Reply to Eagle Academy council hearing video is available

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[quote=Anonymous]This is so interesting I'm going to do more recap:

Jacque Patterson: Says the PCSB didn't view Eagle as viable, partly because there are too many schools in the area competing for limited students, and so that's why they closed it. The old model of a stronger entity taking over the school no longer works because there still aren't enough students. Need to look at how many schools and where. The council seems receptive to that line of thinking.

Next panel: 
Valerie Jablow, typically hard to understand because it's a barrage of information delivered very fast. But raises a lot of [I think] long-standing issues that are important to have on the record. Ms Jablow calls out all kinds of financial issues not captured by the DCPSB's FAR, such as late tax filing. Again Joe Smith's salary. Scathing critique as usual. Later on, she points out inconsistencies in the PCSB's statements about what they knew at what time in this fiasco. Complicated stuff but the council is interested.

Cathy Reilly: General case for greater oversight by Council. PCSB passed Eagle in 2023, closed a year later, that is not something that we should see, they are opening too many schools and passing too many schools along that are in bad shape. [She says the building will be DCPS swing space, which is news to me.] The council has delegated a huge amount of approps and capital planning to the PCSB and it's not going well. DCPS should get RFR on closed charter buildings. Should be a process for charters to become DCPS (a la Excel).

Suzanne Wells: Eagle's financial information should be public, including all loans and whether they were legal, the closeout, the $4m, all debts, and the accounting firm should be publicly questioned. Over-authorizing the area is a big contributing factor, the PCSB is at fault for having approved so many seats. No new starts (e.g. BASIS elementary), too many seats already authorized. Need to coordinate DCPS and PCSB opening, sizes, and locations. We can't afford this wasteful half-full schools no-coordination system.

Ms. Batchelor: I came to you in 2016 re Eagle's building project near my house and there was lots of wrong-doing related to the construction, DDOT and DCRA do nothing, self-dealing, insider loans, Joe Smith and others, we wrote it all up and were ignored. Built the whole school without a permit. Oversaturation harming all schools in area. Stuff about Lee East End as well. [I'm stunned by the breadth of wrongdoing this citizen is alleging!] She sent information to Las Vegas and Las Vegas shut Joe Smith down.

Mendo says that Joe Smith was invited and declined to come, he did submit a statement. Did not invite the accountant. Zachary Parker engages with Ms. Jablow about the timeline, PCSB actions, what they knew when, transparency, inconsistencies. He also asks about the debts. Henderson thanks Jablow for raising the alarm over the years, asks questions about the timeline. Discussion of how transparency about problems can lead to a "run on the bank," taking down a school that could have survived a rough patch. Jablow says it's supposed to be parents' choice, so let it happen.  Allen validates Jablow-- parents' choice so they get the info, and if that takes down a school, so be it, DCPS budget process is pretty transparent, and PCSB needs to make it a lot easier to dig up financial problem docs. Frumin agrees generally.[/quote]

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