Council To Hold School Hearings

Mayor, Parents, Students to Speak On Takeover Plan

The D.C. Council will open a series of public hearings on Thursday with testimony from Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) on his controversial, ambitious plan to take control of city public schools, and it also plans to hear from parents, students and school dropouts over the next month.

Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray (D) scheduled six hearings and said the unusual number of sessions will allow the council to gather the opinions of education experts, community leaders and others about "the most important decision facing the city."

Gray released the schedule, which is subject to slight changes, after meeting yesterday with Fenty. The public meetings are on a fast track so that a council vote on the plan could be taken by April, Gray said.

"I'm excited that the hearings have been called so promptly and I look forward to an early vote on this critical piece of legislation," Fenty said in a statement.

Fenty's 48-page legislative proposal seeks to reduce the authority of the Board of Education and place the mayor in charge of the school superintendent. The D.C. Council would assume line-item control of the school system's budget, and an independent authority with a chief executive appointed by the mayor would be established to oversee school construction and modernization. The school board, meanwhile, would retain oversight over functions usually handled by state boards, such as standardized testing and teacher certification.

Even if the council approves the takeover plan, Fenty would need support from Congress, because the plan would alter the city's home rule charter.

Gray said he is taking the unique step of scheduling one of the hearings on Saturday, Feb. 10, to listen to students and those who have dropped out or who are in alternative school programs. Saturday hearings have been rare for the council.

Involving students is a positive move, said Joshua Carter, 16, president of a teen club at the FBR branch of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Washington. "Half the stuff that's going on in the schools doesn't even affect adults," he said. "We know what we need and what can improve our schools."

Carter, an 11th-grader at Archbishop Carroll High School, said he was in public school until two years ago, when he was offered a scholarship and his mother thought it was great opportunity to get a better education at a private school.

Cherita Whiting, co-chair of the Ward 4 Education Council and president of the PTA at McKinley Technology High School, said parents were upset with the appearance of New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (R) before the council this week. He was there to greet the council but took the occasion to endorse Fenty's plan.

"It was totally unfair," Whiting said. "The council got to hear Bloomberg give the school takeover an A-plus.. . . We didn't know that Bloomberg was only going to be there. We didn't even have a chance . . . for a rebuttal."

Fenty met Thursday with Board of Education President Robert C. Bobb, who opposes the takeover plan and has threatened to resign if it is approved by the council. Fenty aides described the meeting as cordial and productive and said the men discussed how the District could help the schools even as the issue of governance was being debated.

Fenty and Bobb agreed to press Gray to schedule confirmation hearings on Fenty's three appointments to the school board, Fenty aides said. The nine-member board will operate with only six active members until the appointees are added. Gray said he had not scheduled those hearings so far because he thought the District takeover took precedence.

Meanwhile, Gray said he originally had planned for seven hearings on the takeover that would have stretched into mid-March to give the public plenty of time to testify, but Fenty preferred to end the hearings a month earlier so that the process would not be drawn out. Gray said they agreed on a compromise to end the hearings Feb. 27 with a final wrap-up by Fenty. "I get two weeks and he gets two weeks," Gray said.

The chairman said he still may squeeze in a seventh hearing if he feels that more public comment is needed, but the schedule to end the hearings at the end of next month probably will remain the same.