Barry Promoting 2 Charter Schools

Role in Proposal Is Unclear

Marion Barry has always taken an interest in education. He's been a guest science teacher at Ballou Senior High, and some of his D.C. Council colleagues are graduates of the Mayor's Youth Leadership Institute, which he founded.

Now the man known as D.C.'s mayor-for-life, who abandoned his doctoral dissertation in chemistry for a career in politics, is working to open two public charter schools.

It is unclear what role Barry (D-Ward 8) would play in the creation and governance of the schools, one that would prepare students for health careers and one that would focus on leadership and entrepreneurial skills.

Kent Amos, who runs the Community Academy Public Charter School in Ward 4, said he had been "working alongside" Barry, "trying to see how our combined interests" would meet.

"I would characterize his involvement as someone who is interested in seeing these two schools happen, and he is lending his knowledge, skills and access," Amos said of Barry.

Amos said one school is largely Barry's idea, akin to the Mayor's Youth Leadership Institute, a training program for teenagers that Barry started in 1979. Amos said that he has wanted for some time to establish a health school and that he has talked to Providence and Howard University hospitals about possible ties.

But in a May 21 letter to Victor Reinoso, the deputy mayor for education, Barry portrayed himself as the likely applicant.

"As we have discussed on many occasions, I am going to put applications into the Charter School Board for two Charter Schools during the next cycle," Barry wrote on his official D.C. Council letterhead.

In the letter, he outlined plans for the schools and requested that two recently closed public school buildings be made available.

"I . . . would like to permanently locate the Leadership Development and Entrepreneurship at Wilkerson Elementary," Barry wrote, referring to Wilkinson Elementary School at 2330 Pomeroy Rd. SE in Ward 8. He also asked that the Allied Health and Science school take over M.M. Washington Career High School, which is at 27 O St. NW.

The Leadership Development and Entrepreneurship school would start with a sixth-grade class of 75 to 100 students and add a grade a year until the 12th, according to the letter. Allied Health and Science would start with students from the sixth to the ninth grade and add a grade a year until the 12th.

He wrote that Amos will "get me started" the first year.