[VIDEO] DC Action Summit Prepares Community for Forthcoming School Closure Announcement

By Nick Westbrooks

Today [January 15], DC Public Schools (DCPS) Chancellor Kaya Henderson is announcing which public schools the city will be closing. Ahead of the announcement, the empowerment grassroots organization Empower DC held a citywide summit on school closures featuring a panel of community experts. The panelists included DCPS school counselor and education blogger Candi Peterson, education finance lawyer and researcher Mary Levy, DCPS parent Julianne M. Robertson King Esq., River Terrace Support Committee member and Empower DC Board chair Diana Onley-Campbell and DCPS student Renard Gray.

The Jan. 12 program brought about 80 DC residents from all of city’s eight wards to Guildfield Baptist Church in Northeast. Attendees voiced their concerns on issues ranging from the threat of privatization of the public schools to the accountability of the mayor and the city council. Movement catalyst Max Rameau gave a presentation on action planning and how grassroots activism and agitation may be applied to the fight against closures.

Education activists planned their next steps and announced events relating to the cause including tonight’s vigil at Mayor Gray’s house, the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday parade on Saturday which will meet at 9:30am at the United Black Fund, and the Department of Education public hearing discussing the impact of school closures slated for two weeks from today on Jan. 29. See the pictures and video below highlighting the summit.