FOCUS D.C. Public Charter School Bulletin

July 2, 2008

Administration To Invite Developers, “Community Partners,” and Others To Compete Against Charters For Remaining Closed School Buildings; Announcement Conflicts With Recent “Right of First Offer” Notices

The Fenty Administration has announced that it will be soliciting “expressions of interest” from commercial and non-profit entities that would like to develop closed school buildings in ways that “help to support community and District-wide needs.” The buildings are Clark ES, Rudolph ES, J.F. Cook ES, M.M. Washington High School, Taft Center, Grimke ES, a long-abandoned building on the site of Randle Highlands ES, and the part of Backus MS not being used by the Department of Motor Vehicles.

On June 5, and June 13, the Office of Property Management invited charter schools to exercise their legally-mandated right of first offer on all but one of these buildings, but has not yet established a bidding process by which they can do so. By now soliciting development proposals from non-charter entities, the Fenty administration appears to be taking away with the right hand what it gave to the charters with the left.

Less than two weeks ago the mayor announced that nine D.C. government agencies would share space in five other closed school buildings. Commenting on this move, we wrote [see FOCUS D.C. Public Charter School Bulletin June 23, 2008, at www.focusdc.org] that “on June 13, the charter schools were invited to bid on four of the remaining closed schools: Clark ES, J.F. Cook ES, Rudolph ES, and the Taft Center. It is not known, however, how committed the administration is to getting charters into even these buildings....” Thanks to this latest announcement, the administration’s level of commitment to getting charter school kids into school buildings is now clear.

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