Restore Funding for Duke Ellington Modernization

[Anonymous]

1) When DC gov't "finds" new money, why is the automatic posture always to spend it? Not pay down debt, not throw the taxpayers a bone...spend it! I know know about you, but I would take a $90 check any time.

2) Out of all the items on that list, why single out Ellington?

[Anonymous]

I am a Duke Ellington supporter and think that our city needs/deserves a great arts high school. The old building was completely unsuitable for its mission. The dancers trained in the hallways, the auditorium was awful, there was inadequate studio space, etc. It was run down and decrepit. The students accomplished a lot despite that setting, but they and the city deserved much better.

That said, this project is crazy. At the start, it was an $82 million renovation. See http://www.ellingtonschool.org/news/agreement-clears-way-for-ellington-school-project/, where it was already referred to as a "massive project."

We are now at an incredible $178 million for this project (see http://www.currentnewspapers.com/admin/uploadfiles/GT%2010-14-15.pdf), more than the new cultural building at Yale (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/12/arts/design/stephen-a-schwarzmangives-150-million-for-yale-cultural-hub.html) and more than the expected cost of the brand new AU Law School building (http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/2014/08/20/why-did-american-universitys-law-school-plunge-in-the-rankings/), although I'm sure the costs for the latter ballooned.

Even if it's finished on time, the students will have been out of the building for THREE YEARS. Check out the video on the Duke Ellington site (http://www.ellingtonschool.org/news/ellington-modernization-design/) to see how out of synch this building is with other school renovations in the city. Again, I'm NOT saying Ellington didn't deserve renovation. It most certainly did, and it does have special needs for studio and performance space that will make it more expensive than most normal school renovations. But the costs for this project are absolutely insane, and someone should be held to account.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1) When DC gov't "finds" new money, why is the automatic posture always to spend it? Not pay down debt, not throw the taxpayers a bone...spend it! I know know about you, but I would take a $90 check any time.

2) Out of all the items on that list, why single out Ellington?

To be fair, DC city council just lowered payroll taxes - retroactively - for everyone except households over $300K+ (IIRC)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it's weird that in a city that's no longer a Chocolate City, the majority of current residents can't

1. elect a representative mayor for either the majority or who represents the whole city, take your pick

and

2. one woman, Ms. Cafritz, continues to have so much power.

I guess it's too soon in the evolution of the District to expect this kind of cronyism to fade. I have to have faith that, with a changing electorate, there will be less of this kind of $tuff

The city is not majority chocolate city but the school population is... Which means that the flavor of the present is not having babies. That also let's you know that the ones that are moving here are not giving up their voting rights in their hometowns. They move here a novelty and not as becoming a Washingtonian. It is not cronyism when you're a native and not a nuisance. Duke Ellington was established on the back bone of black woman married to a white Jewish man, I would tread lightly with your rhetoric.

[Anonymous]

Duke Ellington is the only performing arts school in this city...you are comparing it to the needs of an elementary. Be real and be honest with yourself, who gives a fudge if we lose a elementary school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a Duke Ellington supporter and think that our city needs/deserves a great arts high school. The old building was completely unsuitable for its mission. The dancers trained in the hallways, the auditorium was awful, there was inadequate studio space, etc. It was run down and decrepit. The students accomplished a lot despite that setting, but they and the city deserved much better.

That said, this project is crazy. At the start, it was an $82 million renovation. See http://www.ellingtonschool.org/news/agreement-clears-way-for-ellington-school-project/, where it was already referred to as a "massive project."

We are now at an incredible $178 million for this project (see http://www.currentnewspapers.com/admin/uploadfiles/GT%2010-14-15.pdf), more than the new cultural building at Yale (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/12/arts/design/stephen-a-schwarzmangives-150-million-for-yale-cultural-hub.html) and more than the expected cost of the brand new AU Law School building (http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/2014/08/20/why-did-american-universitys-law-school-plunge-in-the-rankings/), although I'm sure the costs for the latter ballooned.

Even if it's finished on time, the students will have been out of the building for THREE YEARS. Check out the video on the Duke Ellington site (http://www.ellingtonschool.org/news/ellington-modernization-design/) to see how out of synch this building is with other school renovations in the city. Again, I'm NOT saying Ellington didn't deserve renovation. It most certainly did, and it does have special needs for studio and performance space that will make it more expensive than most normal school renovations. But the costs for this project are absolutely insane, and someone should be held to account.

The city also needs / deserves non-decrepit general schools. I'd be happy to have a discussion about which is higher priority, but that seems moot because corruption.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Duke Ellington is the only performing arts school in this city...you are comparing it to the needs of an elementary. Be real and be honest with yourself, who gives a fudge if we lose a elementary school.

GFY troll.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's weird that in a city that's no longer a Chocolate City, the majority of current residents can't

1. elect a representative mayor for either the majority or who represents the whole city, take your pick

and

2. one woman, Ms. Cafritz, continues to have so much power.

I guess it's too soon in the evolution of the District to expect this kind of cronyism to fade. I have to have faith that, with a changing electorate, there will be less of this kind of $tuff

The city is not majority chocolate city but the school population is... Which means that the flavor of the present is not having babies. That also let's you know that the ones that are moving here are not giving up their voting rights in their hometowns. They move here a novelty and not as becoming a Washingtonian. It is not cronyism when you're a native and not a nuisance. Duke Ellington was established on the back bone of black woman married to a white Jewish man, I would tread lightly with your rhetoric.

You seem to be conflating DC residency with using DCPS schools at the high school level. The "flavor of the present" is having babies, is living and buying in DC, and is voting here. What they are not doing, yet, is using DCPS high schools with the exception of Wilson. That will change. But the idea that White reintegration of DC is some passing fad is just not consistent with reality.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's weird that in a city that's no longer a Chocolate City, the majority of current residents can't

1. elect a representative mayor for either the majority or who represents the whole city, take your pick

and

2. one woman, Ms. Cafritz, continues to have so much power.

I guess it's too soon in the evolution of the District to expect this kind of cronyism to fade. I have to have faith that, with a changing electorate, there will be less of this kind of $tuff

The city is not majority chocolate city but the school population is... Which means that the flavor of the present is not having babies. That also let's you know that the ones that are moving here are not giving up their voting rights in their hometowns. They move here a novelty and not as becoming a Washingtonian. It is not cronyism when you're a native and not a nuisance. Duke Ellington was established on the back bone of black woman married to a white Jewish man, I would tread lightly with your rhetoric.

You seem to be conflating DC residency with using DCPS schools at the high school level. The "flavor of the present" is having babies, is living and buying in DC, and is voting here. What they are not doing, yet, is using DCPS high schools with the exception of Wilson. That will change. But the idea that White reintegration of DC is some passing fad is just not consistent with reality.

They are coming back and staying a bit longer than in the past (i.e. to 4th or 5th grade instead of fleeing immediately after Kindergarten). But none of them are sticking here for Middle School and up.
They are still leaving in droves for VA, MD, or taking jobs outside the region (usually "back home" in PA, NJ, the Midwest, or NC).

Also to be clear, DC is still strongly a plurality African-American. It's still 49% Af-Am. It would still take another 20-30 years of current growth rates for whites to outnumber blacks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's weird that in a city that's no longer a Chocolate City, the majority of current residents can't

1. elect a representative mayor for either the majority or who represents the whole city, take your pick

and

2. one woman, Ms. Cafritz, continues to have so much power.

I guess it's too soon in the evolution of the District to expect this kind of cronyism to fade. I have to have faith that, with a changing electorate, there will be less of this kind of $tuff

The city is not majority chocolate city but the school population is... Which means that the flavor of the present is not having babies. That also let's you know that the ones that are moving here are not giving up their voting rights in their hometowns. They move here a novelty and not as becoming a Washingtonian. It is not cronyism when you're a native and not a nuisance. Duke Ellington was established on the back bone of black woman married to a white Jewish man, I would tread lightly with your rhetoric.

You seem to be conflating DC residency with using DCPS schools at the high school level. The "flavor of the present" is having babies, is living and buying in DC, and is voting here. What they are not doing, yet, is using DCPS high schools with the exception of Wilson. That will change. But the idea that White reintegration of DC is some passing fad is just not consistent with reality.

They are coming back and staying a bit longer than in the past (i.e. to 4th or 5th grade instead of fleeing immediately after Kindergarten). But none of them are sticking here for Middle School and up.
They are still leaving in droves for VA, MD, or taking jobs outside the region (usually "back home" in PA, NJ, the Midwest, or NC).

Also to be clear, DC is still strongly a plurality African-American. It's still 49% Af-Am. It would still take another 20-30 years of current growth rates for whites to outnumber blacks.

In this instance, it's not about the racial make-up of the city and the voting electorate that keep Duke Ellington's modernization growing. There are plenty of black folk not happy with the ever expanding budget for this money pit. There are plenty of predominately AA schools that have not gotten the amount of resources like DE - Orr, Banneker - to name a few.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a Duke Ellington supporter and think that our city needs/deserves a great arts high school. The old building was completely unsuitable for its mission. The dancers trained in the hallways, the auditorium was awful, there was inadequate studio space, etc. It was run down and decrepit. The students accomplished a lot despite that setting, but they and the city deserved much better.

That said, this project is crazy. At the start, it was an $82 million renovation. See http://www.ellingtonschool.org/news/agreement-clears-way-for-ellington-school-project/, where it was already referred to as a "massive project."

We are now at an incredible $178 million for this project (see http://www.currentnewspapers.com/admin/uploadfiles/GT%2010-14-15.pdf), more than the new cultural building at Yale (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/12/arts/design/stephen-a-schwarzmangives-150-million-for-yale-cultural-hub.html) and more than the expected cost of the brand new AU Law School building (http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/2014/08/20/why-did-american-universitys-law-school-plunge-in-the-rankings/), although I'm sure the costs for the latter ballooned.

Even if it's finished on time, the students will have been out of the building for THREE YEARS. Check out the video on the Duke Ellington site (http://www.ellingtonschool.org/news/ellington-modernization-design/) to see how out of synch this building is with other school renovations in the city. Again, I'm NOT saying Ellington didn't deserve renovation. It most certainly did, and it does have special needs for studio and performance space that will make it more expensive than most normal school renovations. But the costs for this project are absolutely insane, and someone should be held to account.

This is nuts. The Debartolo Performing Arts Center at Notre Dame, built from scratch to be one the top technologically perfect performance spaces in the country including a three story $1 million dollar organ and specially created foundations to prevent sound vibrations from traveling between performance space, et., etc., only cost $63 million.

Is there an investigation? Someone needs to serve time. No way in hell this is a legitimate cost.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's weird that in a city that's no longer a Chocolate City, the majority of current residents can't

1. elect a representative mayor for either the majority or who represents the whole city, take your pick

and

2. one woman, Ms. Cafritz, continues to have so much power.

I guess it's too soon in the evolution of the District to expect this kind of cronyism to fade. I have to have faith that, with a changing electorate, there will be less of this kind of $tuff

The city is not majority chocolate city but the school population is... Which means that the flavor of the present is not having babies. That also let's you know that the ones that are moving here are not giving up their voting rights in their hometowns. They move here a novelty and not as becoming a Washingtonian. It is not cronyism when you're a native and not a nuisance. Duke Ellington was established on the back bone of black woman married to a white Jewish man, I would tread lightly with your rhetoric.

You seem to be conflating DC residency with using DCPS schools at the high school level. The "flavor of the present" is having babies, is living and buying in DC, and is voting here. What they are not doing, yet, is using DCPS high schools with the exception of Wilson. That will change. But the idea that White reintegration of DC is some passing fad is just not consistent with reality.

They are coming back and staying a bit longer than in the past (i.e. to 4th or 5th grade instead of fleeing immediately after Kindergarten). But none of them are sticking here for Middle School and up.
They are still leaving in droves for VA, MD, or taking jobs outside the region (usually "back home" in PA, NJ, the Midwest, or NC).

Also to be clear, DC is still strongly a plurality African-American. It's still 49% Af-Am. It would still take another 20-30 years of current growth rates for whites to outnumber blacks.

Not true - take a look at Deal and Wilson and tell me they are leaving.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a Duke Ellington supporter and think that our city needs/deserves a great arts high school. The old building was completely unsuitable for its mission. The dancers trained in the hallways, the auditorium was awful, there was inadequate studio space, etc. It was run down and decrepit. The students accomplished a lot despite that setting, but they and the city deserved much better.

That said, this project is crazy. At the start, it was an $82 million renovation. See http://www.ellingtonschool.org/news/agreement-clears-way-for-ellington-school-project/, where it was already referred to as a "massive project."

We are now at an incredible $178 million for this project (see http://www.currentnewspapers.com/admin/uploadfiles/GT%2010-14-15.pdf), more than the new cultural building at Yale (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/12/arts/design/stephen-a-schwarzmangives-150-million-for-yale-cultural-hub.html) and more than the expected cost of the brand new AU Law School building (http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/2014/08/20/why-did-american-universitys-law-school-plunge-in-the-rankings/), although I'm sure the costs for the latter ballooned.

Even if it's finished on time, the students will have been out of the building for THREE YEARS. Check out the video on the Duke Ellington site (http://www.ellingtonschool.org/news/ellington-modernization-design/) to see how out of synch this building is with other school renovations in the city. Again, I'm NOT saying Ellington didn't deserve renovation. It most certainly did, and it does have special needs for studio and performance space that will make it more expensive than most normal school renovations. But the costs for this project are absolutely insane, and someone should be held to account.

This is nuts. The Debartolo Performing Arts Center at Notre Dame, built from scratch to be one the top technologically perfect performance spaces in the country including a three story $1 million dollar organ and specially created foundations to prevent sound vibrations from traveling between performance space, et., etc., only cost $63 million.

Is there an investigation? Someone needs to serve time. No way in hell this is a legitimate cost.

I think it's great that DC is trying to support a top-notch performing arts school, but, seriously, this is embarrassing. It's so ridiculously obvious DC is being taken for a ride here. As a taxpayer, I support Duke Ellington, but not this kind of graft.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Duke Ellington School has a lot of ties to the DC elite. Peggy Cooper Cafritz has donated a lot of money to the project and it's basically her vanity project. She has extensive ties to the and clout with the Bowser administration.

So yes, they are going to keep throwing money at this project until it's done. It will be beautiful and glamorous, but at the expense of other campuses. I'm guessing that there is dollar-for-dollar contributions at play. DCPS doesn't want to leave "free money" on the table.

They'll have to rename it Bling High.

[Anonymous]

If you want to do something, maybe you should contact kathy Patterson and ask her to conduct an investigation. It would be a logical follow on to a report they released last summer
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/dc-auditor-school-systems-capital-program-lacks-accountability/2015/06/30/57c89056-1eda-11e5-84d5-eb37ee8eaa61_story.html