A Costly Charter School Failure

But Jos-Arz opened only as a day school in fall 2000 because the building was not yet configured to serve residential students.

Charter schools normally receive an allocation from the city based on their current enrollment. That formula was not going to work in the case of Jos-Arz, its advocates said, arguing that it needed a large infusion of funds so it could build a residential wing and hire medical specialists.

Chavous, who had chaired the council's education committee, pushed through the legislation providing Jos-Arz with the emergency allocation of $9.2 million.

But Cafritz, who was not on the school board when Jos-Arz's charter was granted, became suspicious of what she considered unusually high rent payments from the school to the nonprofit on whose board Rollie Kimbrough served. She also complained about contracts the school awarded to Gwendolyn Kimbrough's company, American Therapeutic Services.

A 2003 report on Jos-Arz issued by D.C. Chief Financial Officer Natwar M. Gandhi, however, said auditors found no "fraud, illegalities, misappropriation or irregularities."

The council approved a revenue bond to allow Jos-Arz to borrow up to $16 million to complete renovations to the building. But Cafritz, citing her concerns about the Kimbroughs, persuaded the board not to issue the school a letter of good standing, which prevented it from borrowing the funds.

The school was soon hemorrhaging money because of its low enrollment, Jos-Arz officials said. They said the situation was exacerbated by a city funding formula that did not take into account the high cost of the residential program.

Chavous, in part because of Jos-Arz's difficulties, got the council to pass legislation requiring that the school system give first priority to traditional public schools or D.C. public charter schools when deciding on the placement of special education students. Gandhi's report urged the school board to comply with that law, noting the school's enrollment problems.

But school system officials said Chavous's legislation conflicted with another law that prohibited them from placing students at charter schools, which receive public funding but are independently operated.

In June 2003, Gwendolyn Kimbrough quit as Jos-Arz's executive director, saying she had depleted her personal savings on the school. Houston-based Cornell Cos., which runs some of the private out-of-state facilities that enroll D.C. special education students, took over.

Paul Doucette, a Cornell spokesman, said city officials assured the company that Jos-Arz would get more referrals from the D.C. Department of Mental Health. But the department instead began putting more emphasis on community-based day programs.

The school continued to receive "only a trickle of students," Doucette said, and Cornell pulled out in June.

Jos-Arz never enrolled more than 20 students in the residential program and 50 in the day program. It is serving 50 day students at its new location.

The school board's charter school office put Jos-Arz on probation last spring, citing low academic achievement, lack of certification for all teachers and lack of individual education plans for all students.

Staff researcher Bobbye Pratt contributed to this report.