The much-anticipated school closure announcement finally happened today, with 20 DCPS schools on the list. The ultimate decision on which will be shuttered at the end of the 2012-2013 school year is left up to Chancellor Kaya Henderson, and she has said that a final verdict will come by January. If implemented, this will be the first mass school closing in the District since former Chancellor Michelle Rhee closed 23 schools in 2008. Many residents are absorbing what factors went into this decision and how it will impact student enrollment across the city’s neighborhood schools.
The Chancellor has listed under-enrollment, under-utilization of facility space, and lack of modernization as factors in their consolidation decisions. The schools on the closure list are primarily in wards 5, 7, 8, and mostly are elementary schools, though one high school is included. Two of the schools on the list serve primarily children with disabilities and will move into the former building for River Terrace, a DCPS school closed last year.
The announcement was not unexpected, as residents spent the summer and fall participating in a series of community meetings on school quality held by the DC Deputy Mayor for Education. Unfortunately, the report summarizing these conversations has not yet been released to the public and may or may not have been incorporated into Chancellor Henderson’s rationale to close these particular schools.
In several ward conversations, there was strong pushback on the Illinois Facilities Fund (IFF) study’s methodology and recommendations. Commissioned by the Deputy Mayor for Education, IFF released a highly controversial report last February, citing the need for the District to close or turnaround over 30 schools. The report also recommended the schools be replaced with charter schools ranked as high-performing in their analysis. The table below shows that 7 of the 20 proposed DCPS school closures were identified in the IFF report as “Tier 4″ or “Tier 3″ schools, as the lowest quality in their ranking. Other key characteristics of the school’s student population are also listed below, with projections of how many students are enrolled this school year, percent that are low-income, and percent that are attending within their designated school boundary.
The question remains: Will closing these schools make the DCPS system more effective and cost-efficient? Where will the savings, if any, be allocated, and how will the buildings be used? One study cites that DCPS lost $5 million in per-pupil funding in 2009 due to decreased citywide enrollment following closures – will the proposed closures lead to a significant drop in enrollment and funding again? In the coming weeks, DCFPI will examine the costs of operating a small DC school, and the potential implications of the school closure list on the larger system.
The D.C. Council will hold hearings on school closures Nov. 15th and 19th. Today is the deadline to sign up for the witness list.
