Month: September 2024

Friendship reacts to DC charter board’s decision blocking the network’s takeover of Eagle Academy

mlerner10 Charter School Expansion, Charter School Facilities, Charter Schools, DCPS, PCSB, School Choice Leave a comment

Yesterday, I received the following statement from Friendship PCS regarding the DC Public Charter School Board’s recent vote disallowing the charter’s takeover of Eagle Academy PCS:

“I am saddened for the children, families and staff affected and wish there had been another outcome that prioritized stability and a stronger educational experience. While we are disappointed in the outcome, we recognize there were many factors that the DC PCSB had to weigh. Eagle’s finances, which led to the PCSB citing Eagle for fiscal mismanagement, presented significant challenges. Yet, Friendship remains steadfast in our belief that Eagle’s children and families should not suffer for decisions they did not make,” said CEO Pat Brantley.

“Our commitment to our little Eagles and their families remains stronger than ever. While we were fully prepared to transform Eagle Academy by ensuring both Eagle campuses opened on time fully staffed and fully resourced, we are continuing to do everything we can to ensure Eagle’s children start the new school year strong,” Brantley continued.

“Friendship, along with the greater public education community, has wrapped its arms around, and opened its doors, to Eagle students, families, and staff who face uncertainty. Today, many former Eagles are now students and new team members at Friendship for the 2024-25 school year. That said, we recognize that far too many who were part of the Eagle community are still dealing with the repercussions of an abrupt closure,” Brantley stated.

Here is my original story on the charter board vote:

I have been away for several months studying the charter school movement in California. Upon my return I caught up on the terribly devastating news that due to actions by the DC Public Charter School Board Eagle Academy PCS had closed. The school would still be operating if the board had approved a takeover by Friendship PCS. It is easily the worst decision by the PCSB since its founding 28 years ago in 1996.

Charter supporters in this town have a tremendous problem. I am referring to the four members of the board who turned down the plan. Obviously, they are not school choice supporters. How else do you explain sending children from approximately 353 families, with many of these kids behaviorally and physically disabled, into a panic to find a new school with six days before the start of the new school year? Due to the late date of the move by the board many of these scholars will end up enrolled in the traditional sector. In addition, the building owned by Eagle, the McGogney School, the one with the swimming pool and highly specialized therapy rooms, will almost certainly be turned over to the city. Never would true charter supporters entertain these outcomes for even one second.

There are many reason why the charter board should have voted affirmatively immediately after Friendship made its proposal:

One – Stability for children and families. Friendship was prepared to come in on day one and begin teaching these students. During the two hearings before the board on this subject, Ms. Patricia Brantley, Friendship’s CEO, pointed out that a simulation using the charter board’s new accountability system ASPIRE showed that each of its six existing elementary schools would score at Level 1, the exemplary category. Students that were formally at Eagle would be receiving a stronger academic preparation than they had under the old regime.

Two – Friendship has a proven record of taking over failed charter schools. Friendship created the model of taking over failed schools to provide continuity for students and parents, and to keep these children with a seat in a charter, with the assumption of SouthEast Academy PCS in 2005. The LEA has repeated this procedure with its takeover of the Armstrong Campus and the online institute of the Dorothy I. Height Community Academy in 2015, IDEAL Academy in 2019, City Arts and Prep PCS, formally the William E. Doar, Jr. PCS for the Performing Arts of which I was a founding board member and board chair, also in 2019.

Three- The PCSB might have had a hand in Eagle’s fate. In 2022, Eagle Academy filed a charter amendment request to add the fourth and fifth grades to their current offering of Pre-Kindergarten three to third grades. The school argued that the addition of these grades would provide stability for the children and families attending the school. The board turned down this request because it said that Eagle had missed the deadline for requesting the additional grades. However, the inability of Eagle to offer parents a preschool to fifth grade institution provided a powerful incentive for them to look to other facilities for their educational needs. Indeed enrollment at Eagle decreased sharply after the pandemic, falling from 838 to 412 pupils, according to Laura Lumpkin of the Washington Post. Eagle then failed to react sufficiently to its loss of revenue which is what eventually led to its conclusion to relinquish its charter when the Friendship deal was denied. The school did not have the money to continue operating based upon its number of students.

Four – The decision was an affront to Patricia Brantley. This is an individual who exemplifies the Friendship values of integrity, responsibility, confidence, care, commitment, patience, persistence, and respect. In addition to overseeing the education of over 4,700 students in the District of Columbia and adding campuses to the Friendship portfolio as described above, she incorporated the Capital Experience Lab, CapX, into her Blow Pierce Middle School, after the proposed charter was rejected twice by the board. Ms. Brantley also almost single-handedly saved Monument Academy PCS by volunteering to serve on its board after the school had decided to close in the wake of severe discipline problems occurring at the site.

Ms. Brantley is a hero in our community, and to reject her gracious offer to come to the rescue of the families at Eagle was an affront to her stellar achievements.

The four board members who cast their vote against the takeover plan, Lea Crusey, board chair; Shantelle Wright, board treasurer; Shukurat Adamoh-Faniyan, board secretary; and Carisa Stanley Beatty, board member; together with the other trustees and staff, repeatedly referred to the Friendship plan as an asset acquisition. I guess in a technical way that is what it is. But what we are really talking about here is dignity for all the teachers, staff, parents, and students, who would have benefited from becoming part of Friendship.

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D.C. public school reform ended with the charter board’s failure to allow Eagle Academy’s takeover by Friendship

mlerner10 Charter School Expansion, Charter Schools, DCPS, PCSB, School Choice Leave a comment

I have been away for several months studying the charter school movement in California. Upon my return I caught up on the terribly devastating news that due to actions by the DC Public Charter School Board Eagle Academy PCS had closed. The school would still be operating if the board had approved a takeover by Friendship PCS. It is easily the worst decision by the PCSB since its founding 28 years ago in 1996.

Charter supporters in this town have a tremendous problem. I am referring to the four members of the board who turned down the plan. Obviously, they are not school choice supporters. How else do you explain sending children from approximately 353 families, with many of these kids behaviorally and physically disabled, into a panic to find a new school with six days before the start of the new school year? Due to the late date of the move by the board many of these scholars will end up enrolled in the traditional sector. In addition, the building owned by Eagle, the McGogney School, the one with the swimming pool and highly specialized therapy rooms, will almost certainly be turned over to the city. Never would true charter supporters entertain these outcomes for even one second.

There are many reason why the charter board should have voted affirmatively immediately after Friendship made its proposal:

One – Stability for children and families. Friendship was prepared to come in on day one and begin teaching these students. During the two hearings before the board on this subject, Ms. Patricia Brantley, Friendship’s CEO, pointed out that a simulation using the charter board’s new accountability system ASPIRE showed that each of its six existing elementary schools would score at Level 1, the exemplary category. Students that were formally at Eagle would be receiving a stronger academic preparation than they had under the old regime.

Two – Friendship has a proven record of taking over failed charter schools. Friendship created the model of taking over failed schools to provide continuity for students and parents, and to keep these children with a seat in a charter, with the assumption of SouthEast Academy PCS in 2005. The LEA has repeated this procedure with its takeover of the Armstrong Campus and the online institute of the Dorothy I. Height Community Academy in 2015, IDEAL Academy in 2019, City Arts and Prep PCS, formally the William E. Doar, Jr. PCS for the Performing Arts of which I was a founding board member and board chair, also in 2019.

Three- The PCSB might have had a hand in Eagle’s fate. In 2022, Eagle Academy filed a charter amendment request to add the fourth and fifth grades to their current offering of Pre-Kindergarten three to third grades. The school argued that the addition of these grades would provide stability for the children and families attending the school. The board turned down this request because it said that Eagle had missed the deadline for requesting the additional grades. However, the inability of Eagle to offer parents a preschool to fifth grade institution provided a powerful incentive for them to look to other facilities for their educational needs. Indeed enrollment at Eagle decreased sharply after the pandemic, falling from 838 to 412 pupils, according to Laura Lumpkin of the Washington Post. Eagle then failed to react sufficiently to its loss of revenue which is what eventually led to its conclusion to relinquish its charter when the Friendship deal was denied. The school did not have the money to continue operating based upon its number of students.

Four – The decision was an affront to Patricia Brantley. This is an individual who exemplifies the Friendship values of integrity, responsibility, confidence, care, commitment, patience, persistence, and respect. In addition to overseeing the education of over 4,700 students in the District of Columbia and adding campuses to the Friendship portfolio as described above, she incorporated the Capital Experience Lab, CapX, into her Blow Pierce Middle School, after the proposed charter was rejected twice by the board. Ms. Brantley also almost single-handedly saved Monument Academy PCS by volunteering to serve on its board after the school had decided to close in the wake of severe discipline problems occurring at the site.

Ms. Brantley is a hero in our community, and to reject her gracious offer to come to the rescue of the families at Eagle was an affront to her stellar achievements.

The four board members who cast their vote against the takeover plan, Lea Crusey, board chair; Shantelle Wright, board treasurer; Shukurat Adamoh-Faniyan, board secretary; and Carisa Stanley Beatty, board member; together with the other trustees and staff, repeatedly referred to the Friendship plan as an asset acquisition. I guess in a technical way that is what it is. But what we are really talking about here is dignity for all the teachers, staff, parents, and students, who would have benefited from becoming part of Friendship.