BY S. TRINTER | FOGGY BOTTOM NEWS

WASH DC—The mantra of the DC Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development is “economic development,” as one would expect. (Planning gets lost in the shuffle.) DMPED touts “job creation” and “tax revenues” as it has “disposed” of many choice, large public assets, public school campuses included. The concept of Public Good—where a good or service for which the benefit received by any one party does not diminish the availability of the benefits to others, and where access to the good cannot be restricted—seems to be off the radar screen of the Mayor’s office as well. Generally speaking, construction jobs last for a couple years maximum, the properties go for fire-sale prices, and the builders often return to the till to ask for, and receive, years of tax forgiveness. We see neither “economic development” nor “public good” with this approach.

Stevens, for example, had continuously operated for 139 years. It was the first school opened in the District for freed black slaves, and at the time of Fenty’s election to office fulfilled EVERY criteria he laid out in his play book for optimal DC public schools— size of classes, teacher, parent, student participation, safety—something he must have overlooked. Despite resounding public support ranging from full teacher, parent, student, FBA, ANC, business community, and residents to sustain it, Fenty’s new Chancellor Rhee basically thumbed her nose at the community.

At the 11th hour, Stevens was added to the RFP (request for proposal) covering public schools properties for development led by a charter school, a public law. Remarkably, a white knight, Living Classroom Foundation (LCF), entered the competition for Stevens on short notice and, in less than a month, attempted to put together financials for the property with nothing but an initial walk-through to assess costs like asbestos remediation matters. There was no basis for valuation and none the city shared. LCF had already proven itself in the District serving at that time over 20,000 underserved students with award-winning after school programs and had been selected by the Kellogg Foundation to develop more workforce programs.

The Crossroads School is a public, tuition-free charter middle school operated by Living Classrooms Foundation on its East Harbor Campus through a contract with the Baltimore City Public School System. The curriculum focuses on the fundamentals of reading, writing, and math with a hands-on, interdisciplinary approach. Technology, cooperative learning, critical thinking, and real-world application of knowledge are also considered to be fundamental to the core curriculum. LCF furthermore honors the black history of the Baltimore neighborhood while teaching important skills and trades, and has achieved a top record with its students. Public good incarnate.

The Stevens plan LCF proffered included an adjacent mixed-use project with office rental development, an off street playground and a design that would mesh the WE neighborhood with the K Street corridor. The mixeduse was essential to sustaining the cost of renovation and upgrade of Stevens. It also included a “zero-to-four” program in support of the K-Street workforce. LCF would build, operate and transfer the upgraded and operating development to the District after an agreed upon number of years: a dream deal providing real economic development for the community and the city. In classic DC fashion, LCF received a pro forma letter of rejection. No call, no discussion, no interest, no nothing.

Stevens is now being held hostage while DMPED continues to operate in the shadows and to ignore community wishes –perhaps with the hope that we, the taxpayers and advocates of important history will forget and our potential dream become a nightmare (see letter from FBA President in this issue). The plight of Stevens is symbolic of the larger shell game and doublespeak District government perpetuates—and we perpetuate by not speaking up.

For further background and history on Stevens School see FBN archives for articles dated: 2/13/08, 2/11/09, 2/18/09, 2/25/09 and peruse Historic STEVENS Coalition (on the menu bar) all at www.savefoggybottom.com