FOCUS D.C. Public Charter School Bulletin

December 9, 2005

Education Committee Bill Would Increase Pressure on DCPS to Close Schools

Under a billion dollar school facilities funding bill passed this week by the Education Committee of the Council, the DCPS superintendent would have to develop “a detailed plan establishing how and when the school system will address issues of excess capacity and facilities space.” The plan would be included in a “comprehensive facilities management organizational strategy” that would need to be approved by the Council before DCPS could gain access to any of the funds.

In the report accompanying the bill, the Committee Chair, Kathy Patterson, refers to the required excess capacity plan as “a plan to consolidate underutilized school facilities” and notes that under the bill DCPS will be required “to analyze school capacity and enrollment and address the important issue of excess space, ranging in the millions of square feet.” According to the report, 37 DCPS schools are not using at least a third of the available space in their school buildings, and 40 of the District’s elementary schools have fewer than 300 students. Patterson goes on to state in the report that “D.C. now has some of the most costly educational infrastructure in the nation,” spending more per student on operations and maintenance than almost all comparable school systems.

The Education Committee passed the funding bill on a 3-0 vote (Patterson, Mendelson, Gray), with Committee Member Carol Schwartz voting “present”; Marion Barry did not attend the markup. Schwartz, who supports the increased funding provided by the bill, wanted the language of the bill amended to require that DCPS close a specified number of buildings. Vincent Gray voted for the bill but expressed strong skepticism about DCPS’s ability to effectively carry out a facilities revitalization program. The bill now goes to the full Council for consideration.

FOCUS and others have been urging the Council and mayor since 1998 to pressure DCPS into closing school buildings, many of which it does not need to house its ever-shrinking enrollment. The school system closed more than 60 school buildings between 1977 and 1997, but has not shuttered any in the charter school era, during which it has lost 20,000 students. DCPS is estimated to control more than five million square feet of space it no longer needs.

Superintendent Clifford Janey, who unlike his many predecessors appears to be willing to tackle this issue, warned this week in his preliminary budget report to the Board of Education that “tough trade-offs will need to be made” in order for DCPS to implement needed academic programs and spend required amounts on building maintenance. The most important trade-off apparently being contemplated by the superintendent is a reduction in space: a slide in a Power Point presentation to the Board at its Wednesday meeting shows that a 24% reduction — 3.8 million square feet — in the DCPS school building inventory would enable DCPS to raise maintenance spending on its remaining buildings to an industry-standard level. It also shows that by renting the excess space at $10 per square foot DCPS could generate more than $20 million in new revenue.

It is not known whether the superintendent and board ultimately will decide to vacate large numbers of school buildings or will continue to occupy most of them, leasing excess space to charter schools and others. Some additional information on the superintendent’s facilities plans may be revealed in the DCPS “Master Education Plan” scheduled for release in late January. Details about program consolidations and recommendations on the shared use or closure of specific buildings, however, will likely not be available until the late spring, when DCPS will present the Council with a revised facilities master plan.

Friends of Choice in Urban Schools
1530 16th Street, NW #104
Washington, DC 20036
(202) 387-0405 phone
(202) 667-3798 fax
www.focusdc.org