Pressures Mount for Chief Of Prince William Schools

By Ian Shapira
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, June 30, 2008

After a school year marked by academic and administrative controversy, Prince William County Superintendent Steven L. Walts retains rock-solid School Board support as he seeks to raise the reputation of Virginia's second-largest school system. But his relationships with many parents have fractured, and some local officials wonder when, if ever, test scores will rise to levels found among the county's neighbors.

Hundreds of parents protested an elementary math program Walts championed, prompting board members to reevaluate it. Two of the county's top-performing high schools and a third of its elementary schools remain overcrowded. Teachers in Prince William continue to earn less than those in neighboring counties.

Test scores from Walts's third year are not yet public. But results from the first two after his 2005 arrival were uneven: SAT and state test scores remained among Northern Virginia's lowest. The decline in the county's average SAT score -- from 1504 to 1486, by far the steepest drop among the area's major districts -- meant that Prince William continued to lose ground to Fairfax, Loudoun and Arlington counties.

On state reading and math tests, Prince William's overall lead over Arlington for all students evaporated. Loudoun significantly increased its lead over Prince William in pass rates on those tests, and Fairfax's lead nudged up slightly. Additionally, the lead Prince William held over Loudoun and Arlington for black and Hispanic scores declined.

"Surely, it's troubling that you're not seeing a trend upward," said Board of Supervisors member W.S. Covington III (R-Brentsville). "The first year, you're getting your feet wet, but second and third, he ought to be planting seeds. By the fourth and fifth, we ought to see some results."

Walts, who has a $239,293 annual salary with a contract to 2011, is in contract negotiations with the School Board. He declined to be interviewed for this report.

In a written statement, he said the school system has established free online SAT reviews exams to raise scores. He said preliminary results on state Standards of Learning exams in end-of-year courses show increases in passing rates in every subject tested. He said teacher salaries are competitive, although the first-year salary of $42,354 is ahead of only Charles County among the area's major districts.

Walts's statement said that he wanted to work with parents and that he was "dedicated to continuous improvement."

School Board Chairman Milton C. Johns stands by the leader of the 73,000-student system. "I continue to be very pleased with Dr. Walts and look forward to having him on for many years," said Johns (At Large), who voted to hire him in 2005. "Superintendents are going to be under the microscope, and issues will get fanned because they draw attention and publicity."

Management problems from his prior superintendency in Upstate New York have followed Walts. In February, the School Board held an emergency session to discuss a New York comptroller's audit related to Walts's stewardship of the Greece, N.Y., school district.

The audit concluded that the Greece school system, under Walts's leadership, used unauthorized funds to finance a major capital project, and it criticized Greece for allowing Walts to accept a final payout of $25,000 for vacation days in a fiscal year during which he was employed for one week.

Greece school officials asked New York law enforcement authorities to review the audit, but prosecutors declined to investigate, according to Greece School Superintendent Steven A. Achramovitch. Walts has denied wrongdoing.

Also, Walts remains a defendant in a federal lawsuit filed by a Greece teacher alleging that he and former Greece school officials engaged in age discrimination. The teacher, Mary Donlon, is seeking more than $1 million in damages. Walts might have to travel to New York this year to be deposed, said Jim Bilik, a senior counsel with New York State United Teachers, representing Donlon.

Walts, a lifelong educator born in Kansas, was hired in spring 2005 as the School Board's second choice. He immediately impressed parents with his energy and effusive personality, visiting all of the county's 80-plus schools each year, sometimes more than once. Many principals say they like how he supports their independence, while some parents say he can be disarmingly chatty, especially when he has his own parenting questions as father of a young girl.

Under Walts, the county has brought all-day kindergarten to every elementary school, an initiative begun under his predecessor, the late Edward L. Kelly. At a handful of elementary schools, Walts also launched the prestigious International Baccalaureate program, rare at those grade levels.

In the past year, some parents and teachers criticized Walts for a new math program, saying he is too thin-skinned and does not engage them enough about their concerns. The series, "Investigations in Number, Data, and Space," published by Pearson Education, stresses problem-solving with creative techniques, such as drawing pictures and using objects rather than memorizing algorithms and stacking numbers.

School officials say the program readies students for algebra, deepening their understanding of computation and ultimately boosting SAT scores.

But the School Board, responding to backlash from parents, has indicated it wants to review new SOL math scores this year and decide the program's fate. Parents Alexis Miller, a former CIA contractor, and Greg Barlow, retired from the Pentagon, have peppered the school system with Freedom of Information Act requests related to the adoption of "Investigations" and obtained more than 1,000 names on a petition asking the School Board to scale back the program or eliminate it.

Miller said Walts has resisted overtures to discuss the issue. "He has always pushed it back down to other people," Miller said. "When we try to push to get more impartial and objective viewpoints, he has done everything to stonewall and throw roadblocks in our path."

In May, a prominent Fairfax math teacher, Vern Williams, who served on a National Mathematics Advisory Panel, appeared at a board meeting at the invitation of a board member to speak critically about programs like "Investigations."

Walts tried, according to board members, to persuade the board to postpone Williams's address until Walts could arrange for a joint appearance with another national math expert who advocates such approaches as "Investigations." But the board decided to hear Williams.

"I thought, 'This gentleman has driven down here from Fairfax County. Why would we send him home?' " board member Betty Covington (Dumfries) said. "We've already heard from staff as to why 'Investigations' is a good program."

Another potential trouble for Walts emerged in the spring when associate superintendents George Kisha and Melvin Brown, who were each paid more than $150,000 a year, resigned abruptly. The school system gave no public explanation for their departures. Kisha, the system's top financial official, who had been hired by Walts, left near the end of the budget cycle. Kisha said in an interview that he had planned to retire from education.

Brown, whom Walts had promoted to oversee a large cluster of schools, also left before the end of the school year. He said he left to work closer to home and is now a Spotsylvania County middle school principal.

Many parents say overcrowding is Prince William's chief vulnerability, especially at Brentsville District High, one of the county's more popular and high-performing schools. This year, for the first time, school officials were forced to deny transfer requests from students outside the school's boundary who wanted to take its prestigious Cambridge courses.

Some parents tried reaching out to Walts, including Lynn Heller, 49, who tried unsuccessfully to enroll her fourth son at the school. "I said, 'Let's go to the guy who makes decisions.' I asked for a meeting with Walts, and his secretary told me he couldn't speak with me -- and that he's not in enough to meet with people. Did he even get my message?"