James F. Oyster Bilingual Elementary School, Washington, District of Columbia, United States

Project Summary:

Background

The James F. Oyster Bilingual Public Elementary School was almost closed in 1993 due to the poor physical state of the building and a lack of public capital funds to rehabilitate it. This motivated the establishment of a PPP between the District of Colombia’s Public School District, which controlled the school and site; the District of Colombia municipal government (municipality), which owned the site and was responsible for levying property taxes; and a national real estate development company.

Project Structure

The municipality recognized that the school was situated in an attractive neighborhood, such that the property on which the school was located had added value. Acknowledging the real value of the property, the municipality agreed to allow the private developer to develop an apartment building adjacent to the school, which would generate the cash flow needed to finance a new school building.

The private developer tore down the old school and divided the school property in half. One portion was reserved for building a new school, and the other half was set aside for the development of a nine-story, 211-unit upscale apartment building. Per the PPP contract, the school’s design was carefully overseen by the School Board, with input from the community. A USD 200,000 grant from the Ford Foundation helped to pay for the initial design and planning.

To fund the construction of the new school building, the municipality issued USD 11 million in 35-year, tax-exempt bonds, repayable entirely from the revenue generated by the private apartment building. Thus, the school was rehabilitated at no cost to the taxpayers.

Lessons Learned

The school re-opened in 1998. It consists of a three-story brick building equipped with a computer lab, library, gymnasium, 33 underground parking spaces, classrooms designed to accommodate the school’s bilingual program, office space for after school programs, and other spaces available for community use.¹

The case showcases innovative exploitation of space around a public asset. By leveraging a portion of the valuable land parcel on which the school sits, the project was able to generate sustainable revenues to fund the refurbishment of the public asset, which otherwise would not have been possible using public school construction funds alone.

Footnote 1: Source(s):https:// www.esc-pau.fr/ppp/ documents/featured_ projects/usa_oyster_ school.pdf accessed 15 February 2019

https://www.edweek. org/ew/articles/2001/ 09/05/01oyster.h21.html accessed 15 February 2019

https://www. washingtonpost. com/archive/ local/1998/09/14/ as-schoolsreopen- problemsreturn/ 69d431c1-07b3- 4a43-a170-b35e896 dc29c/?noredirect= on&utm_term=.f4023 f0a5410 accessed 15 February 2019