Thursday, January 8, 2009
As developers consider 11 former D.C. school buildings the city is offering for reuse, charters schools are crying foul.
Charter schools are required by law to get the first crack at empty school buildings, so D.C. offered up 14 of its 31 unused schools to charters in September and is in competitive negotiations for three of them. It then offered 11 directly to developers, issuing a request for proposals in December.
But Robert Cane, president of the advocacy group Friends of Choice in Urban Schools, says that isn't enough. He filed a public documents request and found there were 18 charter school bids for the 11 buildings currently up for grabs. Cane doesn't see why developers should get a shot at those buildings if charter schools want them.
"Naturally we're very upset and wonder if the city operated in good faith in offering charter schools first right of offer," Cane says.
The Fenty administration's position: It gave the charter schools a chance, as required, and those organizations can still partner with developers in bids for schools this time around. The D.C. Council is likely to get involved, with multiple council members already submitting legislation to alter rules for former schools.
The sites range from just under 1 acre to more than 5, with buildings up to 131,000 square feet. They include such prime sites as Steven's School at 21st and L streets NW and Hine Junior High School on Capitol Hill.
Cane doesn't understand why so much attention is given to improving some school buildings — see Fenty's Buff & Scrub initiative — but not others. "The government buys into the notion that we should have beautiful school buildings for kids in DCPS … and the 35 percent of students in charter schools have to fight for every inch that they can get."
D.C. Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development Neil Albert invited interested developers to a pre-bidders meeting scheduled for Jan. 8. Proposals are due Feb. 17, and a decision could come in the spring.
This article can be found at: http://www.bizjournals.com/dayton/othercities/washington/stories/2009/01/05/daily70.html