The historic Spingarn High School in Northeast will soon serve as DC Infrastructure Academy’s (DCIA) training center, all as part of an effort to prepare D.C. residents for an increasingly technological society.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) announced the $64 million transformation of the campus on Nov. 16 with Department of General Services director, and Spingarn alumnus Delano Hunter by her side.
Once completed, the facility will support DCIA’s mission of training D.C. residents for in-demand infrastructure careers. Since 2018, DCIA has connected D.C. government entities, universities, and private sector partners to provide training and create a pipeline to construction, energy and telecommunications jobs.
It has done so for more than 4,600 D.C. residents. As explained in previous reporting, D.C. residents depended on DCIA at the height of the pandemic when national unemployment skyrocketed. Amid the shifts, DCIA graduated cohorts who acquired skill sets for various fields of relevance in the D.C. metropolitan area.
The new state-of-the-art facility will include a 2,700-square-foot mechanical auto training lab for vehicle maintenance and training, a new exterior training yard to provide training on power and connection repair, along with outdoor training and social spaces. The existing school building will also be stabilized with various upgrades to the exterior and infusion of solar panels and electric vehicle charging stations.
Future Informer reporting will delve deeper into DCIA’s plans for Spingarn High School.
