If Fenty Plan Passes, Residents Could Be Casting Last Votes for President, Members
By V. Dion Haynes and Theola Labbé
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, November 5, 2006
On Tuesday, District voters will elect a new president and two other members to the D.C. Board of Education who will grapple with some daunting issues -- chronically low test scores, persistent enrollment declines and a new mayor who might want to put school board members out of their jobs.
Fifteen candidates are running for the three seats in what could be the city's last school board election. Democratic mayoral nominee Adrian M. Fenty, the presumptive victor, is contemplating seizing control of the school system, proposing to make the school board an all-appointed advisory panel.
Besides struggling with a possible takeover, the new president will lead a hybrid board, consisting of four elected members and four others appointed by the mayor. In recent years the board, the first elected body in the city, has often imploded under the weight of scandal and dysfunction.
The candidates seeking to turn that around are: Sunday Abraham, a school activist; Robert C. Bobb, former city administrator; Carolyn N. Graham, vice president of the school board; Timothy Jenkins, former interim president of the University of the District of Columbia; and Laurent Ross, the first director of the District's Tuition Assistance Grant Program.
The new board member representing District 3 (Wards 5 and 6) will have to tackle how to best represent almost 50 schools in a large area that is racially and economically diverse.
The candidates are: Lisa Raymond, a former charter school administrator; Mary Baird-Currie, an advisory neighborhood commissioner; Stephane Baldi, a research scientist with the American Institute for Research; Marc Borbely, a former public school teacher and activist who led a school modernization campaign; and Robert Vinson Brannum, a substitute teacher and advisory neighborhood commissioner.
The board member in District 4 (Wards 7 and 8) will face a major challenge in trying to improve a historically troubled area with many of the worst schools in the city. The candidates are Jimmy Johnson, an investigator for lawyers; William Lockridge, the incumbent; Jacque Patterson, an advisory neighborhood commissioner; Jackie Pinckney-Hackett, a special education activist; and Cardell Shelton, a carpenter.
Fenty's school governance proposal is the key issue stirring deep contemplation and emotion across the city.
In 2000, Philip Pannell led the unsuccessful campaign to defeat Mayor Anthony A. Williams's ballot measure seeking authority to appoint four members to the school board. Pannell said he felt strongly at the time that voters should retain the right to elect all nine members to the panel.
Now Pannell, president of the Ward 8 Democrats, says he is open to -- but not endorsing -- Fenty's takeover idea.
"When folks see real breakdowns in the government process, they are willing to give up certain rights and freedoms to see systemic change and something that works," said Pannell, who also serves as treasurer of the PTA at Ballou Senior High School in Southeast Washington. "Let's try this," he said, despite his wariness toward Fenty's plan. "Nothing has worked."
But Gina Arlotto, a Capitol Hill parent, strongly disagrees. Although she voted for Fenty in the primary election, she is urging voters to write in the name of deceased education reformer Julius Hobson for mayor, as a form of protest against Fenty's takeover intentions.
"I just don't see a mayoral takeover as serving any purpose but probably to make [the school system] more unstable and make more parents leave," said Arlotto, a member of the Save Our Schools Coalition. "I also feel like it's going to subvert our elected school board."
In visits to two Capitol Hill schools last week, Fenty told parents he wants to give high-performing schools more autonomy while moving to replace staff at failing schools. He has yet to devise a formal proposal but said he intends to submit a plan to the D.C. Council before inauguration day.
School Superintendent Clifford B. Janey said he will announce a plan this month to close failing schools and reopen them next fall with new staff and current employees who must reapply for their jobs.
"We want to bring up the bottom so that we can become a district of choice," he said.
Fenty's plans were the subject of a mayoral radio debate last week when District 3 school board candidate Brannum called in to say that Janey should be given a chance to implement his plans to improve academics and facilities.
"Shouldn't we let these programs fall into place before we talk about a massive overhaul?" Brannum asked on air.
Fenty said that the school board often bogs down and slows reform.
"Do we really need nine people making day-to-day decisions about how to run the school system?" Fenty said. "If every decision requires a lengthy discussion, nothing ever happens."
Hardly anyone is satisfied with how the school board currently performs. In addition to the serious academic and physical problems, the school board's responsibility over 18 public charter schools is a prime example of the board's troubles.
Because of its poor oversight, the board this year closed Jos-Arz Therapeutic Public Charter School, a residential facility for emotionally disturbed students. The city had invested $15 million in the Northeast school to reduce the high costs of sending students to facilities across the country.
In the spring, federal authorities launched an investigation into Brenda L. Belton, who was executive director of the charter school oversight office. Investigators are trying to determine whether there is a link between Belton, who was fired last month, and a contractor, Equal Access in Education, whose billing address is a duplex formerly owned by Belton and currently owned by her daughter.
This month, the school board is scheduled to consider whether it will shift its chartering authority to another entity, such as a nonprofit organization or university. By the end of the year, Congress will decide whether to shift all state functions to another entity. By acting as a state department and a local system, some senators have said, the school system's central administration oversees itself.
If Fenty gets his way, he would be the chief administrator.
After inspecting a buckled floor and other water damage in the gym at Roosevelt Senior High School in Northwest last week, he said that schools "have got to rise to a higher level of priority in this city."
Staff writer David Nakamura contributed to this report.
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