FOCUS DC News Wire 10/10/13

 

 

Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District of Columbia’s delegate in Congress, found herself in a pickle Wednesday morning, stuck between her colleagues and a crowd of her constituents.

 

With the city’s mayor, Vincent Gray, she had just led an hour-long protest on the Senate lawn in front of at least 15 cameras and 9 photographers, demanding a restoration of federal funding for the city. While the House had approved a D.C.-specific funding measure a week ago, the Democratic majority in the Senate believes that any piece-meal measure to fund the government (besides the military) would weaken their ability to get Republicans to pass what they want: a short-term bill that would keep the government open at current spending levels. So D.C. has languished for the past 10 days, relying upon an emergency fund that is measured in days, not months.

 

The Norton-Gray rally touched upon some of the services that need federal funding by October 15, including charter schools. Unlike other cities, the budget of the District of Columbia is appropriated by Congress, and therefore affected by the shutdown.

 

The large crowd, 10 persons-deep in some parts, was whipped into a frenzy when they saw Senate Democrats begin to speak across the cobbled street to members of the national media. The crowd then lined up, barred by the Capitol Police, who aren’t currently paid because of the shutdown, and started chanting, ”Free D.C.! Free D.C.!”

 

The chants could be heard from at least the other side of the Capitol. Norton decided that this form of public demonstration would not be as beneficial to the city’s cause. ”If we just drown ‘em out, they may simply resent us,” Norton told her constituents.

 

“These are the people that we have to bring around to vote for us,” continued Norton. “It could be very effective when you have this many people, to take this crowd and to go—there’s their office building—and to go there.”

 

D.C. public charter schools now educate 43% of public school children in the city—a higher share than any other big city except New Orleans, according to Friends of Choice in Urban Schools, a non-profit in D.C. Donald Hense, the founder and chairman of Friendship Public Charter School, told TIME that his school will be able to cater to its 4,000 primarily African American low-income students with a ”small” reserve fund that “will not last very long.” But the deadline looms much larger for some of the smaller charter schools. ”Some schools that are very small have no reserves, and they are actually depending on the money to come that day,” said Hense. “Without that they will actually close their doors. This is outrageous.”

 

Norton did not shy from criticizing members of her own party. “Democrats, at this critical moment, have abandoned their own long-held principled position that D.C.’s local budget must be distinguished from federal spending bills,” Norton said at the rally. After the crowd’s applause subsided, she said, “The Senate’s current hold on the city’s budget is absurd.”

 

 

D.C. officials warned Wednesday that they will have to close charter schools, turning away 35,000 students, unless President Obama and Senate Democrats relent and pass a bill carving the city out of the government shutdown.

 

Rallying outside the Senate, city leaders asked more than 100 residents to go to senators’ offices and personally lobby them to take up a bill that would let D.C. spend its own tax revenue to keep open during the shutdown. The leaders also asked President Obama to lift his threat to veto the bill.

 

“Now, the situation grows desperate,” said Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, the city’s nonvoting member of Congress who said D.C. should stop being “treated like hapless collateral damage.”

 

People affected by the shutdown congregated on Capitol Hill, holding signs that read “Free D.C. From Shutdown” and “I am the face of D.C. Medicaid.” They erupted into applause several times during the officials’ remarks, especially Rep. Darrell E. Issa, California Republican.

 

“I can’t help but notice the [D.C.] license plates say ‘Taxation Without Representation,’” he said. “Perhaps they should say ‘Federal government, don’t tread on me’ instead.”

 

For now, the city is running on contingency funds. But a spokesman for Mayor Vincent C. Gray said that money will run out in about two weeks, leaving operations and paychecks in peril.

 

The schools situation is even more immediate.

 

The city’s charter schools are expecting a quarterly paycheck Oct. 15, which will not come if the government is still shut down, said Donald Hense, the CEO of the Friendship Public Charter School.

 

As one of the largest in the city with 4,000 students, Mr. Hense’s school has some reserves, though he said they won’t last long. Less-fortunate, smaller schools will be forced to lock their doors immediately.

 

“Some schools that are very small have no reserves and they are actually depending on the money to come that day. Without it, they will close their doors. This is outrageous,” he told reporters Wednesday afternoon.

 

Nearly half of all D.C. public school students, including many from low-income families, attend charter schools. In addition to taking away education opportunities and preparation for college, a school closing will take away school lunch, the only meal some students will get all day, Mr. Hense said.

 

The House passed the bill to let D.C. fund itself by voice vote last week, but neither the Republicans nor the Democrats in the Senate have tried to raise the bill in the upper chamber.

 

City officials conducted their event without the benefit of a microphone, with Mrs. Norton saying one wasn’t available because of the shutdown. Less than 50 yards away, however, Senate Democrats were conducting their own rally, complete with a microphone.

 

Despite that audio advantage, at one point the D.C. rally threatened to drown out the Senate Democrats with chants of “Free D.C.”

 

Mrs. Norton told the crowd that drowning out the Democrats may cause resentment from the people the city needs on its side. To be more effective, she suggested the crowd disperse to the Senate office buildings to talk with senators and make their voices heard.

 

At one point during Democrats’ news conference, cameras caught Mr. Gray, who had crashed the senators’ meeting, standing next to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

 

“I spoke to the extent that I could to the majority leader. That obviously was a press conference that they had planned. They didn’t even know that we would be here and vice versa,” Mr. Gray told reporters after the exchange.

 

The cameras’ sound equipment caught Mr. Reid telling Mr. Gray, “I’m on your side. Don’t screw it up,” in response to his pleas to reopen the District’s government.

 

Mr. Reid’s office did not return a request for comment.

 

 

Three high-performing charter schools have submitted bids for the former Winston school in Ward 7. But a local community organization is urging DCPS to use the building to establish the first application-only middle or high school east of the Anacostia River.

 

It's difficult to predict what the Department of General Services will do with the former Martha H. Winston Elementary School in the Hillcrest neighborhood, given that 3 charter schools have applied for the site. In contrast, the Young and Hamilton schools, which were awarded to charters last month, drew only one bid for each property.

 

Now yet another proposal for Winston has emerged. The Hillcrest Community Civic Association (HCCA) says that although it supports the concept of charter schools, it believes that Winston would be "a prime location" for a DCPS application-only school.

 

Of the 3 charter school applicants, only DC Prep proposes to include a middle school as part of a pre-K-8th grade program at Winston. Rocketship Education and Eagle Academy would focus on pre-K through 5th grade or simply elementary school programs.

 

It's possible that a decision on the Winston school will be made public very soon. At the annual DC Association of Chartered Public Schools meeting on Tuesday, Deputy Mayor for Education Abigail Smith said that two school dispositions would be announced later this week or next, presumably referring to Winston and another former DCPS school, Shaed.

 

Need for extensive renovation

 

It's surprising that this particular building has drawn so much interest. As the HCCA acknowledges, the nearly windowless school will need to undergo significant renovation to make it an attractive option for local families.

 

Public charter schools often have fundraising resources that allow them to finance such projects. But it's not clear that the District would invest the money necessary for an extensive renovation of the building, especially when officials are still attempting to reduce building costs by excessing unused and underused school buildings.

 

Unlike Dunbar High School, which DCPS recently spent $22 million to rebuild, Winston is neither centrally located nor particularly accessible by Metro. The building is nearly a mile from the Naylor Road Metro station, across the District boundary in Maryland, and there are only a few bus lines nearby.

 

The HCCA says in its proposal that it is "not fixed" on Winston as the appropriate location for an application-only school. Its more general point is that there's an imbalance between the location of charter schools and the location of students in the District.

 

Students crossing the river

 

The HCCA points out that the 6 competitive DCPS application schools are all in Wards 1, 2 and 5: Benjamin Banneker High School, Columbia Heights Education Center, Ellington School of the Arts, Phelps Architecture Construction and Engineering High School, School Without Walls Senior High School, and McKinley Technology High School. Of these schools, only one, Columbia Heights EC, includes a middle school.

 

The HCCA also notes that, as of 2010, 39% of the District's students lived in Wards 7 and 8. Ward 2, which has two application schools, had only 4% of the District's students. Ward 1 and Ward 5, each of which also has two application schools, had 9% and 12% of the students, respectively.

 

According to data collected by HCCA from DCPS profiles, parents in Wards 7 and 8 are sending their students to application-only schools across the Anacostia in large numbers. Phelps, in Ward 5, draws 53% of its students from Wards 7 and 8, and 3 other schools—Banneker, Ellington, and McKinley—each draw over 30%.

 

The HCCA says that enrollment trends in middle and high schools in Wards 7 and 8 have generally been flat or declining. In contrast, enrollment rates at DCPS application schools have been rising.

 

The HCCA also points out that the application high schools offer an educational experience that is far better than that available at neighborhood high schools. And an application middle school, the proposal says, would capitalize on the recent gains achieved by some area elementary schools. In addition, it would help prepare local students to succeed at the existing application high schools.

 

The HCCA makes a good case for locating an application school in Ward 7 or 8, and it's an idea that Councilmember David Catania raised months ago. But it's far from clear that the Winston school is the right site. A better choice might be the former Ron Brown Middle School, which is located a block from the Deanwood Metro station. A high-caliber school in that more convenient location could even attract students from across the District and possibly serve as a feeder into student-starved Woodson High School.

 

The HCCA proposal doesn't address the concern that an application-only school would surely attract some of the best students from other Ward 7 and 8 middle or high schools and further diminish overall student performance at those schools. But such a brain drain should not detract from DCPS efforts to increase performance at all of its schools.

 

The HCCA is sponsoring an education forum on Tuesday, October 15th, at 6:30 pm, where its proposal for an application school will undoubtedly be discussed. Speakers will include Deputy Mayor Smith and the Executive Director of the Public Charter School Board, Scott Pearson. The meeting will take place in the Randle Highlands Elementary School gymnasium, 1650 30th Street SE. (Nearest Metro rail access: Naylor Road, Anacostia or Benning Road; Metro bus: 36, 39, A11, J13, K11, M6) 

 

 

Big changes are coming to the early childhood and Out of Boundary lottery system for DC Public (DCPS) and Public Charter Schools (DCPCS). In the past, every school, public or public charter, ran an individual lottery and maintained separate waiting lists. This created a tremendous amount of uncertainty and redundancy as parents applied to multiple schools and were wait-listed in many locations.

 

A Unitary Lottery

 

Rather than the current hodgepodge, balkanized application circus, parents will apply with single online application to both their preferred public and public charter schools of choice. An algorithm will be used to match students with schools. Those who wish to remain a current school or school feeder pattern are not required to enter.

 

The lottery website www.myschooldc.org is live. The new process is due to open in two months. Yet, there remain many details to work out in that short period.

 

How many schools a family can choose?

 

Will preferences for traditional public and charter schools will be combined into one list?

 

Even the list still has kinks in it. For example, Prospect Learning Center, closed by the Chancellor at the end of last school year, is included. Almost all 105 DCPS schools are required to participate including the application-only high schools. Charters had the option of retaining their old system. Nevertheless, 86 out of 154 charters have joined the new system.

 

Noticeably absent from the charter list are a few popular elementary schools: Creative Minds International Public Charter School (PCS); Elsie Whitlow Stokes Community Freedom PCS; Latin American Montessori Bilingual PCS (LAMB); and Washington Yu Ying PCS. A number of middle schools are also absent.

 

The Theory

 

The joint system is designed to streamline the enrollment process. Currently students can enroll in one DCPS school and more than one charter school. Parents are not compelled to make a final choice until the school year has actually started. The result is the 'September Shuffle' in which students start out at one school and then move when accepted off a wait list at a more desirable institution. This is unsettling and stressful for the schools, the parents and the students. It makes the start of the school year, already a difficult time for school administrators and teachers, even more chaotic.

 

Nothing has been made public about how the joint lottery system will operate. The logical assumption is that parents will choose a certain number of traditional and charter schools, ranking them in order of preference. A computer algorithm will sort out any applicable preferences, such as in-bounds, siblings, proximity, admitting each applicant to only one school. The goal is to increase the number of students who actually get into their top choice school, while decreasing the numbers wait-listed. (Presumably students will only be wait-listed at schools they ranked above the school they were accepted to.) Most importantly, this procedure will prohibit students from enrolling in more than one participating school. There is no word yet on how they will handle the non-participating schools in terms of dual enrollment.

 

Further information, school lists, and applications will be available on the website. The online application will be made available starting Dec.16. The deadline for high schools including the test-in schools is Feb. 3 while the deadline for all other applications is March 3.

 

It will be an interesting lottery season, to say the least. The first hurdles, getting enough charter schools to join, putting the website and lottery operator in place, and publicizing the process, have been overcome. Time will tell whether the new system will make getting into a “right fit” school easier or more difficult for the city’s families.

 

 

Local television news personality J.C. Hayward has asked a D.C. Superior Court judge to remove her from the list of defendants in a case involving allegations of a multimillion-dollar self-dealing scheme at a District charter school.

 

Hayward, an anchor at WUSA (Channel 9), was named in a civil complaint last week that sought to take over Options Public Charter School amid allegations that former top school officials had funneled millions of dollars to two for-profit companies they owned. Jeffrey S. Jacobovitz, Hayward’s attorney, filed court papers Wednesday seeking to remove Hayward from the case, arguing that she “not only did not benefit financially from the alleged scheme but was entirely unaware of its existence.”

 

The D.C. attorney general has alleged that the former managers received “exorbitant” bonuses from the school before they resigned to run the companies full time and called into question large management contracts the companies had with the school. Hayward was chairman of the school’s board of trustees — and, according to court documents, allegedly signed off on the contracts and bonuses in that role — before she stepped down in recent days.

 

Although no one has yet been criminally charged, investigators are conducting interviews and a grand jury is expected to convene as early as next week, according to several people familiar with the case. It is unclear whether criminal charges could be levied in connection with the alleged diversion of millions of dollars in taxpayer money; the former Options managers have denied any wrongdoing in the case.

 

Bill Miller, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr., declined to comment on whether there is a grand jury investigation. Such proceedings are designed by law to be secret. Miller said last week that prosecutors would consider “all pertinent information as we continue our review of this matter.”

 

An Options official told a forensic accountant hired to investigate the Northeast Washington school’s finances that records also have been subpoenaed by the D.C. Office of the Inspector General, according to the accountant’s sworn declaration. The statement was among documents filed with the civil complaint last week.

 

D.C. Deputy Inspector General Blanche Bruce declined to comment on whether her office is pursuing an investigation.

 

Pamela Marple, a lawyer representing the two for-profit companies — Exceptional Education Management Corp. and Exceptional Education Services — did not respond to questions about whether her clients had been interviewed by investigators or subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury.

 

“EEMC has and will continue to provide information and answer all questions,” Marple said in a statement.

 

On Wednesday, Hayward sought to distance herself from the allegations, and her attorney’s court filing says that she is a victim of “government overreaching” and that her reputation as “a stellar member of the D.C. community” has been unfairly harmed by the case. She also has been placed on administrative leave at WUSA pending further investigation.

 

Jacobovitz said in the court filing that Hayward was not paid to serve on the Options board, and that the complaint does not allege that she benefited from the alleged scheme. Although the complaint alleges that she helped incorporate one of the companies in 2009, it does not accuse her of owning or controlling the companies during the period in question.

 

“And, in fact, Dr. Hayward has never owned or operated either entity,” Jacobovitz wrote.

 

Hayward also served on the boards of at least nine other D.C. institutions, including the United Black Fund, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Washington, Arena Stage and Providence Hospital, according to the filing.

 

“While Ms. Hayward may be a relevant witness as to her activities connected to the D.C. Charter School, there is nothing in the Complaint to even suggest that she herself participated in misdeeds or received any of the alleged ill-gotten gains,” Jacobovitz wrote. “To the contrary, the most reasonable and logical conclusion to be drawn from the allegations in the Complaint is that Dr. Hayward was herself a potential victim if a scheme existed.”

 

The complaint alleges that Hayward assisted the ex-managers in the contracting scheme and seeks to freeze the assets of the three ex-managers and their businesses. The complaint does not seek action against Hayward.

 

The ex-managers agreed last week to sever their financial relationship with Options. D.C. Superior Court Judge Craig Iscoe appointed a receiver — Josh Kern, the founder of a successful charter school who now owns an education consulting firm — to oversee the school’s operations.

 

Amid the allegations, the school has lost a grant worth up to $600,000 that had been awarded in August by the Office of the State Superintendent of Education. The grant was meant to help Options — which serves 400 at-risk students, most with disabilities — provide therapeutic services for special-education students from other schools across the city.

 

“After reviewing the legal complaint, OSSE did not finalize the award and the funds were never disbursed,” spokeswoman Athena Hernandez wrote in an e-mail.

 

Options received a similar $300,000 grant from OSSE last year, according to Hernandez, and it was the sole applicant this school year.

 

The allegations also have drawn attention from the D.C. Council. David A. Catania (I-At Large), chairman of the Education Committee, has scheduled a public oversight roundtable for Oct. 18. It will be a chance to “hear from District education officials about plans to ensure students at the school continue to receive the quality of educational services they are entitled to and require,” according to the roundtable notice.

 

A court hearing in the case is scheduled for Friday. Iscoe is expected to appoint a receiver to oversee the two for-profit companies. Jacobovitz said he expects that Iscoe will not rule for several weeks on the motion to dismiss Hayward from the complaint.

 

 

We knew the story about financial irregularities at Options Public Charter School would get worse before it got better and here we go. This morning the Washington Post's Emma Brown and Ann Marimow reveal that a grand jury looking into the matter is to be seated next week. At the same time the D.C. Office of the Inspector General has sought records from the school. This comes on top of the civil complaint filed by the D.C. attorney general. D.C. Superior Court Judge Craig Iscoe has appointed Josh Kern as a receiver for the charter and he is expected tomorrow to appoint one to take charge of the two companies formed by top former executives of Options and its board chair. In addition, D.C. Council education committee chairman David Catania is about to hold a panel discussion to determine the impact on the students of all of this activity.

 

The reporters also state that J.C. Hayward has petitioned the court to have her removed as a defendant. Her attorney states that she received no monetary gain in her role as board chair. But this argument begs the question. What role did she and the other members of the board of directors have in the highly unusual contracting decisions that were made at the non-profit?

 

For example, prior news stories said that the Ms. Hayward signed off on an almost $3 million management contract between options and EEMC, one of the firms controlled by the school's leaders. Another company received a $160,000 loan from the school. There was the million dollar transportation contract with her name on it, especially noteworthy because the prior year the same services cost $70,000. And don't forget that the executive director received an annual salary and bonuses worth $425,000.

 

I have been fortunate to be the board chair now at two D.C. charters. Something I initiated years ago was a review of all contracts worth $25,000 and above at each board meeting. Of course, the body also approved the annual budget and reviewed financial statements at every session.

 

So as the proceedings continue which could result in people doing time in jail I have to wonder what the board was doing when all of these transactions were initiated. Did they just go along with decisions made by the chair or was information hidden from their view? The answer may very well determine the course of non-profit charter school governance in the nation's capital.