[Ed. Note: In 2022, Ward 8 residents harmed by a charter school development petitioned the zoning commission (ZC case 22-26) to have DC charter schools—all of which are private businesses–declared private for land use and development, thus ensuring better public oversight through the BZA (board of zoning adjustment) process. DC’s office of planning (OP) created a report on the petition. Based on statements OP solicited from self-interested public and private actors, that report was factually wrong in many areas. Yet the zoning commission dismissed the citizens’ petition. Asked about that dismissal at a February 23, 2023 DC council oversight hearing, zoning commission head Anthony Hood noted that BZA review would put an “undue burden” on charters. To date, no city planner has ever noted the “undue burden” that charter development in DC places disproportionately on Black residents, Black neighborhoods, and majority Black schools. But new public testimony by one of the petitioners harmed by such charter development, DC resident Camille Joyner, is below and outlines in detail just how terrible this burden is for residents. This testimony was submitted for the record of the DC council performance oversight hearing held on February 22, 2024.]

By Camille Joyner

I believe there is a need for rules to be set in place for charter schools building and operating on private property not owned by the city, particularly when it is done in a neighborhood setting like the one I live in.

While school choice is said to be the empowerment of parents in the education of their children, should it come at the expense of disempowering Black, tax paying residents in neighborhoods where many charters tend to build?

I believe zoning rules concerning the building of charter schools are not equitable as to matter of right. Certain things are allowed as matter of right in certain zones while not being allowed in other zones. Part of zoning rules are about preserving character of neighborhoods. For example, our street might look like a street in a R-1 zone but because it’s not designated as such, when a charter school comes into our neighborhood, we get what amounts to less protection than a R-1 zone.

Charters schools say they cannot buy real estate in wealthier neighborhoods of the city which usually have tighter zoning laws, like they can in one like mine, so wealthier areas don’t tend to see this problem and thusly are not affected. Yet instead of protecting residents who are directly affected, DC agencies defer to unaccountable private charter school entities and prioritize their interests over the interest and well-being of neighborhoods in which they decide to build.

I contend that the processes by which a charter school in my neighborhood has been built, have effectively taken away our democratic rights and silenced our voices when we should have opportunity for both.

The current rules allow for charter schools that are privately operated, have boards of directors and operate like businesses, to build as matter of right as a public school. This even when the property is not owned by the public. So a school operating privately, on private property, gets the benefit of a public school without needing to answer to the public. I contend that projects like this should not adhere to a one size fits all approach, they should be considered on a project by project basis.

No business or private school would be allowed to develop property with such disregard for the public and DC law like a charter school can. To say that these privately operating actors receive public funds so they can do whatever they want, is a disservice to DC taxpayers and inconsistent with democratic process, let alone development laws in DC. The public money they receive comes with no obligation, not even what the other DC public schools, DCPS, must adhere to for their development. In other words, there is no oversight and no protection for neighborhoods and residents in charter land use and development, a democratic violation.

Two public charter schools, Eagle Academy and Lee Montessori have built a school in my neighborhood. Since arriving these schools have made unilateral decisions affecting the neighborhood with the blessing of an unelected charter board and the schools’ boards of directors. Little to no input came from affected neighbors. Decisions were made in this well established neighborhood by outsiders who don’t live here, often over the protestations of people who have lived here for decades.

My neighbors and I have been fighting for years to no avail, to have our voices heard through the building and now expansion of this school so that we might maintain a piece of our neighborhood’s character that some of us had been enjoying for decades.

We have contacted, the DC Public School Charter Board [FN1], lawmakers, news reporters and agencies. We filed a petition with the BZA in which after only listening to the thoughts on how to zone for charters from interested parties, concluded that if they defined a charter school as a private school for the purpose of building a school on property privately held by that charter school, it would create confusion among the public as to whether charter schools are public or private.[FN2] Other testimonies were counted as “anti-charter” and ignored. However, charter schools are often publicly described as public schools operating privately. This is a very accurate description of the two charter schools that have built within feet of my house.

The school built was not planned for our neighborhood, no one in the neighborhood asked for a charter school or any other school to be built. Eagle Academy purchased an acre of land here, stating in a petition to the charter board after the purchase, that they needed to move due to being displaced from another location.[FN3] Eagle had a ribbon cutting at the school in September 2019 but never occupied the building. The Charter Board allowed Eagle to remain at the original 2016 location. For the year 2019-2020, Eagle was renamed Eagle Academy PCS-Fairlawn, presumably to reconcile the fact that Eagle had three locations at that time while their charter only allowed for two. The school operations were never physically in Fairlawn. Coincidentally, right after construction of the school building in our neighborhood concluded around November, Eagle filed an application with the charter board in which they stated they had identified a location in their preferred Ward 6 area to move its school after all.[FN4] Eagle then leased the building to Lee Montessori which subsequently bought the property.

When Lee came into the neighborhood, one of the first things they told neighbors is that they would be expanding the building. Lee came into the neighborhood with expansion plans even though opposition to Eagle’s building here was well known.[FN5]

Both Eagle and Lee claimed to engage with the neighborhood during their construction processes. What their community engagement actually amounted to, was them telling the neighbors what they were going to do.

Eagle did not engage the neighborhood until March 2019. From March to early April, neighbors met with Eagle on at least three occasions. All the while during their engagement, unbeknownst to neighbors, Eagle’s school building was being illegally constructed. Coincidentally, in an engagement with neighbors after its building permit issued in early April, Eagle told neighbors none of their concerns discussed between March and April could be fulfilled, but we could name a tree (the tree we were to name ended up dead after the construction).[FN6] The site received several stop-work orders. They were allowed to have a pre-construction meeting in May 2019 after the building structure was finished.[FN7] In May 2019, Eagle attempted to engage with the community as if it really were pre-construction and the building was not standing. By this time several adjacent homes showed signs of damage. The homeowners were told by DCRA (now Department of Buildings) to take it to their insurance companies. Without resolving whether or not the construction caused damages. Eagle was allowed to resume after the “pre-construction” period. Neighbors continued to have structural issues after the construction was over. One neighbor’s ceiling caved in from the front to the middle of their home. The Office of Planning told Naylor Road School, the previous owner before Eagle, that excavation on the property would have a “deleterious” impact on adjacent properties.[FN8] It doesn’t appear that the Office of Planning mentioned this in their agency input during the planning phase of this project. A lot of excavation was done on the property. No investigation into if the construction caused damages, only a belated pre-construction meeting and placing the burden of damages on the homeowner. Lee has been allowed to expand the building closer to neighbors’ homes. Lee said it would measure seismic shifts in the ground during their expansion project. I have to assume nothing in this order has happened because I haven’t heard anything from anyone about it. During both construction phases neighboring homes have become overrun with mice, this continues to date. Now there are rats.

During engagement with Eagle, we brought concerns. They made promises they didn’t keep. They laughed in our faces and implied we were a few complaining neighbors acting in bad faith.[FN9] Eagle exited the neighborhood, not even keeping a promise to replace a tree line at the back of the property they cut down before their construction. The trees were on and at the back of the property and helped define the character of the neighborhood. Not a single tree that was on the back of the property stands today.

The city hasn’t bothered to resolve an issue regarding a public alley it owns that runs through the property allowing Eagle and now Lee to build around it.

In an application they submitted to the charter board, Eagle claimed to have addressed all “reasonable” concerns of neighbors.[FN10] Neighbors concerns were not in fact met. That really didn’t matter because Eagle leased, then sold the property to another charter school, Lee Montessori. Neighbors were unaware of the transfer until after the transaction was made and weren’t given the opportunity for any input. Nor were neighbors allowed to ask the new school if it would adhere to promises made by Eagle. Lee didn’t.

Lee hasn’t been much better than Eagle. During their community engagement they told neighbors we would be negatively impacted by their expansion but it would be beneficial to us. Neither the negative impacts nor benefits were expounded to us.

When neighbors asked for a fence to go around the property for separation from other properties and to discourage trespassing, the school’s CEO, Chris Pencikowski, stated that a fence would go up, but it would be see-through because he wanted the school to blend into the neighborhood.[FN11]

This was seemingly in contrast to our request for trees. But to me, more significantly, he decided that he was going to blend into the neighborhood, then decided, unilaterally, ignoring community input, what blending in would mean. He also offered that we could contact him if we wanted to yell at someone or vent about the school’s expansion, but it was going to happen.

After making their plans, Lee said the expanded building will come down to the sidewalk and the tree line can’t be replaced, which seems false in my opinion.

I spoke to DOEE about the tree line while Lee was making their expansion plans. I was told by DOEE that the landscape at that time wouldn’t allow for trees to be replaced on the property. Note, Eagle had changed the landscape of the property during their construction. Lee has been allowed once again to change the landscape of the property to accommodate their expansion, apparently without the trees.

Other concerns raised during community engagement have been ignored or dismissed. For example, all lights on at the back of the building inside and out, all day and all night. A year and a half after the issue was first raised, Lee claimed the lights were needed for the cleaning crew but they would look into it. To date, nothing has been done.

Another issue raised was excessive noise from the playground. Lee response was they couldn’t stop children from playing and the sounds of children should never be an issue, especially when surrounding sounds aren’t the best.[FN12] Neighbors have heard of no plans to reduce noise.

During Lee’s leasing period, there was an issue with standing water in a bioretention area on the property. For a year water that should have drained off shortly after rain stood stagnate on the property like a pond. Over this time, neighbors raised the issue with Eagle and Lee. Neither did anything about the issue until neighbors and a school advocate contacted DOEE and city representatives.

Neighbors had begged Lee to maintain the landscaping on the back of the property. The only time they starting doing anything about it is when they came before our Advisory Neighborhood Commission with a request and it was denied after we complained to the ANC during their presentation. Even maintenance of the property was inconsistent.

There was an incident involving a large tree that was killed by Eagle during their construction. The tree was hanging over the play area. During one school day, I personally witnessed very large limbs drop from the tree. Other neighbors and school staff saw it too. Shortly thereafter, children were trotted out to play in the area underneath it.

The neighbors were appalled that they would do this and sent an email about it to school officials, community leaders and some parents. Only after this did Lee finally go through the process of having the dead tree removed. Note, the dead tree had been brought to Lee’s attention months before this incident.

Lee would later cite this incident as a claim that they were addressing neighborhood concerns.[FN13] However a dead tree on the back of their property that was actually affecting the neighborhood, shedding branches into the street at times making it impassable remained standing. This tree was also brought to Lee’s attention. The school’s excuse for not doing anything was it was a DDOT tree. It was not.

We have had no input and seemingly no recourse regarding our neighborhood as it pertains to charter schools. We remain at the mercy of an unelected charter board and a school’s board of directors. These people do not live in the neighborhood and appear to show little interest or concern for it outside of trying to get students in the school.

The neighbors have no reason to believe that this won’t continue to happen with the current school, Lee or any other charter school that occupies the property. This should not be allowed to happen. This needs to change. Rules need to be set in place to empower tax paying residents.

Respectfully,

Camille Joyner, Resident

[All documents referenced in this testimony are available at this link as well as in the testimony submitted for the record here; documents mentioned in the footnotes are in that first link, in the order they appear in the footnotes below]

FOOTNOTES

1. I personally submitted testimony to the DC Charter Board on April 17, 2019 and January 24 2022
2. DC Office of Planning setdown report dated October 3,2022 – ZC Case 22-26 and February 23, 2023 OZ, OP, DOB Committee hearing
3. Eagle’s application to Charter Board dated September 30, 2016
4. Eagle’s application to Charter Board dated December 9, 2019 and DC PCSB proposal dated January 27, 2020
5. https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/local/they-have-totally-disrupted-our-entire-neighborhood-se-dc-residents-upset-after-small-renovation-turns-into-two-story-charter-school/65-6531c3dc-3d8a-4df0-b65f-811c71849b50
https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/local/dc-developers-get-away-with-breaking-the-law-dcra-never-collected-6-million-in-fines/65-76ddbe81-08db-4b4e-9604-30b0432b4cf1
https://www.wusa9.com/video/news/education/eagle-academy-charter-school-built-without-permits-leaving-before-opens/65-da4d101d-2b4f-4a6d-9f1d-145023d3c5e2
6. Pictures of naming tree
7. Special Inspection Pre-Construction Minutes dated May 15, 2019
8. Exhibit 29, Office of Planning Order regarding application No. 16181 dated November 27, 1996
9. Eagle’s June 2019 email and letter to 8A03 ANC Commissioner
10. Eagle’s application to Charter Board dated December 9, 2019
11. Lee Montessori March 22, 2022 Community Meeting
12. Lee Montessori January 25, 2022 Community Meeting
13. Lee Montessori at Fairlawn Citizens Association meeting on April 19, 2022