Meet MacArthur High School, DCs first new high school in 50 years

July 26, 2024

The new paint had dried, and the lockers were empty. Inside, a layer of dark green carpet had been torn up and replaced with white-and-gray flooring. After years of preparation — and a final dash to spruce up the campus, welcome families and finalize class schedules — the new high school was ready to open its doors.

Tucked in the Palisades neighborhood of Upper Northwest, MacArthur High School opened Monday, marking D.C.’s first new traditional public high school in more than 50 years. The campus will be home to 200 ninth-graders and 50 10th-graders this year, then slowly expand until it reaches between 800 and 1,000 students by the 2027-28 school year.

The $46 million campus, formerly owned by Georgetown Day School, was opened primarily to alleviate crowding at nearby Jackson-Reed, the city’s largest high school. Students will have access to a menu of honors courses, from AP modern history to pre-calculus and Italian.

London Foster, 33, and her 14-year-old son, Kevin, said those opportunities brought them to the school from their home across the city, in Ward 7. “I like the opportunities it gives, and it will help build college credits,” said Kevin, who is interested in engineering.

Its opening has also raised questions about how leaders will ensure diversity and how students, particularly those commuting from other parts of D.C., will get to school. The nearest Metro station, in Tenleytown, is three miles away. School leaders said the district has worked with WMATA to add more buses to the closest bus routes — the D6 and the 33 — and vowed to keep access for all students a priority.

On the first day at the school known as MacArthur — district officials are still settling on a permanent name — students walked alone and in small groups from the bus stops. Some parents dropped off in Subarus and Hondas and Mercedes. Teachers and staff eagerly welcomed students into the building, dishing out “good mornings” and bright-blue class schedules.

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Charlie Slack, 14, was one of a few students to ride a bike. “I’m excited to start off the school year and get into a routine after summer break,” said the ninth-grader. “I think it’ll be a good experience.”

In the days before opening, MacArthur hosted a handful of events to prepare for its first year. During an open house Saturday, Principal Harold McCray led parents and teens through newly decorated classrooms, a brand-new cafeteria, a black-box theater and an upgraded gym — its floors still smelling of fresh wood. A social worker spoke Spanish to a small group as she led the way into a classroom where the teacher had hung dozens of countries’ flags from the ceiling.

School leaders shared the promise of a STEAM school — an acronym for science, technology, engineering, art and math — and new construction. D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser’s fiscal 2024 budget includes $77 million to expand the campus so it can house more students.

At a beautification event where families cleared brush, sanded benches and pruned trees, parents said they looked forward to the prospect of molding a new school.

“This was a really exciting opportunity to be part of something brand new and be able to steer the direction of the school,” said Andrew McGuire, 56, whose ninth-grader is coming from Edmund Burke, a private school in Northwest Washington. He said the family won their seat through the school lottery.

Avia Pasternak, 48, whose son also attended a private middle school, likes the size of the school.

“It’s small but not too small,” she said while cutting away dead vines on a humid Thursday before the first day of school. MacArthur is the family’s neighborhood school. “It’s exciting to be a part of this.”

The high school’s creation divided its wealthy corner of D.C., with some residents arguing that it would bring more traffic. Families, however, said the area urgently needed a new school to reduce crowding at Jackson-Reed High, which has grown so much in recent years that some classrooms moved to portable trailers to fit its more than 2,000 students.

It was a challenge unique to Ward 3, home to the city’s highest-performing public schools. In most other wards, public schools are under-enrolled as families opt for charter schools in large numbers. But it could take three to four years — when MacArthur is estimated to be full — before Jackson-Reed will feel relief, said Lewis D. Ferebee, chancellor of D.C. Public Schools.

As MacArthur grows, parents said, they want a population that reflects D.C. and not its mostly White enclave in Ward 3. “I’m very curious about the demographics of the school,” said Diana Alonzo Watkins, 48, who works in philanthropy and fundraising. The crowd who showed up to the beautification event was “a very good sign,” she said.

Officials did not share demographic data; the city typically releases preliminary figures in late fall. It is also unclear what proportion of students are in-boundary vs. coming from other parts of the city. Ferebee said most of the students are from Hardy Middle School, where more than half the students are children of color.

As the final students trickled in, Deandrei James Jr. posed for photos. “I hope it’s good,” the ninth-grader, who is taking a full load of AP classes, said about his new school. His family commuted about 30 minutes from their home in Southeast Washington.

The teen’s father, Deandrei James Sr., managed to take a few last-minute photos before his son’s first class at 9 a.m. “It’s 8:50,” the younger Deandrei complained. “I’m gonna be late!”

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