FOCUS DC News Wire 11/13/13

 

 

The largest charter-school operator in Texas, an organization with a solid academic record but lingering allegations of connections to a controversial Muslim cleric, is seeking to expand to the District next year.

 

The D.C. Public Charter School Board is scheduled to vote Monday on whether Harmony Public Schools should be allowed to open a science- and math-focused school in Washington in fall 2014. Harmony runs 40 Texas charter schools that enroll more than 25,000 students.

 

Founded in 2000 by a group of Turkish-born immigrants, Harmony has won acclaim for its performance in Texas, including from the Obama administration, which awarded Harmony $30 million last year through the Race to the Top grant competition.

 

It serves a majority-minority student population, more than half of which come from low-income families. Superintendent Soner Tarim said his organization can fill a need in the nation’s capital for science, technology, engineering and math — or STEM — education.

 

“We feel that STEM is right for our nation’s future,” Tarim told the charter board in October. “Opening a school here will create a model for the entire nation.”

 

All but one of Harmony’s schools met Texas state performance standards in 2013, and officials say the schools have a 100 percent graduation and college-acceptance rate. Although Harmony high school students fell short of the national average on math and reading portions of the 2012 SAT college-entrance exam, they outscored the state average.

 

But Harmony’s business practices have drawn scrutiny. A 2011 investigation published in the New York Times raised questions about whether the charter network has used taxpayer dollars to benefit a social and religious movement led by Fethullah Gulen, an influential Muslim preacher from Turkey who now lives in Pennsylvania.

 

Tarim denied any connection with Gulen. “I am not a follower of anybody,” he said. “Harmony has no affiliation with any religious organization, including the Gulen movement.”

 

Sound financial management and responsible use of taxpayer dollars are key issues for the city charter board as it evaluates applications, especially given recent allegations of a multimillion-dollar self-dealing scheme at the District’s oldest charter school.

 

“I think it’s our obligation to be savvy customers on behalf of D.C. kids,” said Don Soifer, a member of the charter board who visited a Harmony school in Texas and found it to be well-organized and have an impressive level of instruction. “It’s important to sort out the legitimate questions from what might just be hearsay. And where there are legitimate questions, to find answers.”

 

Harmony is one of two organizations seeking a new charter under a fast-track process that allows experienced school operators to open a year ahead of the regular timetable.

 

The other applicant is Harlem-based Democracy Prep, which has proposed opening an elementary school for 650 children. Democracy Prep has nine campuses in New York and New Jersey and is known for its strict “no excuses” approach to educating inner-city children.

 

The D.C. charter board hired the National Association of Charter School Authorizers to review the records of applicants, according to spokeswoman Theola Labbé-DeBose, who said that the reviews are “deliberative” and therefore not required to be released to the public.

 

Harmony’s application has drawn more attention. Critics have written letters urging the board to reject it, alleging possible ties between the school and Gulen.

 

More than 120 U.S. charter schools are operated by Turkish-born immigrants, and critics have alleged that many have connections to Gulen. People familiar with the schools say they do not teach religion.

 

The 2011 New York Times report about Harmony said that nearly all Harmony contracts awarded between 2009 and 2011 went to Turkish-owned firms, even when non-Turkish firms put in lower bids.

 

Tarim, who is leading the effort to expand to the District, said that Harmony has always abided by the law and that critics have been fueled by xenophobia. “We are treated as an outsider,” he said, calling the report by the Times unfair: “I strongly felt we were mistreated.”

 

Tarim said that Harmony has rejected the lowest bidder for a contract only twice, and for good reasons. In one case, the low bidder wouldn’t have been able to complete a school-construction project before the first day of classes. In the other, the low bidder on a food-service contract was offering frozen meals, and Harmony schools had no ovens.

 

The Texas Legislature investigated Harmony after the report by the New York Times, but legislative staff workers said the investigation ended without a written report.

 

In 2012, the Texas state education agency released an audit showing that Harmony failed to properly document its use of $186,000 in federal funds, or about one-third of the dollars auditors examined for the fiscal year ending in August 2010. “Inadequate internal controls . . . resulted in the misuse of federal funds,” the audit said.

 

Harmony repaid the $186,000, according to a spokeswoman for the Texas education agency. But Harmony officials maintain that they did nothing wrong, saying that the audit’s findings were the result of a dispute over how to properly document the expenditure of federal grant funds.

 

 

The District is expected to decide early next year which of four teams will redevelop the historic Franklin School at 13th and K streets NW, adjacent to Franklin Park in the heart of downtown D.C.

 

It is a potentially lucrative opportunity on prime real estate, but an expensive one, too, as the building is a landmark that must be preserved inside and out at the development team’s expense. The price tag for restoration alone could run north of $30 million and that's before anything is developed.

 

Each presentation has been posted online, so let’s dive in. They vary wildly, from the arts to tech to tourism. But each includes well respected D.C.-based developers with long resumes.

 

I’ve posted the highlights of each bid below, a presentation comment from each team that sums up their proposals, and posted the renderings above. The District is accepting public comments through Dec. 6.

 

CoStar Group Inc.:

 

 

It will provide a much needed boost to the nascent technology sector in an area dominated by law firms and lobbyists, providing valuable diversification of the business community in the area.

 

Douglas Development Corp:

 

 

It will be warm and inviting. The hotel would not just be a product. It would be a unique boutique hotel with a different feel, such as a Kimpton or a Hotel Monaco. The hotel will embellish the neighborhood.

 

Institute for Contemporary Expression:

 

 

It’s a unique institution and there are very few of these models, perhaps five, throughout the country. We have support from other art museums. This project would be a magnet for DC residents and art lovers from all over.

 

Lowe Enterprises, Bundy Development Corp. and DC Innovates:

 

 

The project would be open in one way or another. The tech café would be open, as well as the exhibit space. The co-working area is open to all to share work space. Tech needs constant exposure to the community to thrive.

 

 

They put a green screen in the Red Room, directly across from an early 19th-century portrait of Dolley Madison.

 

In the Blue Room, where the president receives guests beneath a large crystal chandelier, period costumes were being fabricated and gory makeup was being made to look like deeply stitched wounds.

 

The China Room, where the famous White House china collection is displayed, was the site of a directing workshop. And the family movie theater became a sound-effects studio where Gary Hecker — a sound designer for the “Spider-Man” films and other blockbusters — took a bunch of celery, held it over a microphone, covered it in a black cloth and broke it in half. It sounded like bones breaking, triggering gasps from the students in attendance.

 

Welcome to the first White House Film Symposium, hosted Friday by first lady Michelle Obama and featuring Whoopi Goldberg, actress Blake Lively, “Fruitvale Station” director Ryan Coogler and Oscar-winning producers Harvey Weinstein and Northern Virginia’s own Bruce Cohen, among others.

 

The symposium was one of several recent White House events presided over by Michelle Obama after a hiatus of several months due to budget constraints. It represents another step in her effort to transform the mansion into what she calls “the people’s house.”

 

“When we say that we want to make the White House the people’s house, we mean all people,” the first lady said at another event earlier in the week, which was celebrating to Diwali, the Hindu “festival of lights.”

 

That term, “the people’s house,” has become a mantra of sorts around 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. The visitors office, which oversees White House tours, has worked “the people’s house” into its way of doing things. More than once, Michelle Obama has had a note sent down saying she wants to say hi to tour groups coming through the house. The first lady also adds her perspective as a mother to the tour operation, asking the visitors office to consider what a mom would do for half an hour while waiting in line for an event.

 

“It’s a value that everybody on the staff and throughout the building embraces,” said Tina Tchen, the first lady’s chief of staff. “It’s something she constantly challenges us on, to come up with new ways to implement.” She added: “It is not without complications to just throw open the doors. How do you bring these experiences into what is essentially a museum?”

 

For the film symposium, furniture was pushed aside. Set lighting was built. Electrical wires snaked across floors.

 

No china was broken, but the house was as noisy as a high school cafeteria at lunchtime.

 

Deputy Social Secretary Deesha Dyer started the event by leading the students — from Richard Wright Public Charter School and Sitar Arts Center in the District, as well as schools in Boston and Brooklyn — to the south balcony of the White House to see the president’s helicopter take off for fundraisers in Florida.

 

The teens, most wearing their snappy school blazers, were assigned to the workshops based on surveys they had completed.

 

“We thought about what they usually don’t get in school. They get art. They get painting. This is different,” said Dyer, who rushed from room to room.

 

The organizing prowess of the half a dozen men and women in the White House social secretary’s office was in full view. Dyer was prepared for the organized chaos of the day and carried her trusty binder with names and photos of the workshop hosts, background on the visiting schools and a run of the day.

 

“If the first lady asks me a question, I have everything here,” Dyer said, tapping her binder. “The first lady really wanted to do this.”

 

After the morning workshops, lunch was served in the State Dining Room. As the students munched on veggie wraps, CBS’s Gayle King, a friend of the first lady’s, walked from table to table, chatting with the kids.

 

The first lady soon arrived and greeted her young guests, escorted by Weinstein, a big donor to President Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign. Weinstein earlier told the students he and his daughter had the idea to get the first lady to present the Oscar for best picture at the Academy Awards in February. (The previous night, the White House held a VIP screening for his new movie, “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom,” in the family theater.)

 

A costume designer offered Obama a Jackie-O-style pillbox hat to try on, which she gamely wore. Other students dressed up as zombies, the first lady was told. Weinstein jumped in: “Yeah, we call them Republicans.”

 

“Shh,” the first lady said, frowning. “That didn’t come from me.”

 

After a musical interlude by film composer Alan Menken, the first lady told students what she hoped they would take away from the day:

 

“Talent comes and goes, but it’s your ability to dig deep when times are hard and make things happen for yourself that’s the difference between just an average life and success,” she said. “It’s also about things like grit. It’s about determination, resilience, about the ability to overcome adversity.”

 

The first lady headed off to a meeting with her staff.

 

“I’m going to go do a little hard work,” she said.

 

The students stayed behind and kept learning.