Dear ECC Neighbors & Friends,
Some of you may have heard that we closed our therapeutic school in June 2019. The closure was one of the most difficult and heart breaking periods in ECC’s history, and was due in part to financial challenges.
Immediately after our closure, we received a number of calls from real estate developers and others inquiring about our willingness to sell our property. We took time to deliberate over how we wanted to proceed and thoughtfully considered what the next chapter for ECC could be.
We were approached by Maret School about leasing underutilized land for an athletic field. Earlier this year, we announced that our Board of Directors had signed a lease with them. They have a proposal to build athletic field space to benefit their students, community groups and our children on our campus.
The partnership will offer needed play space in the community for children, make significant improvements to an undeveloped section of our property, and provide the funding we need to reopen our therapeutic school in fall 2022. We are also planning to open an afterschool program at that time, serving mainly students living in the neighborhood or attending nearby schools.
The ECC is committed to continuing to answer questions from neighbors and friends about Maret’s proposal. We recently participated in a series of community meetings alongside the Maret School staff. In addition, we also collaborated with Maret School on a response letter to a series of 72 questions from neighbors.
Maret School’s proposal is being discussed through the Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC 3/4G) and an application was recently submitted by the Maret School to the D.C. Board of Zoning Adjustment (BZA).
For interested neighbors, there will be a Zoom meeting on Tuesday, November 16 at 6:00 p.m. You can sign up to attend. Community members have also been invited to provide their feedback directly through the online community input portal on the Maret School’s project web page. Input gathered from all of these sources will inform thinking and planning efforts moving forward.
ECC remains committed to our work and mission to serve children and their families with a focus on children coping with emotional and special education needs. These children require a nurturing environment with supports beyond what can be provided in their neighborhood schools.
As ECC moves toward reopening, we will be doing much-needed updates and maintenance to the interior of our buildings, including work on our aging plumbing and electrical systems. As we near construction starting in January 2022, we plan to keep neighbors abreast of our progress. We appreciate your consideration through this process.
Sincerely,
Stephanie Nash
CEO & President