Rhee's Need to Hurry Runs Into Parents' Fear of Change

Some parents say Rhee may have a point. Not acceptable, they say, are the confusion and lack of basic information surrounding the move, leaving them with the sense that her decision was final before discussions with the community began.

"How can you close a building you've never even been in?" asked Bernard Hackett, whose 5-year-old son attends Stevens. Rhee has toured numerous schools but, until the evening meeting last month, had never entered Stevens.

Rhee said she has been flexible about the school closings and has reversed some decisions after hearing community reaction. She removed Bruce-Monroe Elementary, a school in Northwest, from the list, she said, because it met academic benchmarks under No Child Left Behind.

She said the argument for preserving Stevens, where just 27 percent of the students tested at proficient or better on the DC-CAS math exam last year, is based more on sentiment than the students' best interests.

"A lot of times, people feel very comfortable with their schools," she said. "But why would I do the same thing year in and year out if it is not producing the results that those kids need and deserve?"

Other issues have left Stevens parents anxious. They say they have had no input into the planned $5 million redesign of the Francis building to accommodate preschool and elementary students, including how the retrofitting will keep small children safe from harassment or worse by middle-schoolers. Those seeking other public schools for their children say the chancellor's office has been elusive and unresponsive.

There also is frustration because, with less than six weeks left in the school year, parents do not know which Stevens teachers and staff members will move to Francis, a key component in their decision-making about the fall.

"This is like the war in Iraq. Let's invade, but we have no plan for the occupation," said Florence Harmon, an advisory neighborhood commissioner in West End-Foggy Bottom.

Rhee said that she is "strongly encouraging" Stevens faculty to make the move but that she cannot order it. The school system's contract with the Washington Teachers' Union allows teachers at closing schools to pursue other opportunities.

It all leads to what Stevens supporters fear will be the dissolution of a school with roots deep in the city's history, a school whose halls were walked by singer Roberta Flack, community activist and talk show host Petey Greene, Washington Post columnist Colbert I. King and former president Jimmy Carter's daughter, Amy.

Most of the school's families live outside the attendance area and value the school because parents work downtown and rely on what they say are Stevens's first-rate preschool and after-school programs.

Hackett, an organizer for the Service Employees International Union, is one of several parents who think another agenda is in play: that the school, surrounded by office towers at 21st and K streets NW, is coveted by developers.

Sean Madigan, a spokesman for Neil O. Albert, deputy mayor for planning and economic development, said that no decisions had been made about the Stevens property and that "all options are on the table." He said there would be meetings with the community to discuss possibilities for the property's reuse.

"These decisions [to close schools] were not made about real estate and development," Rhee said flatly to Hackett at the meeting. "You can choose to believe me or not to believe me."