Wednesday, September 08, 2004
Facilities And Charter Schools
Sewell Chan of the Washington Post has been actively covering education in Washington D.C. from the perspective of alternatives to traditional public schools. Today his article is about the contribution that Sallie Mae has made towards helping charter schools find facilities. The facility issue is the biggest problem charter schools face. As a condition of the freedom that they enjoy in being able to set their own curriculum and administrative rules they must compete in D.C.'s hot real estate market for space with a facility allotment which allows them to pay about $20.00/square foot including renovation costs. This generally means that kids are educated in warehouses in some of the toughest areas of town.
Today's article claims that Sallie Mae has helped several schools acquire space and increase enrollment. This is not exactly true. For three years I served on the board of directors of the Cesar Chavez Public Charter High School for Public Policy and this is the first school that Mr. Chan says was helped by Sallie Mae's foundation. But in fact, while the school may have benefited by loan guarantees, the principal has been desperately searching for a building for her school. Mrs. Salcido expanded Cesar Chavez this year from being one high school to two and has opened a middle school. Yes even with Sallie Mae's help she went to the extraordinary step of contacting the Fred Ezra Company in her search for a facility. I say extraordinary because she called Anthony King, one of Ezra's brokers, who I recruited for the Cesar Chavez Board of Directors and who along with me and a few other volunteers, Mrs. Salcido removed from her board last year in her attempt to replace us with people who could contribute a lot of money. It was a terrible period since I had worked for her school as if it was my full-time job.
Anthony is an outstanding individual and he talked respectfully with Mrs. Salcido but explained to her that her school's finances did not allow for the acquisition of a facility. You see every charter school receives about $1,200 per student for a facilities allotment. As part of our $2 million loan guarantee from the city those dollars go into a lockbox that can only be used towards our lease and the renovation of our permanent home. Last Friday Anthony and Fred Ezra closed on the purchase of a building that we will move into as our permanent location. Meanwhile, I hear that Cesar Chavez had to scramble to find some space in a church basement.
Today's real story should have been about the heroic act that Fred Ezra did for us and other charter schools. (You can read about it in the Washington Business Journal by clicking here.) At least one other school will be located in our building and he has bought another site that will house one or two others. This is what Mr. Chan should have written about. I'm going to contact him and see if I can get him interested in writing another piece.
PermaLink | 5:52 AM |
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Today's article claims that Sallie Mae has helped several schools acquire space and increase enrollment. This is not exactly true. For three years I served on the board of directors of the Cesar Chavez Public Charter High School for Public Policy and this is the first school that Mr. Chan says was helped by Sallie Mae's foundation. But in fact, while the school may have benefited by loan guarantees, the principal has been desperately searching for a building for her school. Mrs. Salcido expanded Cesar Chavez this year from being one high school to two and has opened a middle school. Yes even with Sallie Mae's help she went to the extraordinary step of contacting the Fred Ezra Company in her search for a facility. I say extraordinary because she called Anthony King, one of Ezra's brokers, who I recruited for the Cesar Chavez Board of Directors and who along with me and a few other volunteers, Mrs. Salcido removed from her board last year in her attempt to replace us with people who could contribute a lot of money. It was a terrible period since I had worked for her school as if it was my full-time job.
Anthony is an outstanding individual and he talked respectfully with Mrs. Salcido but explained to her that her school's finances did not allow for the acquisition of a facility. You see every charter school receives about $1,200 per student for a facilities allotment. As part of our $2 million loan guarantee from the city those dollars go into a lockbox that can only be used towards our lease and the renovation of our permanent home. Last Friday Anthony and Fred Ezra closed on the purchase of a building that we will move into as our permanent location. Meanwhile, I hear that Cesar Chavez had to scramble to find some space in a church basement.
Today's real story should have been about the heroic act that Fred Ezra did for us and other charter schools. (You can read about it in the Washington Business Journal by clicking here.) At least one other school will be located in our building and he has bought another site that will house one or two others. This is what Mr. Chan should have written about. I'm going to contact him and see if I can get him interested in writing another piece.
PermaLink | 5:52 AM |
| 
