Another land grab for city schools-property?

Entry: Tuesday September 19, 2006

Marc Borbely, a candidate for School Board, wrote to the concerned4dcps yahoogroup:

Kwame Brown is planning to introduce a bill today that, I think, would remove facilities management (maintenance?) from DC Public Schools, and give it to DC's Office of Property Management. Mr. Brown did not return a phone call seeking details yesterday. His staff member Latoya Ford promised to send a draft of the bill yesterday. Staffer Charlene Krantz (sp?) also did not get back with details. If anyone has any more information about this, please pass it on. Kwame Brown's office number is 724-8174.

It seems like the DCPS Office of Facilities Management is getting up to speeed. Cornell Brown said Thursday he's preparing a detailed schedule of small capital and maintenance projects, for every school that's not scheduled for a modernization soon. We should be pushing to get this ASAP and definitely ahead of the coming school budget cycle. If DCPS is moving forward, then a major shift to a new (unproven?) agency could put us years behind again.

My response:

It's the land. (Probably)

The very interesting thing is late last year, I repeated a "rumor" I'd heard about DC school property. I don't usually do this, because I don't like to truck in rumors, but my surmise about the sources gave this a lot more credibility than average.

-------Nov 5, 2005 in the hstreetdc yahoogroup archives-----

One piece of the latest under the table political scuttlebutt is that Congress is considering creating another Control Board to take over the DC Public School System. This would allow for the Federal City Council supported new group to take over managing the school property portfolio, and would allow them to release properties to either developers or charter schools without much interference.

This is very worrisome
------------

Interestingly enough, after I wrote that I got hassled in email by John Hill and a query from the EdBuild program. Journalists were interested too, but I don't know if they were able to confirm the story.

This could well be another move in that direction. Seemingly about better management (and I have tremendous respect for Carol Mitten, director of the Office of Property Management), but could be another way to give better access to the building portfolio to outside development forces.

I also wonder if this means that CM Brown is angling for the Government Operations Committee chairship. That committee is the lead Council committee wrt land disposition, and oversees the Office of Property Management.

Also see the EdBuild website and an article from The Common Denominator about the EdBuild program, organized by the Federal City Council.

Index Keywords: Growth-Machine; public-assets