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Empower DC Education Outreach Day

By Liane Scott, on October 15th, 2012

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

DCPS to propose school closures as resistance simmers 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.

 

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Welcome Back City Council. Here Are Our Demands!

By Liane Scott, on September 17th, 2012

Empower DC member lobbies City Council.

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 . . . → Read More: Welcome Back City Council. Here Are Our Demands!

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Community Organizes to Stabilize Bruce Monroe at Parkview Elementary School

By Guest Contributor, on September 11th, 2012

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.

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Taking On Mayor Gray’s FY 2013 DCPS Budget

By Liane Scott, on April 26th, 2012

Above Composite by Daniel del Pielago who says: Vince Gray and Kaya Henderson are doing nothing different than Adrian Fenty and Michelle Rhee – Disinvest in schools, Close Schools, Repeat!

The April 25, 2012 edition of WPFW’s Latino Media Collective focused on the DC Public School budget for fiscal year 2013. Mayor Vincent Gray is quick to point out that there are no proposed cuts to the DCPS budget, which is true enough. While the amount the city is planning to spend on education has not changed from 2012 to 2013, the source of those funds and the ultimate destination has. The problem in a nutshell is the cost of Michelle Rhee’s pet project the IMPACT teacher evaluation system. Bonuses paid to “highly effective” teachers was coming from private sources (mostly the Walton Foundation, i.e. Walmart). Those private funds went away along with Michelle Rhee and the cost for the bonuses now gets plowed into the budget for each individual school. So, while schools are paying for IMPACT, they won’t have money for other things like librarians, special education coordinators, etc. How this is going to improve the quality of education in DC’s public schools and in the charter school system is unclear.

Latino Media Collective co-hosts Daniel del Pielago and Oscar Fernandez were joined in the studio by Soumya Bhat, Education Finance and Policy Analyst at the DC Fiscal Policy Institute and Bruce Monroe at Parkview Elementary School Parent Leaders Sequnely Gray and Beverly West.

This broadcast gives more incite into the impact of Mayor Gray’s proposed DCPS budget on students than anything you’ll find in the mainstream press. I’m just sayin’. [haiku url=”http://www.grassrootsmediaproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/wpfw_Latino_Media_Collective_on_DCPS_-Budget_4-25-12.mp3″ title=”Latino Media Collective on DCPS Budget”]

 

Comments are closed   Education, School "Reform"   , , , , , , , , , , ,  

The Empower DC Community Hour

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.

 

 

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