarten class, could draw from the surveys the parents’ group collects, or it could include Van Ness in the school lottery for the fall.

“The reality is that this is a very exciting opportunity for our changing neighborhood,”Störmer said.