After being tipped off by the Washington Post’s Lauren Lumpkin that there has been a D.C. Council Committee of the Whole hearing regarding the sudden closure of Eagle Academy PCS, I watched the three hour session. I have to say that the representatives from our the Public Charter School Board, Dr. Michelle Walker-David, executive director; William Henderson, chief operating officer; and Shantelle Wright, newly elected chair, did not inspire confidence.

I truly wish the three of them would have offered from the start that the charter board completely missed the sad situation about the financial demise of Eagle. Instead, the Council representatives were given assurances that improvements would be made and assertions that the responsibility of the school is up to its volunteer board of directors. These explanations only created frustration from those sitting on the dais.

However, the story of this charter school is relatively simple as explained by Friendship PCS CEO Patricia Brantley in her testimony and by Chairman Phil Mendelson in his observations. For years, the enrollment of Eagle was dropping and not just by a few students here and there. Over about four years the student body dropped by more than half. As Ms. Lumpkin reported, “More than half the student body left between fiscal years 2019 and 2023, falling from 838 to 412 children.” Charter school funding is directly tied to the student count, so this institution was doomed much earlier than last summer when the board finally got around to issuing a financial corrective action plan. The result of this malpractice by the PCSB was that the families of over 350 students and about 100 staff members had to scramble to find new places to go six days before the start of the school year.

However, instead of the board taking responsibility for a situation it helped create, by a 4 to 3 vote it rejected the takeover of Eagle by Friendship. As an exasperated Mr. Mendelson posed to the charter sector representative, “What did you think was going to happen to Eagle” after this decision was made? The school had no more money, so it was left with no choice but to relinquish its charter. Its fate was sealed.

Now, the D.C. Council is considering legislation to prevent this scenario from reoccurring. It may require members of charter boards to undergo annual training in reading school balance sheets and in understanding their role in managing these facilities. In the good old days, when there was a D.C. charter school movement, I would argue that as an independent sector, the board could tell the Council to take a hike. But now, with weak and perhaps incompetent leadership, the PCSB will simply bow their heads and let the legislative body do with it as it wishes.

It is time for a change at the top of the PCSB.