Board Votes to Close More Schools by Fall
Budget Pinch Forces Speedup of Plans

By V. Dion Haynes
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 16, 2006

The D.C. Board of Education agreed last night to accelerate the school closing process, quadrupling, to 1 million square feet, the amount of excess space to be eliminated by the start of the next school year.

Last month the board, noting a decline of 10,000 students over the past five years, voted to eliminate 3 million square feet of space by the summer of 2008. Under its original schedule, the system was to shed 250,000 square feet, or close three schools, by September.

But with a budget drama unfolding, board members are seeking fresh ideas on how to provide quick money to the many schools that are threatening to cut staffs and programs to cover soaring costs in fiscal 2007.

City schools, which submitted their budget proposals Friday, were told to factor in a three-year, 12 percent increase in teacher salaries because of a collective-bargaining agreement that is being negotiated. For Wilson Senior High School in Northwest Washington, according to officials there, the resulting $438,000 shortfall could force the elimination of up to six teachers.

"As a board, we are taking steps . . . to get funds back to our local schools," school board member Tommy Wells (District 3) said last night. "This is a monumental step."

Superintendent Clifford B. Janey told the board he will determine by next month the cost savings from accelerating the closings.

Experts familiar with the school system's operation said they doubt the additional closings this year will free enough money to fully replenish school budgets.

In an interview, Mary Filardo, executive director of the 21st Century School Fund, an organization that studies facilities issues, said the schools are facing an estimated shortfall of nearly $40 million. The school closings and the possible lease of space to charter schools would generate only about $20 million, she said.

"Janey has a big problem," Filardo said.

With anxiety growing among principals and parents, board members asked Janey to establish specific criteria for determining how he will select the schools to be consolidated or closed. Board members urged him to include the public in the process as much as possible.

The District's public schools range in size from about 15,000 square feet to about 350,000 square feet, according to the 21st Century School Fund. The average size is 75,000 square feet. To eliminate 1 million square feet, Filardo said, the system would have to close about 10 to 12 schools this year.

Janey has specified a minimum enrollment at which schools are considered educationally viable: 320 for elementary schools, 360 for middle schools and 600 for high schools. Schools that fall below those numbers -- there are more than 50, according to 21st Century -- would be vulnerable to consolidation or closure.

In April, Janey is expected to announce which schools he wants to close this year. In May, he is to release a plan listing all other schools that will close by 2008, as well as his proposals for new educational programs at the remaining schools. And in July, he is expected to introduce a plan outlining how the system would spend more than $2 billion in newly allocated funds to modernize schools. Janey's proposals are contingent on approval by the school board.

Even without the upcoming initiatives, Janey's staff has a full plate in coming months, as it must determine how to carry out his recently announced plans to enroll more preschool students, move sixth-graders out of elementary schools into middle schools and phase out junior highs, moving ninth-graders into senior high schools.

Some doubt that the system can handle the upheaval associated with accelerating the closing plan.

"School closings are probably the hardest thing a school system can do," said Marlene Berlin, co-chair of Wilson High's restructuring team.

"I'd rather the closings be slowed down," she said. "You can't do all this stuff well, given the capacity of the central office."