As wave of projects begin to sprout, so do disputes
Cross-posted from theWashington Post Written by Jonathan O’Connell
New apartments and shops are spreading into neighborhoods across the Washington region, with developers looking to capitalize on a better-than-average economy and a massive influx of young adults.
Apartment hunters have wider options, more residents have grocery stores in their neighborhoods and, with dozens of new restaurants and bars, Washington has begun to change its reputation as a gray-suit government town.
Many residents are celebrating the changes. But others aren’t.
And as this new wave of development rises, a chasm between its champions and its skeptics is beginning to show.
In Northeast D.C., Ivy City residents have sued to try to prevent Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) from relocating a bus depot for dozens of private buses into their neighborhood to make way for upgrades at Union Station.
In Washington Highlands, one of the poorest parts of the District, public housing residents sued the D.C. Housing Authority out of concern that they would be permanently displaced from their homes when their units at Highland Dwellings were refurbished.
It isn’t just the low income or disenfranchised who are fighting back. In Wheaton, residents turned away a mixed-use proposal pushed by Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett (D). Residents in Reston have formed an advocacy group, Rescue Reston, and say they have gathered 650 signatures opposing the possible redevelopment of Reston National Golf Course.
There have always been battles between residents and the developers, planners and city officials proposing alterations to neighborhoods. But with the economy gaining steam and apartment construction booming, disputes that faded during the recession are beginning to boil again.
“I think in many ways it’s the same, but now we have many more examples of how these communities are getting screwed over,” said Parisa Norouzi, director of the community organizing group Empower D.C.
‘No trust’
Empower D.C. battled former mayor Adrian M. Fenty’s attempts to close excess schools and lease the buildings to developers, projects that Norouzi said were driven by “gentrification or private profit.” She says those battles have better prepared residents and organizers for disputes such as the bus relocation, which Empower D.C. and residents are fighting in D.C. Superior Court. “At this point, there is really no trust in the process,” she said.
A hearing on the case is expected Tuesday. A Gray spokesman declined to comment.
In other instances, the opponents to zoning changes or development are the well-heeled. Neighborhoods in wealthier parts of Northwest D.C. are raising concerns about parking shortages under proposed changes to the District’s zoning code, while in Reston the concern is a lack of green space should the golf course’s owner try to build a project to capitalize on the construction of two Silver Line Metro stations nearby.
Some Wheaton residents rejected plans to create a mixed-use downtown project because it might resemble the redevelopment of Silver Spring — a success to some but not others. “We know how many small businesses struggled and went out of business in Silver Spring,” Bob Schilke, owner of the Little Bitts Shop of cake supplies, told the Montgomery County Council in February.
Sometimes even the terms used to describe development have have taken on widely different meanings. The D.C. Housing Authority became the envy of other cities in winning seven grants under the federal HOPE VI program, which enabled the District to overhaul blighted public housing projects into mixed-income neighborhoods.
The agency’s renovation of Highland Dwellings, east of Bolling Air Force Base, isn’t a HOPE VI program and no market rate units are even being built. But spokeswoman Dena Michaelson said the agency could have done a better job making that clear to avoid the lawsuit it faced (and since settled).
DC Public Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson is announcing the list of schools on the chopping block today. This despite the growing demand for a moratorium on school closings which haven’t resulted in any improvement in test scores or student achievement. In acknowledgment of today’s announcement, I’d like to remind Chancellor Henderson, the entire administration of Mayor Vincent Gray and public school stakeholders across the city of just a few reasons why this is such a contentious issue.
The epidemic of school closings is not limited to the District of Columbia. Education Week has published an article on school closings as a national issue. Part of that article is reproduced below.
School Shutdowns Trigger Growing Backlash
In five cities, groups wage war on school shutdowns
As school closures are increasingly used as a remedy to budget woes and a solution to failing schools in many cities, debates are intensifying about their effect on student performance and well-being, on district finances, and on communities and the processes districts use to choose which schools will be shuttered.
Student and parent groups in Chicago, the District of Columbia, New York, Newark, N.J., and Philadelphia gathered in Washington late last month to call for a moratorium on school closings and filed separate complaints with the U.S. Department of Education’s office for civil rights. In those complaints, the groups allege that in previous rounds of school closings, their districts have not been transparent and have been influenced by outside interests, such as charter school operators. They also argue that the closings have had a harmful and disparate impact on minority students and communities. Each of the districts has predicted new closures for the coming school year.
“This has become the strategy of first instance, not of last resort,” said Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, which has affiliates in the cities…
The rest of this article can be found at the EdWeek.org.
The backlash described in the Education Week article made its way to Washington, DC and took the form of a march called the Journey for Educational Justice, which Grassroots Media Project Producers Ben King and Stephan Scarborough report on below. This is a longer version of a video that we posted on the blog a couple of weeks ago.
Finally, from the DC-based education blog Truth From the Trenches I’m cross-posting this article which I think is particularly relevant to today’s announcement. It should be noted that the creators of Truth From the Trenches are two DCPS teachers who go by pen names so as to avoid retribution for reporting their observations and opinions about DC Public School “reform.” What does that tell us?!
While everyone is anticipating the proposed DCPS closure list set to be announced tomorrow, those of us who are working at schools that are at risk for closure have endured months of anxiety and turmoil. When a school is on the short list of closures, the academic year begins not with excitement but steeped in a cloud uncertainty that pervades every aspect of the learning environment. It is not an exaggeration to describe the feeling of working at a school that may be shut down at the end of the academic year similar to someone with their head in a guillotine waiting for the blade to drop.
It is important to note that many of the schools on the list have been on the chopping block for years. Not surprisingly, these schools usually have the least resources with the highest concentrations of academically and behaviorally challenged students. In most of these schools parent participation is minimal to non-existent and, therefore, unlike other schools with more involved and more well off parents who can raise tens of thousands of dollars (if not more) a year, these schools at risk for closure are not able to raise outside funds to supplement the schools’ budgets. Plus with low enrollments and DCPS recent per pupil spending cuts many of these schools do not have the adequate staffing and support needed for their high needs populations. With such uncertainty there are increased numbers parents jumping the sinking ship. Why stay in a school that is dying a slow death?
Instead of seriously trying to support these schools, most of the time it appears as if the chancellor makes a half hearted effort for show because in reality she wants a smaller leaner school system to oversee. At my school I often ask myself if central office is setting us up to fail. If they were serious about turning around these “failing schools” each school should have a summit or series of meetings where central office staff, school staff, parents, community members and even students come together to identify the main challenges and identify ways to RETAIN and RECRUIT families and ADDRESS the significant issues that face the school. Imagine if parents, school staff, community members and students could join together and be empowered to make a real turnaround plan. This would put faith back into the school and start the effort to rebuild the school instead of hanging the threat of closure over a school and believing that is what can drive improvements.
At my school I have noticed a big difference in planning for the future now that we are at risk of closure.There is a paralysis of sorts now as we wait to see what school makes the final list before we start fully planning for the school year. It is so incredibly demoralizing. And of course there is the uncertainty of whether we will all have jobs next year since all staff at closed schools are considered excessed. Our high needs students deserve more. Those of us who have made the commitment to work in these schools are worthy of just an ounce of respect. There is a growing voice demanding a moratorium on DCPS school closures because as we witnessed in Round 1 it did little if anything to solve the serious challenges faced by schools.Instead, it embroiled schools in turmoil and led to an exodus of students. To make matters worse, reports show that closing over 20 schools did not save the system money.
Here are some questions to think about:
1) How can a school with low enrollment that has been rumored to close for years work to increase enrollment especially when as in most instances their budget has steadily been gutted?
2) Once the proposed list comes out, how does the school system expect the students and staff to have an engaging and productive year? Remember the mess that was created last time?
3) Is this the way DCPS will continue to address low performing and/or low enrollment schools?
4) As this is round 2 of closures under the competition based corporate education reform model, when is the plan for round 3?
5) Why is Washington DC planning on closing public schools when every year more charter schools open? Is this an acceptable way to reform public education?
On September 20, 2012 education stakeholders and advocates from all across the nation gathered to demand that a moratorium be placed on public school closings. If you weren’t able to make it, the short video below, produced by Grassroots Media Project producers Stephon Scarborough and Ben King, will give you a sense of what you missed.
Mayor Gray and DCPS will be announcing DCPS school closures this Fall. If you want to help fight school closures in Washington, DC, join Empower DC’s Education Outreach Day Saturday Oct. 20th. We are working to to push back against the narrative that Mayor Gray and Schools Chancellor Henderson are using to justify more school closures. Here are the details:
EDUCATION OUTREACH DAY Saturday, October 20, 2012 @ 1:00 PM Meet in front of the Minnesota Avenue Metro Station
If you are able to join us please contact Empower DC Education Campaign Organizer Daniel del Pielago at 202-234-9119 ext. 104 or Daniel@empowerdc.org.
For more on the resistance to school closures, I’ve cross-posted the following Washington Post article by Emma Brown
A long-anticipated round of proposed school closures will be announced in the next few weeks, Chancellor Kaya Henderson said Wednesday.
Then there will be a series of community meetings where residents have a chance to challenge the proposals. And by December, DCPS hopes to make final decisions about which schools will be shuttered.
Protesters rally against the coming round of school closures at DCPS headquarters Thursday morning. (Emma Brown/The Washington Post)
“We want to build in the time to hear from you,” Henderson said, speaking Wednesday before residents of River Terrace, a community that’s still smarting from the closure of its elementary school last spring.
In 2008, then-Chancellor Michelle Rhee moved swiftly to close 23 schools, sparking angry protests, political backlash and long-lasting distrust.
Henderson is banking on the idea that communities will be more willing to accept closures if they’ve had the chance to hear and respond to her proposals and rationales.
But resistance is simmering. Dozens of protesters gathered at DCPS headquarters Thursday morning to rally against the coming closures, calling them a veiled attempt to destabilize communities and speed gentrification of poor neighborhoods.
Parisa Norouzi, executive director of Empower DC, which organized the rally, said she doubted that DCPS will really listen to residents. “We have no reason to trust the process that Kaya Henderson has laid out,” she said.
Parents — many pointing to a report issued this year that recommended closing many public schools and replacing them with public charters — described the closures as part of a larger attempt to destroy the city’s traditional public education system.
“The answer is not charter schools, the answer is fortifying traditional public schools,” said Schyla Pondexter-Moore, a Ward 8 parent of four. “I think children deserve a quality education at a school they can walk to.”
Henderson, meanwhile, has long argued that closures are a matter of fiscal reality. The city operates 225 public schools — including traditional and charter schools — for 76,000 kids. Meanwhile, Fairfax County has the same number of schools — and more than twice the kids.
The D.C. protesters were joined Thursday by activists from Detroit, Chicago, Philadelphia and other cities where charter schools are thriving and public schools are closing.
This reporter left the rally just before noon, when perhaps a hundred activists were chanting and singing in front of DCPS headquarters. Organizers said their numbers later swelled into the hundreds as they marched to the U.S. Education Department to call for a five-year moratorium on school closures nationwide.
The District of Columbia City Council returns from its summer recess this Tuesday, September 20, 2012. It’s time for them to set their legislative priorities for the upcoming year.
The question is, will those priorities include issues that are important to long-time DC residents? Will the laws and policies they ultimately implement positively impact low- and moderate-income communities or will they continue to force folks out of the city in search of a friendlier, more affordable environment? Will families be able to raise their children in the District knowing that they will have access to quality and affordable housing, health care, child care and schools that are responsive to the needs and wishes of the community?
Members of Empower DC’s Education Campaign are working to make sure that Mayor Gray, Schools Chancellor Henderson and the city council are accountable to all the residents of DC and not just those that fund their campaigns. Education campaign members are concerned about the threat of public school closures in our city. School closing have not improved educational outcomes and have not yielded the savings that we were promised. Mayor Gray and Chancellor Henderson continue to publicly express that closures will save money which will be reinvested in schools that stay open, but as we have seen from the recent DC Auditor report, the last round of closures in 2008 actually cost us $30 million more than expected. Time and time again, community members are shut out of the process leading up to the closing of a school. (See Bruce Monroe Elementary School & River Terrace Elementary School)
Education organizer Daniel del Pielago says, “what we need now is better planning to ensue that Public schools are strengthened and are a viable choice for DC residents now and for the future.” To that end, Empower DC will visit the city council this Tuesday demanding that they do the following:
1. Place a Moratorium on school closings, turnarounds and transfer to charters for 5 years.
Why this demand? Because the only data which the city has made public to inform “right-sizing” the school system is the IFF report. a report prepared by a pro-charter, real-estate organization who’s single indicator analysis test scores) on school performance lacks any real information on why students score poorly. Their recommendations to close/turn over public schools to charters needs to be refuted. we need this moratorium to plan and execute an accurate building needs assessment and to develop a process which is more inclusive of parents, students, teachers and the community at large.
2. The council needs to have the evaluation of PERA (Public Education Reform Act) as soon as possible.
The DC Public School System has been under mayoral control since 2007 without a valid evaluation of its actual effect on the schools. Many decisions have been made (namely, school closures/turnovers to charters) that have not resulted in any considerable improvements of DCPS. We cannot wait until September 2014 (changed from September 2012 by the 2009 Budge Support Act) for this evaluation.
3. The council needs to hold hearings and vote on any school closing proposed this year.
Currently there is no process to involve those who will be directly impacted by closures and for the community at large to weigh in on these decisions. We need council leadership to ensure that DC residents aren’t left out of this process.
Join Us…
Tuesday, September 18
10 am ’til noon
John A. Wilson Building (City Hall)
1350 Pennsylvania Avenue NW (meet in the lobby)
In addition, SHARC (Shelter, Housing and Respectful Change) will be joining Empower DC members as we visit the council. They will be focusing on the displacement of the poor, highlight the impending threat of losing 1,200 or more shelter beds in 2013 and demand affordable housing for ALL low-income residents of DC. The District of Columbia Government and business community (including landlords) are creating and instituting policies that displace tens of thousands of low- and no-income residents, many of whom have called DC “home” for a long time. At least 39,000 Afro-Americans have been gentrified out of DC over the past 10 years by high rents. Schools, libraries and clinics have been closed or relocated away from the communities that need them most. High-priced amenities such as street cars have been brought to poor neighborhoods, forcing the rent up and many residents out. Social services are being eliminated and 1,200 to 2,000 of DC’s 7,000+ homeless people may lose their shelter in 2013, only to be arrested under a vagrancy law being considered by the council.
For more information contact daniel@empowerdc.org or 202-234-9119 ext. 104
We haven’t had a post about Bruce Monroe for a while, but that doesn’t mean nothing’s been going on there. Here are two reports and a video about recent developments.
Bruce Monroe’s Phase One Modernization Becomes More Robust by Daniel del Pielago, Empower DC Education Organizer
In 2008, the Bruce Monroe Elementary community was tricked by the city into leaving their school on Georgia Avenue and moving to the Parkview school building. The Bruce Monroe community fought hard to get their school rebuilt as promised, but unfortunately the city did not keep its word. At the same time, the community realized that the Parkview building was not in safe condition and definitely not conducive to academic success.
The Bruce Monroe community then decided to focus on getting much needed repairs at their new school (Bruce Monore at Parkview). The school was slated for a “Phase 1 Modernization” which repairs corridors and classrooms but not electrical, heating, or plumbing systems. For this reason, the community knew that a Phase 1 modernization would not be enough. First, the community documented the problems with the school and how it impacted students, teachers, parents, and others. Once these issues were documented, community members were present at any opportunity to advocate for their school with key government decision makers. They continuously kept their community updated on what was going on and on ways that individuals could support their effort for a more robust modernization of their school. All of this hard work and organizing paid off when the city agreed to do more than a Phase 1 modernization, focusing on the issues that the community had documented and said needed to be addressed. This brief summary does not capture all that went into this victory, but being organized and visible was key.
Renovation Preparations by Beverly West, Bruce Monroe at Parkview Elementary Parent Leader
The preparations for “Phase I Modernization” at Bruce Monroe at Parkview Elementary School started out in chaotic fashion. It was a stressful matter for everyone involved. It seems that everything was pushed back until the last moment as the teachers and many staff members struggled to finish packing and salvaging valuable resources from their offices and classrooms. Many of the teachers were also unable to complete the students’ year-end reports because the DCPS IT Department had collected their computers and printers days earlier. This was a very uneasy transition for the start of the summer vacation. At least an end-of-year student progress report would have given parents and students a foundation to work towards for next year. Please pray that the reopening of the school will go more smoothly than the closing. The building must be organized people-wise, building-wise, and Lord knows it needs to have a soothing atmosphere to have a successful beginning. In other words, total organization is needed across the school to properly educate the children.
