By Liane Scott, on February 23rd, 2012 We Act Radio store front in Anacostia.
Hello all you folks out there in radio land. Empower DC’s Grassroots Media Project has just started producing an hour long program on We Act Radio 1480 AM airing out of Anacostia. The show which we’re calling The Empower DC Community Hour is part of We Act Radio’s Live Wire series. It airs live on Monday nights at 7:00 PM but you can also listen to it at WeActRadio.com as well as right here, where we’ll be archiving the program along with all the other work of the Media Project. Our first show aired February 20, 2012. Empower DC’s Youth Organizer Jonathan Stith and Ivy City Community Organizer Andria Swanson co-hosted the program. Their guests, Empower DC Education Organizer Daniel del Pielago and Bruce Monroe Parent Sequnely Gray, spent the hour focusing on the impending school closings and the implications of the Illinois Facility Fund report. Besides learning about what to expect should your family’s school be closed or to turned over to a charter management company, the show also suggests how you can get organized along with other members of your community before that happens. No one should have to face a school closure alone. As Jonathan Stith says on the show, “get organized because we’ve got your back.”
The Empower DC Community Hour for February 20, 2012
Please listen in and support the program.
By Liane Scott, on February 18th, 2012 
Students and Parents Protest the Demolition of Bruce Monroe Elementary
School officials certainly make a show of being willing to ask; they even appear to listen. At a public hearing about the proposed closing of River Terrace back in November, DC Public Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson said, “if every community had this level of engagement, DCPS would be the best school district in the country.” So why should Kaya Henderson, who clearly knows how important parental and community involvement is in the success of a school, be perfectly willing to close down schools with very active school communities such as Bruce Monroe and River Terrace? How is it possible, that these communities are simply ignored by the government that’s supposed to represent them? Answering the why would force me into speculations about racism and classism among DC elected and appointed officials, but Empower DC education organizer Daniel del Pielago has some clear ideas about how communities get left out of the decision making process. According to del Pielago:
Key decision makers do not engage in meaningful dialog with their constituency, do not return emails, calls and requests to meet. Elected officials cancel meetings and do not deliver on commitments they make when you are finally able to meet with them. Government officials (and the developers who support them) “wait out” parents and other community members as community interest and action wanes. Ultimately, decisions are made and presented with no input from the community that will be affected.
Clear examples of this are demonstrated in a brochure that he and a number of River Terrace Elementary school families have been sharing with the rest of the community, which I’ve posted below for your consideration.
River Terrace: This Is Our Moment of Truth Save River Terrace Elementary School
Closing our school harms our students, disrespects our parents and assaults our community. If we truly love our school and our neighborhood, now is the time to show it. Know the facts and let’s stand up for ourselves.
Throughout the year, we’ve been reaching out to keep everyone informed of this attack on our community. We’ve contacted our elected officials and decision makers through calls and emails, clearly demonstrating our support for River Terrace Elementary and for keeping it open. We’ve asked for meetings with the Chancellor and other public officials. with only two exceptions, we were ignored.
River Terrace Elementary Timeline of Events
December 2010
DCPS issues a letter stating their intention to close River Terrace Elementary School at the end of the 2010-2011 school year. River Terrace parents meet with Special Assistant to the Chancellor of DC Public Schools Margery Anne Yeager.
January 2011
Over 100 River Terrace community members meet with Ward 7 Councilmember Yvette Alexander and Chancellor Kaya Henderson at a public hearing to voice their unanimous support for keeping the school open. The River Terrace Elementary Support Committee visits council members and the community writes letters in supprt of the school. River Terrace community members and allies give testimony at the Ward 7 State of the Schools Public Hearing.
February 2011
DCPS issues a letter stating that River Terrace Elementary has been given a year’s reprieve to build enrollment.
March 2011
River Terrace Elementary Support Committee meets with the Cluster 1 Educational Superintendent Barbara Adderly. River Terrace Elementary Support Committee gives testimony at Mayor Vincent Gray’s Fiscal Year 2012 Budget Hearing for DCPS. River Terrace Elementary Support Committee holds an enrollment fair. River Terrace Elementary Support Committee reaches out to council members for support to keep the school open.
June 2011
Ward 7 Councilmember Yvette Alexander cancels a meeting with the River Terrace Elementary Support Committee. At-Large Councilmember Phil Mendelsohn offers support to the school community. River Terrace Elementary Support Committee meets with Varick AME Church and the River Terrace Alumni Committee.
September 2011
River Terrace Elementary Support Committee collects signature of support at the River Terrace Reunion Picnic. River Terrace Elementary Support Committee meets with Councilmember Alexander who commits to arranging a meeting between them and Chancellor Kaya Henderson.
October 2011
River Terrace Elementary Support Committee continues to follow up with Councilmember Alexander about her committment to set up a meeting with Chancellor Kaya Henderson. River Terrace Elementary Support Committee meets with Councilmember Alexander and Chancellor Kaya Henderson. Henderson announces that River Terrace Elementary will close in June 2012 and the decision is final.
We can still save our school but we need to take ACTION NOW! We have tried to call on the . . . → Read More: Stand Up for DC’s Neighborhood Schools
By Liane Scott, on January 8th, 2012 
Both schools have been considered under-enrolled, yet one was demolished and the other completely refurbished. William Jordan, a member of the list serve Concerned for DCPS has some theories as to why. I’ve reprinted them below because I think they are worthy of your consideration.
Posted on the Concerned For DCPS List Serve on January 5, 2012:
Takoma Educational Campus after the Rehabilitation
I would suggest anyone who has followed or participated in the “Bruce Monroe School” over the years to pick up the Wednesday, December 28, 2011 addition of Northwest_Current 12.28.11 . On the front page is an article about the reopening of the Takoma Educational Campus one year after a fire closed the school. The article is relevant to Bruce Monroe because the city and officials, including Councilmember Graham, etc. found a way to address the needs of Takoma doing the very things they told our community and Bruce Monroe stakeholders they could not do months prior to the Takoma fire. It reveals the pattern of dishonesty and political disdain by then Chancellor Rhee and Councilmember Graham toward this community and the population of families and students served by Bruce Monroe.
Bruce Monroe Elementary after the Demolition
The article explains how the city initially planned to make $2 million in repairs but later decided to invest $25.5 million in a complete rehab. Via a bait & switch, Councilmember Graham and Rhee mislead this community into believing that the DCPS capital budget could not be adjusted to do a complete rehab of Bruce Monroe either as part of the redevelopment of the old site or as rehab of Bruce Monroe at Park View as they promised in prior years.
As evidence of what was actually promised, the notes from community meetings in which the future of Bruce Monroe was discussed can be downloaded via the following links.:
Notes_from_Meeting_With_Graham_and_Rhee_4-6-10
Parents_Meet_With_Jim_Graham_March_16_2010
Notes_from_Meeting_With_Graham_and_Rhee_4-6-10
Bruce Monroe, Park View & Meyer were closed down as part of the 2008 DCPS Rhee closings supposedly because of low enrollment. It should be noted that Takoma Enrollment was on par with Meyer. However, Bruce Monroe was reconstituted and the students shipped to Park View the least hospitable of all 3 buildings. In fact Park View at the time could have easily been considered dangerous. Despite this Bruce Monroe students were not relocated to the Meyer building which was in much better shape, they went to Park View. In the meantime, Councilmember Graham placed a boxing program in Meyer Elementary, to which he had been funneling earmarks for years with no community or practical oversight. Clearly, Ward 1 closings were not so much about education, but politics and real estate development. Rhee closed schools with minimal responsibility and Councilmember Graham place his political concerns above those of DCPS students or the community at large.
In this case Councilmember Graham and then Chancellor Rhee engaged in operating at one of the lowest political and ethical standards possible under the guise of school reform. To politically punish and breakup the Bruce Monroe school family, they place a school primarily serving working class Latino and African American families in building (Park View) which at the time had become unfit when better alternatives were available. The positive outcome for Takoma when placed in context makes clear the dishonest nature of reform under Rhee, the unethical cesspool that is Ward 1 politics and ultimately the nexus between pay-to-play politics, real estate development and school reform.
William Jordan
By Liane Scott, on December 9th, 2011 In 2010, during Michelle Rhee’s tenure as DCPS school chancellor, the District government promised the parents, students and staff of Bruce Monroe Elementary School as well as the surrounding community that if they tore the building down they would rebuild the school on the same spot. Long story short, the building is down but the new one hasn’t been built. All those Bruce Monroe stakeholders are still wondering what’s up? After all, when you say you’re gonna do a thing, integrity demands that you make your best effort.
Despite the ethical challenges facing our elected officials, parents continue to attend and testify at public hearings regarding the school. The latest hearing in which Bruce Monroe was mentioned was in March of 2011. Although Grassroots Media Project radio producer Rachel Estabrook put this audio segment together way back then, I’m just now getting around to posting it. (My apologies. )
Bruce Monroe Follow Up
To join the campaign to rebuild Bruce Monroe contact Daniel del Pielago at (202) 234-9119 ext. 104 or Daniel@empowerdc.org.
In the above audio segment, you will hear a number of parents testify about their continued frustrations over unfulfilled promises and problems with Parkview Elementary, the school their children are now attending. One of those parents is Sequnely Gray, Empower DC’s childcare organizer. She is all too familiar with the Bruce Monroe saga seeing as how three of her children attended Bruce Monroe before it was demolished. I asked her to chronicle a brief history of the organizing efforts of the Parents and Friends of Bruce Monroe. Her response, which I think is an inspiring example of community leadeship in the face of a city hall that , follows:
For the past ten years the friends, teachers, parents and staff of Bruce Monroe have fought continuously to insure that our children receive a quality education as well as a beautiful, safe and healthy environment for them to succeed in. In 2008, we were informed by the Washington Post that Bruce Monroe elementary school would be closed for good.
At that moment parents, staff and teachers rallied together with the help of Teaching for Change to advocate for our children’s school. We advocated for closed classrooms and new windows. The parents, staff and community members got together and reached out to some businesses in our community. As a result of our efforts, we received a generous donation of $1 million dollars from Target to build a 21st century, state of the art library and the whole east side of the school remodeled, including new walls and new windows.
Several months later we meet with Ward 1 councilmember Jim Graham, Mayor Adrian Fenty, and newly appointed DC Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee. They each stated that we didn’t need to beg and plead for a new facility for our children because this is what they should have and the only way to get it was to relocate to Parkview Elementary School on Warder Street NW. They promised that a new Bruce Monroe Elementary School would be built by the fall of 2011 under a public/private partnership. The parents were excited to find out that the school would not be closed. We rallied once again, knocking on doors and passing out flyers to make sure the community knew that [even though the old Bruce Monroe would be demolished a new state-of-the-art Bruce Monroe was still going to be built and opened] was still going to be opened.
For the 2008/2009 school year, we relocated to Parkview Elementary on Warder Street NW. The conditions of that building were very poor; poorer than they were at Bruce Monroe. In the summer of 2009, the parents, community members and the staff formed a SIT team to work in partnership with DCPS to develop plans for the rebuild of Bruce Monroe. We meet 2 or 3 times but after that we heard nothing from the city officials. We tried to contact and schedule meetings with Mayor Fenty and Michelle Rhee but we got no response.
While trying to figure out who to talk to next about the rebuild of the school, we decided that we needed help advocating for this property that had been stolen from us and to inform the community of what DC Government was doing behind our backs. With the help of Ms. Dyana Forester, we were connected with Empower DC.
Empower DC held trainings and facilitated meetings with the parents, staff and community members to build leadership and to help . . . → Read More: Bruce Monroe at Parkview: A Story of Promises Unfulfilled
By Liane Scott, on November 12th, 2010 
Have you ever heard the phrase, “if you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu?” The Parents and Friends of Bruce Monroe Elementary School thought they were at the table when former School Chancellor Michelle Rhee and soon to be former Mayor Adrian Fenty promised that the school would be rebuilt by the fall of 2011. They sent their children off to Parkview Elementary School on Warder Street NW, out of the site of hungry developers and the passing traffic that helps keeps crime on Georgia Avenue at bay.
While test scores dropped and rodents infested the cafeteria, the $20.3 million allegedly put aside to help rebuild the school seemingly disappeared. The city did manage to come up with $2 million to construct an interim-use park on the site, so as not to remind the community that they don’t have the school they were promised. The first request for proposals that the city put out didn’t garner any serious takers now that Georgia Avenue doesn’t look like the developers dream that it was before the recession. And the latest RFP requires that developers submit two proposals, one for a school with commercial elements and one for commercial development only. No school included. Our presumptive mayor Vincent Gray has gone from saying that the promise made to the Bruce Monroe parents was a “cruel joke,” to “we can only afford one school,” meaning either Bruce Monroe or Parkview.
On August 10th, when the city planned to present this new RFP to developers, the Parents and Friends of Bruce Monroe Elementary School, were not invited to the table, as is blatantly clear in the video posted above. But being unwilling to be eaten alive, they showed up in force anyway.
Having community members show up at a meeting that was clearly meant for developers only may help to keep the Bruce Monroe site in the hands of the city’s residents. The Parents and Friends of Bruce Monroe Elementary School are scheduled to meet with Mayor Elect Gray, Ward One Councilmember Jim Graham and Council Chair Kwame Brown on Tuesday November 16. At the Ward One Town Hall meeting, Vince Gray expressed his appreciation for the activism of the Bruce Monroe community and claimed to be an activist himself. Next week will tell us whether he’s also willing to give them a meaningful position at the negotiating table.
To get involved in the Campaign to Rebuild Bruce Monroe, contact Empower DC’s education organizer Daniel Del Pialago at Daniel@empowerdc.org.
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