Gray Proposes Reallocation of $100MM of DCPS Capital Modernization Funds

[Anonymous]

Support is what support. We wouldn't be at 50% cacpacity if nay-sayers would send their children to the schools. Ooops I forgot, they have too many of the undesirables.

[Anonymous]

Reading between the lines, I suspect that Tommy Wells made it clear to Gray that Payne is the inbounds school for the children at the homeless shelter at DC General and that Gray might not want to take anymore hits when it comes to homeless issues leading up to the primary.

[Anonymous]

Also the homeless will and can vote...ask Marion Barry on that one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Support is what support. We wouldn't be at 50% cacpacity if nay-sayers would send their children to the schools. Ooops I forgot, they have too many of the undesirables.

Yeah, it couldn't be because DCPS is a complete disaster ( read about the 75 million federal dollars that didn't get spent because of incompetence between OSSE and DCPS ) and has been for many years. Noooooooo....couldn't be that. It must be some kind of xenophobic, rascist, elitist conspiracy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Reading between the lines, I suspect that Tommy Wells made it clear to Gray that Payne is the inbounds school for the children at the homeless shelter at DC General and that Gray might not want to take anymore hits when it comes to homeless issues leading up to the primary.

Why would Wells be interested in coming to the aid of Gray?

[Anonymous]

Payne is in Ward 6 and Tommy was getting pressure from Ward 6 residents to restore funding.

[Anonymous]

So what happens to Payne - the reprogramming gets pulled and the Mayor/CFO submits another one for less money or a different payfor for some school project?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCI lost out because a ruling was made that the grant money it was going to get could not legally be spent on it. That's legal inflexibility, not mayoral impropriety.

That's bullshit. How is funding a public school for DC children NOT legal? Charter or not. Charters are entitled to public funds, they are public schools.

AND their parents pay DC taxes! This is total bullshit.

[Anonymous]

GarrisonPTA wrote:We have been asking for a full modernization at Garrison for quite some time. While we knew we were getting our Phase I reno this summer, we were also asking to get money in FY2015 to do the next Phases of modernization, rather than have to wait until 2019 and 2021 to complete the remaining phases.

So, while we are disappointed that classrooms won't be renovated this summer, it is great that we will be getting what we have been asking for in 2015 (barring yet another rescheduling of funds...) With the way everything has gone for us, I'll just accept this as a win. With respect to what a previous poster said regarding Gray's and Henderson's attitude towards Garrison, I totally agree...it's been shown over and over that we are simply not a priority to them. What would be nice if there was a strategy for the school (and hey, EVERY school), that everyone supports.

What I do think is great is that even on this forum, everyone agrees that all this pitting school against school has got to stop. We need a strategic plan for modernization of schools that is finalized and committed to and not changed. Plus, more realistic budgeting has to occur - that is what really started the mess to begin with...no contingency funds when things don't go as planned. I hope that all District residents start demanding this. Even if you don't have a child in our public schools, it does affect you and the city.

I think Gray & Henderson kept thinking that the Garrison supporters would just move on.

Instead what they did by their actions over the years was to polarize neighbors, community associations, and ANCs right alongside Garrison families. Hopefully the events of earlier this week will be the final time they try to pull the carpet out from under Garrison. If they do it yet again after affirming their commitments to Garrison at debates and in front of the Council in the latter half of this week, these groups will be there to make certain that there is Hell to pay.

Many other schools are just as deserving of improvement as Garrison, but at least you can't it criticize on equity terms (unlike Ward 3 renovations). Garrison is title I and the vast majority of its students qualify for FARMs (something like 80%).