By Theola Labbé
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 17, 2006; B01
At the Potomac Avenue Metro one morning last week, Robert C. Bobb, a candidate for D.C. Board of Education president, looked for voters willing to talk about education. Dozens of people whizzed by, but Sheila Savage marched up to the 61-year-old Louisiana native and fired off questions.
"What are you going to do for the school system? I'm sure you know it's in bad shape," Savage said.
"Well, some schools are performing well . . ." Bobb started to reply, hoping to get to his platform on reading and early education.
"Yes, but what are you going to change?" Savage asked.
Change is foremost in the minds of thousands of District residents who will elect a new board president in November. Savage's family has little confidence in District public schools. Her granddaughter attends a private school through a District voucher program.
Bobb, who resigned last month as the District's city administrator, wants to be the change agent, though he has not worked in education. He is touting his management skills, honed during 34 years in city governments, as the kind of leadership experience the school board needs to turn around its low-performing school system.
"I want to bring a sense of urgency," said Bobb, who worked as a government manager in Oakland, Calif., Santa Ana, Calif., and Richmond. "I want to utilize my experience over the years to help reform and shape student performance and overall student achievement," Bobb said.
Bobb grew up in southern Louisiana, near sugar cane fields and a salt factory. His father worked in the fields for more than 50 years and never advanced past third grade. His mother, whose education extended to seventh grade, worked as a domestic. Bobb was the first of their five children.
He grew up mostly with his grandmother Ethel Bobb, who cleaned houses and did chores at a boarding facility for seasonal sugar cane workers. Young Bobb was at his grandmother's side helping with chores, and he would also stay close to her when she read. She loved to read and even as she stumbled over the words, she never stopped reading.
"She had the tenacity to never give up," said Bobb.
That upbringing left him with a strong work ethic. He began his public education in a one-room schoolhouse and became the first male in his family to graduate from high school. Then he did what was expected of him and other black males in his community -- he went to work in the sugar cane fields. It wasn't until his friends went off to college and returned to share stories with him did he feel like he was missing out.
So he entered Grambling State University in Louisiana and "never looked back," he said. He went on to get a master's degree in business from Western Michigan University.
When he came to the District in 2003, Bobb oversaw four deputy mayors, 20,000 government employees and an $8 billion budget in his role as city administrator.
Before resigning from the $195,000 position to concentrate on his campaign full time, he created and managed citywide initiatives such as the "hotspot" program, designed to bring police and social services to high-crime areas as a crime-reduction tool. He was also at the forefront of the city's efforts to reform its juvenile-justice agency.
Bobb put in late hours with an approach that often took him outside of his office and into neighborhoods for night meetings. To members of the council, he was a consensus builder who could solve problems and create results.
His consensus building wasn't necessarily subtle.
"There's nothing delicate about him . . . [he] doesn't suffer small talk," said Tony Bullock, former press secretary to Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D). Bobb exudes confidence, has boundless energy and relishes a challenge, Bullock said. "He's a man on a mission," he said.
Last year, as Bobb mulled over a new career in education, he completed a 10-month executive management course from the Los Angeles-based Broad Foundation, which is designed to produce future school superintendents. He said that he has received offers from across the country to run school districts but that he has turned them down to run for the board seat.
"If that was my desire, that's what I would have pursued," said Bobb, a father of three who lives with his wife in Ward 4. "I'm here, and this is where I want to be."
As he visits with senior citizens and speaks at candidate forums, stomping around in his trademark cowboy boots, Bobb promotes eliminating what he calls the "preparation gap" in young children who are not ready to enter pre-kindergarten, through a health-care and education program that would serve children from the "moment of conception."
He wants the school board to have stronger oversight of school programs, and he said the facilities-modernization program recently announced by Superintendent Clifford B. Janey should happen on a more accelerated timetable than the 15 years proposed.
Bobb said he would make sure that Janey's plan for increasing academic standards was fully funded and push for reading centers and programs across the city by declaring a "reading emergency" to highlight the issue.
Bobb disagrees with Janey's call for a moratorium on new charter schools, which now serve about one-fourth of District schoolchildren.
According to campaign finance reports, Bobb made a loan of $50,000 to his campaign and raised $113,585 in contributions between Sept. 5 and Oct. 10.
Some of the money has come from developers working on projects in the District, including a $500 contribution from Chris Donatelli of Bethesda-based Donatelli Development Inc.
Robert Green III, president of the Capitol Area Minority Contractors and Business Association, said he is concerned that Bobb might steer school construction contracts to his campaign supporters. Green said he tried to work with Bobb to fund a study examining the dearth of African American businesses receiving government contracts, but he said Bobb never followed through. "I think he's a nice guy, but practice what you preach," Green said.
Bobb acknowledged that the study of minority contractors did not take place, but said he supports African American businesses and pointed to his former presidency of Oakland's African American Chamber of Commerce.
It is unclear what will happen with the school board when a new mayor takes over next year. Democratic nominee Adrian M. Fenty has said he is leaning toward a school system that is run by the mayor, which would make the school board an advisory panel.
Bobb said he couldn't comment on those ideas because he has not seen any concrete plans. Plus, first he has to win Nov. 7.
"I'm focused like a laser beam on winning my election under the current system," Bobb said.
