Barry Promoting 2 Charter Schools
Role in Proposal Is Unclear

By Elissa Silverman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, July 25, 2008

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.

In an interview, Barry initially said he did not intend to submit an application but was advocating for the schools on behalf of Amos.

Then he added: "Even I were to submit, it's legal. I'm not bound by any conflict of interest."

Asked whether he had consulted D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray or a lawyer about the matter, Barry said he did not need to.

"I know the law as well as anyone else in town," he said.

Barry has begun soliciting support, discussing the proposed schools with several top city officials, including D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D). A copy of his letter to Reinoso was sent to Gray.

"He has discussed it in very general terms," Fenty said. He said he got the impression that Barry might serve as chairman of the board of the two schools.

Josephine Baker, executive director of the D.C. Public Charter School Board, said Barry also mentioned the schools in a conversation with her.

Amos said that one avenue being explored is an affiliation of the two schools with the Community Academy. That would require approval of the charter school board but would not require a new charter.

Reinoso said it would be premature to say whether the administration supports Barry's request for public school buildings.

"The decision on whether or not these schools will open is up to the Public Charter School Board," he said.

Barry said he has long supported charter schools, which receive taxpayer funds but operate independently of the school system. He has said that parents need options beyond traditional public schools, which are generally low-performing in his ward.

"I believe in choice -- choice for the parents and choice for me to decide what I am going to do," he said.

Amos said Allied Health and Science would be named for Barry's ex-wife, Effi, who died in September of leukemia.

Sources who have been consulted on the plans say the other school could be named after Barry, and many call the two proposed schools "the Barry schools." Amos said he could not confirm or deny whether the former mayor's name would be attached.

One obstacle to doing that is D.C. law. Public spaces cannot be named after people who are alive.