Incoming Arlington Schools Chief Hears Parents' Concerns

Memo to Murphy: Train teachers in outdoor education. Think about opening a K-8 school. And please, do something about that newfangled math curriculum.

As Patrick K. Murphy begins a four-year contract this month as superintendent of the Arlington County public school system, parents are seizing the opportunity to make their concerns known. Yesterday, Murphy heard them out at the second in a series of informal community chats. Parents interviewed said they liked what they heard.

"He seems like he's open for ideas. He's going out to get the information, and then he's going to take it back and prioritize where the needs are," said Angela Johnson, whose 13-year-old son attends Thomas Jefferson Middle School.

Said Monique O'Grady, who has three children in the system: "I'm excited about what I saw. . . . I think we have a leader who's excited to listen and learn."

Murphy, a 21-year educator who previously served as assistant superintendent for accountability in Fairfax County, assumed control of the 19,500-student system July 1. The first several weeks, he said, are more for listening and learning than for making radical changes to the school system, which has a national reputation for high achievement.

"There's been excellent leadership here and I want to continue that trend," said Murphy, 50, who has lived in Arlington since 2005.

Robert G. Smith, who had led Arlington public schools for a dozen years before his retirement, was one of the region's longest-serving superintendents. During Smith's tenure the achievement gap between white and minority students shrank, and bilingual programs grew. The county's high schools are among the nation's best, according to the Newsweek/Washington Post Challenge Index, and 90 percent of graduates plan to attend college.

Murphy said he wants to build on that record. But he added, "A new set of fresh eyes is good."

During the first chat this week, parents praised the school system's strengths: high-caliber teachers, a diverse student body and opportunity for parents to choose schools based on what's best for their children.

Then, at Murphy's invitation, they described their frustrations, including a controversial math curriculum, uneven distribution of resources among schools and less-than-successful efforts to engage immigrant families. Many voiced long-standing concerns about school crowding, which has left some schools without computer labs and others with students working in cramped, windowless rooms.

Enrollment this fall is projected to increase 3 percent, and efforts to ease crowding by redrawing boundaries have met with fierce resistance from parents.

At the same time, the district's budget is not keeping up with growth; next year, per-pupil spending will drop 5 percent, to $18,569.

Those issues mean that difficult choices will be unavoidable, Murphy told parents, and his job now is to understand enough about Arlington to make smart and effective choices.

Parents will share their reactions to those decisions as they are made. But for now, "we'll give him a break," said Duncan Moss, a parent of two boys who attend Barrett Elementary School. "He's drinking from a fire hose right now."

One of Murphy's first tasks will be to design a plan to deal with crowding. By February, he will propose a budget for 2010-11.

"Parents in Arlington love to be involved," said schools spokeswoman Linda Erdos, "and this is just one more way to be involved."