Back in January, when we were young and easy and ran in our heedless ways believing that neither chancellor nor deputy mayor for education would ever deceive us, school advocates petitioned council education committee chair David Grosso to change the budget hearing dates for DCPS and the charter board so that they would not occur during spring break.

Alas–as Dylan Thomas might have said!

While Grosso said he could change neither hearing date, he (or someone in those lamb white days) did in fact swap out the charter board hearing to a date not during spring break.

While we should rejoice that public witnesses for the charter board aren’t being forced to go gentle into that good night like those for DCPS, after all the scandals, outrage, and violation of public trust (and rules and possibly laws!) documented in DCPS alone in just the last several months, really–this is the best our city can do to accommodate public voices? Good night indeed.

Below is the latest on upcoming hearing dates (all hearings take place in our city hall, the Wilson Bldg., 1350 PA Ave. NW):

DCPS budget oversight hearing, public witnesses: Weds. March 28, 10 am.
State Board of Education, Ombudsman, Student Advocate, Bullying Prevention Task Force, budget oversight hearing: Thurs. March 29, 10 am
Deputy Mayor for Education & Charter Board budget oversight hearing, Weds. April 11, 10 am
DCPS budget oversight hearing, government witnesses: Thurs. April 19, 10 am
OSSE budget oversight hearing: Tues. April 24, 10 am
Education Roundtable reconvening, Weds. May 16, 4 pm

Sign up for all the hearings is here.