It's a small, private elementary school nestled in a crowded urban setting. Located along 10th Avenue East in North Capitol Hill, the Bertschi School will celebrate its 30th anniversary next year. And small is a key word. By all accounts the school is cramped for space. While the school receives great praise as an institution of learning, some nearby residents are concerned about the Bertschi School's current expansion plans, plans that call for a significant expansion immediately south of the school.
"We are worried about effects the expansion will have on the neighborhood," said Larry Hettick, a north Capitol Hill resident who lives just west of the Bertschi School. A 12-year resident of the neighborhood, Hettick said that he and many of his neighbors are distressed over the Bertschi School's expansion plans.
First learning of them when a Master Use Permit was posted at the end of May, he and his neighbors were able to extend the comment period and attended a crowded public meeting on the subject in September. He said he and members of the North Capitol Hill Neighborhood Association (NCHNA) are hoping to generate significant concessions in the proposed addition in order to minimize the expansion impacts.
Origins
Originally from Switzerland, Brigette Bertschi began the school as a one-room pre-school in 1976. Moving to its current location a year later, the school has enrolled 204 students for the current academic year, serving children from Kindergarten to fifth grade. Class size averages 17 students, and roughly 20 percent of the students are students of color. The Bertschi School has a nine-to-one student-to-teacher ratio. There are 12 teachers and nine resource instructors.
The school, part of which is housed in an old church, is located in a mostly single-family neighborhood. The school places great emphasis on in integrated, cross-discipline curriculum, one that stresses the arts as well as strong academic fundamentals.
The school's expansion is not being done to allow for a dramatic increase in the student population; in fact, while plans call for re-establishing a pre-Kindergarten program, the increase in the student body is likely to be between 16 and 18 students, some of whom will probably be the younger brothers or sisters of current students.
According to Tracy Nordhoff, Bertschi's director of admissions, roughly 20 percent of the students are from the greater Capitol Hill area. But students come from all over the city as well as from the Eastside. Tuition does not come cheap - roughly $13,000 a year, although financial aid is available in some cases.
"This is all about the education needs of our students," Bertschi said. "The expansion comes from a strategic plan we developed in 2001. We've needed more space for years and we have always shared our strategic plans with the neighborhood."
One thing everyone agrees on is that the current school is simply too small. The expansion, Bertschi said, will create some breathing room. When complete, the school will have added nearly 5,000 square-feet for an open play area, more than doubling its current open space. Also included will be a new art room and a new music room, as well as new multi-purpose facility that will allow for much greater physical education and also serve as a performance space. Parking will be increased from five stalls to up to 18 underground spaces.
The Bertschi School expansion will take place south of the current school following the removal of the Reid Court apartments. The 17-unit apartment complex was bought by the school in 2001. The residents, Bertschi said, have known that the building would be removed at some future date.
The project is scheduled to cost $3.3 million. It is expected that most of the work will be complete before the beginning of the Fall 2005 academic year, with a grand opening planned for Spring 2006.
The neighbors' concerns primarily involve traffic and parking impacts. The school does not provide bus service, meaning parents must drive their children to school and pick them up each day. Roughly 400 round trips a day, concentrated in the morning and mid-afternoon, are a growing burden to the neighborhood, Hettick said.
Additionally, there is little parking at the school. While an upcoming expansion of a residential parking zone already in place on the east side of 10th Avenue East should help maintain parking resources for the neighborhood, parking, as in most Capitol Hill neighborhoods, remains a limited resource.
Removing the Reid Court apartments is another sore spot.
"Tearing down the Reid Court means a loss of some of this neighborhood's limited moderately priced housing," said Hettick. "There isn't that much of it in this part of Capitol Hill."
The new performance space is a specific worry to some residents. Carolyn Brady Sherwood said that the school's upcoming ability to hold events on-site, something it is unable to do at present, will substantially increase the burden the neighborhood must bear. Neighbors also worry that the current expansion is only a stop-gap measure, that the school will find itself in need of additional expansion in five or ten years.
"You have a school that began in a basement in 1976 and grew to more than 200 pretty much under the neighborhood's radar," she said. "No one has really looked at the impacts to the neighborhood."
Bertschi does not think the expansion will create much by way of additional impacts, noting that there is no possibility for future expansion to the west - existing houses and zoning won't allow for it - and that the student population will increase only slightly when the work is done.
Also, Bertschi said that the school is committed to remaining an elementary school: "We have no plans on creating a junior high or high school in our future. Our intention is to maintain our status as an elementary school."
As for mitigations, Bertschi said the school has expanded the drop-off time in the morning as a way to help minimize the traffic crunch and hired a parking monitor. For events that will be held once the expansion is complete, she said a shuttle bus will be used to bring people to the school from another location. Bertschi added that it is undetermined whether the school's graduation ceremony will take place on-site in the future.
Hettick said that he hopes an agreement can be signed between the Bertschi School and NCHNA, similar to one signed between the neighborhood and Seattle Prep, a short walk away on the east side of 10th Avenue East, in 1996. He's hoping for an enrollment cap. And he hopes that NCHNA and the Bertschi School board will be able to meet soon.
Sherwood said the neighborhood thinks highly of the Bertschi School as an academic institution. But she thinks the location, even with the coming expansion, is simply insufficient for its needs.
"The school is thriving and growing, and it should grow. What they're doing there is fabulous. But they're trying to shoehorn into a fragile, urban area. This site just cannot accommodate a larger vision for the school," she said. "This isn't against building anything - my house has a four-story apartment next to the back yard. But we do need to look at development in this neighborhood."
For her part, Brigette Bertschi also said she wants to be able to sign an agreement of understanding and is willing to state that the school intends to remain an elementary school. She said she expects a meeting with the neighborhood will be scheduled shortly.
"We're just beginning that dialogue now," she said. "We want a healthy partnership with the neighborhood and we are part of this community. I hope we can come to an agreement very soon."
Doug Schwartz is the editor of the Capitol Hill Times. He can be reached at editor@capitolhilltimes.com or 461-1308.
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