Cutting a School Contract Down to Size
By Colbert I. King
Saturday, June 9, 2007; A17
The story of EdBuild, a Washington nonprofit start-up organization that was awarded a $57.6 million sole-source contract by the soon-to-be-out-of-business D.C. Board of Education, continues this week.
To recap: EdBuild was put together 20 months ago by a group of well-wired civic leaders and was funded generously with venture capital, for the purpose of forming a partnership with the superintendent to transform District public schools.
The speed with which EdBuild got off the ground and lined up at the D.C. treasury's door is breathtaking.
Three months after the school board approved a partnership with EdBuild on Dec. 16, 2006 -- and before school Superintendent Clifford Janey finalized contract negotiations with EdBuild last month -- the $57.6 million EdBuild-D.C. Public Schools relationship was included in Mayor Adrian Fenty's proposed 2008 Budget Support Act, which was transmitted to the D.C. Council in March.
The eagle-eyed council chairman, Vincent Gray, spotted the section authorizing a multimillion-dollar contract with a relatively new organization, and he deleted it.
But how did the EdBuild provision get in the act in the first place?
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