By V. Dion Haynes and Michael E. Ruane
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, January 18, 2008

D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee met hostile parents last night at a series of hearings on their plans to close 23 schools.

At the same time, nearly 200 people crammed into a room at the John A. Wilson Building for a "People's Meeting" sponsored by the Coalition to Save Our Neighborhood Schools, which organized to protest the closings and the simultaneous hearings.

School officials said more than 400 people attended the 23 hearings, but some of the assemblies were largely empty, possibly undercut by the bad weather, a boycott by the coalition and its counter-gathering.

Controversy about the proposed closures, which began in November when parents learned about Rhee's plan, continued last night with the competing assemblies and questions about why Fenty's hearings weren't canceled because of the weather.

Fenty and Rhee say the system has thousands of square feet in excess space because of years of declining enrollment. Rhee has estimated that the closures would save $23 million, which she said would be used to improve academics and provide better staffing at the remaining schools.

But the move would also mean that about 5,300 students, a little more than 10 percent of the student population, would be moved to other facilities.

Fenty, Rhee and Victor Reinoso, deputy mayor for education, shuttled between several of the hearings. But at those presided over by lower-level officials and at the protest meeting, questions far outweighed answers, leaving many frustrated.

Parents have objected to the closings for a variety of reasons, including a desire to maintain strong academic programs at particular schools and a fear that neighborhood rivalries will be exacerbated by consolidation.

"It's like crackhead economics," Jarumi Moore, a Francis Middle School seventh-grader, said at the Wilson Building of the closings plan. "They're thinking short term. We're thinking long term."

About 90 people attended a hearing at Park View Elementary School in Northwest Washington to loudly protest the closing of nearby Bruce-Monroe Elementary. Many of the people who testified spoke in Spanish, which was translated into English by an interpreter.

Reinoso told the audience that Park View would be renovated before receiving students from Bruce-Monroe. As he spoke, water streamed down a wall of Park View's 92-year-old auditorium.

Asked whether it was rainwater, Reinoso said: "I hope it's rainwater. If it's not rainwater, that means it's dripping all the time."

After attending a candlelight vigil outside the home of four Southeast Washington girls who were found dead last week, Fenty (D) arrived at nearby Patterson Elementary School for a hearing on the proposed closing of P.R. Harris Educational Center.

Only a half-dozen people were in the room, and none had signed up to speak. One man, prompted by the moderator, took the microphone and urged officials to retain Harris's principal even if the school is closed. Fenty walked through and shook hands, then left 10 minutes after arriving.

At their meeting, coalition members said they were angry that Fenty decided to hold the simultaneous assemblies instead of a citywide hearing. The mayor had asserted that his plan would allow parents more time to discuss their particular schools. Coalition members said parents deserve to be able to complain directly to Fenty and Rhee, an unlikely scenario for most because the two would be able to attend only a few hearings.

"We're here because the chancellor and the mayor refused to give the citizens of the District of Columbia a voice," Carolyn Steptoe, a coalition member, told the crowd at the beginning of the meeting. "We're concerned because elected officials have disregarded our thoughts and concerns."

Speakers expressed opposition to the proposed closing of John Burroughs and Slowe elementary schools in Northeast Washington and M.M. Washington Career Senior High School and Gage-Eckington Elementary School in Northwest.

Council member Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) arranged the location of the meeting, which Steptoe moderated, and members Yvette M. Alexander (D-Ward 7), Kwame R. Brown (D-At Large) and Carol Schwartz (R-At Large) made appearances.

Earlier yesterday, Robert Vinson Brannum, an advisory neighborhood commissioner from Ward 5 and a frequent critic of the closure proposal, sent an e-mail criticizing Fenty's decision to go on with the hearings despite the bad weather. "Is this a demonstration of the City's commitment to the safety of children and families?" he wrote.

Rhee's spokeswoman, Mafara Hobson, said Fenty opted not to cancel the hearings because "the ground temperature is above freezing." The weather, she said, "shouldn't pose any danger."

Brannum's e-mail was silent on a decision by the coalition not to cancel its own meeting.

Cherita Whiting, a coalition organizer, defended its decision to maintain its meeting while criticizing Fenty for not canceling his hearings. "You're sending people in 23 directions, and we're sending them to one place," she said. Fenty "should have canceled the 23 because it's ridiculous, then add to it the weather."

Eighty chairs were set up at Brookland Elementary School in Northeast Washington for the hearing on the proposed closure of Bunker Hill Elementary School, but not enough people to fill the front row showed up.

The meeting began promptly at 6 p.m. But eight minutes later, it was essentially over, leaving the school system representatives -- the two moderators, the employees taking official notes and several interpreters -- to talk among themselves.

Only two women took the microphone to offer comments. "They should have canceled this," said Tonda Baxter, who has a sixth-grader at Brookland. "Look at the weather."

At Moten Elementary School in Southeast Washington, about 20 people gathered to discuss the proposed closure of Wilkinson Elementary School. When Rhee arrived midway through, parent Keisha Monroe, who has a child at Wilkinson, discussed the effect that closing Wilkinson would have on her family.

"I have eight kids, and two of them go to different D.C. schools that are being closed, and I don't think that's fair for my children," she told Rhee.

Rhee said the system is spending too much money "on buildings that have no kids in them."

Staff writers Theola Labbé, Susan Levine, Sue Anne Pressley Montes, David Nakamura, Paul Schwartzman, Elissa Silverman, Nikita Stewart and Yolanda Woodlee contributed to this report.