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Article History WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Tri-Community Public Charter School is set to relinquish its charter at the end of the academic year, the latest in a series of D.C. charter schools that have recently run into trouble.
During a performance review of Tri-Community, D.C. Public Charter School Board analysts discovered serious shortcomings in the school’s leadership structure, financial management and enrollment patterns. As a result, the board put the charter on warning status,giving the leadership a year to address the problems.
According to board spokeswoman Nona Richardson,school leaders surrendered their management of the school last week.
Projected to have 200 students, Tri-Community has only about 130 enrolled. Leaders also have yet to substantiate claims of rising test scores, according to charter board documents.
Calls to the school’s board of trustees were not returned this week.
According to a letter from the board’s director, the Rev. Frank Tucker, Tri-Community is in discussions with William Doar Jr. Public Charter School to run the school.
“While this is a bitter pill to swallow, we remain focused on doing what is best for our children,” Tucker wrote.
Other charter schools have also encountered recent financial or academic difficulties.
Hope Academy shut its doors a month after opening last fall because of dismal enrollment.
At 250-student Washington Academy Public Charter School, school leaders failed to pay taxes for years and were projected to finish the year $1.2 million in the hole. The school was slated to close until Howard Road Academy administrators were selected to take over.
Two more campuses — D.C. Preparatory Academy and Maya Angelou Public Charter — are in warning status.
Since 1998, 14 D.C. charter schools have closed. There are currently 55 charters operating in the city.
Charter opponents see the shutdowns as a reflection of the ease with which operators are allowed to open schools.
Mary Levy, with the Washington Lawyers Committee, said what sets charter schools apart is the increased autonomy and accountability, meaning closures are a necessary evil.
Many recent shutdowns were schools authorized by the former D.C. Public Schools board.
“The board was not careful, especially in the early days, and did not have the staff or expertise to do the job of vetting, then oversight,” Levy said.
dlevitz@dcexaminer.com
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11:11 AM MST on Wed., Feb. 20, 2008 re: "D.C. foreign-language courses off the menu for ninth-graders"
Examiner Reader said:
Not only is City Lights PCS not reporting properly. They are violating the rights of students protected under IDEiA. Walk into City Lights folks and this is what you will see: student all over the place chillin and cuzzing. NOTHING going on in the classroom! Student sitting there with no children in sight. Uncertified and uneducated instructors. City Lights is a place for DC youth no one knows what to do with -- they are racking in federal dollars and providing no services. One of the things that amazes me in the district is the low expectation of it's people. Where is the leadership!!
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Examiner Reader said:
Parents still have to pay something if they send their children to private schools, therefore excluding children who truly need support. More often than not the children who are getting the voucher have involved parents and were doing well in public school.
1 agree | 1 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Just when you think things are progressing and change is happening, this crops up. Can't wait for the meeting today. Should be very entertaining.
4 agree | 1 disagree
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Now you see it and now you don't said:
Is it pretty evident that what you want to see never materializes to the actual student. Is there any school that can say that every actual dime that they saw on a piece paper that was supposedly accessible...made it from paper to purchase. As long as the word called reprogramming is a word or action that is used in the fed and dc governments...then what you see is what you get...unless you blinked.
1 agree | 1 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
I can't believe my bestfriend is all over the internet. Great job Aysia, St.Ann's is proud.=)
1 agree | 1 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Do you want your children taught by the inexperienced missionaries from TFA and TNTP???The only measure of school performance is is a highly controversal TEST- that takes NOTHING into consideration - it measures -what a student does on one day - the results will be different the next day- an hour later etc. Parents can OPT out -they can not test your cild if you say no--
4 agree | 1 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
This article is misleading. Though many more students are eligible for SES services, the District only had a little more than 3000 slots available. This number is determined by the amount of money allocated for SES divided by the total dollar amount awarded per student. The notion that the District is purposely neglecting to expend all available resources is an inaccurate suggestion. The real question is, "How many of the 3000 students selected have exhausted their funds for tutoring services?"
1 agree | 1 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
To stop the D.C. Govt. corruption, the Federal Justice Dept. should file the False Claims Act lawsuit and make them pay for all the bogus grants since 1980. The taxpayers are being insulted with a settlement without admitting fault for tiny fraction of what they have taken from the public coffers ($1.75 million, ha-ha).
2 agree | 2 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
This won't rid the schools of good teachers- it will finally get rid of the deadweight!
2 agree | 2 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
If Rhee is going to contract out the High schools to private folks ....why do we need Rhee
29 agree | 3 disagree
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Frank Winstead said:
Jennifer Calloway comments that "Golden�s name on the ad document probably means he was the last one to look at it" shows an attitude of just say anything whether it is true or not. A Microsoft Word document tracks creators and modifiers and not readers. We need better educated liars at DCPS and not another expensive toady.
4 agree | 3 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
This comes as no surprize...What happen to a CHIEF ACADEMIC OFFICER! This lady called Chancellor has again missed the boat. What about an "original" academic plan for DCPS. Chancellor's Rhee was to focus on academics now she going down another road?
23 agree | 2 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
As global food and fuel supplies dwindle, look for home-schooling to grow. As the recession progresses, look for dropout numbers to rise as teenagers try to get employment to help the family meet its needs. There are school districts in Kansas have gone to a four day, 9 hour school week to save money. Over 2,000 foundations in 45 states that fund student loans have stopped accepting applications. It has been reported recently that Bush is planning to cut $80 billion this fall in student aid/loans. The US has dropped out of all international testing programs. Ask yourself WHY the government seems so determined to undermine the US educational system.
3 agree | 1 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
This article about charter schools missing deadline serves no other purpose than to ding charter schools. Otherwise, it is vague and useless as a report.
2 agree | 2 disagree
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dc truth said:
The Examiner got the story totally wrong. Reading the finding, it state that he outstanding late payments total $148,000, related to 4 loans of $5 million. It does not state the $5 million was not returned. Great, and incompetent newspaper reporter reporting on DC, just what we need!
2 agree | 1 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
The special Ed department has been an issue for quite some time and will continue to be! Especially the Transportation Department! Who is monitoring David Gilmore? Why does it take $72 million to run it? Why are so many of the driver's and attendants complaining about the way they are being treated and nobody is doing anything? Why has he not departed wasn't he supposed to have an exit strategy? Rumor has it that DCPS is planning on dumping the department onto the State Education Office. Hope Debora Gist is questioning the motive behind this move before she is blind sided by the mess that Gilmorekean is leaving behind for her to clean up! It is going to take an act of congress for her to get ride of all of the friends, family and housing personnel that Keith Pettigrew has hired. Not to mention all of the legal implications that Michelle Smith and him Keith Pettigrew are going to involve them in with all the unethical HR functions that they are doing! Good luck! You will need it!
2 agree | 1 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
What about the Special Ed Transportation Department? The District probably would not have to come up with so much if they were not allowing David Gilmore and the rest of his housing buddies to steal so much money claiming that it takes 75 million dollars to run the Special Ed Transportation Division. Truthfully it probably could be run for a lot lest if he had the right staff in place. For example Two years ago Michelle Smith Terminal Manager for the New York Ave bus Terminal entered a guilty plea of second-degree insurance fraud for falsifying government time records, and was sentenced to 120 days of incarceration, two years of supervised probation and $6,500 in fines. The inspector general?s report from November 2005 about Smith states that the transportation division manager fraudulently received $6,500 for lost wages from State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. by falsifying District government time and attendance records in December 2002.
1 agree | 1 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
We see how well "the public" has managed the DCPS over the last 25 years. Management by committe doesn't work. More of the same? I don't think so.
1 agree | 3 disagree
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A Reader said:
The fact that DCPS enrollment is quite lower than calculated is not surprising; lower income families have been deserting the public schools for charters, something upper income parents have done for years with sending their kids to private schools. The school system is losing kids due to out of control discipline as well as poor academics. But what is so troubling is that the central office can't seem to do a better job monitoring enrollment. Total incompetence across the board. As for Maryland students attending DC schools, it's a reality. They use relatives' addresses so that their DC-living family member can pick up the kid after school for child care until the parent, living in MD but working in DC, gets off. Local schools turn a blind eye to this deception, as their enrollment figures are low and they need students. And no tuition is paid.
1 agree | 1 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Chancellor Rhee should have had all of her CENTRAL STAFF at Wilson SHS on Monday A.M. when the students arrived back after spring break to resolve the issues at Wilson SHS. The overall climate at Wilson SHS is deteriorating everyday. Where is the UNION and why do the teachers have to monitor students during their duty free lunch period? If Chancellor Rhee can't resolve Wilson's issues hat's going to happen at Eastern, Woodson, Anacostia, Coolidge,and the rest of our high schools? If we don't have a climate for teaching and learning hat's going to happen when we start the DC CAS spring testing? Again, Rhee and her inexperienced leadership team don't have a clue!
26 agree | 2 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Until city leaders deal with these community issues we will still have an abundance of these types of incidents in the schools. Please believer that Wilson is not the only high school having issues. All of the heavily populated schools are having numerous incidents on a weekly basis. The transition of 17 and 18 year old 9th graders to the high schools was poorly planned. Resources must be devoted to these under-served communities and soon. We can't expect teachers and administrators to be miracle workers. Unfortunately Rhee and her team are not experienced in managing a large urban school district thus the issues we're having and her 2nd grade approach to resolving them.
12 agree | 1 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
I really don't understand why they keep hiring people (who are not educators) to run systems such as the SPED dept. Now what....we have to learn a whole new system and deal with the quirks of that system then 5 years later they will scrap that one too. I am a SPED teacher in DCPS (Ballou SHS) and I am soooooo tired of people coking in making decisions that are not based on the needs of the students we serve. Focusing on getting us a curriculum and books to work with to make strides in achievement is what I need. We are suppose to be the nations capital but yet we fail when compared to neighboring school systems. This system is losing all of the experienced folks and getting these Teach For America teachers who only care about serving their two years and getting out. How does that benefit our children? What will this system become? Will we ever be voted one of the best? Yeah maybe after they close all the public schools and privatize everything like they are doing now..disgusti
1 agree | 3 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
I agree with the previous reader. When are we going to give Chancellor Rhee and her inexperienced team their letters of dismissal from the DCPS school system?
32 agree | 3 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
I agree with the Mayor. DC schools have been in disarray for far to long. New changes are needed.
6 agree | 2 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Mary Levi siad �no other government department has total control over your children for seven hours a day.� Not true. Child and Family Services has some 2000 children in its care 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Youth Services also has full custody of many youth. I have concern about all three agencies, but fail to see why schools should be treated differently. We have plenty of opportunity at City Council to voice our concerns.
3 agree | 3 disagree
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A teacher said:
It is well-known that Rhee doesn't like the older, veteran DC teachers. She has always wanted to replace them with her younger crew of Teach For America young college girls. But the teachers have a union and can't just get a pink slip and be fired, like what was done to central office personnel. Rhee's plan for teachers is to buy out the old ones and put in her new white girls. trouble is, they can't manage the children and don't last in their jobs. It takes the old-school experienced teachers, the very ones that Rhee want to buy out.
18 agree | 9 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
I hear that there may be money available for a buy out for older DC teachers.In that way, they will get an early retirement and leave the system. This was done for other DC government workers nearing retirement age, to make way for younger, more energetic workers.
6 agree | 2 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Wilson High used to be a fine school. Instead of working to have fine schools in all neighborhoods, the powers that be decided to bring kids from other parts of the city to Wilson. That's when the trouble started. Busing (or Metro-ing) has always been a bad idea. You can't turn a neighborhood school into a mega school serving the whole city and then be surprised when crime overcomes education.
5 agree | 3 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
The issue is...There are a number of security guards at the school. They are lazy and do not do their jobs.
3 agree | 4 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Why would anyone in their right mind send their kids to Wilson? It used to be a decent school, but it's getting more and more ghetto every day. It's dangerous because the junior thug in training young criminals seem to run the place instead of the teachers, who are intimidated, and the so-called leaders, who aren't leading. If my kids were there, i'd move them out in a heartbeat.
8 agree | 2 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Why on Earth haven't these parents followed Dawn and staged a walkout? If the parents refuse to send the kids to school for safety issues it may force the school to do something about it. Not to mention it will draw the attention of people higher in government. And with their help a lot more can be done.
2 agree | 3 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
I'm confused, the NCLB site states that Ludlow-Taylor did make AYP in both math and reading in 2007. Can someone from the Examiner staff clarify?
12 agree | 8 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Rhee is asking that we spend more than $110 million this spring for the consolidation of schools, reducing central administration, fixing the athletic fields what about student achievement? I thought that was Chancellor Rhee's charge, to make this school system a world class school system for the students of DC. I have heard nothing about AYP or student achievement.
63 agree | 54 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
We keep talking, talking, talking and spending, spending, spending. DCPS is not serving the majority of their disabled student population -- period. Visit Spingard, where it reaps of weed and the majority of sped kids are in the halls � chilling. Visit Dunbar where � well they only have 6 sped teachers and at any given time they don�t know what child is in the building, whether federally mandated service are being provided or even if children are suppose to get services. Falsification of records is the norm in DCPS sped. A principal asking you to lie and/or look the other way at blatant violations of students rights is commonplace. What is Klemm going to do? What were Fenty and Rhee thinking? Part of the problem is that �they don�t� represent the majority of DC citizens. They think they can do this sped thing without the support and abilities of the black community. Shame on you Fenty � we all did not go to elite schools � but some of us care enough to do this job - one way or another.
65 agree | 47 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
What about the Special Ed Transportation Department? The District probably would not have to come up with so much if they were not allowing David Gilmore and the rest of his housing buddies to steal so much money claiming that it takes 75 million dollars to run the Special Ed Transportation Division. Truthfully it probably could be run for a lot lest if he had the right staff in place. For example Two years ago Michelle Smith Terminal Manager for the New York Ave bus Terminal entered a guilty plea of second-degree insurance fraud for falsifying government time records, and was sentenced to 120 days of incarceration, two years of supervised probation and $6,500 in fines. The inspector general�s report from November 2005 about Smith states that the transportation division manager fraudulently received $6,500 for lost wages from State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. by falsifying District government time and attendance records in December 2002. The insurance claim reportedly came af
67 agree | 47 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
This is hogwash. Rebecca Klemm is not an expert in Special Education and is taking what the public schools information that has been provided to her from existing staff that have worked hard to provide. Without the appropriate programs and services in place in special education programs there is no way that there will have be any improvement. The only reason there is a backlog to begin with is because of lack of services and programs in place to service children within the District of Columbia. I am shocked as a taxpayer of the District of Columbia that the Mayor and his staff have fell for such a scam.
64 agree | 63 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
The drawback, in reality, is that students aren't offered the opportunity to start learning a foreign ten years earlier!!! pat c
58 agree | 58 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Let see� prominent means what now� standing out to be seen easily; conspicuous; particularly noticeable. The only thing the makes Klemm prominent is the colorful outfits she wears! She knows NOTHING about Sped "district style". She is a glorified data processor who has obviously �been around�. She is being paid to do what 500 plus DC employees should have been doing. Mo money mo money mo money. U folks with all that HBCU education need to be so ASHAMED! Rebecca knows no more than you, she doesn't even know how to color coordinate.
55 agree | 51 disagree
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From DC said:
At the end of the day, Rhee isn't qualified to be DCPS chancellor. People who aren't from DC don't actually *know* what's right for the people of DC, let alone the youth. You can't save the people if you don't serve the people. All I see is selfishness.
73 agree | 64 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
"Critics warned that her plans to privatize most of the schools comes just as she is trying to win support to privatize most of the schools� services, including its cafeterias." Thank you Examiner for calling it like it is. We are watching the privatization of a public school system, say what you will.
82 agree | 49 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
In a world where communication and diplomacy are key it is sad that US schools are behind in the language department Now the schools of our nation's capital wish to push us even further behind? We need to begin language instruction in elementary school years, not push it even later into academic life. On another related area; the excuse of 'college prep' is absurd. Most colleges require foreign language instruction prior to gaining admission. If the argument is to remove the option from 9th graders to allow them to take college prep courses over electives, than DC schools are very confused about what truly meets the college prep requirements. Schools should be teaching and educating students to be well rounded, affluent, and intelligent members of a global society. The focus should not only be math/science. Although those topics are important we need to remember that not all students want to pursue them. Perhaps there are some excellent linguists in DC schools, guess we'll never kn
78 agree | 62 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
The story left the impression that ninth graders district-wide would be be prohibited from taking foreign language courses. My understanding is that is not correct.
71 agree | 64 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
You cannot get into a good college without meeting the foreign language requirement. If your grades are good and you are poor, a minority, or have difficult family circumstanc