DC Auditor Report on Duke Ellington

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:


And diverting hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer money is of course the party of all parties.

It makes you wonder how many crony consultants and fly-by-night, connected 8a contractors have a piece of this party action.

SKANSKA, GCS-Sigal, Turner and a host of other multi-national construction firms are feasting all over the city and you lay blame for cost overruns at the feet of mysterious 8a contractors?

Your perspective is pretty clear.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:


And diverting hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer money is of course the party of all parties.

It makes you wonder how many crony consultants and fly-by-night, connected 8a contractors have a piece of this party action.

SKANSKA, GCS-Sigal, Turner and a host of other multi-national construction firms are feasting all over the city and you lay blame for cost overruns at the feet of mysterious 8a contractors?

Your perspective is pretty clear.

Being sarcastic, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The fact of the matter is that there were two viable options for relocating Ellington. 1 is the empty school on U Street by the metro station and the other would have been to co-locate, either with Cardozo or Roosevelt.

Both the U Street school and Cardozo are metro accessible locations that are at the heart of the historic epicenter of the DC Arts scene, going back to when the heroes of modern blues and jazz, like Duke Ellington himself, would play at the stages and clubs on U Street.

It is such a crime that the city and Ellington Board didn't see THAT symbolism and produce a solution that would have provided the students with a ready showcase and opportunity to be a part of the new scene on U Street.

Instead, we have this $200 fiasco that forces people to drive and students who don't drive much extra travel time to get to the campus.

+1 well put. The OTHER modernizations represent the other elephants in the room. Instead of realizing past mistakes and trying to gain some meaningful ROI on past excessive modernizations, the DE project doubles down on past mistakes. On top of that the other locations are more accessible by transit and better suited for a citywide school. Hell -- they've already built the parking into those projects.

The historic connection is a bonus, but DE doesn't really give a damn about its namesake or DC arts history. It's marginally a city school at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Turn it into a regular high school like Wilson with an ARTS focus as the side show.

Arts at DE are no better than Wilson anyway. What we really need in DC is some relief to the overcrowding at Deal and Wilson.

If we have to swallow the huge cost over run then let's make the HS work for many rather than the few 500 of which only half are DC residents.

There's some truth in this. We know some students who started at DE for performing arts but then switched to Wilson where they and their parents feel they are getting equivalent arts opportunities and better academics.

The academics at DE are dismal, so I'm not surprised to hear this.

In the 14-15 PARCC, only THREE percent of students were at level 4 or 5 in Math, and 50% at ELA.

Jesus.

So basically DC taxpayers are paying through the nose to build a Taj Mahal in a non-central location, with sub-par academics for a lot of Maryland students -- and with limited transparency and zero governance accountability?! This is so messed up on so many levels.

[Anonymous]

I think you just get better services in DC if you're a Maryland or VA resident. You can attend our schools for free with free PK3 with very little fear of being caught (the nanny was driving, the grandma was picking up, dad lives in DC... Whatever excuse come up with), you can live in a bigger house and have ten cars if you feel like it. Even if you do everything by the book, I would love to send my kid to a subsidized arts school while living in a place with a lower cost of living. I would drive my giant SUV super fast through all the residential neighborhoods to pick them up from subsidized aftercare. Sounds great. Thanks DC council for always looking out for those Marylanders and Virginians!

[Anonymous]

So basically DC taxpayers are paying through the nose to build a Taj Mahal in a non-central location, with sub-par academics for a lot of Maryland students -- and with limited transparency and zero governance accountability?! This is so messed up on so many levels.

beautifully succinct.

I'll add 3 irrebuttable words:

1. Peggy
2. cooper
3. cafritz

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

So basically DC taxpayers are paying through the nose to build a Taj Mahal in a non-central location, with sub-par academics for a lot of Maryland students -- and with limited transparency and zero governance accountability?! This is so messed up on so many levels.

beautifully succinct.

I'll add 3 irrebuttable words:

1. Peggy
2. cooper
3. cafritz

Who's that lady?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Turn it into a regular high school like Wilson with an ARTS focus as the side show.

Arts at DE are no better than Wilson anyway. What we really need in DC is some relief to the overcrowding at Deal and Wilson.

If we have to swallow the huge cost over run then let's make the HS work for many rather than the few 500 of which only half are DC residents.

There's some truth in this. We know some students who started at DE for performing arts but then switched to Wilson where they and their parents feel they are getting equivalent arts opportunities and better academics.

The academics at DE are dismal, so I'm not surprised to hear this.

In the 14-15 PARCC, only THREE percent of students were at level 4 or 5 in Math, and 50% at ELA.

Jesus.

So basically DC taxpayers are paying through the nose to build a Taj Mahal in a non-central location, with sub-par academics for a lot of Maryland students -- and with limited transparency and zero governance accountability?! This is so messed up on so many levels.

Yes.

And the amazing thing is that the mess continues with no end in sight.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

So basically DC taxpayers are paying through the nose to build a Taj Mahal in a non-central location, with sub-par academics for a lot of Maryland students -- and with limited transparency and zero governance accountability?! This is so messed up on so many levels.

beautifully succinct.

I'll add 3 irrebuttable words:

1. Peggy
2. cooper
3. cafritz

Who's that lady?

Google her. She is a black woman with an activist past who married an extremely wealthy guy named cafritz, scion of a local real estate dynasty. Together they did a lot of philanthropy which she continued after his death. DE is her baby, she started it as a non profit in her activist days in a temporary space, similar to Sitar if you're familiar. It grew and at some point she somehow convinced DC to take it on and incorporate it into DCPS.

Spend some time on google, it's quite a story. When people in this thread are talking about political influence (for good or ill), she would be the main focus of attention.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The parking thing isn't unique to Ellington. DCPS says they must install one at Murch because of zoning, and will be destroying a playground to do it. Doesn't Janney have one too?

Now supposedly the city is saying no more underground parking garages but in the initial waves of building they were de riguer (similar to kilns at elementary schools).

Underground parking isn't always a waste of money. It depends.

What is clear is that it is a waste of money in this case. The school should have been moved to a more central, metro accessible location.

The reason it was not is because its political backers like the prestige of the current site and saw the sensible suggestions to move it as being part of The Plan.

That's as far as I can determine. It is a total scandal, reminiscent of Barry- era DC.

Oh come on. There was every reason to leave Duke where it was, given that it had thrived there for decades. Downtown real estate and building costs would have been even more expensive than Georgetown. This continuing irrational effort to tie the location to the inexcusable cost overruns is nothing but snooty Georgetown and Burleith residents who are angry that a bunch of predominantly African American kids have the temerity to attend public school in their neighborhood.

Do you realize that you proved my point? I said that Ellington backers are conspiracy theorists about The Plan and then look at what you write, accusing the nearby neighbors of The Plan.

Well, since I am PP, and I am a nearby neighbor, I think I know a bit about what I am talking about.

The concern trolling for the poor Ellington students who will have to travel to Burleith in their new school, just like they did in the old school, is ridiculous. The school has been in Burleith for decades. Why should it have moved? Who would have benefitted from the move? Why were all the neighbors, and none of the Ellington families pushing for a move? You don't have to be a conspiracy theorist to see what was going on here. All you had to do was listen.

Just because the school has been located somewhere for decades doesn't mean it makes sense for it to remain there. As for who would have benefitted, I'd suggest the students attending Wilson as some could have been shifted to a new Western HS that could accommodate kids from the attendance zine and from across the city. It arguable could then open up more seats at Wilson for OOB students. That's a lot of kids who would have been better off in my mind. Then again, bizarre decades-old conspiracy theories are much more fun.

This idea is a joke. The proposed new "Western High School" would be a failure. The same NW families that are rejecting Hardy would reject the new Western HS, and it would be either 4/5 empty, or full of OOB kids - who, just like the Ellington kids, would have to travel from all over the city to get to Burleith. And what do you think would have happened if the city had tried to renovate old Ellington into new Western HS, and build a new Ellington? Take the $100+ million cost overrun...and double it.

There was no reason to move Ellington; the idea of a new Western High School is a pipe dream. The cost overruns are inexcusable - but are not related to these ideas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

So basically DC taxpayers are paying through the nose to build a Taj Mahal in a non-central location, with sub-par academics for a lot of Maryland students -- and with limited transparency and zero governance accountability?! This is so messed up on so many levels.

beautifully succinct.

I'll add 3 irrebuttable words:

1. Peggy
2. cooper
3. cafritz

Who's that lady?

Google her. She is a black woman with an activist past who married an extremely wealthy guy named cafritz, scion of a local real estate dynasty. Together they did a lot of philanthropy which she continued after his death. DE is her baby, she started it as a non profit in her activist days in a temporary space, similar to Sitar if you're familiar. It grew and at some point she somehow convinced DC to take it on and incorporate it into DCPS.

Spend some time on google, it's quite a story. When people in this thread are talking about political influence (for good or ill), she would be the main focus of attention.

Thank you, had no idea. She should have opened a charter school, not suck DCPS resources. But, yes, I get the point about political influence. This is the kind of deal that Trump would be proud of...

[Anonymous]

To put this discussion in perspective: the DC Council increased (for example) public parking rates across the City (to $2.30 an hour) in order to generate an extra $2 million in revenue, which will assist the WMATA/METRO repairs. In comparison, this Ellington school is 100 million over-budget, and counting. How much of that $100 million could have helped rescue WMATA, which is literally killing people with accidents? THE DC government is doing whatever it can to scrounge up a couple of extra mill to pay for public works, while Ellington is a money pit. Honestly, the waste, fraud, and abuse with respect to Ellington's "oversight" boggles the mind. What the hell is going on with our government?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

So basically DC taxpayers are paying through the nose to build a Taj Mahal in a non-central location, with sub-par academics for a lot of Maryland students -- and with limited transparency and zero governance accountability?! This is so messed up on so many levels.

beautifully succinct.

I'll add 3 irrebuttable words:

1. Peggy
2. cooper
3. cafritz

Who's that lady?

Google her. She is a black woman with an activist past who married an extremely wealthy guy named cafritz, scion of a local real estate dynasty. Together they did a lot of philanthropy which she continued after his death. DE is her baby, she started it as a non profit in her activist days in a temporary space, similar to Sitar if you're familiar. It grew and at some point she somehow convinced DC to take it on and incorporate it into DCPS.

Spend some time on google, it's quite a story. When people in this thread are talking about political influence (for good or ill), she would be the main focus of attention.

Thank you, had no idea. She should have opened a charter school, not suck DCPS resources. But, yes, I get the point about political influence. This is the kind of deal that Trump would be proud of...

Except there was no such thing as charter schools when Ellington opened in 1974.

The Wikipedia entry is pretty accurate. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_Ellington_School_of_the_Arts

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

So basically DC taxpayers are paying through the nose to build a Taj Mahal in a non-central location, with sub-par academics for a lot of Maryland students -- and with limited transparency and zero governance accountability?! This is so messed up on so many levels.

beautifully succinct.

I'll add 3 irrebuttable words:

1. Peggy
2. cooper
3. cafritz

Among her oft-cited private "art collection" must be extremely compromising photos of DC politicians and government officials, who collectively have given her pet cause a complete blank check with basically no oversight at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The parking thing isn't unique to Ellington. DCPS says they must install one at Murch because of zoning, and will be destroying a playground to do it. Doesn't Janney have one too?

Now supposedly the city is saying no more underground parking garages but in the initial waves of building they were de riguer (similar to kilns at elementary schools).

Underground parking isn't always a waste of money. It depends.

What is clear is that it is a waste of money in this case. The school should have been moved to a more central, metro accessible location.

The reason it was not is because its political backers like the prestige of the current site and saw the sensible suggestions to move it as being part of The Plan.

That's as far as I can determine. It is a total scandal, reminiscent of Barry- era DC.

Oh come on. There was every reason to leave Duke where it was, given that it had thrived there for decades. Downtown real estate and building costs would have been even more expensive than Georgetown. This continuing irrational effort to tie the location to the inexcusable cost overruns is nothing but snooty Georgetown and Burleith residents who are angry that a bunch of predominantly African American kids have the temerity to attend public school in their neighborhood.

Do you realize that you proved my point? I said that Ellington backers are conspiracy theorists about The Plan and then look at what you write, accusing the nearby neighbors of The Plan.

Well, since I am PP, and I am a nearby neighbor, I think I know a bit about what I am talking about.

The concern trolling for the poor Ellington students who will have to travel to Burleith in their new school, just like they did in the old school, is ridiculous. The school has been in Burleith for decades. Why should it have moved? Who would have benefitted from the move? Why were all the neighbors, and none of the Ellington families pushing for a move? You don't have to be a conspiracy theorist to see what was going on here. All you had to do was listen.

Just because the school has been located somewhere for decades doesn't mean it makes sense for it to remain there. As for who would have benefitted, I'd suggest the students attending Wilson as some could have been shifted to a new Western HS that could accommodate kids from the attendance zine and from across the city. It arguable could then open up more seats at Wilson for OOB students. That's a lot of kids who would have been better off in my mind. Then again, bizarre decades-old conspiracy theories are much more fun.

This idea is a joke. The proposed new "Western High School" would be a failure. The same NW families that are rejecting Hardy would reject the new Western HS, and it would be either 4/5 empty, or full of OOB kids - who, just like the Ellington kids, would have to travel from all over the city to get to Burleith. And what do you think would have happened if the city had tried to renovate old Ellington into new Western HS, and build a new Ellington? Take the $100+ million cost overrun...and double it.

There was no reason to move Ellington; the idea of a new Western High School is a pipe dream. The cost overruns are inexcusable - but are not related to these ideas.

If there is no Western HS, the Wilson overcrowding issue can probably be met by shrinking Wilson's boundaries to west of Rock Creek Park and eliminating feeder rights for OOB students.