By V. Dion Haynes and Theola Labbe
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, November 8, 2006; A37

Former D.C. administrator Robert C. Bobb won a heated battle last night for school board president, a position that will be at the center of a debate over Mayor-elect Adrian M. Fenty's likely attempt to turn the board into an advisory panel.

Newcomer Lisa Raymond, a former administrator at Cesar Chavez Public Charter School, won the District 3 race, and incumbent William Lockridge was elected to a third term in District 4.

Fifteen candidates -- five each for president and in Districts 3 and 4 -- vied for board seats. With more than 15,000 students in the District leaving traditional public schools for public charter schools and with more than 80 percent of all public schools failing to meet academic targets, education emerged as a key issue among the city's residents. Improving the troubled school system was a main platform for all the candidates for mayor, D.C. Council and the school board.

Bobb, with 95 percent of the precincts across the city reporting, won overwhelmingly ahead of school board Vice President Carolyn N. Graham, who placed second. Bobb, who resigned from his city job in September, had touted his management skills developed through three decades of government service in Oakland and Santa Ana, Calif., and Richmond. He raised more than $100,000 and received key endorsements from labor organizations.

At his victory party at Alero, a Mexican restaurant on U Street NW, Bobb greeted supporters who danced to disco and soul music. In his victory speech, Bobb said that District schoolchildren deserve better and he pledged to bring improvements.

"A world-class city deserves a world-class public education system," he said. "And our children deserve to be educated in world-class facilities."

Bobb said he launched an aggressive campaign that included knocking on doors, plastering city poles with his campaign posters and having meet-and-greet sessions across the city. "We met with anyone who would talk and had an opinion with respect to public education," Bobb said.

With 86 percent of precincts reporting in District 3, which covers Wards 5 and 6, Raymond, a virtual unknown, had received far more votes than her nearest competitor, schools activist Marc Borbely. Raymond's victory was surprising, given that Borbely had high name recognition from leading a campaign last year that resulted in the D.C. Council's decision to allocate $2.3 billion to renovate schools.

Raymond said she will be a full-time member of the board, and she pledged to get to know all of the nearly 50 schools in her district.

"Starting tomorrow I will talk with leaders in both communities," Raymond said of Wards 5 and 6. "I'll be working hard for both communities and ensuring that all children in both wards across the city have the kind of quality education that they deserve."

Lockridge, with 95 percent of precincts reporting in District 4, which covers Wards 7 and 8, easily beat his nearest competitor, Jacque Patterson. Patterson won a key endorsement from council member Marion Barry (D-Ward 8). In an automated phone message to voters, Barry said, "A vote for William Lockridge is a vote for bad schools."

Lockridge said his eight years on the school board were instrumental in his victory, as was an aggressive grass-roots campaign. Lockridge said he visited Advisory Neighborhood Council meetings, went door-to-door, spoke with civic groups and visited 35 back-to-school nights.

"If you call my office, I answer the phone and I call you back and handle your issue directly," said Lockridge, who works as a board member full time. "I just talked to the residents -- that's how I won."

Besides grappling with the possible board takeover, Bobb will lead a hybrid group, consisting of four elected members and four appointed by the mayor. Bobb was the only candidate for president whose recent experience wasn't directly related to education. Also in that race were Sunday Abraham, a schools activist; 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.

In District 3, Raymond will have to deal with issues stemming from the gentrification of the area by families with young children that are putting more and more pressure on the system to improve public schools there and from longtime residents who say their neighborhood schools long have been neglected. The candidates included two advisory neighborhood commissioners, Mary Baird-Currie and Robert Vinson Brannum; Stephane Baldi, an education policy researcher; and Borbely, a schools activist who led a grass-roots campaign to modernize campuses.

In District 4, Lockridge will face a major effort to improve schools that are among the worst in the city. Lockridge was challenged by Jimmy Johnson, an investigator for lawyers; Patterson, an advisory neighborhood commissioner; Jackie Pinckney-Hackett, a special education activist; and Cardell Shelton, a carpenter.

The mood among voters choosing three board members varied widely yesterday in an election that will usher in a crucial period of transformation for city schools.

At Watkins Elementary School on Capitol Hill, it was clear that a critical election was underway. Voters on their way to cast ballots passed signs for three of the five candidates for president -- Bobb, Graham and Jenkins.

Campaign workers armed with stacks of literature promoting two of the five candidates for the District 3 seat -- Borbely and Raymond -- also greeted voters.

In Upper Northwest, where voters had to select only the board president, the scene at the Local 99 International Union of Operating Engineers polling place was less intense. Signs for only one candidate, Jenkins, were on display.

"People are just passing me, not even looking me in the eye," said Christina Bacon, 17, a junior at Roosevelt Senior High School in Northwest Washington who was working for Jenkins. "Many of them are not taking my material."

Bobb, a Louisiana native who used higher education to escape a future working in a sugar cane factory, said residents frustrated with the state of the city schools cast ballots for him because they saw him as a change agent.

Bobb said he planned to speak with Fenty and members of the council about how to improve education in the District. He said he supported their involvement in education, but he stopped short of endorsing a mayoral takeover, saying that he is looking forward to a collaborative approach.

"There are various models, so I'm excited to see which model is going to be proposed," Bobb said.