On October 1, 2026, Washington opened the new DC Infrastructure Academy campus at the former Spingarn High School in Ward 5. The $73 million investment turned a shuttered high school into a trades campus. The facility holds 50,000 square feet of renovated interior space plus 12,000 square feet of exterior training space, including an automotive lab and a Pepco training yard.
The academy launched in 2018. More than 6,500 District residents have trained through it, and more than 5,000 graduates have been matched to employment. Employer partners include DC Water, Pepco, Washington Gas, and WMATA. More than 300 participants graduated from the Pepco program alone with 95% employment, and a 20th Pepco cohort arrives in fiscal 2027.
Your city has an empty building and employers begging for workers too. The question is whether anyone has put those two facts in the same room yet. If not, that room is yours to book. Take this story to your mayor's office and your workforce board in the same week, with the same ask: which shuttered building, which three employers, which first cohort.
One caution for your admissions team: social posts are claiming this program pays $17 an hour to attend. No DC source states that. Do not repeat it. The verified story is strong enough without it.
The bottom line: the building is the easy part. The employer list at the end of the pipeline is the whole game.
Sources: DC Mayor's office release, October 1, 2026; DC Department of Employment Services materials.