A battle between the D.C. Council Chairman and D.C. Public Schools is heating up, with chairman Phil Mendelson accusing Mayor Muriel Bowser's administration and DCPS of disregarding D.C. law.
In a press release sent out Friday morning, Mendelson said that "a Schools First in Budgeting Law deadline was disregarded by District of Columbia Public Schools."
The law requires the schools chancellor to provide each school with its budget by a set date.
"The legally established date for this year is February 9th," Mendelson said in the release. "The Mayor and Chancellor have ignored this deadline. Moreover, the Chancellor has made it clear that DCPS will ignore other aspects the law.”
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That statement refers to a new law passed last year that also prohibits the mayor from cutting the budget for individual schools.
"Not only is every school entitled to know its forthcoming budget by February 9," Mendelson said in the release. "But the law now requires that every school receive at least the same funding next year as it received this year, plus an increase equal to the recently approved WTU contract."
In a written statement, the District's Deputy Mayor for Education Paul Kihn said the missing budgets will soon be on the way to DCPS principals.
"While this process began in August, our budget teams have had to factor in several unique circumstances, including the historic WTU agreement and an updated revenue projection….We look forward to sharing initial budgets with principals and gathering additional feedback from school communities before the process is finalized."
Mendelson is holding a hearing on the issue on Monday.
At a Friday hearing, the schools chancellor Lewis Ferebee apologized to Mendelson and the Council for not submitting some school contracts for council review -- which is also required by D.C. law.
