Our last year on the 16th Street campuses was one of major transitions. Teachers knew the school was bound for a bigger and permanent address after six years in temporary spaces in churches, a house, a trailer and a Sikh center. Still, during the 2012-2013 year, teachers were wistful about parting from the non-traditional spaces that had become our “homes” on Decatur, Allison, and Upshur Streets NW.
Upper School French teacher Ms. Karen Lambert had taught for several years in public schools before taking a lengthy maternity leave, then joining Washington Latin in 2011. She said she found the Decatur campus intimate and upbeat, even though her room was so tiny that she couldn’t have the classroom and closet doors open at the same time.
Other teachers had fond memories of their classrooms, however uncommon the spaces.
Upper School English teacher Mr. Nathan Day, who joined the school in 2010, also enjoyed the small, shared spaces. “The fact that it was a house helped foster close, relaxed, familial relationships with students, and a sense that we were all in this work together. I also remember Joe Starnes’ speech at the 2013 Valediction, about how he didn’t want to leave Latin… and he’s currently teaching and advising my 5th grade daughter Alice (whom I remember carrying into Decatur in her infant car seat one afternoon).”
Seventh grade Youth Empowerment Seminar and English teacher Mr. Joe Green started as an intern (“teaching fellow”), in September of 2007, becoming full-time the following year. His classroom was also cramped and occasionally uncomfortable. He had 22 students in each class, and one single window A/C unit to keep the place cool. In the sweltering heat of June and September, this was particularly hard. “Everyone was schvitzing, just drenched, including me,” he adds, noting that “on the other hand, persevering through those conditions and still being able to teach and learn is what helped lay the groundwork for the community we have in Latin today.”
Upper School English teacher Ms. Laurel Seid joined the school in 2010 in the Decatur library, before becoming Director of the Upper School the following year. She enjoyed the esprit de corps that grew from the non-traditional environments the school inhabited. She fondly recalls walking with students between the Allison and Decatur campuses, even in the rain, snow, cold and heat. She also enjoyed forming the school’s redesigned Community Council and helping them write a constitution in the mildewy, windowless yellow room in the basement of Decatur, with the help of 2012 graduates St. Claire Detrick-Jules and Ingrid Medina, and 2013 graduate and current teacher Joe Starnes.
Still, when the time came to depart these eclectic spaces and consolidate all eight grades into a single campus on 2nd Street in 2013, teachers were thrilled to be starting a new chapter with spaces that offered a full service of activities. Sixth grade science teacher Ms. Teresa Dobler joined Latin in the fall of 2010. She remembers packing up the science room at the Upshur campus, excited to have storage closets in the new building and to have a room with a sink.
“At Upshur I would often send kids back and forth to the bathroom during labs for water and hand washing, so a sink was such an exciting upgrade!” remembers Ms. Dobler.
Now that we have been at the current campus for nine years, we have started to take the simple pleasures of this space for granted, but it is a pleasant reminder to take a walk through the memories with the teachers who made the move from the 16th Street campuses to this one at 2nd Street and see how the world of Latin has changed and grown.
Valete!
Head of School