Following the mayoral takeover of DC public schools, opportunities for stakeholders to get needed information and offer input have been limited. Restructuring schools present the most extreme example, with families now denied even the option of voting with their feet – if they are to stay within DCPS.            

Restructuring Schools
At December meetings, high schools in restructuring status under federal No Child Left Behind legislation were told that DCPS Chancellor Michelle Rhee would make decisions for their schools – decisions as radical as charter conversion, firing all staff, takeover by the state or an “external organization,” or another substantial governance change – by late January. This schedule would have allowed families to use the out-of-boundary transfer window – Feb. 5 to March 12 – should a restructured school no longer fit students' needs.

As the decision date was postponed in subsequent communications, inquiries to the chancellor's office yielded confirmation that restructuring determinations would be made before the close of the out-of-boundary window. Now, however, Rhee declares that this “was never the case,” leaving families to learn of their schools' fates in May – too late for transfer within DCPS.

In addition, DCPS has provided schedules for "Feedback Meetings" which allot 15 minutes, at most, to each restructuring school community to engage with Rhee prior to her determinations. Ninety-minute “feedback sessions” for restructuring schools will conclude with breakout sessions. During these sessions – between four and seven will occur simultaneously – “facilitators will take notes and secure recommendations that will be forwarded to the chancellor for review prior to her final decision in May,” instructions from the chancellor's office announce. Allowing even 20 minutes for the opening plenary session grants each school community between 10 and 15 minutes with the chancellor.

Many schools have been concerned about the accuracy and depth of information gathered and reported in the restructuring process so far and about the level of uncertainty regarding current and planned programs. The Eastern Senior High School community is also concerned that decision making has not brought all stakeholders to the table to consider together what the school is and can be for current students and for younger, potential students in the neighborhood. (More in a future edition.)

Information on the April “feedback sessions” is not being widely disseminated – on the DCPS webpage, for example, or through a news release. Community members interested in the future of restructuring schools will have no other opportunity to be heard, however.

School Reuse Meetings
“An opportunity to share your thoughts and ideas about how local school buildings should be reused” came and went, before most citizens were aware of the opportunity. The deputy mayor for education announced on March 14 that meetings would be held on March 20 (Holy Thursday for Christians and Purim for Jews) and March 24 (during DCPS spring break) to discuss reuse of 14 closing school buildings across five wards.

Similar meetings for Wards 2 and 6 were to be scheduled for sometime in April, but no dates were available at press time (Passover, perhaps?). Dena Iverson, spokesperson for Mayor Fenty, said, “This is the first set of community meetings on school reuse. We are still working out the schedule for the second set of meetings and will announce the dates once they are final.”

Modernization and the Facilities Master Plan
Over the past several months, temporary and emergency legislation has kept funds flowing to and through the Office of Public Education Facilities Modernization (OPEFM), allowing for needed repairs, improvements and ongoing modernization projects in DC schools. It has also postponed reporting deadlines, effectively excluding community comment, an integral part of the legislation funding OPEFM.

OPEFM – which now has responsibility for maintenance in addition to modernization – has accomplished stabilization and “summer blitz” repairs. Additional blitzes are scheduled for this summer, including work at 30 receiving schools. It is unclear, however, how this work will affect more extensive modernizations – projects “designed to bring an existing school building and its grounds up to current standards” – the original focus of OPEFM.

Eliot Middle School, for example, is a 77-year-old building on which little work has been done over the years. It was scheduled for complete renovation under the 2006 Master Facilities Plan – a plan vetted through meetings with stakeholders but never formally adopted in the wake of Superintendent Clifford B. Janey's replacement. Eliot is now scheduled to absorb Hine’s students, following that school's closure in June, while OPEFM offers no information about Eliot's modernization.

The Facilities Master Plan (FMP) is due before the DC Council by May 31. At that point, facilities work should already be in the pipeline, if not underway. At press time, OPEFM expected meetings and vetting sessions regarding the new FMP to be scheduled for April.

Contact OPEFM for FMP and community meeting details: school.contractors@dc.gov or 202-698-7700.

Contact the deputy mayor for education for details on school reuse meetings. Claudia.Lujan@dc.gov or 202-727-0696 (See also “Hine Sight” in this issue).