Empower DC Releases Internal DCPS School Closure Emails

[Anonymous]

"The bottom line is that overall there was not a huge difference performance change between students in schools which closed and all other students. The small difference there was actually negative, so it's probably just better to avoid this angle if it does come up." -- Greg Garrison, DCPS Deputy Chief, Office of Data and Accountability (former) to Peter Weber, DCPS Chief of Strategy (November 7, 2012 - Bates # 014934)[i]

In March 2013 Empower DC and our members filed a lawsuit to block the closure of 15 DC public schools. Although the injunction we sought, which would have stopped the closures entirely, was blocked the judge allowed the lawsuit to move forward on several counts, including our claim of disparate racial impact. The closures ultimately displaced 2,642 children, of which only 2 were white.

As part of the "discovery" phase of the lawsuit, Empower DC received thousands of internal DCPS emails related to school closures and had the opportunity to question under oath four high-level DCPS officials, including Chancellor Kaya Henderson.

We undertook this lawsuit because we know that corporate education reform is hurting our communities, particularly Black and Brown communities where school closures have taken place. These emails show how external, education privatization organizations are having a significant influence on DC education policy behind the scenes, in particular pushing for closures, the rise of charter schools, etc.

Though we've pored over these for hours, we know we haven't found all the significant emails yet. We are releasing all of the thousands of emails to the public. And we look forward to hearing what you find. What did we miss?

Note that the files contain many duplicate emails, and each PDF should be read from the last page to the first (the order in which the emails were sent). We have posted the emails as they were given to us, each with it's individual "Bates Number" stamped at the bottom right hand corner. We also posted each Disc of emails as one long merged pdf document so you can search the whole thing at once.

Our campaign to save neighborhood schools is not over, and with your help we will be able to learn as much as possible from these emails to inform the rest of our work. Tell us what you find by posting on our Facebook page (facebook.com/empowerdc), tweeting @empowerdc or by contacting Daniel, Empower DC's education organizer (202-234-9119 x104 / [e-mail]).

Some suggested search terms to get you started:

Bowser, City Bridge, Catherine Bradley, WTU, Charter, Kipp, US DOE, Ed.gov, IFF, DME, ERS, Scott Pearson, Donors, Donor Briefing, Empower DC, Kamras, DC Public Education Fund, DCPEF, Vincent Gray, [e-mail], Broad, Walton, DGS

Parents, activists, City Council members, reporters, State Board of Education members - make sure to search your name as well!


Individual Emails:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/pfxwelo37eoihjc/AADtkZapPm_2v0zLbJmWH6UFa?dl=0

Merged Emails (Easier to do key word searches):
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ivyytyy5egm2d3b/AABIHFV_2YByDjitVrzUgEU5a?dl=0

Additionally, we are making the deposition transcripts for Peter Weber - DCPS Chief of Strategy, Lisa Ruda - DCPS Deputy Chancellor of Operations and Kaya Henderson - DCPS chancellor available for your review.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/u7i2ezn83ywkoch/AACPZRpykLrsFcg7sJ6US5g1a?dl=0

[Anonymous]

LAME what's your angle, losers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:LAME what's your angle, losers?

What's lame, releasing the information or the lawsuit? Public information is public information, better than all the second guessing and conspiracy theories and wrong facts posted daily on the board. Make of it what you will.

[Anonymous]

If only someone would devote this much attention to Hillary Clinton's missing emails.

[Anonymous]

What is Empower DC?

[Anonymous]

This does sound interesting, but I think you need to give us more context. This issue of school closings, it sounds like you have been working on it and are steeped in it. Whereas many of us on DCUM live in DC neighborhoods in which the schools are not and have not been in danger of closing. So maybe you could tell us more about who you are, the work you are doing, and why school closings are important.

[Anonymous]

I supported the school closings. Not due to scores but due to underenrollment. Yes, they were centered in block and brown communities which speaks to the fact that those communities found the schools unacceptable and sent their children to other schools. Since DCPS is still majority black and brown (by a massive %) it seems not to be focused on race but rather communities choosing to send their children to other schools.

[Anonymous]

Bump

[Anonymous]

Hello this is Daniel from Empower DC, we are a grassroots organizing group that has been working in the District for over 10 years now, our Education campaign focuses on working with DCPS parents to save and improve Public Education here in DC, we work primarily with parents of DCPS students (however many of the parents we work with have children in both public and charter)and one big piece of our work has been working to stop school closures, so as mentioned in the initial post we filed a lawsuit in 2013 to stop the school closures then Mayor Gray and Chancellor Henderson eventually carried out.

Why are we releasing the emails? We are releasing these emails so folks can get a really good glimpse of how the school closure process worked internally at the DCPS central office. We are clear that our traditional matter of right neighborhood public schools are under attack by external privatization forces and through these emails we have found what we believe to be proof that this is true. But as someone on this thread said "make of it what you will", review them for yourselves. I am aware that the amount of emails is daunting but there are many conversations in these emails that at the very least raise many a question.

If you have questions or would like to share anything you find as you read through them please feel free to contact me at [e-mail] or call 202-234-9119 xt. 104

One of the many emails we had questions about is email number 001352 (note that each email exchange is an individual PDF titled with a Bates number in this case 001352)- an exchange between Peter Weber (DCPS Chief of Strategy)and Catherine Townsend former ED of the DC Public Education Fund, who's subject line is Donor Briefing Agenda - on the second page of this email document we saw one of the non-public reasons for closing schools:

WTU Contract
? As you all know, DCPS has reached the end of the latest WTU contract. While we are engaging in negotiations
with WTU, the contract will remain in place.
? Over the life of the contract, we learned a great deal and made significant improvements.
? For example:
o We made significant modifications to IMPACT prior to the start of school this year. These improvements
respond to teacher concerns without reducing the quality of IMPACT as an evaluation tool.
o We have made investments in the career ladder for teachers first with LIFT and more recently through a
Teacher Incentive Fund grant.
o We have absorbed the cost of the WTU contract into our local budget. Closing schools and improving
our strategic use of resources as mentioned previously will help us continue to fund these investments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hello this is Daniel from Empower DC, we are a grassroots organizing group that has been working in the District for over 10 years now, our Education campaign focuses on working with DCPS parents to save and improve Public Education here in DC, we work primarily with parents of DCPS students (however many of the parents we work with have children in both public and charter)and one big piece of our work has been working to stop school closures, so as mentioned in the initial post we filed a lawsuit in 2013 to stop the school closures then Mayor Gray and Chancellor Henderson eventually carried out.

Why are we releasing the emails? We are releasing these emails so folks can get a really good glimpse of how the school closure process worked internally at the DCPS central office.

Okay, I'll bite. DCPS enrollment has been dropping for years, since around 1965. The basic causes are obvious- general population shift to the suburbs, dropping family sizes, lower overall birthrates, etc. The quality of education is probably connected also, with people leaving the city or going private because they felt like they couldn't get the education they wanted through DCPS. This began well before charters even existed. It continued with the introduction of charters, and in fact has now stopped, and DCPS enrollment is increasing by about 1% a year the last few years. But the system was left with many, many more school buildings than necessary for the number of students. What does your group suggest should have been done other than closing the schools? A lot of these buildings had enrollments of half or less than the building was designed for. Over many years that is millions and millions of dollars in wasted space and resources as specialists have to serve multiple schools, specialized programs can't get big enough to continue, etc.

So what else does your group suggest should have been done? I ask honestly, as someone who has observed this process and glanced at the emails. They look like a set of people struggling to deal with a complex question and competing interests. Personally I thought the 2013 closure process seemed pretty fair and reasonable. The outcome was unevenly distributed because of income inequality that DCPS has to deal with and can't do a whole lot about in the short term. but I think it's unfair to blame DCPS for that.

[Anonymous]

So if the WTU hadn't been so greedy in contract negotiations, the schools could have stayed open? Why isn't Empower DC suing the union?

Basically, this data dump is saying "we couldn't find anything useful in the discovery we did [for a case we LOST] so we're crowdsourcing it in case we missed anything."

DCPS used enrollment AND performance AND projections to decide what schools were closed. Was it perfect? no. Might someone else have picked a different set of schools? sure. But that doesn't make it illegal.

[Anonymous]

Will there be any other school closings? Are they any folks can think of?

[Anonymous]

When Michelle Rhee left DCPS the funds from the Walton foundation to pay for the teacher bonuses left with her, and the burden to pay for them fell on to us the tax payers.

[Anonymous]

That's not really a hot topic subject any more. C'mon the school system is bragging on the increase of the school population and with the addition of new all-male high school it is a wrap. I suggest you find a new soap box to stand on...or a cause to get another grant. Must stay relevant.

[Anonymous]

I actually read the e-mails.

1.) of course they dismissed you. You are but one advocacy group and were threatening them plus going to protest at the Mayor's house.

2.) did they ever use a straw man?

3.) there is zero dismissing here. She clearly was getting a different message from DOE. Your group filed the claim even before the plan was released which is odd. They seem to be laying out what documents to give DOE in support of their side which seems responsive not dismissive. Was there ever a settlement?

You seem to post these thinking that they prove something but they actually don't.