- D.C., flush with money, sends millions to DCPS and charter schools
- KIPP DC to open new campus at old Webb Elementary School
- D.C. Council halts reappointment of charter leader who criticized multiculturalism
D.C., flush with money, sends millions to DCPS and charter schools
The Washington Post
By Emma Brown
November 1, 2012
The D.C. Council on Thursday grudgingly approved a proposal from Mayor Vincent Gray to send a pile of unspent cash to D.C. public schools and charter schools.
DCPS will get $7 million to upgrade Internet connections and infrastructure, particularly at its lowest-performing schools. Charter schools will also get $7 million that are ostensibly for facilities but can essentially be used for any number of priorities (details here).
The money comes from operating dollars left unspent during fiscal 2012, which ended in September.
The council supported the two spending measures in a pair of 9 to 2 votes. Despite the lopsided votes, many members expressed frustration with the mayor for springing the proposals on them in what they said was a last-minute surprise that left no time for vetting or real discussion.
Council members received the details of Gray’s proposal Wednesday night, and the deadline to act was Thursday.
“Too little information, too late,” said David Catania (I-At Large) Muriel Bowser (D-Ward 4) cast the other no vote, saying that such spending proposals should come up during the regular budget process when they can be weighed against competing priorities.
Had members failed to approve Gray’s recommendations, the money would have gone — along with the $140 million budget surplus — into an untouchable reserve.
“While I’m very frustrated that the mayor has not engaged the council on this, I don’t believe that’s a reason to not make the expenditures,” said Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6), who voted in favor of both spending measures. “These are good investments.”
Gray spokesman Pedro Ribeiro said the timing was a function of the calendar: Officials don’t know how much money is left in the coffers until they close out last year’s accounts, something they can’t do until after the fiscal year ends.
That money has to be redirected — or “reprogrammed,” in budgetese — by Nov. 1 under the city’s budget rules
“We’d love to get this earlier but we just can’t,” Ribeiro said.
KIPP DC to open new campus at old Webb Elementary School
The Washington Post
By Emma Brown
November 1, 2012
D.C. officials are recommending that charter school operator KIPP DC be allowed to take over the old Webb Elementary School building under a long-term lease.
The decision was announced Thursday by Mayor Vincent Gray (D).
KIPP DC plans to open a school at the site in 2013 with pre-kindergartners and kindergartners. The new facility would eventually serve more than 1,000 students in pre-kindergarten through grade 8.
KIPP DC, part of the large national KIPP network, runs 10 schools at three locations around the city. The Webb site, in Northeast Washington’s Trinidad neighborhood, would be its first in Ward 5.
“I’m really excited,” said Susan Schaeffler, KIPP DC’s chief executive. “It’s great to be located in a new area so we can reach more kids.”
Webb, closed in 2008, was severely damaged in a fire that broke out this summer. Schaeffler said KIPP DC is prepared to spend $25 million to renovate and modernize the building.
D.C. law gives charter schools the “right of first offer” on surplus public school buildings. The terms of the recommended long-term lease are yet to be determined, and the least itself will require D.C. Council approval.
Marc Bleyer, capital program manager in the office of the deputy mayor for education, said KIPP DC was the only charter school that applied for the site.
D.C. Council halts reappointment of charter leader who criticized multiculturalism
The Washington Examiner
Lisa Gartner
November 1, 2012
Updated 5:55 p.m.
The D.C. charter school board issued a statement supporting Don Soifer's reappointment: "The members of the D.C. Public Charter School Board stand firmly in support of Mayor Gray's re-nomination of Don Soifer to the Board. Don has a distinguished three-year record of tireless service to the board and to the 57 charter schools and more than 35,000 students that we serve. He has been a consistent voice on the board in support of parental choice and quality options for D.C. families, and has in both word and deed been a champion of the diversity of our charter school community. Throughout his term he has distinguished himself as one of the most active and devoted members of the Board - all of whom are volunteers - spending countless hours on the ground inside schools and in community meetings getting to know school leaders and talking with D.C. parents. We wholeheartedly support his re-nomination to the D.C. Public Charter School Board for a second term."
------
The D.C. Council held up the re-appointment of a member of the charter school board Thursday, questioning whether views against multiculturalism that Don Soifer expressed in an article made him unfit to approve or deny the applications of would-be charter schools.
"There's an ideology that I don't think necessarily fits or represents the citizens of Washington," said Ward 6 Councilman Tommy Wells during a legislative session.
In a November 2008 report and again in a 2011 Washington Times article, among other publications, Soifer and co-author Robert Holland argued that national governments should focus more on assimilating immigrants than creating programs that foster native languages and cultures.
Soifer is the executive vice president of Lexington Institute, an Arlington think tank where Holland is a senior fellow.
"When school boards spend thousands of tax dollars to send teachers to education conferences around the country, they have a reasonable expectation that the attendees will bring back knowledge and skills that will be put to constructive use in the classroom," Soifer and Holland wrote in the 2008 paper. "That is not necessarily what the boards are receiving in return when they send teachers to conferences on multiculturalism and so-called social-justice teaching."
Soifer has served on the charter school board since 2009, and in that time the board has approved several culturally distinct charter schools including, most recently, a Hebrew language-immersion charter slated to open next year. He did not return a phone call seeking comment Thursday.
In October, a hearing on Soifer's re-appointment to the board brought only praise. But in the 11th hour, when the D.C. Council was set to gavel him in on Thursday, Ward 5 Councilman Kenyan McDuffie raised concerns about Soifer's views on multiculturalism. Specifically, McDuffie asked, do Soifer's views run counter to the District's goals and does that make him unfit to decide which charter schools the city should open?
Chairman Phil Mendelson made the case that the council should consider Soifer's record on the charter school board above any opinions he may express outside his role. But Wells and Ward 3 Councilwoman Mary Cheh chimed in to support McDuffie, and Mendelson agreed to postpone the vote.
"My sense is there is a little unease here, maybe not a lot of unease, but it would make sense to give us time to look at what he wrote," Mendelson said.
Audrey Williams, a spokeswoman for the charter school board, said she expected that the board would continue to support Soifer's re-appointment. Williams declined to comment on Soifer's perspectives on multiculturalism, saying that she was still reading the report.