By Guest Contributor, on November 27th, 2012 Cross-posted from The Washington Post
By RootDC Staff
D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson stepped into her first major controversy when she announced last week that she wanted to close 20 public schools. Immediately, hundreds of parents and activists lined up to oppose her. One of the organizations that has worked long and hard to stop previous school closings is Empower DC. In an interview with The RootDC, Daniel del Pielago, an organizer for the group’s education campaign, argues that the closures will have a negative impact on thousands of school children largely because 40 percent of the students threatened with displacement this time were also affected by the 2008 school closings.
“Our school communities need stability, not repeated upheaval,” Vanessa Bertelli, chair of the Garrison Improvement Project Committee, with Milo Negri, 4, (in dark yellow), Leo Sank, 3, and Richard Sowell, 3, try to stay entertained at the Wilson Building as D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson talks during a review of school closures in Washington. Negri and Sank attend Garrison Elementary and Sowell attends Francis-Stevens Elementary. (Katherine Frey – THE WASHINGTON POST) he said in the interview. Calling the schools marked for closing “dead schools walking,” he said Henderson’s plan will have a detrimental impact on teacher and student morale.
Pielago said that the group has called for an immediate “moratorium on all school closures until a community driven process is put in place to make these tough decisions and a true study on the impact school closures have had on our city’s students and communities.” He added: “We are concerned that thousands of students left DCPS after the last round of school closures, the biggest dip in enrollment in recent history. This coupled with the uncontrolled growth of charter schools does not give us any confidence that more closures are necessary.”
A second round of public hearings is scheduled to be held Monday evening. Here are some further excerpts of his interview:
Why you are opposed to the school closings laid out by Chancellor Henderson?
This continuous cycle of school closures and attrition will lead to the loss of neighborhood public schools of right. Additionally. school closures have disproportionately affected communities of color. Of the 6,300 students affected by school closures in 2008, only 15 were white, while 99 percent were African American or Hispanic. This year, [based on a study done by local data analyst Mary Levy], out of the 3,800 students who will be displaced, only 36 are white students. Once again, the higher concentration of school closures are in Wards 5, 7 and 8. We feel this is unjust and actually leads to the destabilization of communities.
Some have argued that it’s ineffective to keep schools open that are (a) underperforming and (b) below capacity. In your view. what should be done with these schools, given the attendance/performance erosion cited in some schools?
Firstly, I think the communities who will be directly affected by these threats need to lead the conversations on solutions and not just be nominally included once decisions are made. For example, a school like Garrison Elementary, where parents are fighting and being active to improve programming so it can in turn raise enrollment, is not being given the time nor resources to make this happen.
A recent D.C. auditor report shows how the last round of closures actually cost our city more than originally estimated. The public has also not seen even a basic accounting on how much was saved from the last round and how it was used. I think we need to look at cutting down the inflated DCPS central office before we start to close the institutions our students and communities depend on.
I also think the mayor and City Council need to have a comprehensive plan for public education. This should include any DCPS school closings as well as recommendations for school boundary and feeder pattern changes. Charter school openings and closings should also be considered.
In an op-ed that appeared in The RootDC on Monday, Kevin Chavous, a former D.C. councilman and a senior adviser to the American Federation for Children, writes the following: “If school closures simply mean overcrowding already overburdened schools with more children and fewer resources to go around, we’re doing no better than when those underperforming schools were around in the first place. We must provide families with a legitimately better-quality option in lieu of where they were, and it’s also not fair to overburden teachers and students at . . . → Read More: D.C. school closures: An activist’s view
By Guest Contributor, on November 14th, 2012 As wave of projects begin to sprout, so do disputes
Cross-posted from the Washington 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).
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.
By Guest Contributor, on August 20th, 2012 
…takes on Gray over bus depot Written by Darryl Fears, cross-posted from the Washington Post
(Jared Soares/ FOR THE WASHINGTON POST ) – Ivy City resident Andria Swanson near the grounds of the closed Alexander Crummell School.
On any scale, Ivy City is a 98-pound weakling among District neighborhoods. It measures only 1.7 square miles near the Maryland border in Northeast and has some of the city’s poorest residents, with an unemployment rate approaching 50 percent.
But that has not stopped the D.C. government from placing a heavy burden on Ivy City’s scrawny shoulders, making it a base of operations for large projects other neighborhoods shun, “a dumping ground,” residents say.
Ivy City is dotted with parking lots for scores of government vehicles — quarter-ton snowplows, salt trucks, parking-enforcement vehicles and school buses that belch exhaust as they rumble through the streets. Recently, when Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) announced a plan to build a bus depot for 65 D.C-to-New York motorcoaches in the heart of Ivy City, residents said “enough” and filed a lawsuit to stop it.
There is a lot at stake in the showdown between one of the city’s smallest neighborhoods and the mayor. Bus travel is a major boon for the city; ridership rose from nearly 2 million in 1999 to nearly 7 million in 2009, according to the District Department of Transportation’s 2011 Motorcoach Action Plan.
[Only a portion of the above article is posted here. For the complete article go to Ivy City, tired of being a D.C. “dumping ground,” takes on Gray over bus depot.]
|
Subscribe to Blog via Email
|
Comments are closed 
