Reading, Writing and Reform

New Board Members Vow To Take Active Roles in Boosting Alexandria Schools

To see one of the starkest examples of struggle and hope in Alexandria schools, Helen F. Morris just needed to look across the street from her house.

There sits the Jefferson-Houston School for Arts and Academics on Cameron Street, an elementary school that for years failed to reach state and federal benchmarks. Parents who could withdraw their children and send them elsewhere did, Principal Kimberley Graves said.

But Morris was different, Graves said. During Graves's first year on the job, Morris called her and asked to meet. Soon they were discussing how to engage families, and Morris was creating an e-mail group list for parents. Morris also began volunteering at the school, and this year, although her daughter was too young to enroll, served as vice president of the PTA.

"Instead of having the attitude of 'I'm never sending my child to that school,' " Graves said, "her attitude was . . . 'Let's do something about it.' "

In the fall, Morris will be one of the two new faces on the city's nine-member School Board. In this month's election, she received the most votes in her district, 24 percent.

She will be joined by Mary Mein "Mimi" Carter, who received 23 percent. Carter, who has two daughters at Mount Vernon Community School, was named last year's Northern Virginia PTA volunteer of the year. The new members' terms start July 1.

Carter said she decided to run because "Alexandria City seems to start a lot of new programs without any real evaluations of what works and what doesn't work." She said she wants that to change.

Carter was one of the more vocal parents at School Board meetings in spring 2007, when the board was considering eliminating the modified calendar at Mount Vernon.

"Don't just start programs and annihilate them because it's an easy budget line item," Carter said, adding that she hopes to be hands-on in the classroom and community. "I really am hoping that I will be someone who will be able to say at a PTA meeting, 'This is what we're talking about. How do you feel about it?' "

Morris, who has 20 years of experience in education policy, said she decided to run because she "saw this huge need in our city." Alexandria has a wealth of resources, she said, but they need to be connected to schools such as Jefferson-Houston. About 80 percent of its students receive free or reduced-price lunches, and 74 percent are black.

"There are other parts of the city where they can gloss over the race and poverty issues," Morris said. But, she said, the Parker-Gray area where the school is "is not one of those neighborhoods."

The school's demographics have not shifted much in the three years that Graves been principal, but, she said, she has noticed a change in perceptions. "Now people are more willing to take the opportunity to learn about this school," she said. "Their radars are down more, and their interests are more piqued. . . . We didn't have that before."