Baltimore Grassroots Media

Group prevails despite misleading assurances and contradictory rationale from consultant to city school system

By Mike Shea

BALTIMORE—Were it not for the last-minute actions of a group of parents and staff from Dickey Hill Elementary/Middle School, the school would have been designated for demolition in the current round of school closings.

A Baltimore Grassroots Media (BGM) video taken January 5, 2006 shows a consultant to the city school system first assuring the school's advocates that their school will not be closed and later contradicting herself by revealing that the recommendation of her committee is actually to demolish the school and build a new school at an undetermined location.

The video follows Dickey Hill parents and staff from a strategy session at their school to a showdown at the final planning meeting of the southwest area committee for "Facility Solutions: The New Vision for Baltimore City Schools Planning Process," held at Edmondson-Westside High School, as they rally to prevent their school from being closed.

Initially, Jodi Yutzy, a planner with DeJong and Associates, tells the group that the meeting is not open to the public. When they are still gathered in the hall outside the meeting room 15 minutes later, she comes out and assures them that they do not need to be there.

"I just want you to know that the option to close the building is not on the table, so if that changes your decision about whether you're here tonight or not, it's not closing. Okay. Just so you know that. Dickey Hill is not on the option to close. It was just one option. Everybody voted it down, so we're saying forget it."

Seeking further explanation and confirmation, the parents are eventually allowed into the cafeteria where the meeting is to be held. Yutzy agrees to talk with them because the committee members have not yet arrived. After she repeats her assurances that Dickey Hill is not going to be closed, first grade teacher Judy Geisler asks what the exact recommendation is. Yutzy's response stuns the Dickey Hill advocates.

"It's demolishing the building and putting in a new building in that neighborhood, Dickey Hill neighborhood. That is the preferred option. That is the recommendation. It can be done in large metropolitan districts. If you have a different site in the neighborhood you can build a new building on that site."

In the ensuing uproar, Geisler exclaims, "What? What is she saying? You're saying you want to tear our building down? Oh, no! Oh, no! Oh, no!" Dickey Hill's principal, Joyce Hughes is heard saying, "$26 million plus—they are not going to rebuild that building!" And Jacqueline Patrick, whose son is in the first grade at the school adds, "Our kids aren't going to be the ones that get to go there!"

When parents ask where the new site is, Yutzy reveals that it has not been determined yet saying, "That's what the real estate has to figure out."

Asked earlier why the school was even considered for closure she says, "That one option came up for Dickey Hill because it's kind of up there by itself in the planning area." When a parent asks why they would close the only school in the area, Yutzy says, "from the projections it looked like the amount of children in the area was going to be reduced by the time this plan rolled out."

Parents are never given an explanation for why, if the student population is projected to decline, the committee is planning to recommend a new school with a larger capacity of 500, up from 460.

The condition of the school is also indicated as a reason for closure, but the parents and school staff show that the facilities report is false—that the school is, in fact, in good condition with many new renovations including new lighting, a new playground, a new state-of-the-art science lab and a computer lab.

The parents suspect that the real reasons the school has been picked for closure are gentrification in the area and the real estate value of the school property in an area of the city with a lot of green space—not concerns for their children's education. They point to new luxury homes being built in the area with prices starting at $450,000.

Over 99% of Dickey Hill students are African-American, and 82% of the students receive lunch subsidies. Many of the students live in the apartment complexes surrounding the school that, since the summer of 2003, have been changing their leasing policies to exclude the Section 8 voucher program.

DeJong is an Ohio consulting firm that was hired for $1 million by the Baltimore City Public School System to lead the community through the process of deciding which schools to close, renovate or reconfigure. Funding for city schools is being withheld by the state until some schools are closed to reduce "excess capacity."

In the end, due to the tenacious activism of the parents and school staff—and possibly the presence of a BGM video camera—Yutzy and James Smith, chair of the southwest area committee and area academic officer for the BCPSS, address the camera for the record and agree to change the committee's recommendation to be that Dickey Hill stay open and receive moderate renovations.

The recommendations of the committee still have to be approved by the Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners at their March 28, 2006 meeting.

Check Baltimore City public access channel 75 schedule for broadcast of the 30 minute video "Saving Dickey Hill."