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D.C. Schools Takeover Gets Initial Approval
If the schools takeover plan gets final D.C. Council approval and is approved by Congress, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) would assume the reins of the school district, and the school superintendent would report directly to him.
(By Gerald Martineau -- The Washington Post)
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"I wish you well," Schwartz said as she shook the mayor's hand.
Fenty, however, was careful not to declare victory. He noted that the morning vote was the first step to full approval, and he pledged to work with the council until the bill is passed.
A legal challenge is pending by a Ward 4 council candidate, who is arguing in D.C. Superior Court that the council should delay action until after a May 1 special election to fill the unexpired terms of Fenty and council Chairman Vincent C. Gray (D), who represented wards 4 and 7, respectively, before taking office in January. On Monday, a judge rejected the request for a temporary injunction but scheduled a hearing for Friday for a preliminary injunction.
Veronica Johnson, who lives in Ward 7 and is the PTA president for River Terrace Elementary, said yesterday that she was upset that the council voted without all of its members in place. The council rejected an amendment pushed by Mendelson and Schwartz to hold a public referendum.
But Johnson, who has two grandchildren at River Terrace, said she hopes the new structure means that the broken windows and dirty bathrooms at the Northeast school can be fixed.
"I'm hoping that our mayor will do something. I'm praying, really, that there'll be a change at River Terrace School," Johnson said.
In a separate emergency vote yesterday, the council approved a plan to release $250 million so that Janey and the school board can start on a school modernization plan -- a compromise struck after the council balked at school officials' request for $1 billion with no details on how the money would be spent.
Fenty has spent much of his time aggressively selling his takeover plan at community meetings.
On Monday night, the eve of the council's vote, he promised residents at a community meeting at Rosedale Recreation Center that his administration would fix broken windows and bathrooms, repaint walls and restore order in classrooms within two months of taking control. And he said test scores would improve significantly within two years.
"But the basic things that will create momentum, you'll see us get that done in the first two months," Fenty told the crowd of a few dozen.
Meanwhile, Gray was walking the halls of the Wilson Building to get feedback from council members and stayed in his office until 3 a.m. yesterday to prepare for the council's deliberations, which began with a 9 a.m. breakfast meeting.
"We worked very closely with the mayor and the mayor's staff on something everybody can live with," Gray said. "We know we're together on this draft."
Other changes included adding language that would give the school board more authority. "We beefed it up," Gray said. "They'll have real responsibilities."
Staff writer David Nakamura contributed to this report.
