Board Seeks to Give Away Its Oversight of Charters

The D.C. Board of Education voted yesterday to voluntarily give up its power to establish charter schools in the District.

The decision does not immediately relieve the board of its charter responsibilities, but it sends a clear message to the D.C. Council and Congress -- two entities likely to get involved in the debate -- that the 11-member board wants to focus exclusively on the 58,000 students in the traditional school system.

The school board has discussed for months whether it should try to shed oversight of the 18 charter schools it oversees, which have 5,196 students. In doing so, it would give up a power that Congress vested in the school board with a 1996 law that established charter schools in the District.

It was not immediately clear who would inherit supervisory power over the 18 schools if the authority were transferred. Yesterday, board members established a working group to consider that issue.

Jeff Smith (District 1) said that since he joined the school board 19 months ago, it has been torn about its charter role and has imposed two moratoriums on new applications. The board closed Jos-Arz Therapeutic Public Charter School this year for financial and academic reasons. The board's charter school oversight office and its former administrator, Brenda L. Belton, are under federal investigation for possible misuse of funds.

"What we're facing with being a chartering authority . . . and being a local school board is potentially a conflict of interest," Smith said. "So this evening we're giving that back to who gave it to us -- the city council and the Congress -- and this is about working it out in the best interest for all the students in the District of Columbia."

Retiring board President Peggy Cooper Cafritz implored her colleagues not to support the measure in the face of this week's election, which could bring major change. Mayor-elect Adrian M. Fenty has discussed a mayoral takeover of the city schools, while former city administrator Robert C. Bobb was elected school board president. Former charter school administrator Lisa Raymond will step into the District 3 seat, representing Wards 5 and 6. William Lockridge (District 4) was reelected.

"If we vote on this, we have to have a plan," Cafritz said. "I do think that the interested parties, as in the mayor, the new president of the Board of Education. . . . I think it would just be useful for us to get through those steps before we do this."

But Cafritz was the only dissenter as the board voted 6 to 1 to give up its charter power.

The federal law also created the D.C. Public Charter School Board, a seven-member appointed board that oversees the city's 37 other charter schools, which enroll 14,500 students.

Some charter advocates praised the vote, saying the Board of Education had never fully embraced its charter role. But Norman Johnson, executive director of the IDEA charter school in Deanwood, which the Board of Education oversees, said he had concerns and would like to serve on the group that helps determine what happens to schools such as his.

"I want the board to remain to take care of all the children of D.C.," Johnson said.