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For nearly two decades, Guerilla Arts Ink has dispatched dozens of teaching artists into District public schools to facilitate innovative arts and hip-hop-based enrichment for students in need of specialized programming.
In the aftermath of a major contracting snafu, however, the well-regarded media, arts and education consulting agency won’t be able to carry out its mission in collaborating with D.C. Public Schools (DCPS) and a Baltimore-based nonprofit by the name of Arts 4 Learning — much to the detriment of those teaching artists dependent of economic opportunities of this nature.
Throughout much of April and May, Guerilla Arts Ink and The Uncle Devin Show, two local certified-business enterprises (CBEs), had been in discussions with Arts 4 Learning about coming on as subcontractors for a nearly million-dollar contract that Arts 4 Learning secured with DCPS to conduct summer enrichment programming at two public schools.
Guerilla Arts Ink founder Gabriel Benn and Devin Walker, founder of The Uncle Devin Show, first became aware of the procurement when DCPS sent a letter to the Department of Small and Local Business Development (DSLBD) on April 10 requesting exemption from a requirement that obligates contractors to set aside 35% of funds greater than $250,000 for CBEs — defined as D.C.-based independent enterprises that receive preferential placement for government contracts.
As Guerilla Arts Ink founder Gabriel Benn told The Informer, Arts 4 Learning abruptly ceased communication with Guerilla Arts Ink and The Uncle Devin Show midway through the discussions.
In speaking with DCPS, Benn and Walker learned that Arts 4 Learning told DCPS that both CBEs didn’t answer emails to finalize an arrangement through which they could have collectively secured 35% of Arts 4 Learning’s grant — nearly $350,000.
Benn denied such allegations, citing follow-up emails sent over the course of several weeks.
He told The Informer that Arts 4 Learning, which expressed a need for at teaching artists, curricula and other resources, didn’t want to give Guerilla Arts Ink any more than $100,000 for six weeks of summer programming, which he said led him to question how the nonprofit would spend the majority of its funds, if not for the facilitation of the programming.
In the end, DCPS awarded Arts 4 Learning $999,901, an amount slightly below the threshold of what would trigger a D.C. Council approval process. In discussions with Arts 4 Learning, Benn and Walker learned that not only had the nonprofit been in discussions with DCPS for three years, but they applied for a much larger amount than what DCPS awarded them.
Benn and Walker would also learn that Arts 4 Learning, as a nonprofit, didn’t need to follow the subcontractor provision that required them to set aside 35% of their grant for CBEs. This raised Benn and Walker’s suspicion that DCPS purposely circumvented the D.C. Council approval process to help a contractor with whom they had a strong rapport.
For Benn, the whole debacle reinforced what he has always worried about regarding the forces at play in the District’s public school system, in terms of working to keep students disconnected from native Washingtonians, like many of the teaching artists under his purview who can reinforce elements of D.C. culture with young people.
“It’s the arrogance of someone thinking they can come into your city, not knowing anyone and having any groundwork done to have work done of that magnitude,” Benn said.
“I told Arts 4 Learning that they don’t know the landscape and they could use me as a partner for curriculum development and teachers,” he added. “[In the end], they told me that they didn’t need me. That’s messed up and criminal. And they lied on us. We don’t even know if the contract was posted publicly but if it was, why not honor the 35% waiver?”
The D.C. Council Tackles DCPS Procurement Issues
Last July, Darrell Brooks Jr. started his role as chief of people, equity and culture at Arts 4 Learning after leaving Cardozo Education Campus in Northwest, where he served as director of strategy and logistics for two years.
DCPS said that Brooks, who had no involvement with central office procurement or summer programming while working in the public school system, didn’t play a part in DCPS entering a contract with Arts 4 Learning. In regard to Arts 4 Learning’s decision to not follow through with Guerilla Arts Ink and The Uncle Devin Show, DCPS said that conversations ended with both CBEs once DSLBD issued Arts 4 Learning a subcontracting waiver.
In addition to Guerilla Arts Ink and The Uncle Devin Show, Arts 4 Learning engaged Star Route 19 but found that what it provided as a mobile software company didn’t align with the scope of work that Arts 4 Learning was seeking, a DCPS spokesperson said.
For nine years, Arts 4 Learning has partnered with more than 100 musicians, dancers, actors, poets, storytellers and visual artists to provide hands-on learning through the arts in Baltimore City Public Schools. DCPS said that Arts 4 Learning’s track record of increasing student attendance, achievement and socioemotional learning, along with teachers’ delivery of content made them an ideal partner in the post-pandemic era.
Through its contract with DCPS this summer, Arts 4 Learning will train teachers at two District-operated summer school sites where nearly 500 students will receive five weeks of full-day summer programming. That arrangement includes professional development, coaching, feedback and on-site supervision to help teachers provide arts-integrated programming throughout the summer.
In addition to that, DCPS will provide afternoon enrichment programming for students at several of its traditional elementary summer acceleration sites.
On May 25, D.C. Council member Brianne Nadeau (D-Ward 1) conducted a public hearing, via the D.C. Council’s Committee on Public Works and Operations, about the District of Columbia Public School Procurement Authority Amendment Act, legislation that she and Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) introduced to repeal DCPS’ independent procurement authority.
During a council breakfast on June 6, representatives of the Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCFO), in response to a question that Nadeau asked, said that their office is currently examining various checkpoints in the contract approval process. They expressed plans to explore measures that ensure D.C. government agencies don’t follow through with contracts of $1 million or more without council approval.
DCPS Chancellor Dr. Lewis D. Ferebee told The Informer that he didn’t support Nadeau and Mendelson’s legislation, alluding to instances when families didn’t receive services in a timely fashion without DCPS’s procurement authority.
On May 31, Ferebee testified before the D.C. Council’s Committee of the Whole on about what inspired the fulfillment of 36 contacts totaling $269 million without D.C. Council approval, as mandated in the D.C. Home Rule Act.
Earlier this year, the D.C. Council conducted a hearing about the quality of lunches provided by DCPS vendor SodexoMagic amid an attempt by Council member Janeese Lewis George (D-Ward 4) to stop the retroactive approval of D.C. government contracts.
In preparing for the hearing, council staff discovered several instances when DCPS entered contracts without council approval for food services, curriculum development, and security, among other services.
In acknowledging DCPS’ noncompliance, Ferebee apologized and emphasized that officials are currently addressing underlying procurement issues dating back to the early days of the pandemic, when DCPS made emergency orders to ensure continuity of services.
DCPS has since disciplined those responsible for the backlog, launched its Office of Fiscal Strategy and entered a third-party audit by the Office of the Deputy Mayor of Education, Ferebee told Mendelson and D.C. Council member Robert White (D-At large) on May 31.
Even with those gains, Ferebee alluded to seven out of the 36 retroactive contracts that needed approval during its June 6 legislative meeting. On Monday, Mendelson said that DCPS filed paperwork late for three of those contracts, leading to the D.C. Council waiving its filing rule.
Even so, he recommended that the council approves the seven contracts. Minutes later, the D.C. Council unanimously followed suit.
For years, Walker has provided an action-packed, percussion-based musical experience for schools, libraries, and festivals under the Uncle Devin moniker. He had even secured opportunities with Arts 4 Learning as an independent contractor.
By the time Walker testified at the May 25 hearing, he had already filed a complaint against DCPS and Arts 4 Learning alleging that DCPS provided DSLBD with false information about The Uncle Devin Show and Guerilla Arts Ink, which damaged the reputation of both organizations and pushed them out of the procurement process.
He also filed a fraud complaint with the D.C. Office of the Inspector General.
In his testimony before the D.C. Council’s Committee on Public Works and Operations, Walker argued that a loophole in the 35% subcontracting goal provision also allowed Arts 4 Learning, a nonprofit, to avoid awarding CBEs a portion of its nearly million-dollar contract.
He said that a failure to close that loophole would allow other nonprofits to use similar methods against hardworking District residents who spend time and resources to maintain their status as CBEs. “It’s honestly showing me that the certified-business enterprise program is more theory than practice,” Walker said.
“There’s no reason why we shouldn’t have been able to bid on that contract,” he added, citing Arts 4 Learning’s commitment to racial justice and equity. “For DCPS to not provide us with the appropriate information about subcontracting and then turning it around to say we weren’t responsive is wild. That’s why we filed a fraud complaint.”
One Contractor Recounts a DCPS Blackball Plot
In addition to Walker, the May 25 council hearing also featured Zahra Hashmi, a former DCPS employee and Lavanya Poteau, the founder and CEO of Ellesipea LLC, a provider of educational and professional services and producer of school apparel.
In her testimony, Hashmi, who once served as a senior contract specialist in DCPS and D.C. Office of the City Administrator, said that DCPS dishonestly identified her as the reason why the agency submitted contracts of more than $1 million late to the D.C. Council.
Hashmi recounted receiving an email in March alleging that she misrepresented the reason for the delays by stating that the Office of the State Superintendent of Education spent much time reviewing contracts. While speaking before Nadeau and other committee members, Hashmi, who said she didn’t have the power in her role to approve anything greater than $1 million, noted that DCPS didn’t refer to an unauthorized payment of $6 million that had been cited as the reason for her termination.
Another point that Hashmi made centered on DCPS’ failure to implicate other employers who had allegedly committed similar offenses, especially since officials only tied Hashimi to two out of eight late contract submissions.
In speaking about her situation, Poteau, a former DCPS employee who launched Ellesipea LLC during the pandemic, said that DCPS often goes far to protect people within its circle while marginalizing others.
At the height of the pandemic, Poteau, who initially launched Ellesipea as a CBE and provider of field trips and educational services, pivoted to wellness boxes and school apparel. Making that decision, she said, helped her generate $100,000 in revenue at one point in her business endeavor.
However, all of that would come to an end during the summer of 2021 when the 15 D.C. public schools Poteau had been working with didn’t move through on financial transactions. She said that DCPS didn’t communicate the rationale nor did the Office of the Ombudsman reveal any information about the sudden change.
Those contracts, totaling at least $80,000, would never come to fruition due to what Poteau said she later understood as efforts within DCPS central office to audit her dealings with her clients. Poteau told The Informer that the audit scared her clients away, in turn decimating her operation and forcing her to secure a full-time job to make ends meet.
That situation, Poteau added, also caused her partner schools to lose Title 1 funds. For two years, Poteau emailed DCPS, DSLBD and D.C. council members, without much response, she said.
While she commended DSLBD for its resources and opportunities for training made available to CBEs, Poteau pondered whether she would ever be able to flourish in conditions where District agencies, like DCPS, are able to muscle small businesses.
“I would love to continue but there needs to be fundamental changes in the system. I would definitely work with other school districts before I circle back to DCPS,” Poteau told The Informer. “They need to be held accountable [because] this is not the first time. It’s something that’s gotten more attention because of timing and how much money has been exposed. It’s not something they could’ve done without some accountability.”
The Informer was unable to secure comment from DCPS about Hashmi and Ellesipea, LLC.
I am really sad about this situation and I am a teaching artist for Arts For Learning. Uncle Devin, I know, and he is a phenomenal educator. It is sad when arts Institutions do not support artists hurt someone’s profession like that. Many Artists are in a rock and a hard place. Alas!!