With District of Columbia Public Schools set to open Monday, the temporary campus housing Burrville Elementary students in Ward 7 still has doors being installed, dead electrical outlets, and classrooms teachers describe as cluttered and unfinished. Construction crews were still doing concrete leveling and taking window measurements as recently as Friday, leaving educators scrambling to set up rooms before students arrive.
The swing site sits at the Kenilworth campus in Ward 7, where Burrville Elementary students have been relocated while their home school undergoes a complete rebuild, according to DC News Now. Lisa Haynes, vice president of the Washington Teachers' Union, told the outlet that “today is better than yesterday, but still a lot of work is being done.” Haynes said an issue with the construction permit contributed to the delays, and she questioned what contingency plan exists if the building isn't ready in time.
Haynes described a laundry list of unresolved problems at the site: “Doors are still being installed. Some of the electrical outlets don't work. There are missing items. Some teachers can't find their belongings to set up their classrooms.” She also said materials didn't arrive on time, compounding the crunch as the district's Monday start date approaches.
Teachers Say Contract Prep Time Was Cut Short
Beyond the physical condition of the building, Haynes raised concerns that teachers did not receive the contractual 1.5 hours guaranteed for classroom setup. Teachers do have the option to work Saturday and Sunday ahead of the opening, but for some educators, the extra weekend hours don't erase the disruption. One unidentified teacher put it starkly: “Our kids don't deserve it. And you almost feel like, am I adding to new trauma that they're going to have to face?” Another teacher said their classroom situation heading into Monday would be really disappointing.
Classrooms and hallways were cluttered and unfinished as of Thursday, and unidentified teachers said the swing site is not the safe space students need on day one. Chancellor Jackson visited the Burrville swing space Friday as crews continued work, and a DCPS spokesperson said the district has deployed additional operations staff to support the Kenilworth opening. DCPS says it is working around the clock with partners at the Department of General Services and remains confident the building will be ready by Monday.
A Site With a Long History of Compressed Timelines
The Kenilworth swing space at 1300 44th Street NE is itself mid-construction, undergoing a roughly 6,700-square-foot multipurpose and kitchen addition meant to replace a temporary “bubble” structure nearing the end of its life, according to DC Public Schools. The facility has hosted a rotating cast of displaced school communities in recent years, temporarily housing Thomas Elementary during the 2024–2025 school year and Whitlock Elementary in 2022 before Burrville students arrived. DCPS had previously sought extended construction permits from the D.C. Department of Buildings in early 2025 to allow evening and weekend work at Kenilworth after permit delays threatened the project's schedule, a pattern documented by East of the River, which also noted that Ward 7 residents raised concerns over noise and parking tied to the after-hours work.
Burrville's original 1979 building at 801 Division Avenue NE is undergoing an 84,000-square-foot complete demolition and replacement, a project not slated for completion until Summer 2028 ahead of the 2028–2029 school year. That timeline was shaped in part by a review from the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, which raised concerns over classical architectural guidelines for the 47-year-old structure before delegating final design review to staff in April, as reported by The 51st.
One of Nine Swing Sites Districtwide
Burrville is not alone. DCPS designated nine total campuses to operate out of temporary swing space locations across the District for the 2026–2027 school year, including Brent, Burroughs, Chisholm, Drew, King, Ketcham, Seaton, and Whittier elementary schools, as construction rolls forward on their permanent buildings. Swing-site relocations are a standard tool DCPS uses while executing multi-year capital modernizations, but the compressed timelines have drawn scrutiny before. In 2016, permitting delays and community pushback forced DCPS to delay the Hyde-Addison Elementary project and scramble for alternative swing space at the Meyer campus, a scenario chronicled at the time by The Washington Post.
Ahead of Monday's opening, the D.C. Department of General Services completed environmental water sampling and lead testing at the “Burrville @ Kenilworth” site this week, part of routine safety compliance District regulations require before students return. Haynes was elected general vice president of the Washington Teachers' Union in June 2025 on the “Educators Taking Action” reform slate, bringing four decades of experience as a special education inclusion teacher to a role that has put her at the center of raising alarm over classroom readiness and contract compliance at Burrville's temporary home.
Hoodline previously reported on a similar race against the clock at Malcolm X Elementary's Ward 8 rebuild, another DCPS modernization project pushed up against a tight construction timeline. Whether Burrville's swing site will be fully ready when students walk in Monday remains to be seen, but for now, teachers and union leaders say the scramble is already taking a toll on the start of the school year.
