15 People Fighting to Be Part Of Board's Uncertain Future

Candidates United on Need for Change as Fenty Weighs Takeover

In 1968, District citizens for the first time elected a Board of Education -- a groundbreaking event that moved the city from total federal control and laid the foundation for voters to select the mayor and council members.

Next month, D.C. voters will elect a school board that could be part of history again. Democratic mayoral nominee Adrian M. Fenty is considering a plan to take charge of the school system, possibly converting the board into an appointed advisory panel.

Any revision of the board's composition would have to be approved by the D.C. Council, because voters adopted a charter change in 2000 giving the council broad authority over change. It is unclear whether the council would support a mayoral takeover, because Fenty has not provided many details on what he proposes to do if he is elected mayor in the general election.

More than a power struggle is at stake. The schools are in desperate straits, struggling with low test scores, declining enrollment and decrepit buildings. The board, after years of decline in the classrooms, has become discredited in the eyes of many voters who express little hope that it can remedy the problems.

The crisis of confidence occurs as the nine-member board prepares for up to six new faces, including a new president. Fifteen people are running for three seats -- five for president, five in District 3 and five in District 4. All are promising reforms. In addition, the next mayor will have two appointments to the board, and a third seat could open up.

Over the past decade, the power base of the school board has decreased significantly, largely symptomatic of a multitude of problems.

Only 28 of 146 schools made academic targets on the last student assessment -- a number that dropped from 75 the previous year under a different test.

The system has lost nearly 15,000 students to charter schools and to private schools participating in the federal government's experimental voucher program. If trends continue, according to a recent study, taxpayer-funded and independently operated charter schools will represent the majority of public schools in the city by 2014.

That prompts some to wonder whether the school board is fading into irrelevancy.

"I think the school board has been diminished quite a bit," said Calvin Lockridge, who served on the board from 1977 to 1990 and is the uncle of current school board member William Lockridge (District 4). "I would not run for the school board today. I don't think they have any power."

With all the uncertainty, the matchup for school board president is shaping up as the race to watch. The best known of several candidates are the board's vice president, Carolyn N. Graham, and Robert C. Bobb, who recently resigned as city administrator.

Both say they will be agents of change. Graham said she hopes to return 2,000 special education students in private schools to the public schools, saving millions of dollars. Bobb said he wants to provide more early childhood intervention programs to prepare children for their school careers.