Short Notice on Plan to Close Schools Angers Council
Members, Though Powerless, Vow to Hold Hearings; They See a Pattern in Timing of Fenty Announcements

By Theola Labbé
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 29, 2007

D.C. Council members said yesterday that they were blindsided by a proposal from Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee to close 24 schools and pledged to hold hearings on the plan even though they have no authority to vote on the closures.

Fenty and Rhee's plan to introduce a crop of academic programs to the 49,600-student school system, a move they said will require them to close under-enrolled schools, became a flash point in relations between the two branches of government. Council members demanded to know why they again learned of a long-planned education initiative hours before it was announced.

About 5,300 students attend the schools on the closure list. The final decision to shut them, after community hearings and a recommendation from Rhee, would come with an executive order by Fenty in January.

City education leaders said schools were chosen for closing based on student enrollment and population trends, and they said the proposal was developed with the help of three public policy think tanks. But reaction to the plan, and how it was revealed, was swift, with parents at the affected schools demanding answers.

Council member Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) followed up on a testy exchange with Fenty at a council breakfast with a letter saying it was "unfair, disrespectful and wrong" for principals to be briefed about the plan the same day that a news conference about it was scheduled. Harry Thomas (D), the council member for Ward 5, where nine schools are targeted for closure, plans to hold a community meeting on the issue next week.

Council members have grumbled that Fenty has kept them out of the loop on key issues until the last minute, but the council's chairman, Vincent C. Gray (D), said yesterday's outrage goes beyond politics and is about how residents keep informed of school changes.

"We need to know how you came to these decisions," said Gray, who plans to hold a hearing on the matter. Gray said he learned details of the proposal in a telephone call Tuesday evening with Rhee. "Ward council members are getting phone calls from constituents. They are being asked about decisions that they had no involvement in or knowledge of."

Fenty said the June 12 mayoral takeover of the schools transferred decision-making power on school closures from the Board of Education to the mayor.

For months, city education leaders have been working with the three nonprofit organizations -- the Urban Institute, the Brookings Institution and 21st Century School Fund -- analyzing student enrollment trends, housing patterns, the growth and wane of the population of school-age children across the city, and other demographic data to determine which schools should be closed.

Victor Reinoso, the deputy mayor for education, said the work resulted in a list of 40 schools that could be closed. Then officials considered other criteria such as what kinds of capital improvement projects are needed at each building, neighborhood population trends and, for elementary school students, how far they would have to walk to a new school.

Ward 5 in particular has been affected by declining enrollment, with a nearly 40 percent drop in students since the 2002-03 school year. As a result, it has the highest number of schools proposed for closing.

Speaking at a news conference yesterday at the John A. Wilson Building, Fenty presented the closures as necessary to create a "system of excellent schools" that will offer more early-childhood programs, gifted and talented programs, art and music classes and special education services in the classroom instead of at expensive private placements outside the District.

For example, the proposal calls for two new Montessori programs in wards 5 and 6 and a gifted and talented program in Ward 1 at Garnet-Patterson Middle School.

To pay for the programs, Rhee said, the school system must pare down its excess space, which stands at about 302 square feet per student, about twice the national average. The proposal calls for decreasing the 15 million square feet of space in the system to 12.8 million.

"Currently, we are not affording our students quality programs they deserve," Rhee said. "We must provide initiatives and school programs that not only serve kids well but also appeal to parents. With this initiative, we believe, we've laid out a plan that will achieve the highest level of academic performance for students. In order to do this, we must move toward a more effective use of our resources."

But parents and students who might be affected by the closures focused yesterday on what the changes would mean for them.

Jill Weiler, who advocates for parents at Bruce-Monroe Elementary as a member of the community group Telling Stories Project, said parents at the Ward 1 school were shocked that the mayor apparently reneged on an agreement not to close the school. She said the mayor spoke to parents this summer.

"He said it's a new day in D.C. We have a partnership; we make decisions together. . . . It was such a celebratory night," she said.

Now, Weiler said, parents "feel terribly disappointed, discouraged and betrayed."

At Brookland Elementary in Ward 5, sixth-grader David Massie, 11, lamented the possible closing of his school.

"The classes aren't out of control and unruly," said David, an honor roll student who placed third in the citywide science fair. "Students respect the teachers."

Former superintendent Clifford B. Janey proposed closing 19 schools last year under a staggered schedule through 2019. Nine schools overlap with Rhee's plan: Bowen Elementary, Bunker Hill Elementary, Gage-Eckington Elementary, Hine Middle School, Mamie D. Lee School, Sharpe Health School, Shaw Middle School, Slowe Elementary and Stevens Elementary.

Community meetings will be held in December and January in the wards with schools that might close. Rhee said she will make a final recommendation to the mayor on the closings in January.

Staff writers V. Dion Haynes and Nikita Stewart and news researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report.