Read the latest Ward 5 news in the
Councilmember’s weekly newsletter:
Read the latest Ward 5 news in the Councilmember’s weekly newsletter:
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LATEST WARD 5 WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
April 17, 2026
Dear Ward 5 neighbors,
With DC Public Schools on spring break, the Council on a brief recess before budget oversight, and DC Emancipation Day yesterday, it was a quiet week in the Wilson building. Even still, my team and I are hard at work preparing for budget hearings, following up on constituent services requests, and connecting with neighbors at community events.
This season provides numerous opportunities for you to make your voice heard for the future of the District. It is hard to overstate how critical it is for neighbors to submit written testimony and/or sign up to testify for the Council’s budget oversight hearings, which will start in earnest this coming Monday, April 20. We need to hear about your experiences with District agencies, and where you think our money should and should not go to ensure we are delivering for residents and streamlining services. You can view the schedule of hearings here, and when you click on a hearing and select “See hearing details,” you’ll see two buttons that make it easy to either “Submit Testimony” or “Register to Testify.”
Some highlights of upcoming hearings include the Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) on Monday, April 27, the Department of Transportation (DDOT) on Monday, April 27, and the Office of Unified Communications (OUC) and Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) on Wednesday, April 29. These are just a few examples of hearings where you can weigh in on how we allocate our resources to these agencies, and I hope you’ll take time to view the full schedule and consider where you will show up and speak up.
LATEST WARD 5 WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
Showing Up and Speaking Up
April 17, 2026
Dear Ward 5 neighbors,
With DC Public Schools on spring break, the Council on a brief recess before budget oversight, and DC Emancipation Day yesterday, it was a quiet week in the Wilson building. Even still, my team and I are hard at work preparing for budget hearings, following up on constituent services requests, and connecting with neighbors at community events.
This season provides numerous opportunities for you to make your voice heard for the future of the District. It is hard to overstate how critical it is for neighbors to submit written testimony and/or sign up to testify for the Council’s budget oversight hearings, which will start in earnest this coming Monday, April 20. We need to hear about your experiences with District agencies, and where you think our money should and should not go to ensure we are delivering for residents and streamlining services. You can view the schedule of hearings here, and when you click on a hearing and select “See hearing details,” you’ll see two buttons that make it easy to either “Submit Testimony” or “Register to Testify.”
Some highlights of upcoming hearings include the Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) on Monday, April 27, the Department of Transportation (DDOT) on Monday, April 27, and the Office of Unified Communications (OUC) and Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) on Wednesday, April 29. These are just a few examples of hearings where you can weigh in on how we allocate our resources to these agencies, and I hope you’ll take time to view the full schedule and consider where you will show up and speak up.
2026 Progress Report
Entering the fourth year of his first term, Councilmember Parker shared a Progress Report looking over all we’ve accomplished together since 2023. These years have been marked by resilience and results. Councilmember Parker has been focused on Standing Up for DC, Serving the Community, Advancing Bold Policy, and Fighting for DC Youth. View the full report and see more of what we achieved together here.
COUNCILMEMBER ZACHARY PARKER
Since taking office in January of 2023, Zachary has delivered for Ward 5 residents through responsive constituent services and significant budget wins. He has introduced dozens of transformative pieces of legislation, including bills to establish the District’s State Superintendent of Education’s School Support Office to improve low-performing schools, and the District Child Tax Credit which provides low-income and middle-class families fully refundable tax credits for children 17 years of age and younger.
LEGISLATION
Since taking office, Councilmember Parker has introduced more than 30 pieces of legislation, and co-introduced more than 150 additional bills. Learn about Councilmember Parker’s legislation, co-introductions, and committee assignments on the Legislation page.
COUNCILMEMBER ZACHARY PARKER
Ward 5 Councilmember Zachary Parker is an educator and a public servant. He taught 7th-grade math in New Orleans, post-Katrina, with Teach For America, and spent nearly a decade supporting DC school administrators at Ward 5 schools like Dunbar High School and Mundo Verde PCS.
Zachary sees firsthand the human impact of a system that leaves our most vulnerable behind. He grew up watching his oldest brother struggle with a one-size-fits-all school system that did not have the resources to support him, and now sees the challenges he faces in life because of it.
And Zachary suffered alongside his middle brother through a long and exhaustive battle with a healthcare system that treated him more like a problem than a patient before he ultimately passed away at 36 from kidney failure. These shouldn’t be the experiences families have when interacting with our public institutions. Zachary has dedicated his life’s work to transforming the systems that failed his brothers and so many like them.
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