AROUND THE REGION
Empower DC’s Education Director Daniel del Pielago said that shuttering neighborhood schools in black and brown communities has become a national issue that parents are fighting. /Photo by Khalid Naji-Allah
8 Apr. 11, 2013 - Apr. 17, 2013
COURT continued from Page 1 nary injunction. May 22 is the day the D.C. Council votes on the 2014 District budget. “If [the] judge does not grant the temporary restraining order and the preliminary injunction by May 22, it’s a done deal. It is a tight schedule but we will be heard and have an outcome by May 22,” said Barnes. “We’re very pleased with that. Our action would stop DCPS from closing those schools. I think they’d be loathe from doing it again but one doesn’t know what resides in the minds of those people.” The lawsuit is the tip of a contentious, high-stakes power struggle between parents and DCPS over the direction of the city’s traditional public schools. Educators and education advocates across the country are watching the D.C. case closely since this is the first city where opponents of school closings have filed a lawsuit. Barnes also said he’d been contacted by other lawyers who asked to see the filing and he said he hopes they will join in the legal fight. In Chicago, angry parents and frustrated teachers have The Washington Informer
taken to the streets to protest the decision of Mayor Rahm Emanuel and school officials to close 54 elementary schools and save $1 billion over 10 years. Much like the complaints in the District, critics and opponents of Emanuel’s plan accuse school officials of not inviting parental input, putting students at risk by moving them to schools in rival neighborhoods and they add that the proposal will not improve the schools. The battle is being waged in other cities, including Baltimore, Detroit, Philadelphia and New Orleans, said Empower DC’s Education Director Daniel del Pielago. Northwest-based Empower DC and concerned parents are incensed by Henderson’s January announcement of a decision to close the schools, all of which are located east of Rock Creek Park in Northwest, a historical dividing line in the District between whites and blacks, the wealthy and the working class in the city. Barnes said it’s obviously discriminatory when public schools east of the Park are closed because of under-enrollment while schools west of the park and near Capitol Hill were kept open when
their enrollment numbers dipped significantly a number of years ago. “With the lawsuit, we’re going to let that take its course. We’re working with parents to see what they want to do,” said del Pielago during an interview on Saturday, April 6. “I’m at a conference with the American Federation of Teachers … looking at national actions along the same issues. We’re looking at joining forces. I’ve been telling people now it’s national. There is still a lot of resistance. Parents still want to fight to make sure schools stay open.” Del Pielago, 39, said outside of the lawsuit, the focus remains on strategic planning, providing information and support and the political education of parents. “We’re letting folks know that this is a long, hard fight,” he said. “We have to be organized and strong on a national level to be contenders in this fight – define who and what we are.” Tamara Gorham’s 13-yearold son is confined to a wheelchair and is an 8th-grader at Sharpe Health School See COURT on Page 9 www.washingtoninformer.com