From: "Steven Stricker"
Date: Thu Jun 19, 2003 8:49:33 AM US/Eastern
To:
Subject: Moves at Wilson

Mr. Derby,
I received your name as the contact for the Civic Association that
would have interest in issues regarding the Wilson Building, currently
an Arlington Public Schools swing space.

The current tenants of the facility are the Langston High School
Continuing Education Program and Head Start/ACAP. Both programs are
preparing to vacate the building in order to make way for Glebe
Elementary School, which will be occupying the building for the next
year and a half (through fall 2004).

The logistics of moving Langston out and Glebe in are such that we will
need to stage the Langston program in onsite storage trailers for about
one month until the new Langston facility is complete and ready for
occupancy. To accomplish this, we will park 4 storage trailers in the
large parking lot at Wilson starting on June 24th. The trailers will
remain on-site until they are moved over to the new Langston facility on
or about August 1st. In the meantime, Glebe will move into Langston
starting on or about June 30th.

This information is being relayed in an attempt to keep you and your
civic association informed as to these upcoming events at Wilson. Please
contact me should you have any questions or concerns in this regard.

*********************************************

Paul Derby 06/19/03 09:22AM >>>
Hello Mr. Stricker,

Thanks for the information regarding the moving logistics. I will
share this information with the North Rosslyn Civic Association. Which
parking lot is the "large parking lot" ? Is it the lot to the west of the trailer
facilities or is it the lot adjacent to the basketball
court?

Regards,

Paul Derby

*********************************************

From: "Steven Stricker"
Date: Thu Jun 19, 2003 9:44:28 AM US/Eastern
To:
Subject: Re: Moves at Wilson

Mr. Derby,
We will be using the lot directly southwest of the trailers. The lot
adjacent to the basketball court is not on Wilson Building property.

We wanted to let you know thatGlebeSchool's move into your neighborhood to theWilsonBuildingis slated to start on June 23rd. Many boxes are already packed and the kids are excited to begin their summer break.



It was very thoughtful of your (representative) to visit our PTA and I am sorry that I do not have a record of his name. I am the incoming PTA President forGlebeSchool. If it would be convenient for you, I would be very interested in meeting with someone from your Association over the summer. We would like to keep in communication with you and get to know your neighborhood. Our concerns are safety of our children and parking for families who may be visiting the school during the day or for events in the evening. We are also interested in your experience with other schools as they have rotated through the building and any concerns that have arisen. We do have a PTA committee focusing on the building including outside plantings, to see what can be done to beautify our temporary home.



Thank you for welcoming us to your neighborhood. Please give me a call or send a message anytime.



Tecla A. Murphy

Incoming PTA President

GlebeElementary School


**************************************


From: Paul Derby [mailto:Paul@PaulDerby.net]
Sent: Tuesday, June 17, 2003 9:02 AM
To: tecla.murphy@verizon.net; murphy.tecla@dol.gov
Subject: Re: Glebe Elementary School @ Wilson

Hello Ms. Murphy,


Thank your for your note. I'm the person that attended your PTA meeting and also attended your "Virginia" performance.


We share your concerns about the safety issues, building suitability, and parking. We want your stay in our neighborhood to be positive and we feel that Glebe School and the North Rosslyn Civic Association can work together to encourage both Arlington Public Schools and Arlington County to make the investments necessary to provide both safety and suitability.


Except for the last week of June and first week of July I should be around this summer. Let me know what works for you and your committee and we can meet at your convenience.


Regards,


Paul Derby


paul@paulderby.net

703-465-4770

**************************************

Paul,

Thank you for your quick response! I will be meeting this evening with our Executive Committee. As we begin to plan for next year, one of our greatest unknowns is to what extent we can hold the same events at the Wilson facility that we have traditionally held during the year at our Glebe Road building. While the limits of the Wilson facility pose some difficulties, there is a strong sense in our leadership that the main limitation to our functions during the coming year is parking. I recall that you had a number of promising suggestions about this and would be very interested in your recommendations. We also do not want our presence to create an undue burden on the resources of your neighborhood.

But over and beyond those immediate and practical concerns, I am hoping that we can build some bridges between our two communities. I'm not sure at this point what this would look like, but again, your thoughts on this would be welcome.

I will get back in touch with you soon, hopefully with a small committee engaged.

Thanks again,

Tecla Murphy



[This message was edited by Paul Derby on July 10, 2003 at 08:37 PM.]

From: Highview Homeowners Association
Date: Thu Jul 10, 2003 12:53:44 PM US/Eastern
To: tecla.murphy@verizon.net
Cc: Robert Smith , Sylvia Taub , Randolph Randall , Paul Ferguson , Marie Djouadi , Clarence Stukes , Ron Carlee , Walter Tejada , Mike Day , Randolph Randall , Steve Temmerand , Rosslyn Renaissance , Rosslyn Renaissance , David Lubs , Mark Antell , Kenneth Marcus , John Seal , Stephanie Benefield , Paul Derby , Joseph Famme , D. Ram Sarma , Dottie Dake , M Tauseef Ahmad , Carol Ann Perovshek
Subject: Glebe School at Wilson School

Hello Ms. Murphy,

It was good to meet with you and the committee representatives from the Glebe Elementary PTA. The residents in the North Rosslyn Civic Association (NRCA) are pleased that Glebe Elementary will be a part of our community for the next 18 months. We hope your stay here is the best it can be while your school is renovated.

I'll document the items we covered in our meeting and walk around on July 9th, 2003. I have copied the NRCA board as well as various Arlington County employees and Arlington Public Schools employees we have worked with to improve the Wilson School grounds and facilities. I have also copied the Rosslyn Renaissance/Rosslyn Business Improvement District office.

As we discussed, Wilson School is a neglected property and has deteriorated over a number of years to its present run down condition. Most people driving by the property probably think it is abandoned property. You and your colleagues concerns about neighborhood safety were noted and we hope that the walking tour of the neighborhood helped relieve your safety fears by showing that the condition of Wilson School is not representative of our neighborhood. We are proud of the small urban parks, the well maintained buildings with public art on display on the grounds, and the clean and maintained public sky walks and pedestrian paths in Rosslyn. We feel that our community is just as safe as all the communities in Arlington. However, we are ashamed of the current condition of Wilson School and are working best we can with APS and County Officials to improve this prominent public building in our community. We are committed to making your time in Rosslyn as pleasant as possible and we will continue to push for improvements to Wilson School, the school grounds, and we will do our best to welcome you as our friends and guests during your time in Rosslyn. Our community feels that education is a critical part our society and that students, faculty and staff deserve both permanent AND TEMPORARY quality educational facilities.

A great deal of work is being done to the interior or Wilson school. Not much has been done to the building exterior and grounds. Here are the items that I noted from our walk around:

- The fencing needs repair, especially on the west side between the main building and temporary trailers. There are a number of sharp, exposed surfaces as a result of the fencing support getting crushed. The gates need adjusting so the latches work.

- The sandbox area needs attention. You mentioned that a smaller sandbox might be better, or that this area might be a place for students to have a garden. Either way it needs preparation for whatever the end use will be.

- There are several areas of the brickwork that need tuck pointing. The mortar is completely missing along the drain spout on the front of the building. This may be part of the water infiltration problems the building is now experiencing. Tuck pointing and proper weep holes will also help keep mold from forming behind the walls.

- Most of the window frames are badly rusted. Most of the fascia and wood trim is warped and rotting, the exterior wood doors are in bad need of sanding, sealing and paint. There is cracked glass and windows that have boards instead of glass. The landscape plantings, especially surrounding the multi-purpose room, are overgrown and block much of the window space and natural light provided by the windows.

- The temporary trailers need power washing and painting to remove the stains that are streaking the sides of the buildings.

- We have been fighting rodent infestation in the neighborhood over the past 2 years. The building exterior needs a thorough inspection and the cracks and holes filled that provide rodent entry into the building. I have copied Dr. M Tauseef Ahmad, a veterinarian in the Department of Human Services Environmental Health department on this memo. He has done a great job working with the residents and business owners in our neighborhood to get the rodent problems under control. We hope APS will work with him to ensure Wilson School is not a haven for rats.

- We have asked Arlington County to move the pedestrian ramp on 18th street near the playground to line up with the sidewalk and to paint the street and add a sign for a pedestrian crossing. This is next to the area where the buses will load and unload and the most likely place where parents will pick up and drop off children that do not take the bus. This street is the least travelled street bordering the school, but it does get a fair amount of large delivery truck traffic for Safeway and CVS as well as car traffic to and from The Gallery parking ramp and the office building ramp. I showed this situation to Dottie Dake of the County Manager's office last February and to Randy Randall of Parks and Recreation last May. We hope that Arlington County adds this crosswalk which will help in traffic calming before school starts this Fall. We hope that Mr. Ram Sarma of Arlington County Traffic gets this improvement scheduled and completed.

- The lighting along the pedestrian walkway between Wilson School and Rosslyn Highlands Park has been restored to operation by Arlington County. The lighting was out for several years and it took some rewiring to get all the lighting operational. We noted that additional exterior lighting has been added to the school by APS.

- We worked with Carol Perovshek of Arlington County Parks to get Rosslyn Highlands Park listed in the emergency response system of the county, so if any medical or police assistance is needed in the park next to the school, the county response systems are ready to handle the situation. We haven't had any incidents of note at the park with the exception of a few people that like to go there and consume alcohol during the afternoons. If any of this behavior is noted, we hope the school reports it to the police non-emergency number at 703-558-2222.

- We talked a lot about parking during our meeting and walk around. I mentioned that the Rosslyn Renaissance/Rosslyn BID office is well connected to the property managers in the area and can possibly be of assistance in helping you prepare a list of nearby parking garages, the hours and the costs to park in these facilities. You can contact Jean Minahan for this information. Her number is 703-522-6628. She may be able to provide you with a map of the area that shows the location of the parking opportunities.

We have an active web presence for our civic association. Our web address is https://community.northrosslyn.org where you will find general information about the community as well as an active discussion group including discussions about Wilson School. Communications such as this are posted in the forum area of our web site so that we have a history of our initiatives and activities. We would welcome Glebe Elementary School as a member of our association for the time that you occupy the Wilson School Facility. That way your school can participate in our community discussions. Dues are only $10 per calendar year. A membership application is available on the web site.

There is a kick-off party for the newly formed Rosslyn Business Improvement District from 4-8 pm this Saturday, July 12, 2003, at Gateway Park across from the Key Bridge Marriott. There will be live music, food and a lot of fun! The event will feature performances by the 1960s girl-group review the Fabulettes, roots rock-and-rollers The Grandsons and a performance by the regional folk music group the Smith Sisters. Food vendors will be on hand. There is no charge to attend. We hope the Key Elementary community can come and enjoy this event.

And finally, we talked about public transportation access to Wilson School. Our community is fortunate to have a metro station with both blue and orange line trains and a major bus terminus at the Rosslyn Metro Station. The station is one long block and two short blocks from Wilson School. The Rosslyn Renaissance Map is a good way to see how close the school is to the bus and metro trains. If you use the sky walks you only have to cross one street, Oak Street at 18th street, to get from the metro and buses to Wilson School.

Best wishes and we look forward to the arrival of our new guests here in North Rosslyn,

Paul Derby, Director and Treasurer
North Rosslyn Civic Associaton