Mayor Fenty Cuts The Ribbon For Cooke!

On July 29th, Mayor Fenty, Councilmember Jim Graham and an enthusiastic crowd cut the ribbon to officially dedicate the modernized Cooke School. Although the School will not be officially open until August 24th, parents and community members were allowed a brief look at the new Library/Media Center, with its restored balconies and skylight. Construction workers will be busy from now until school starts, taking care of final details, preparing the school for an onslaught of staff and students.

Landscaping shaping up; planning for the big move!

Landscaping, gardens and play areas are taking shape.  The huge cast concrete stormwater

filter tanks have been buried; the retaining walls and entry ramps are almost complete on

the front, south side and rear of the building.   Cooke Principal Kathleen Black has received 400 cardboard boxes to start packing up for the big move.  It should be a busy summer! 

Down To The Wire (and floor tile and kitchen sink!)

We just toured the building yesterday with Principal Black, Project Managers Akilah Darden and Beth Penfield, Tony Robinson from the Office of Facilities Modernization, and Anthony deGuzman from the Chancellor's Office.  It's looking great, and by great, I mean unbelievable!

It's hard to imagine that this was awarded the distinction of Worst DC Public Elementary Facility by the Corps of Engineers in 1999 - it is shaping  up to be a really great place to teach and learn.

We recently asked for the 'Fresh Cook' program, run by Chartwells/Thompson Food Service, to be included in the Kitchen.  This is a new system of breakfast and lunch delivery where, instead of precooking the food at a central kitchen, packaging and delivering to individual schools where it's reheated, Fresh Cook brings fresh, locally-grown, organic when possible, healthy food to be cooked onsite.  Not only is the food lower in fat, salt, sugar and cholesterol (and tastes great), but it offers the possibility of students preparing and cooking food that they have grown in their schoolyard gardens - this in turn, makes them more receptive to trying new things, like broccoli, that they otherwise might reject.  In the process, they learn about nutrition and healthy eating, which can address obesity in children and their families.Go DCPS!  

Cooke School Enters The Home Stretch

Lots of progress to report: Gymnasium closed in, elevator/stairwell almost finished,

second sand filter buried in South greenspace to capture stormwater headed to Euclid St.

Proposal by School Improvement Team to implement the DCPS 'Fresh Cook' program which brings fresh food cooked on-site, with a healthy diet lower in salt, sugar, cholesterol; hopefully to partner with Whole Foods Market's 'City Fresh' program, started in Baltimore, that brings locally-grown organic food for students and also for families.  

Major construction closing in !

The Gymnasium,  otherwise known as the CafeGymnaTorium is well on its way to completion in the last month of 2008.

New CafeGymnaTorium Rises At Cooke!

The new Gymnasium/Cafeteria/Auditorium takes shape behind the original 1908 building.  The fabricated steel beams that make up the upper walls were so big they needed all three lanes of Mozart Place to maneuver the flatbed 18-wheelers that brought them to the site.  It's reeeally big, much bigger than it looks on paper.  The original  Assembly Room, quite the innovation of its time, now becomes the Library/Media Center.   With 22-foot classic columns, balconies and newly opened skylight, it will look even better than when it was built, 100 years ago.

Starting To Look Like A School!

Lots of progress on Cooke School - Major structural modifications are out of the way,

new electric service taking shape, new front entrance visible, elevator/stairwell coming together.