Officials Optimistic, Parents Vigilant as Consolidation Becomes Reality

Christine Armstrong listened closely in the spring when D.C. school officials touted the positives of a proposal to close Fletcher-Johnson Educational Center in Fort Dupont Park, where her two adolescent granddaughters were students. They would be transferred to a cleaner school with better academic programs.

All Armstrong could think about was how Tyeesha Armstrong, 14, and Tianni Wilson, 13, both of whom she is raising, would get to a new school more than two miles away and whether the disruption would affect their grades.

Tomorrow the girls will begin eighth and seventh grades, respectively, at Merritt Middle School in Northeast Washington, and Armstrong said she will be watching closely to see whether the promises of a better education are true.

The Board of Education's plan to close and combine schools will now become reality for roughly 1,100 students. After a summer of angst, exacerbated by an accelerated six-month schedule to close five schools, students and parents will learn whether the change was worth the frustration they endured.

In the consolidation plan, 10 schools will accept new students, and six high schools will accept ninth-graders from a closed junior high school in Northwest, R.H. Terrell.

Superintendent Clifford B. Janey said all the schools will be ready to open tomorrow after officials spent the summer completing a checklist of more than 100 tasks associated with the relocations. The price tag for that work was $5 million, which covered relocation expenses and school upgrades that included freshly painted interiors, new flooring and repairs to water fountains and restrooms.

An array of new academic offerings will also be offered. Walker-Jones Educational Center in Northwest, which will accept some former R.H. Terrell students, has a new library and art program. Principal Janette Johns-Gibson said seventh- and eighth-grade teachers will also help sixth-graders in the former elementary school develop a variety of skills, including vocabulary building.

Still, some parents said last week that they were disappointed that more effort wasn't made to involve them in the process to unite students at the consolidated schools.

"There was poor communication. Absolutely no information came in the mail," Armstrong said, adding that she had to register the girls twice because records from Fletcher-Johnson had not been sent to Merritt.

"I would have preferred that when [the school board voted] on the 28th of June to close schools, they would have allowed parents to get involved in the transition process so we can help one another," she added.

Washington Teachers' Union officials were concerned that teachers going into the new schools were not given time to get to know each other and plan lessons together. Several team-building sessions for teachers that school officials pledged to hold over the summer did not take place, said Nathan Saunders, vice president of the union.

Merritt Principal Eugene Pair urged Armstrong and a few other skeptical Fletcher-Johnson parents at an open house Friday to give the school a chance.