Reply to New DCPS school on former Georgetown Day site will be a high school

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Reply to "New DCPS school on former Georgetown Day site will be a high school"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]yes

the fix was in, cheh was part of it from the outset

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The thing about the Lab lease is it took almost eight years, the first public announcement was in late winter 2013 and the final deal was signed in late December 2020. When the lease was first proposed Cheh didn't oppose it, although I don't think she cared much either way. Lab parents are incredibly vocal, FCCA is incredibly vocal, she just didn't want the hassle of having to deal with either of them. Then as word seeped out and opposition grew she realized she had to take a stand, and she came out against it. But that was years into the saga, maybe around 2018? (I'm trying to remember). [/quote]

Weren't there two leases? Cheh supported the first one, but Lab wanted guarantees for an extension, and Cheh "opposed" that, but the mayor moved forward.[/quote]

The original lease started in 1998, it had a ten year original term and options for three five-year extensions. They did all the extensions and the final one would have expired in 2023. The lease was originally to an entity called Rock Creek International School, which went bankrupt. Lab bought the lease from the bankruptcy trustees in 2008. In 2013, after the first five-year extension, Lab applied to have a 25-year lease with a 25-year optional extension, which the city had no option to refuse. The city would have lost control of the site for 50 years. By law those are the terms that the city has to give charter schools for former DCPS properties; Lab was asking to be treated like a charter school even though they are a private school and few of their students are DC residents.  That lease failed to get council approval.

Members of the Lab board held a fundraiser for David Grosso, and he inserted language into the DCPS budget saying that existing tenants at former DCPS properties had to be treated like charters. Lab kept trying for the 50 year lease, and it kept failing to get council approval, by the narrowest of margins. At one point the Council actually approved the lease, but Bowser vetoed it on procedural grounds.

Finally, on Christmas Eve 2020 the Bowser administration just renewed the lease under the maximum term that wouldn't require council approval, 15 years.

I'm sure we haven't seen the last of the 50 year lease attempts. [/quote]

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