Duke Ellington is a school like no other. That shouldn’t change.

Ellington is the only public arts school in D.C. It now is operated by D.C. Public Schools, the Kennedy Center and George Washington University, but the city announced it is going to assume full operation of the school. That’s a grave concern to students and alumni, who fear full city control will erode the arts-based programming at the school.

Nearly all Ellington students — approximately 70 percent Black, with 30 percent coming from low-income families — travel by multiple modes of public transportation to the school’s affluent Georgetown neighborhood. Some take two buses and a train to have a school day that is 50 percent longer than average to study alongside other Black artists. Any significant change to the arts program would negatively affect Black students during one of the most tumultuous times D.C. has seen in more than a decade.

In early 2010, the D.C. government faced backlash from Ellington parents who opposed plans to relocate the public arts school near Union Station and return the existing site to public school use. The Ellington community was vocal about its belief that the relocation proposal was driven by neighborhood parents’ eagerness to use the school for their children. In Ward 2, the population is 70 percent White. The D.C. government agreed to maintain the Georgetown site and moved forward with renovations that exceeded the initial budget by at least $100 million.

When we talk about reparations for the descendants of people enslaved on this land, Black cornerstones such as the Duke Ellington School of the Arts should be included. Despite the extreme failures of adults, Ellington has benefited generations of Black youths, and maintaining its arts program should be a priority for all who hold that power.

Ellington guarantees a free education that cultivates interests beyond the traditional academic landscape. It ensures that all students have access to a future beyond what their surroundings have chosen for them. That’s critically important for those in underfunded neighborhoods whose education is largely neglected by city officials.

D.C. surpassed 200 murders in 2021 — its highest murder tally since 2003. Cohesively, D.C. officials’ plans to address the increase in violence emphasize programs and resources for D.C. youths that reroute their focus to activities that contribute to their growth and development and minimize opportunities for poor decision-making or influence. In 2020, 17 out of 20 schools that received budget cuts were in low-income wards in D.C., and studies demonstrate the correlation between environment and overall trajectory. Ellington gives those Black students, the D.C. children who need it most, an opportunity to receive an education equal to that of their neighbors.

“Since stepping into 3500 R Street NW to audition for the Theater Department, I gained an entire family filled with Ellington students, alumni, teachers and supporters,” said Micha Green, digital content D.C. editor for the Afro-American newspaper and a former Ellington student and instructor. “Ellington is Ellington outside of its address in Georgetown. I witnessed that when the school was displaced.”

Green was an instructor throughout the renovation, when the school relocated to the U Street Corridor. She continued, “It has superseded its physical location, because Ellington lives in every person who walks through its doors. Nothing can erase the Duke Ellington School of the Arts legacy established by its founders, Mike Malone and Peggy Cooper Cafritz, and it deserves to be valued and protected.”

If Black lives matter in D.C., prove it when resources predominantly serving Black communities are at risk. For me and many artists I’ve met through the Duke Ellington School of the Arts community, creativity is the driver of our existence. For much of my life, I thought I was alone. At Ellington, it was normal to have a notepad full of puns or to recite lines from August Wilson’s “Fences.” It was that unintentional quirkiness that, when nurtured, paved the way for much more. Each day, the essence of Ellington reaffirmed our existence through its arts curriculum and showed us that it’s okay to be off the beaten path because, in the end, there will be more like you.