Eagle Academy Public Charter School Breaks Ground on
State of the Art Eagle Center in Ward 8
First Integrated Community Services School, LEED Certified, for Washington, D.C.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (Washington, D.C.) – Washington D.C.’s first early childhood public
charter school, Eagle Academy Public Charter School, today announced the launch of their new
integrated community service school, The Eagle Center, at a Groundbreaking Ceremony held at the new
facility located in Ward 8 at 3400 Wheeler Road, SE. Leading the groundbreaking ceremony were Mayor
Vincent Gray, Council Chairman Kwame Brown, Ward 8 Councilmember Marion Barry, ANC8E
Commissioner Melvin Sims, and Eagle Academy’s Founder and Executive Director Cassandra Pinkney.
Eagle Academy Public Charter School, established in 2003, is a high-performing community school
providing an innovative academic program to young children, from PreK-3 through Grade 3, free of
charge. In 2011, the city awarded Eagle Academy a 67,000 square feet school in Ward 8 – the former
McGogney Elementary School - to develop The Eagle Center. Eagle Academy is currently renovating
and building a state-of-the-art, green facility that will include the school, a parents/community center,
gymnasium, indoor pool, and a community health center. The Eagle Center will be the first full service
community school of its kind in all of the Washington, DC area. It is estimated the renovated facilities
will be ready for occupation by July 2013.
Based on Eagle Academy Public Charter School’s eight years of experience serving children and families
from Ward 8 (72% of our students), and conversations with Ward 8 Advisory Neighborhood
Commissioners, and consultations with DC officials, the charter school decided two years ago to move its
high-performing school to Ward 8. Through a competitive process, the District awarded Eagle the former
McGogney Elementary School in October 2011. The project will cost $20 million dollars with primary
financing for the project from BB&T Bank.
“The Eagle Center will be the first public school in DC to which many other urban school districts would
come to see how to turn around an underserved community,” said Cassandra Pinkney, Founder/Executive
Director. “The establishment of this unique, first-of-its-kind model program of a Full Service
Community School will provide a framework for structuring similar programs across the country.”
"BB&T is proud to have provided financing for this innovative school as part of the bank's mission of
making the communities in which we work better places to be. We value quality education and the
impact it can have on communities,” stated Dan Waetjan, BB&T DC Metro Region President.
The facility will be renovated utilizing healthy and sustainable building design, construction and
operations, including energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, improved indoor
environmental quality, and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts. The renovated
building and the new addition for the gym, pool, and Healthplex will be at minimum LEED Silver.
The Eagle Center represents a strategy that integrates, under one roof, a continuum of supports:
academics (for 3-8 year-olds), Early Head Start (for 0-3 year-olds), Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)
center, medical services, mental health services, dentistry, social services, cultural opportunities,
community development, and recreational opportunities to improve student learning, develop stronger
families, and create healthier neighborhoods.
The Eagle Center project was made possible by the following partners: Mayor Vincent Gray, BB&T,
Holland & Knight, Blake Real Estate, Shinberg Levinas, TenSquare, Building Hope, Whiting-Turner, and
the Office of the State Superintendent of Education.
For additional information on Eagle Academy Public Charter School and its programs and services visit:
http://www.eagleacademypcs.org/.
Press Release Download click here
The Eagle Center Photo Package click here
