No Job Too Small for Fenty-Rhee Team

Hands-On Schools Approach Excites Some, Worries Others

Michelle A. Rhee estimates she has received 12,000 e-mails since becoming chancellor of the D.C. public schools three months ago -- and says she has responded to every one.

That kind of personal engagement pleases her boss, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, who has tried to lend a hand whenever he can, no matter how mundane the request. After someone complained about a pile of debris in the hallway of an elementary school, Fenty (D) called the city's public works department and ordered the trash removed.

It has not taken long for the mayor and his chancellor to become the faces of the 50,000-student school system. In a city impatient for change, they have raised expectations about what can be done and how fast. At the same time, the sheer volume of requests -- Fenty's office dealt with 700 problems related to schools this summer, said Deputy Mayor Victor A. Reinoso -- raises the possibility that the administration could become overwhelmed in its attempt to satisfy every demand.

Fenty dismisses such a notion.

"If you interviewed a $70 million-a-year CEO, they would say that Textbook 101 of business schools is: You respond to everything," he said. "It goes back to the first conversation I had with the chancellor, where I committed myself to saying that the entire government will be at the school system's disposal."

The Fenty team's style has registered with some parents who marvel when they run into the mayor touring a school. But others wonder whether the administration is focusing too much on trying to make quick fixes that translate into easy political points at the expense of meaningful long-term reform.

For example, as Rhee fields e-mail after e-mail, Fenty has yet to hire the school ombudsman he promised would be appointed to investigate complaints from parents.

"The worry is that she will be overwhelmed because she seems to be trying to respond to everybody's problems," Mary Levy, director of the Public Education Reform Project for the Washington Lawyers' Committee, said of Rhee. "Parents e-mail, and she does get back, and she'll solve problems for them. That makes people feel wonderful. But she's only one person. There's only 24 hours in a day."

Before Fenty took control, the Board of Education's nine members helped the superintendent deal with the bulk of calls and e-mails. Now, with the board's role largely advisory, members say they are unsure of what to tell constituents, other than to call the chancellor or mayor.

Rhee said she is not overwhelmed because she has developed a reliable response system. When she receives an e-mail, she said, she responds personally. She hears from parents with questions about facilities, staffers who haven't received paychecks, civic associations that want her to speak at their meetings.

If she cannot fully address the concern, she forwards the e-mail to her "critical response team," headed by special assistant Richard Nyankori. He works with various departments in the central office to find an answer and, once he does, Rhee follows up with another e-mail.

"You can't always give them the answer they want, but they always get an answer," Rhee said. "People are actually -- and this is really surprising to me -- they are okay with that."