Parents and students of Washington, D.C's Duke Ellington School of the Arts protested in front of D.C. Public Schools' headquarters Tuesday after talks over how to operate the acclaimed arts school broke down this week.
A nonprofit board manages a special agreement between the school system, the Kennedy Center and George Washington University to operate Duke Ellington. That operating structure has been in effect for more than 20 years.
But in February, D.C. Public Schools announced its plan to assume full operation of Duke Ellington School of the Arts after the News4 I-Team raised questions about how the school's unique relationship with the school district might have contributed to lapses in teacher sex abuse investigations.
Both parties have spent months negotiating a new deal to replace the current arrangement, under which DCPS has little control over school operations.
The school's board has asked for DCPS to provide administrative support and to pay its arts teachers the same as licensed DCPS teachers, while letting the school retain control of the arts programming and leadership.
A spokesperson for the school told News4 that, while they’ve settled many issues with the school district, talks stalled over whether the school’s principal will continue to report to the nonprofit board or become a DCPS employee.
“Requiring the principal to be a DCPS employee would alter the trajectory of the institution's mission forever," the spokesperson said. "Currently, the DESAP principal is steeped in an understanding of high-quality arts curriculum, accountable to the DESAP Board, and serves as a critical advocate for the school and the livelihood of the institution."
Parents who protested Tuesday expressed their concerns about what might happen if the school loses its creative control.
"That means he would just be in a regular D.C. public schools with no arts, no need to continue his skill and his desire to be film writer, a soundtrack writer, a creative spoken words writer," said Doreen Blue, who has a son in Duke Ellington's writing program. "If they have no arts, there’s nothing else left."
D.C. Public Schools did not address the issue of the principal to News4, but said in a statement: "We value the arts professionals on staff and their unique expertise, and our proposal supports pathways both to licensure and compensation parity when licensure is not the best option."
“We are continuing to meet in good faith with the Board of Directors with a shared goal of a strong future for the Duke Ellington School of the Arts,” the school system said.
Both the school and DCPS said the D.C. Council asked them for a proposal on how they will move forward in the discussions by Dec. 31.
The News4 I-Team investigation found the school was notified twice about allegations of the same writing teacher having sexual relationships with two different students over the course of a decade.
The school alerted DCPS both times, but while the I-Team found evidence the district did investigate him twice, it said it had no record of ever investigating that teacher. The district maintained no personnel file for him because he was an employee of the school, not the school district.
