Harmony requests to relocate to Hope Tolson building

[Anonymous]

https://dcpcsb.org/notice-petition-amend-charter-facility-amendment-request-harmony-pcs

"The District of Columbia Public Charter School Board (DC PCSB) announces an opportunity for the public to submit comment on a request from Harmony DC Public Charter School (Harmony PCS) to amend its charter agreement to relocate to a new facility. The school submitted its request on September 30, 2025. The school proposes relocating from 62 T Street NE to 2917 8th Street NE, beginning in school year (SY) 2026 – 27. Founded in 2014, Harmony PCS educates 182 students across grades pre-kindergarten (PK) 3 through 5 in Ward 5."

I wonder what happens to the current building, which is an old Catholic school and not really big enough to be a viable elementary.

[Anonymous]

I really haven't a clue what makes them think they can increase their enrollment. They never have much of a waitlist and their other stats aren't good-- they narrowly avoided closure a few years back. This seems like the kind of over-optimistic financial move that leads to problems.

[Anonymous]

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1K3F2PBUTn0VrVoz_PN1PEisfgWFwYozs

Harmony board meeting minutes here. There's a lot of financial information. It seems like their cash position currently is strong relative to current operating costs, but I'm really unclear on how a less than 200-kid school, with an enrollment cap of 450, can afford a building with a capacity of 947 kids. Maybe they're planning to add grade levels, but even so, going up to 8th would only be three more classrooms so like 60 kids, and that would require a charter amendment which is not guaranteed for a school with shaky performance. Expanding to solve financial problems is a classic move, but not always a successful one.

The parent organization basically had to bail this location out with an influx of cash in the last review cycle. I wonder if that's what's enabling this to happen.

They expect to receive an Aspire score of 3, which is not very good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1K3F2PBUTn0VrVoz_PN1PEisfgWFwYozs

Harmony board meeting minutes here. There's a lot of financial information. It seems like their cash position currently is strong relative to current operating costs, but I'm really unclear on how a less than 200-kid school, with an enrollment cap of 450, can afford a building with a capacity of 947 kids. Maybe they're planning to add grade levels, but even so, going up to 8th would only be three more classrooms so like 60 kids, and that would require a charter amendment which is not guaranteed for a school with shaky performance. Expanding to solve financial problems is a classic move, but not always a successful one.

The parent organization basically had to bail this location out with an influx of cash in the last review cycle. I wonder if that's what's enabling this to happen.

They expect to receive an Aspire score of 3, which is not very good.

The Certificate of Occupancy referencing a capacity of 947 is interesting -- that may be staff and students but it's still very high. The Hope Tolson building is a roughly 32,000 square foot facility. The capacity is closer to 500-550 students max.

From the application, they've already signed a purchase agreement so affordability and financing or support from their parent organization is probably already known.

The Harmony enrollment ceiling is 250. They can enroll up to that number and after that would need an enrollment ceiling increase which is a much higher bar for academic performance for approval.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1K3F2PBUTn0VrVoz_PN1PEisfgWFwYozs

Harmony board meeting minutes here. There's a lot of financial information. It seems like their cash position currently is strong relative to current operating costs, but I'm really unclear on how a less than 200-kid school, with an enrollment cap of 450, can afford a building with a capacity of 947 kids. Maybe they're planning to add grade levels, but even so, going up to 8th would only be three more classrooms so like 60 kids, and that would require a charter amendment which is not guaranteed for a school with shaky performance. Expanding to solve financial problems is a classic move, but not always a successful one.

The parent organization basically had to bail this location out with an influx of cash in the last review cycle. I wonder if that's what's enabling this to happen.

They expect to receive an Aspire score of 3, which is not very good.

The Certificate of Occupancy referencing a capacity of 947 is interesting -- that may be staff and students but it's still very high. The Hope Tolson building is a roughly 32,000 square foot facility. The capacity is closer to 500-550 students max.

From the application, they've already signed a purchase agreement so affordability and financing or support from their parent organization is probably already known.

The Harmony enrollment ceiling is 250. They can enroll up to that number and after that would need an enrollment ceiling increase which is a much higher bar for academic performance for approval.

Thank you for this analysis. I really don't see how the building can hold 947! It's just not that big. Two stories and seven classrooms on each side of each... 25*14*2=700.

I really don't see how they can attract more students even up to 250. The general trend in DC is declining waitlists, and they have basically nobody on their waitlist in recent years. The neighborhood schools in that area aren't great but they're also not that bad, and there's plenty of strong charters...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1K3F2PBUTn0VrVoz_PN1PEisfgWFwYozs

Harmony board meeting minutes here. There's a lot of financial information. It seems like their cash position currently is strong relative to current operating costs, but I'm really unclear on how a less than 200-kid school, with an enrollment cap of 450, can afford a building with a capacity of 947 kids. Maybe they're planning to add grade levels, but even so, going up to 8th would only be three more classrooms so like 60 kids, and that would require a charter amendment which is not guaranteed for a school with shaky performance. Expanding to solve financial problems is a classic move, but not always a successful one.

The parent organization basically had to bail this location out with an influx of cash in the last review cycle. I wonder if that's what's enabling this to happen.

They expect to receive an Aspire score of 3, which is not very good.

Because they get money from some weird Turkish guy.

[Anonymous]

In the 2023 FAR (and shame on the PCSB for taking two full years to publish anything updated), it says:

"The LEA’s lease agreement is expected to expire in July 2026 with extension options through FY 2034, which the LEA plans to exercise. The FCAP’s short-term goal was to leverage the school’s philanthropic funding to increase its financial sustainability and liquidity through the grade expansion to PK. The long-term goal was for the school to reduce or eliminate its reliance on philanthropic funding to carry out its operations. In FY 2023, the LEA was on track achieving the FCAP long-term goal, as it reduced its private contributions from $400K in FY 2022 to $23K in FY 2023. Subject to confirmation of the financial information in the FY 2024 audit, the LEA is expected to have complied with all FCAP requirements through FYE 2024, the final FCAP target date."


https://dcpcsb.egnyte.com/dl/b6jMdBmyQ8/FY_2023_Financial_Analysis_Report.pdf_

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1K3F2PBUTn0VrVoz_PN1PEisfgWFwYozs

Harmony board meeting minutes here. There's a lot of financial information. It seems like their cash position currently is strong relative to current operating costs, but I'm really unclear on how a less than 200-kid school, with an enrollment cap of 450, can afford a building with a capacity of 947 kids. Maybe they're planning to add grade levels, but even so, going up to 8th would only be three more classrooms so like 60 kids, and that would require a charter amendment which is not guaranteed for a school with shaky performance. Expanding to solve financial problems is a classic move, but not always a successful one.

The parent organization basically had to bail this location out with an influx of cash in the last review cycle. I wonder if that's what's enabling this to happen.

They expect to receive an Aspire score of 3, which is not very good.

Because they get money from some weird Turkish guy.

Seems like the money can't buy good academic performance though!

[Anonymous]

I am a substitute teacher and Harmony is the worst school I've ever been in. I have no idea how they recruited these families to enroll. The teachers are not qualified (I guess bc charter they can alter the rules) and have no management over the children. Everything is on chromebooks so when the teacher says 'do
Your assignment and then you can watch a video', the children just click through the assignment (mc) not caring if it's correct bc they just want to watch the video. I feel so sad for all the children there. It must be something sketchy with whatever investor is referenced but that is literally the worst school I've ever been in all my life. Pray for them.