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November 12, 2006: Nakamura, David, and V. Dion Haynes, “Fenty's Plan to Take over Ailing System Is Finding Foes,” The Washington Post, C-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/11/AR2006111100720.html. “D.C. Mayor-elect Adrian M. Fenty is moving briskly to convert his Election Day popularity into political support for taking over the District's failing public school system, but he faces potential challenges from other city leaders. Robert C. Bobb, the former city administrator who will become president of the Board of Education, spoke out forcefully against a takeover last week. Vincent C. Gray (D), the incoming D.C. Council chairman, has reserved judgment until he hears more details. If Fenty (D) wins support in the District, his plan also would require approval from Congress and President Bush. Fenty's bid to overhaul the system has become a focus of his administration even before he takes office Jan. 2. Knowing that success or failure will affect his reputation, Fenty is trying to avoid the political pitfalls that doomed an effort to take over the schools two years ago by his predecessor, Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D).”
November 11, 2006: “Get on the Same Page: To Robert Bobb, Adrian Fenty, and Vincent Gray: Cooperate,” The Washington Post, A-26, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/10/AR2006111001474.html. Editorial: “Within hours of the last vote being counted in the school board race, Robert C. Bobb, the newly elected D.C. Board of Education president and former city administrator, had laid down his marker against a possible effort by Mayor-elect Adrian M. Fenty (D) to take control of the schools. "I have a specific plan on how to get from Point A to Point B," Mr. Bobb said. "Mr. Fenty doesn't." Undeterred by Mr. Bobb's barbs, Mr. Fenty is moving full steam ahead on his plan to seize the reins of public education in the District. At the same time, D.C. Council Chairman-elect Vincent C. Gray (D) has assembled a transition team to help him focus on his chief campaign issue, the state of D.C. public schools. The prospect of three top city leaders rushing off in different directions to tackle the central issue confronting the District -- with the likelihood of producing three competing plans even before they take the oath of office — is disturbing. The last thing the city needs is distraction from the school system's real problems: low academic achievement, deteriorating buildings and students abandoning the system in droves.”
November 9, 2006: Haynes, V. Dion, “Bobb, Laying Out Bold Plan, Says He Will Fight a Mayoral Takeover,” The Washington Post, A-49, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/08/AR2006110802311.html. “One day after his election as president of the D.C. Board of Education, former city administrator Robert C. Bobb yesterday outlined an aggressive plan for boosting student achievement and indicated he will strongly oppose a possible effort by Mayor-elect Adrian M. Fenty to seize control of the schools. Like Fenty, Bobb said a ‘sense of urgency’ is needed among school leaders to address such intractable problems as low student achievement, declining enrollment and deteriorating buildings. When asked whether he would agree to make the school board an all-appointed advisory panel, as Fenty is considering, Bobb said: ‘No, absolutely not.’ ‘I didn't spend all this time, effort and energy running for president of the school board to head the school system here in the District of Columbia as an advisory board member,’ he added.”
November 8, 2006: Haynes, V. Dion and Theola Labbe, “Bobb Is Chosen to Lead as Schools Face an Uncertain Future,” The Washington Post, A-37, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/07/AR2006110701810.html. “Former D.C. administrator Robert C. Bobb won a heated battle last night for school board president, a position that will be at the center of a debate over Mayor-elect Adrian M. Fenty's likely attempt to turn the board into an advisory panel. Newcomer Lisa Raymond, a former administrator at Cesar Chavez Public Charter School, won the District 3 race, and incumbent William Lockridge was elected to a third term in District 4. Fifteen candidates — five each for president and in Districts 3 and 4 — vied for board seats. With more than 15,000 students in the District leaving traditional public schools for public charter schools and with more than 80 percent of all public schools failing to meet academic targets, education emerged as a key issue among the city's residents. Improving the troubled school system was a main platform for all the candidates for mayor, D.C. Council and the school board.”
November 7, 2006: Haynes, V. Dion, “In Ad, Cafritz Champion Work by Board, Janey,” The Washington Post, B-02, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/06/AR2006110601053.html. “D.C. Board of Education President Peggy Cooper Cafritz yesterday took out a full-page ad in The Washington Post that defended School Superintendent Clifford B. Janey as Democratic mayoral nominee Adrian M. Fenty considers a plan to take over the schools. Fenty, who has spoken favorably of the New York City model, in which Mayor Michael Bloomberg oversees the schools, has not submitted an education proposal or indicated whether he would seek to replace Janey. If the District were to adopt the New York model, the elected board likely would become an appointed advisory body, and the school system would become a department in the city government. Cafritz's ad cited the board's accomplishments during her six-year tenure, including increasing the number of students going to college, introducing an automated procurement system and developing a multibillion-dollar plan to renovate school facilities.”
November 5, 2006: Haynes, V. Dion and Theola Labbe, “Worry Over City Takeover Permeates Election: If Fenty Plan Passes, Residents Could Be Casting Last Votes for President, Members,” The Washington Post, C-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/04/AR2006110400843.html. “On Tuesday, District voters will elect a new president and two other members to the D.C. Board of Education who will grapple with some daunting issues — chronically low test scores, persistent enrollment declines and a new mayor who might want to put school board members out of their jobs. Fifteen candidates are running for the three seats in what could be the city's last school board election. Democratic mayoral nominee Adrian M. Fenty, the presumptive victor, is contemplating seizing control of the school system, proposing to make the school board an all-appointed advisory panel. Besides struggling with a possible takeover, the new president will lead a hybrid board, consisting of four elected members and four others appointed by the mayor. In recent years the board, the first elected body in the city, has often imploded under the weight of scandal and dysfunction.”; Montes, Sue Anne Pressley, “Striving to Attain Grace Amid School Dilapidation: Showcase D.C. Facility Must Take Its Place in Line for Repairs,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/04/AR2006110400966.html. “At the Duke Ellington School of the Arts, a prestigious public high school in Georgetown, dance students with their sights on professional careers practice in the hallways because their water-damaged studios are dangerous. . . . The situation at Duke Ellington is indicative of the challenges D.C. school officials face as they address the problems of aging and deteriorating facilities. The large, white school building at 3500 R St. NW has a stately look, in keeping with its historic neighborhood, but it also has all the internal troubles expected of a former hospital built in the 1890s. The roof leaks and patch-up jobs over the years no longer prevent water from staining the walls and threatening the musical instruments, Principal Rory Pullens said. Advanced Placement chemistry had to be dropped because there was no running water in the chemistry lab. The photo lab, likewise, is unusable. The showers have not worked for 12 years, and toilets often overflow because of the ancient plumbing.”
November 4, 2006: Woodlee, Yolanda, “Staff Shortage Cited in Hearing on Bill to Manage D.C. School Repairs,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/03/AR2006110301615.html. “D.C. public school officials said yesterday that a proposal to transfer maintenance of deteriorating school buildings to the city's property management agency would not diminish the backlog of 16,000 needed repairs, because there are too few workers. The school system, which is responsible for the upkeep of 163 facilities, has only 147 maintenance workers, including 10 painters, eight plumbers, three exterminators and two welders, officials said. They also said the system has a shortage of janitors providing daily custodial services. Cornell S. Brown Jr., executive director of facilities management for District schools, testified that nationally, public schools pay an average of $2.30 per square foot for routine maintenance services, such as carpentry and plumbing. The District spends less.”
November 3, 2006: Labbe, Theola, “A Candidate Who Aims to Build Faith in D.C. Schools: Charters, Special-Ed Would Be Scrutinized,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/03/AR2006110300010.html. “[Laurent] Ross said he is running to strengthen the city's traditional schools so more parents will choose that system instead of opting for private and public charter schools. His three oldest children graduated from the city's traditional schools, and his youngest, Machel, is a freshman at Benjamin Banneker Academic High School in Columbia Heights. ‘My job as president of the school board would be to create a system where it wouldn't be such a tough decision anymore on whether to stay or leave,’ Ross said. ‘We need to give parents a good system; they deserve a good system.’”
November 2, 2006: Haynes, V. Dion, “Schools Race Highlights City's Gaps: Lockridge, Challengers Seek Improvements East of the Anacostia,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/01/AR2006110103560.html. “The judge in Hobson v. Hansen ordered the system to integrate faculty, to dismantle "tracking" programs that kept black students out of college prep courses and to bus many black students from crowded schools east of the river to predominantly white under-enrolled schools west of Rock Creek Park. Nearly 40 years later, the city's entrenched east-west divide has been the campaign theme in school District 4 (Wards 7 and 8), where four candidates are seeking to unseat incumbent William Lockridge.”; Labbe, Theola and David Nakamura, “Fenty Offers Inkling of Plan for Schools: Worst Would Be Reconstituted,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/01/AR2006110103562.html. “Eight D.C. Board of Education candidates faced off last night at a community forum on school reform, charter schools, the federally funded voucher program and other issues challenging an already troubled school system. The forum, sponsored by DC VOICE and several other school reform organizations, is among a series of community meetings held almost daily across the city to draw attention to the Nov. 7 school board contests. This year, five of the nine seats on the board are up for grabs. Fifteen candidates are running for three seats — five for president, five for a District 4 seat (Wards 7 and 8) and five for District 3 (Wards 4 and 5). The next mayor will replace two appointed board members whose terms expire in December. But the probable mayor, Democratic nominee Adrian M. Fenty, wants to take over the school system and possibly turn the board into an entirely appointed one. So despite all the competition for the three elected seats, the question looming over last night's forum was: Will this be the last school board election?”; Strauss, Valerie, “To Repay Misused Funds, City to Take $9 Million from Coffers,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/01/AR2006110103170.html. “Up to $9.6 million in District money will be used to replace federal payments that were earmarked for charter schools but were instead invested in a company accused by federal regulators of fraud, according to city officials. A spokesman for the Office of the Chief Financial Officer said recently that the money would come from the city's general fund and that no D.C. government program would suffer as a result. Congress awarded the money to the District several years ago for charter schools to purchase, renovate and maintain buildings. A city employee invested the funds in 2003 with a private Maryland company, an arrangement that was not reviewed by city financial officials. When city officials asked for nearly $10 million last spring from the company, Geneva Capital Partners LLC, it did not get any funds back. Shortly after that, a federal judge froze Geneva's assets at the request of the Securities and Exchange Commission. U.S. District Judge Deborah K. Chasanow is expected to rule soon on the company's fate. City officials will not say explicitly that they do not expect to get back the $9.6 million that was invested with Geneva.”
October 31, 2006: Haynes, V. Dion, “Seeking ‘Fresh Breath of Air’ for D.C. Schools: Candidate for Board President Hopes to Put Civil Rights Background to Use,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/31/AR2006103100002.html. “Forty-five years later, Jenkins, a candidate for D.C. Board of Education president, said he considers himself to be in the middle of a modern-day civil rights struggle in the nation's capital. Students are trapped in a system in which the vast majority of schools are classified as failing. Many are in buildings that are falling apart and often without such basic human necessities as soap and toilet paper. Many are graduating from high school but unable to function in a college or work environment.”
October 30, 2006: Haynes, V. Dion, “D.C. Paid for Training Schools Say Didn't Occur: Officials Tray to Trace Firm's Connections in Charter Probe,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/29/AR2006102900767.html. “In September 2005, Equal Access in Education billed the city $76,250 to train math and reading teachers in techniques to boost student performance at five D.C. public charter schools that failed to meet academic targets. But principals at four of the schools (the fifth one has closed) say that they never heard of Equal Access and that their teachers never received training from the company. . . . Federal authorities are investigating whether Equal Access was connected to Brenda L. Belton, the former executive director of the Board of Education's charter schools office. The company submitted invoices requesting that payments be sent to 26 Underwood Pl. NW, the address of a duplex formerly owned by Belton and currently owned by her daughter Lindsay Holmes. In May, the FBI raided Belton's office and home as well as the Underwood Place property as part of its investigation into the possible misuse of public funds by the board's charter school oversight office.”
October 29, 2006: Labbe, Theola and V. Dion Haynes, “Board ‘Inclined’ to Relinquish Monitoring Role: Nov. 13 Vote Set; Cafritz Says University or Nonprofit Group Might to Asked to Take on Responsibilities,” The Washington Post, C-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/28/AR2006102800872.html. “The D.C. Board of Education is considering giving up authority over charter schools and transferring oversight of the 18 public charter schools it monitors, according to key members of the panel. No decision has been finalized, and the proposal does not make clear whom the Board of Education would designate as the day-to-day manager of the charter schools. The board, which is dealing with a federal investigation of its charter school office, is expected to take action on the plan at its Nov. 13 meeting. ‘The board right now is inclined to get out of the business of doing the day-to-day oversight and management of charter schools,’ board president Peggy Cooper Cafritz said. Next month, she said, the board will probably consider a proposal under which it ‘would continue to charter and close schools that need to be closed, but we will solicit a university or nonprofit to provide the monitoring of the charter schools.’”
October 28, 2006: Alexander, Keith L., “Accused Principal Had Earlier Altercation: Scuffles at D.C. Schools Both Involved Students,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/27/AR2006102701553.html. “A D.C. high school principal accused of assaulting a student this week was involved in a previous scuffle that ended with another student requiring stitches for a head injury, police records show. According to a D.C. police report, Eastern Senior High School Principal Shawn Hearn, 35, got into a scuffle Aug. 31 near his office with junior Marquete Harris, 17. Hearn was trying to order Harris into his office to suspend him, the report said. Harris became irate and tried to run. As Hearn tried to restrain him, the two ended up falling to the floor. Harris had a slight cut on the right side of his head and was sent to the school nurse. Harris's aunt, Virginia E. Williams, said yesterday that he was not bandaged and still bleeding when he arrived home from school. She said she took him to Children's Hospital, where he received two stitches and was treated for a bruised shoulder. The hospital urged Williams to file the police report, she said.”
October 27, 2006: Alexander, Keith L., “A Support Team on the Way after Principal's Scuffle,”” The Washington Post, B-04, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/26/AR2006102601607.html. “An additional support team of administrators will be sent to the District's Eastern Senior High School following the arrest and reassignment of its principal, Shawn Hearn, parents were told yesterday. Eastern parents were informed of the support team in a letter from Willie Lamb, the school's interim principal. He said the team would remain in place ‘as long as necessary to ensure that there will be no disruption in your child's instruction.’ Hearn was reassigned to the central administration office pending completion of a school district investigation into a scuffle with a student that resulted in the principal's arrest, school officials said. Hearn and an 18-year-old student were charged with misdemeanor simple assault.”; Labbe, Theola, “District 3 Offers Myriad Challenges,” The Washington Post, B-07, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/26/AR2006102601625.html. “The candidate who emerges from a pack of five looking to become the next school board member from District 3, which represents Wards 5 and 6, will face these parental frustrations and more. The victor must look for ways to address those concerns and other pressing issues of student achievement, the condition of school buildings and the future of charter schools in the District. There are almost 50 schools in economically and racially diverse District 3, in neighborhoods that include Capitol Hill, Rosedale, Riggs Park and Old City. Buildings such as Paul L. Dunbar High School and Eastern Senior High School have fallen into disrepair, and such schools as Brookland Elementary have been targeted for closure because of declining enrollment and the condition of the facilities.”
October 26, 2006: Haynes, V. Dion and Clarence Williams, “Principal, Student Arrested in Scuffle: Administration Was Trying to Restore Order after a Fight,” The Washington Post, B-02, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/25/AR2006102502148.html. “The principal of Eastern Senior High School, who was hired this fall to transform the troubled school into an academy modeled on the prestigious Boston Latin, was arrested along with a student yesterday during a scuffle inside the school, authorities said. Principal Shawn Hearn, 35, and student Kenneth Holsey, 18, were charged with misdemeanor simple assault, police said. Both were issued a citation and released, police said. Neither man needed medical attention. Police said the incident began after a fight broke out between two students on the first floor of the school about 10:15 a.m. Other students, including those on other floors, poured out of classrooms, trying to see the fight.”
October 25, 2006: Haynes, V. Dion, “Janey Proposed Different Closings,” The Washington Post, B-04, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/24/AR2006102401713.html. “D.C. school system officials indicated last night that they are rethinking key parts of a month-old facilities plan, seeking to reverse a few closure proposals and possibly to dramatically quicken the pace of school renovations. In September, Superintendent Clifford B. Janey presented to the Board of Education a master facilities plan outlining a 15-year schedule for remodeling more than 100 schools and closing and consolidating 19 others. Last night, he said he is working to reduce the construction schedule to seven or 10 years. Under the original proposal, Janey sought to close Brookland Elementary School in Northeast, moving students to Bunker Hill Elementary, also in Northeast. But Brookland parents protested, saying their school is the only one in Ward 5 that offers a comprehensive bilingual program. They also denounced the closing of a school with a stable and experienced faculty, saying its teachers have been in the building an average of 15 years. Last night, Janey essentially reversed the plan for those schools.”
October 24, 2006: “For D.C. Board of Education: Robert Bobb for President, Lisa Raymond in District 3, William Lockridge in District 4,” The Washington Post, A-18, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2005/05/30/LI2005053000331.html?nav=left.; Haynes, V. Dion, “Experience Could Help or Hurt Graham: De Facto Leader's Term Has Included Accomplishments But Also Plenty of Problems,” The Washington Post, B-04, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/23/AR2006102301117.html. “D.C. Board of Education Vice President Carolyn N. Graham's bid to become the board's president comes down to convincing voters that her experience on the board means she understands school system issues but is not part of the problem. In addition to poor academic showings and decrepit facilities, the problems now include a bubbling scandal that almost led her to withdraw from the race. Federal authorities are investigating whether there is a link between Brenda L. Belton, former executive director of the board's charter school office, and a contractor that billed the system for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Some board members say privately that Graham was a key supporter of Belton's when the allegations about her first surfaced.”; Labbe, Theola, “Candidates Disagree on How to Fix Ailing Schools,” The Washington Post, B-02, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/23/AR2006102301472.html. “Four candidates running to represent Wards 5 and 6 on the D.C. Board of Education agreed last night that schoolchildren have been ill-served by city public schools, but they outlined varying approaches to fixing the problems. Speaking at a community forum at McKinley Technology High School, one of the school system's most modern facilities, the candidates for the District 3 seat called for greater accountability for school construction projects and charter schools and a steep reduction in special education costs. About 75 citizens attended the forum, which was co-sponsored by the Ward 5 and Ward 6 Democrats and was the latest public discussion designed to stir interest in the Nov. 7 school board election. The winner of the District 3 seat will replace board member Tommy Wells, who is running for a seat on the D.C. Council.”
October 21, 2006: Haynes, V. Dion and Theola Labbe, “School Board Member May Abandon Campaign: Graham ‘Very Upset’ over Disputed Memo,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/20/AR2006102001789.html. “D.C. Board of Education Vice President Carolyn N. Graham, a candidate for school board president, said yesterday that she may quit her campaign because a disputed memorandum links her to a scandal involving charter school funds. Graham and the board president said a board employee forged Graham's signature on the memo, which requested the aid of the city's financial office in providing $44,251 in payments to vendors. However, Graham said she signed essentially the same request but addressed it to a higher-ranking official. For several months, a federal grand jury has been investigating the board's charter school office, which is responsible for overseeing 18 of the city's 55 charter schools, said a source close to the inquiry who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing. Federal investigators are trying to determine whether the office's executive director, Brenda L. Belton, whom the board fired this week, steered about $350,000 in city contracts to a company with the same address as a house owned by her daughter.”
October 19, 2006: Haynes, V. Dion, “Bleak College Graduation Rate Is Found: Officials, Concerned by Figure, Look at Retention Program,” The Washington Post, B-04, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/18/AR2006101801790.html. “Only 9 percent of D.C. public school freshmen will complete college within five years of graduating from high school, a figure far below the national average, according to a report to be released today. The report, commissioned by D.C. city and school officials, asserts that nine out of 10 of the freshmen will be confined to low-paying jobs because they never began college or gave up before obtaining a degree. It blames the problem largely on the school system for failing to prepare students but also on colleges for being unable to accommodate students' deficiencies. Although the school system has had anecdotal evidence about how its students fare after graduation, this is the first time it has data to show how low the college retention rate is. Labeling the situation a critical concern, D.C. leaders are developing programs, including ninth-grade academies and expanded dropout prevention efforts. They say they hope to double the number of college graduates.”
October 18, 2006: Labbe, Theola, “Funds Sought for Debts of Closed Charter School,” The Washington Post, B-04, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/17/AR2006101701746.html. “The D.C. Public Charter School Board has asked Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) for $420,166 to pay off the outstanding debts of a charter school that the board shut down just weeks before the beginning of the school year. Josephine Baker, the board's executive director, made the request in a Sept. 11 letter on behalf of Sasha Bruce, a Capitol Hill charter school that served 232 students in grades 7 to 11. The charter board, which voted July 26 to revoke the Sasha Bruce charter, said the school's finances had been poorly managed since it had opened in 2001. Baker said yesterday that the board decided to solicit the mayor's help because the school had few assets when it closed after its summer session ended in August. In addition to outstanding bills, she said, there were the extra costs of dissolving the school, such as transferring and storing student records.”
October 17, 2006: Haynes, V. Dion, “Candidates Weigh in on System's Future: Amid Questions of Takeover, Rivals Debate Special Ed, Charter Programs,” The Washington Post, B-02, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/17/AR2006101700004.html. “Eight D.C. Board of Education candidates faced off last night at a community forum on school reform, charter schools, the federally funded voucher program and other issues challenging an already troubled school system. The forum, sponsored by DC VOICE and several other school reform organizations, is among a series of community meetings held almost daily across the city to draw attention to the Nov. 7 school board contests. This year, five of the nine seats on the board are up for grabs. Fifteen candidates are running for three seats — five for president, five for a District 4 seat (Wards 7 and 8) and five for District 3 (Wards 4 and 5). The next mayor will replace two appointed board members whose terms expire in December. But the probable mayor, Democratic nominee Adrian M. Fenty, wants to take over the school system and possibly turn the board into an entirely appointed one. So despite all the competition for the three elected seats, the question looming over last night's forum was: Will this be the last school board election?”; Labbe, Theola, “Bobb Touts Skills, ‘Sense of Urgency’: Ex-D.C. Administrator Running for School Board,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/17/AR2006101700008.html. “Bobb, who resigned last month as the District's city administrator, wants to be the change agent, though he has not worked in education. He is touting his management skills, honed during 34 years in city governments, as the kind of leadership experience the school board needs to turn around its low-performing school system. ‘I want to bring a sense of urgency,’ said Bobb, who worked as a government manager in Oakland, Calif., Santa Ana, Calif., and Richmond. ‘I want to utilize my experience over the years to help reform and shape student performance and overall student achievement,’ Bobb said.”
October 16, 2006: Haynes, V. Dion, “Athletics Find a Booster in Janey: $10 Million Planned to Update Facilities,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/15/AR2006101500836.html. “D.C. School Superintendent Clifford B. Janey is launching a campaign to upgrade decrepit and outdated athletic facilities, proposing to begin spending $10 million at five senior high schools next year where student-athletes have long complained about unusable showers and toilets, old uniforms, and sub-par fields and courts, officials said. Janey is expected to announce the proposal at a meeting today with student-athletes and coaches at Dunbar Senior High School in Shaw, where for the past three weeks crews have been painting, removing tattered carpeting, fixing plumbing, sanitizing locker rooms, spraying for pests and installing doors in restroom stalls. The schools in Janey's renovation proposal are Dunbar; Ballou in Southeast Washington; and Coolidge, Roosevelt and Wilson, all in Northwest. The proposal represents a dramatic change of direction for Janey, who had been focusing on improving academics and was not planning to upgrade athletic facilities before scheduled building renovations in several years. Janey shifted gears after a Washington Post report detailed rundown conditions in Dunbar's athletic program: a condemned running track, rusty weight-training equipment and moldy showers, as well as a lack of toilet paper, soap and dispensers for feminine hygiene products. He also faced pressure from parents and student-athletes, who bombarded his office with phone calls complaining about the conditions, and a church civic organization that demanded immediate repairs.”; Nakamura, David, “NYC School Takeover Inspires Fenty, But Critics Abound,” The Washington Post, A-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/15/AR2006101501197.html. “Bloomberg's plan is a prototype for D.C. Democratic mayoral nominee Adrian M. Fenty, who has spoken admiringly of the speed and breadth of New York City school reform. Fenty, who plans to meet here today with Bloomberg and Chancellor Joel Klein, suggests he will move quickly to take control of the District's struggling system next year. Fenty is all but guaranteed to win the Nov. 7 election; three-quarters of registered voters are Democrats. It remains to be seen, however, whether the nation's largest school system is an applicable model for the District, which has 58,000 public school students. Furthermore, not everyone in New York is thrilled about Bloomberg's approach, saying he has created model schools at the expense of others, which have faced further crowding and discipline problems. When Los Angeles Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa visited Bloomberg in the spring to seek advice for his own takeover bid, 40 New York parents and educators wrote an open letter to their L.A. counterparts urging them to oppose the effort.”
Vacation from September 23-October 15, 2006
September 22, 2006: Klein, Allison, “Student Hurt in Shooting Near Cardoza; 6 Schools Locked Down,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/21/AR2006092101741.html. “A 10th-grader was shot in the leg near a high school in Columbia Heights yesterday, causing a three-hour lockdown at six D.C. public schools while police searched for possible gunmen, authorities said. The student, who attends Cardozo Senior High, was shot about noon just steps away from the school, at 13th and Clifton streets NW. He was taken to a hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening, D.C. police said. School officials said the victim is 16 years old, but police said he is 15. Just before the shooting, there was an argument at the street corner, said 3rd District Cmdr. Larry McCoy. He said he did not know what the argument was about. School officials said the victim reported to school yesterday morning and did not have permission to leave before classes ended.”
September 20, 2006: “The ‘Passion’ of Mr. Fenty,” The Washington Times, A-20, http://www.washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20060919-091307-4756r.htm. Editorial: “After relentlessly campaigning on a platform to solve the horrible problems pervading D.C. public schools, Democrat Adrian Fenty sailed through the Democratic primary by winning all 142 precincts. Mr. Fenty was not our preferred candidate. Nonetheless, we do not deny his assertion that his sweeping victory amounted to ‘a mandate for fixing the schools.’ Mr. Fenty recently made it clear that one of his first actions as mayor will be an effort to obtain much greater control over the District's failing school system than Mayor Williams currently exercises. We shall enthusiastically support that endeavor, just as we embraced Mr. Williams' initial 2004 plan, which would have transformed the Board of Education into an advisory panel and given the mayor the power to hire the school superintendent. Unfortunately, in 2004 Councilman Fenty voted against this sensible plan, which he now embraces.”
September 19, 2006: “Fenty, Janey, and Their Big School Plans,” The Washington Times, A-18, http://www.washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20060918-095951-6265r.htm. Editorial: “What's always lost in these various ambitious plans, klatches and forums is young people, for whom numeracy and literacy have always taken a back seat any true reform. Consider, for example, what transpired in the late 1990s, when Mr. Fenty, along with then-lawmaker Kevin Chavous, ran the council's education panel: The council wasted considerable time trying to restructure the school system, reconfigure per-pupil funding and growing the bureaucracy (by signing off on, for example, the State Education Office). So, where stands school reform today? For starters, it's worth pointing out that Mr. Fenty refuses to practice what he preaches; he enrolls his twin first-graders in a private school. Besides Mr. Fenty's personal and professional shortcomings, look at the tiny gains of the youngsters who were kindergartners in the 1998-99 school year (when Mr. Fenty held sway on the council): ‘In reading at the eighth-grade level,’ according to the D.C. school system, ‘the average score of 238 was slightly higher that the 1998 score of 236.’ Mr. Fenty also succeeded, as Ward 4 council member, in creating yet another huge distraction in the school-reform movement, when he proposed legislation that would finance school improvements with lottery winnings. Mr. Fenty's move forced other lawmakers to turn their attention from accountability and back to the long-worn issue of school funding. And, interesting enough, Mr. Fenty, the mayoral candidate, is poised to cause another -- albeit more important -- distraction. Again, the issue is governance; this time Mr. Fenty is pushing for the mayor to control schools (a position we enthusiastically support). Quality schools are safe environments where teachers understand the importance of such basics as multiplication tables, book reports and the like. Unfortunately, the D.C. system falls way short -- with nearly two-thirds of its schools failing to meet the standards of the No Child Left Behind Act. Some families, like Mr. Fenty's manage to escape. Will Mr. Fenty focus this time around on true reform or will he shape his ideas based on the status quo?”; Fisher, Marc, “A Day of Music in a School Year Sorely Lacking It,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/18/AR2006091801305.html. “At Jefferson, a school in Southwest Washington that used to have a flourishing band and chorus, it's not clear that either will get off the ground this year, says music teacher Richard Gill. So when the Anthem Project gathered kids in the gym and offered them the opportunity to play with acoustic and electric guitars, students queued up for a chance to ham it up, strumming and strutting like the musicians they see on TV. But no one actually knew how to play guitar.”; Stewart, Nikita, “Schools Seek Funds for More Nurses: D.C. Officials Cite Growing Student Need,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/18/AR2006091801596.html. “D.C. officials, working with Children's Hospital, are seeking $7 million in federal funding so city schools can hire additional nurses to care for students with special health needs. The city has applied for a grant through the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and should know by the end of November whether the request is approved, officials said. The grant would increase the annual budget for school health services to nearly $21 million and add full- and part-time nursing positions, officials said. The goal is to place full-time health care staffs at 75 percent of the city's public and charter schools by early next year. Currently, 63 schools have full-time nurses. The other 107 schools have part-time visiting nurses.”
September 17, 2006: Haynes, V. Dion, “Parents Oppose Special-Ed ‘Inclusion’: Disabled Would Suffer, Critics Say,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/16/AR2006091601145.html. “D.C. School Superintendent Clifford B. Janey plans to return about 2,000 disabled students in private schools to the public system and close four special-education centers, moves aimed at saving money by integrating the children into the general education population. His proposal, released last week and already drawing fire, is included in a $2.3 billion, 15-year master facilities plan to upgrade the system. The master plan calls for renovating 121 schools and closing 19. To save money, Janey wants to pursue a policy of ‘inclusion’ by shifting thousands of disabled students from private schools and system-run special-education centers into general education schools. The students are now in about 100 private schools and four special-education centers — Hamilton, Mamie D. Lee and Taft in Northeast Washington and Sharpe in Northwest.”; Nakamura, David, and Lori Montgomery, “Fenty Poised to Reach for D.C. School Reins: Mayoral Nominee Considers a Takeover,” The Washington Post, A-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/16/AR2006091600659.html. “Democratic mayoral nominee Adrian M. Fenty is strongly considering a bid to take direct control of the District's ailing public school system, saying that D.C. voters want to see the next mayor do more than ‘tinkering around the edges.’ Fenty plans to meet Tuesday with D.C. School Superintendent Clifford B. Janey, whom Fenty has criticized for moving too slowly since being hired two years ago. Fenty is also scheduling meetings with officials in New York City, including Mayor Michael Bloomberg and schools chief Joel Klein, who have been credited with improving test scores and graduation rates in the nation's largest school system. Bloomberg, with the blessing of the state legislature, took over the New York City schools six months into his tenure, established a city Department of Education, hired Klein as chancellor and reduced the city's boards of education to advisory panels — a model that Fenty has admired. ‘We're definitely leaning in that direction,’ Fenty said of a change in the governing structure of District schools. ‘I can't think of anything else we could do that would have a dramatic impact.’”
September 15, 2006: Emerling, Gary, “D.C. Schools Have Big Plans: Janey Outlines Bid to Modernize, Build Institutions,” The Washington Times, B-03, http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20060914-104242-1572r.htm. “D.C. Public Schools officials have announced a long-term master plan that calls for the construction of more than 20 new schools and the modernization of more than 100 buildings in the next 15 years. . . . The Master Facilities Plan is intended to coincide with the school system's Master Education Plan, and will be backed by about $2.3 billion in city funding. It includes a series of goals that officials hope will be accomplished by 2021. Officials said they will spend about $250 million annually while funding as many as 20 projects each year. This year, they expect to build six new schools and modernize 10. By 2021, the plan states that 23 new schools will have been built and 101 will have been modernized. In the meantime, the plan proposes fixing urgent maintenance issues — such as plumbing, heating and air conditioning — at schools not scheduled for renovation until 10 or 15 years later.”; Labbe, Theola and V. Dion Haynes, “Upgraded Facilities, Academics Part of 15-Year Plan,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/14/AR2006091401590.html. “D.C. School Superintendent Clifford B. Janey outlined an ambitious 15-year plan yesterday to transform the city's dilapidated schools into gleaming, new facilities with model academic programs, a move designed to raise student achievement and attract parents back to a school system with declining enrollment. The $2.3 billion modernization plan would build 23 schools, renovate 101 and close 19 by 2019. Officials said the school system would be smaller — with 121 buildings compared with 146 — but more educationally rigorous and better organized into campuses and clusters. High schools would have more Advanced Placement courses, and some would focus on themes, such as the hospitality industry, construction trades and foreign language immersion. Officials said the renovations would also address the system's soaring special education costs with classrooms designed to bring students in private placement back into the city's public school classrooms. This plan, which for the first time identifies the schools that would be closed, is a result of months of research and consultations with city and school officials as well as business and community leaders and experts on social demographics. Officials said they hope the modernization plan will help to stem the flow of students into charter and private schools. Although the funding has been approved, the specifics of Janey's proposal face final authorization by the D.C. Board of Education. In the spring, it directed him to identify 3 million square feet of excess space in a system that has lost 10,000 students in the past five years, many to public charter schools. Meetings for community feedback on the proposal begin next week.”; Myers, Bill and Scott McCabe, “Janey Unveils Schools Plan, Sends Message to Fenty: ‘All the Stars Are Aligned,’ District Superintendent Says,” The Washington Express, P. 4, http://www.examiner.com/a-287264~Janey_unveils_schools_plan__sends_message_to_Fenty.html. D.C. Schools Superintendent Clifford B. Janey Thursday revealed his plans for a massive overhaul of the city’s failing schools and sent a message to presumptive mayor Adrian Fenty: hands off. . . . Fenty won the Democratic Party primary on Tuesday. Given the teeming Democratic majority in the District, the victory makes him a lock for the city’s next mayor. He’s announced that his top priority will be the city’s schools. And he’s also announced that he’d like more control over the ailing system. But in announcing his 15-year plan to remake the city’s school system, Janey said that there was too much momentum behind him for Fenty to stop the plan from being implemented. Janey’s plan would affect a drastic change, at least in how the school system looks. Among other things, he wants to build “cluster schools” in neighborhoods, where instead of being in a single building, a high school would be in a several-building campus spread out across a green. Fenty said that he hadn’t seen Janey’s plan yet, but he would meet with the Superintendent on Tuesday.
September 14, 2006: Haynes, V. Dion, “D.C. Superintendent to Propose Closing 19 More Schools,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/13/AR2006091302159.html. “D.C. School Superintendent Clifford B. Janey will propose today shuttering an additional 19 underenrolled schools on a staggered basis stretching until 2019. The recommendation is already facing criticism from some Board of Education and D.C. Council members who were expecting all of those buildings to be closed by 2008. Launching phase two of a move to pare down the D.C. school system, Janey wants to close seven schools next summer and four a year later. The remaining eight would be closed over 12 years, beyond the graduation date for today's first-graders. The staggered schedule could mean that the system would have less money to invest in educational programs than school leaders had initially planned. School system officials said they will need to keep more underenrolled schools open longer to accommodate students from more than 100 other schools who need to be relocated while their buildings are renovated. The list of 19 schools and the timetable for the closures are in Janey's master education plan, which is to be released today. It is a 1,000-page document outlining how the system would spend about $2.3 billion in city funds to reconstruct 121 schools and downsize the system to account for shrinking enrollment.”
September 13, 2006: Strauss, Valerie, “D.C. Charter School Inquiry May Broaden Beyond Chief,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/12/AR2006091201398.html. “Federal officials investigating the executive director of the D.C. Board of Education's charter school office are trying to determine whether any city officials had knowledge of or should have prevented any improprieties, according to city and other sources. Brenda L. Belton is at the center of a wide-ranging investigation by the fraud and public corruption section of the U.S. attorney's office into whether she used her role to enrich herself and her friends. Federal investigators want to know whether she extracted favors from people petitioning the board to open a charter school and from officials at existing schools, according to several sources familiar with the investigation. They said they would speak only on condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing. Among the allegations against Belton, who was placed on paid administrative leave in June, is that she manipulated the chartering process to help some schools. Part of the inquiry involves the possible misuse of hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal and city money intended to help students in struggling charter schools. Another part involves Equal Access in Education, a company paid more than $350,000 by Belton's office to monitor the city's charter schools, the sources said. The firm is in a building that Belton once owned and that is now owned by her daughter, according to city records. The principal of a charter school lives in the building.”
September 12, 2006: Labbe, Theola, “City Probes Questionable Wilson High Diplomas,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/11/AR2006091101205.html. “The office of the D.C. inspector general is conducting an audit into whether students at Woodrow Wilson Senior High School in Tenleytown received diplomas without having met all graduation requirements. The inquiry, begun last week, is focusing on three issues: how students are certified for graduation; whether graduates at Wilson and possibly other high schools satisfied graduation requirements; and how well student records are kept and secured. Austin A. Andersen, deputy inspector general, said Superintendent Clifford B. Janey requested the audit in July, a month after high school teacher Erich Martel alleged that more than 100 Wilson students did not meet graduation requirements but were still awarded diplomas that month. The inquiry is one of several concerning the school system that the inspector general's office will undertake this year. Among the areas of inquiry are whether nonresident tuition has been properly assessed and whether school buildings are being properly maintained and repaired. To better complete the work, the inspector general's office opened a five-person audit office, with a $300,000 budget, at school system headquarters.”; Mathews, Jay, “A Bad AP Teacher?,” The Washington Post online, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/12/AR2006091200709.html. “Erich Martel suspected something was wrong, because nobody was telling him anything. But it was not until Aug. 17, less than two weeks before school started, that he learned that for the first time in 20 years he would not be teaching Advanced Placement U.S. history at Woodrow Wilson High School in the District. No one who knows will say why Martel had his AP classes taken away from him and given to a teacher who has not taught AP before. Martel and many of his supporters think it is because he has become the school's most famous whistle-blower, forcing an audit by the D.C. Office of the Inspector General into his charges that his school — and perhaps other D.C. high schools as well — have been giving diplomas to many students who have not earned them. . . . Janey's next move, it seems to me, is pretty clear. Give Martel his AP courses back, find more teachers with good records and send them to his other schools.”
September 11, 2006: “Mr. Janey's New Exam: The Fraction Failing to Pass the D.C. Standards Test Should Be Measured in Students, Not Schools,” The Washington Post, A-16, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/10/AR2006091000890.html. Editorial: “The recent Post article reporting that only 28 of the District's 146 public schools met academic benchmarks on a new city test in April was sobering news. The focus on school performance, however, may have obscured the story's more consequential finding: Takers of the new test were students, not the schools they attended. Students — not their schools — failed to achieve proficiency in reading, math and other subjects. And equally important, the adverse effects of those academic failures — if not remedied in time — will be felt directly by students themselves, not the buildings, classrooms or playgrounds where they spend time during the day. We state what perhaps is obvious, for a purpose. Under the federal No Child Left Behind law, students in so-called failing schools are allowed to transfer to higher-performing schools in their districts. With an overwhelming majority of District schools falling short of the standard, there are few ‘better’ schools for students to attend. Put another way, the District's large numbers of poorly performing students swamp the number of available schools attended predominantly by proficient students.”
September 9, 2006: Haynes, V. Dion, “Some Highly Touted Schools Land on Failure List,” The Washington Post, B-04, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/08/AR2006090801648.html. “The D.C. school system's list of 118 schools that failed to meet academic goals on a new standardized test includes 12 that had a reputation for being high-performing. Ross Elementary in Northwest Washington, Watkins Elementary in Southeast and Whittier Elementary in Northwest, among others, had consistently shown ‘adequate yearly progress’ on the old Stanford 9 exam. The news that the 12 schools did not pass last year's more rigorous exam caught many parents by surprise. Some experts say the results of the new test, which is supposed to more accurately gauge performance, show that achievement levels are worse than previously known. The 118 schools account for more than 80 percent of the 146 schools in the system last year.”
September 8, 2006: Haynes, V. Dion and Theola Labbe, “Few Schools Meet Goal on New Tests: Problems Will Require Mayor Intervention to Solve, D.C. System Officials Say,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/07/AR2006090701573.html. “Only 28 of the District of Columbia's 146 public schools last year met academic benchmarks on a new city test, a situation that will require massive intervention efforts to reverse, school system officials said yesterday. School officials consider the test a more accurate gauge of student performance than one used previously. Seven secondary schools — including one middle school, Hardy — and 21 elementary schools scored a passing grade. The widespread poor performance pushed the number of schools failing to make adequate yearly progress under the federal No Child Left Behind law from 81 in 2005 to 118. Parents who want to move their child to a better public school now will have almost no place to go. Until now, the school system's main remedy for students in failing schools was a provision in federal law that allows them to transfer to a higher-performing school in the city. Moreover, school system officials said that charter schools, which took the same exam, fared just as poorly. Only a small number of the 51 charter schools that administered the test made adequate yearly progress, according to William Caritj, an assistant superintendent. He did not provide the names or the number of failing charter schools.”
September 7, 2006: Haynes, V. Dion, “D.C. Schools Fall Short of Test Goals, Superintendent Says,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/07/AR2006090700027.html. “The number of District schools that failed to make academic benchmarks increased this year, according to test results D.C. School Superintendent Clifford B. Janey plans to release today. At the same time, he plans to cut the equivalent of almost five instructional days to accommodate more teacher training. Last year, 81 of 147 schools failed to make adequate yearly progress under the federal No Child Left Behind law. But this year, ‘there will be a larger number,’ said Bill Caritj, assistant superintendent for educational accountability and assessment. A slide in student achievement, education experts say, is fairly typical for a school system that has introduced a new assessment. In April, the school system switched from the Stanford 9 test, which had been in use for eight years, to the D.C. Comprehensive Assessment System. The new exam incorporated short-answer responses, whereas the Stanford 9 used mainly multiple-choice questions. The test was administered in the spring to students in grades 3 through 8, as well as 10th grade.”
September 5, 2006: Labbe, Theola, “1st City Charter School with Classical Focus Is Set to Open Today: Washington Latin Adds Options for Parents,” The Washington Post, B-04, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/04/AR2006090401043.html. “New schools open all the time, especially in the District, where the proliferation of public charter schools since 1996 has led to 55 operating on 69 campuses this year. But for parents who are nervous about making a long-term commitment to the troubled D.C. system — and have the financial means to consider other options -- the arrival of Washington Latin is being heralded as a welcome alternative to taking a chance on public schools or paying private school tuition to gain peace of mind. . . . Washington Latin, in the 3800 block of Massachusetts Avenue NW, will have 192 students in grades 5, 6 and 7 and will eventually run from grade 5 to 12. Students will don uniforms and be required to study six years of Latin, four years of modern foreign language, and learn about old-school Greek and Roman humanities heavyweights such as Socrates and Cicero. Parents from Anacostia in Southeast to American University Park in Upper Northwest have enrolled their children. The student population will be about 50 percent white, 30 percent black, 15 percent Hispanic and the remaining, Asian American, Ahlstrom said. But not everyone welcomes Washington Latin to the city's educational landscape. Capitol Hill parent Gina Arlotto, a co-founder of the public school advocacy coalition Save Our Schools, said that she supports a rigorous education but that Washington Latin caters to elite parents, making it easier for them to abandon their local public school and, by extension, their community.”
September 4, 2006: Haynes, V. Dion, “Chief Proposes Year-Round Classes to Aid Ailing Programs,” The Washington Post, B-04, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/03/AR2006090300812.html. “D.C. School Superintendent Clifford B. Janey is proposing year-round classes at five mainly low-achieving schools in an effort to give students more time in the classroom by shortening the long summer break. The proposal, which is the school system's first attempt to adjust the traditional calendar, will probably ignite a local and nationwide debate: Education experts extol the benefits of a year-round calendar, citing studies that show significant knowledge loss over the summer, but many parents argue that children need downtime. Janey said he expects to select the five schools -- at least three of which would be low-performing -- by December. Janey has proposed adding as many as 20 days to the 180-day calendar at the five schools, in part because he says he is running out of options to help students in low-performing schools. School system officials have said they will release data this month showing that a large number of District schools failed to meet academic benchmarks on a more rigorous student assessment introduced in the spring. Results will be worse than last year, officials said, when about 80 of 147 schools failed to reach academic goals under the previous exam.”
August 30, 2006: Emerling, Gary and Se Jeong Kim, “D.C. Area Students Buck Trend on SAT: Local Scotes Rise as Nation Falls,” The Washington Times, A-01, http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20060830-123050-6097r.htm. “Most school systems in the D.C. area reported SAT scores slightly above the national average, despite a sharp decline in scores that officials attributed to a newly revised exam and to fewer students electing to retake the test. The class of 2006 was the first to take the newly revised SAT, which features a critical reading subtest in place of the verbal section, as well as an expanded math section. Officials also added a writing test, increasing the total possible SAT score from 1600 to 2400. . . . D.C. Public Schools officials said that despite low scores across the board, their system outpaced the national trend by showing slight improvements. The system reported an average reading score among graduating seniors of 416, up two points from last year, and the same math score, 404, as in 2005. Students also achieved an average writing score of 408.”; Milloy, Courtland, “On This D.C. School System Quiz, No One Succeeds,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/29/AR2006082901266.html. “Suppose you, like the D.C. Council, haven't the foggiest idea about what high-quality education means. Relax. Adults don't fail tests; they only fail the kids.”
August 28, 2006: Emerling, Gary and Arlo Wagner, “School Year Steps Off: D.C., Maryland Students Find Changes, Opportunities,” The Washington Times, B-01, http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20060828-110357-6806r.htm. “Mr. Janey met twin brothers Marquel and Marquis Lewis — along with their mother, Ernestine — and made the muggy-morning jaunt from the Hopkins Apartments on K Street Southeast to Tyler on G Street at about 8 a.m. Mr. Janey and Miss Lewis discussed their shared love of plants, as well as a few matters more pertinent to the subject at hand: an after-care program at Tyler and a consolidation policy under which the D.C. Board of Education closed several schools. About 1,100 students were affected by the changes, and 10 schools began accepting new students yesterday. "I told him I was glad [Tyler] was not one of the schools closed down," said Miss Lewis, 47, who works in housekeeping at Howard University. ‘It's really a blessing.’”; Haynes, V. Dion and Theola Labbe, “Schools the City Can Build On: As Another Year Gets Underway, System Looks to Use 3 Campuses as Models for Improvement,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/28/AR2006082801568.html. “At McKinley Technology High School in Eckington yesterday, students celebrated the first day of school by walking on a makeshift red carpet as they entered a building recently transformed into a first-rate technology center. The specialty-school model will be replicated when the D.C. school system revamps several struggling high schools. Uptown, officials at Brightwood Elementary in Petworth welcomed students to a newly renovated building, a $15.5 million showcase that will serve as a guide for the system's ambitious plan to spend $1 billion to refurbish dozens of dilapidated buildings. And at Scott Montgomery Elementary in Shaw, last year's 24 fourth-graders enrolled as fifth-graders at KIPP DC: Will Academy, a new public charter school housed in the same building. The first-of-its-kind partnership will allow the high-achieving Knowledge Is Power Program to share teaching methods with Montgomery, a traditional public school with decreasing enrollment. The schools are three examples of unprecedented changes that thousands of District youths encountered yesterday as they returned to a school system determined to improve student performance and its public reputation.”
August 27, 2006: Haynes, V. Dion and Theola Labbe, “Merged Schools on Brink of Test: Parents Vigilant, Officials Optimistic,” The Washington Post, C-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/26/AR2006082600628.html. “The Board of Education's plan to close and combine schools will now become reality for roughly 1,100 students. After a summer of angst, exacerbated by an accelerated six-month schedule to close five schools, students and parents will learn whether the change was worth the frustration they endured. In the consolidation plan, 10 schools will accept new students, and six high schools will accept ninth-graders from a closed junior high school in Northwest, R.H. Terrell. Superintendent Clifford B. Janey said all the schools will be ready to open tomorrow after officials spent the summer completing a checklist of more than 100 tasks associated with the relocations. The price tag for that work was $5 million, which covered relocation expenses and school upgrades that included freshly painted interiors, new flooring and repairs to water fountains and restrooms. An array of new academic offerings will also be offered. Walker-Jones Educational Center in Northwest, which will accept some former R.H. Terrell students, has a new library and art program. Principal Janette Johns-Gibson said seventh- and eighth-grade teachers will also help sixth-graders in the former elementary school develop a variety of skills, including vocabulary building. Still, some parents said last week that they were disappointed that more effort wasn't made to involve them in the process to unite students at the consolidated schools.”; Woodlee, Yolanda, A Final Back-to-School Task: Immunizations: Dozens of Children Get Free Shots in Program Sponsored by City and Hospital, The Washington Post, C-11, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/26/AR2006082601083.html. “Kapriah was one of 142 children who were vaccinated yesterday at the It's Wise to Immunize Family Fun Day at a recently built community center in Southeast Washington. An additional 144, including her sister, were told that they did not need shots. Instead of leaving with Band-Aids and tears, they took home new backpacks filled with books, crayons and markers. The program, in its 13th year, was sponsored by the D.C. Department of Health and the Children's National Medical Center. The children were given vaccinations against diseases such as chickenpox, hepatitis B, polio, measles, mumps and whooping cough. The immunizations are required by law before enrolling children in D.C. public schools, where classes start tomorrow. Children who do not have up-to-date immunizations will not be allowed to attend.”
August 26, 2006: Nakamura, David, “Cropp Stakes Her Future on School Improvement,” The Washington Post, B-04, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/25/AR2006082501280.html. “D.C. Council Chairman Linda W. Cropp said yesterday that the city's public schools would begin to improve within a year if she is elected mayor and vowed not to seek a second term if the turnaround failed. ‘If you do not see a change, I will not run for reelection,’ Cropp said during a lunch with Washington Post reporters and editors. With about 2 1/2 weeks until the Sept. 12 Democratic primary, Cropp has sought to illustrate the difference between her and her chief rival, council member Adrian M. Fenty (Ward 4), who polls show is the front-runner. Improving the city's struggling public schools has been a constant top issue among voters, and Cropp and Fenty have pledged to push for changes to school administration. Cropp reiterated yesterday that she would seek to take over underperforming schools. Fenty has said he would create a deputy mayor for education in his Cabinet, a position that does not exist under Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D).”
August 25, 2006: Doolittle, Amy, “Orange Calls Education His No. 1 Priority: Candidate Wants Mayor to Fully Control Schools,” The Washington Times, B-01, http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20060824-105316-2059r.htm. “Vincent B. Orange Sr. says that, as D.C. mayor, he would measure the success of his administration by how well the public school system performs. . . . Mr. Orange, who represents Ward 5 on the D.C. Council, is seeking the Democratic nomination for mayor in the Sept. 12 primary. His plan for improving public education calls for the mayor to have full control of the schools, including the power to hire and fire the superintendent, who would be a member of his Cabinet.”
August 24, 2006: Greenwell, Megan, “Board Gets Fresh View from Inside,” The Washington Post, DZ-04, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/23/AR2006082300782.html. “If high-schoolers Veronica Ferrell and Brittany Clark have their way, leaky ceilings and broken air conditioners in Washington public schools are headed the way of the slide rule and the Trapper Keeper. The complaints are common among students of all ages, but Ferrell and Clark will have the unique chance to make sure that top school officials actually listen. As the new student representatives on the D.C. Board of Education, they will be responsible for communicating the interests of their peers.Although the two have yet to talk with each other about the issues they'll take to the school board, their lists of priorities are strikingly similar. In separate conversations, Ferrell listed broken water fountains, decaying ceilings, a shortage of books and bad-tasting lunches, and Clark highlighted the poor nutritional value of cafeteria food, broken air-conditioning systems and problems with ceilings.”; Haynes, V. Dion, “Elections Could Change Face of Education,” The Washington Post, DZ-02, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/23/AR2006082300692.html. “The fall elections could have huge repercussions for the D.C. public schools. Unlike his predecessors, Superintendent Clifford B. Janey during his nearly two-year tenure has enjoyed cozy relationships with many local elected officials, including Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D), D.C. Council President Linda W. Cropp , council education committee Chairman Kathy Patterson (D-Ward 3) and Board of Education President Peggy Cooper Cafritz . Those relationships have been beneficial — resulting in a $2.5 billion school modernization measure the council passed last spring, special budget allocations for the school system and a $25,000 bonus and an extended contract for Janey. But the collegiality could all change by year's end, when the District will have a new mayor, a new council president, a new chairman of the council's education committee, at least five new council members, a new school board president and as many as three new elected and three new appointed board members.”; Haynes, V. Dion, “Long Renovation List, and Waits to Match: $2.5 Billion Plan, Set to Be Released, Spans Many Years,” The Washington Post, DZ-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/23/AR2006082300760.html. “In a few weeks, Superintendent Clifford B. Janey is to release a long-awaited plan outlining how the school system will transform the city's aging and deteriorating schools into gleaming, state-of-the-art buildings. The good news is that the system finally has the money — $2.5 billion to be allocated over at least 10 years — which was approved by the D.C. Council in the spring. The bad news is that Janey's 600-page master facilities plan is likely to spur a new round of battles because a long list of schools would not be modernized for many years. Moreover, the document probably will spark anger because as many as 20 schools will be identified as candidates for closure or consolidation. Five schools were closed over the summer.”; Haynes, V. Dion, “Students Face New Learning Standards,” The Washington Post, DZ-05, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/23/AR2006082300774.html. “Students returning to school Monday will get the first taste of the D.C. school system's new science and social studies learning standards, which are aimed at immediately introducing more rigor into the classroom and ultimately new textbooks, standardized tests and even upgraded science labs. The learning standards, outlining what students should know and be able to do at each grade level, are among many new policies and initiatives slated to be launched this year. The changes, school officials say, are intended to boost student achievement, increase the level of parental involvement in the schools and improve efficiency for teachers and administrators. Students this year also will be offered an expanded array of enrichment programs, giving them more opportunities to participate in math and chess clubs and polish their academic skills after school and during holiday breaks. The school system will open the first three of five planned resource centers for parents, offering them such services as job training and courses on improving their children's achievement. And, in an attempt to reduce the dropout rate, ninth-graders for the first time will be required to devise graduation plans outlining a schedule for completing their studies.”; Haynes, V. Dion, “Trying Again to Transform Weakest Schools: Firm Leads Overhaul at 7 Senior Highs,” The Washington Post, DZ-03, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/23/AR2006082300703.html. “More than 10 years ago, D.C. school officials introduced a term to refer to a new process for overhauling the most academically troubled schools: "reconstitution." A few years later, under a new administration, the process — which involved bringing in education experts and sometimes replacing the curricula and staff -- became known as ‘transformation.’ This year, in yet another incarnation, the school system's attempt to fix low-achieving schools will be called "restructuring." Whatever it is called, there is widespread demand for results, not just rhetoric. At least 80 of the system's 140 schools have failed to make ‘adequate yearly progress’ under the No Child Left Behind law, subjecting them to heightened scrutiny. The law requires extra intervention for schools that fail to make academic targets for four or more years. This year, seven senior highs — Ballou and Anacostia in Southeast; Eastern and Woodson in Northeast; and Roosevelt, Coolidge and M.M. Washington in Northwest — will receive the highest level of intervention. An educational company will manage their academic overhaul. There will be extended classroom time in reading, writing and math; training for teachers and principals; and more individual attention for struggling students.”; Haynes, V. Dion, and Theola Labbe, “Some Revisions Delayed by Lack of New Books,” The Washington Post, B-08, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/23/AR2006082301777.html. “D.C. school officials will delay the implementation of portions of science and social studies standards because the school system will not have the necessary textbooks when school opens Monday. Superintendent Clifford B. Janey is introducing science and social studies standards intended to guide sweeping changes in instruction by specifying what students in every grade should know. Officials had planned to order hundreds of thousands of textbooks so every student would have instructional material aligned with the new standards. Although the standards were approved in February and June, the system has neither adopted nor ordered the textbooks. Now, school officials say the new books will not be introduced until the 2007-2008 school year. Janey said he postponed buying the books for a year because he was concerned that they would not arrive in time for school. Last year, shipments of new language arts and mathematics textbooks arrived at some schools several months late. In the meantime, Janey said, teachers will use current textbooks and incorporate new material into their lesson plans and add field trips to history and science museums.”; Hollingsworth, Rebecca, “For Katrina Evacuees, a Blessing in Education,” The Washington Post, DZ-11, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/23/AR2006082300755.html. “When I got to Duke Ellington last September, I thought my life was over, but I realize now it had just begun. I made some of the best friends I will ever have. The most amazing teachers instilled in me a passion for learning that I had never known and filled me with a new love: acting. I learned about new cultures and religions. And I grew closer to my family. I really hadn't appreciated them before. Everything now has value. After I had lost everything, God gave me a life I had never expected. I feel truly blessed.”; Janey, Clifford B., “In His Own Words: Let's Raise the Bar for the New School Year,” The Washington Post, DZ-12, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/23/AR2006082300779.html. “Last year we implemented new learning standards in reading/language arts and mathematics. The prestigious Hoover Institute gave those new DCPS standards an A and designated them fourth in the entire nation. Hoover's survey identified which states were setting high academic standards and which were not. This year we will implement learning standards in social studies and science — two critically important disciplines for our students. Step by step, course by course, we are redefining what our students learn, how they learn and what specific outcomes we expect of them and their teachers. In conjunction with these new learning standards, we will implement a new assessment — the D.C. Comprehensive Assessment System. We are raising the bar even higher for our students. We are making certain that their success is based on the highest possible expectations, and in the long term, we expect achievement rates to markedly improve.”; Labbe, Theola, “At Year's Outset, A Power Shuffle: Special-Ed Position Filled; 20 Principals to Begin New Jobs,” The Washington Post, DZ-07, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/23/AR2006082300690.html. “The academic year begins next week with 20 new or reassigned principals in the D.C. public schools and one new face in a long-vacant top administration position. Marla C. Oakes, a 30-year education veteran, will take over as executive director of special education, filling a post that has been vacant for nearly a year. Oakes has served as an assistant superintendent in the St. Louis public schools, where roughly 6,000 students have disabilities. There she worked with agencies, nonprofit groups and specialized schools to coordinate special education services. Oakes comes to the District at a critical time for special education. According to a recent Washington Post analysis, the school system spent $118 million last year on tuition for special education students attending private schools, an expense that was 65 percent higher than in 2000. Records show that officials have covered the rising costs by transferring tens of millions of dollars a year from public school programs. About one in five special education students in the District attend private schools, compared with one in 11 in Prince George's County and one in 27 in Montgomery County.”; Labbe, Theola, “The Nuts and Bolts of the District's Educational System,” The Washington Post, DZ-06, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/23/AR2006082300688.html. “If you've ever wondered how education in the District is organized and who is responsible for what, here's a District Extra primer on city education.”; Labbe, Theola, “Six Charter Schools Opening with Unique Outlooks: Studies Include Latin and ESL,” The Washington Post, DZ-06, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/23/AR2006082300689.html. “Charter schools are free public schools open to all District residents. They are publicly funded but operate according to their individual charters, independent of the D.C. public schools administration. Two city-based entities authorize and regulate charter schools: the D.C. Public Charter School Board and the D.C. Board of Education. Six new charter schools are opening this school year. Here's a look at what they will offer. . . .”; Samuels, Robert, “If I Were in Charge, My School Would. . .,” The Washington Post, DZ-03, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/23/AR2006082300696.html. “About two dozen public high school students who were interviewed agreed that learning letters and numbers isn't everything. Their outlook on the city's educational system is determined by how much staff members seem to care about them, shown in everything from making fresh sandwiches to being nurturing instructors. Every school has its problems, Evans said. Fights occur. Some students don't show up for class. But an encouraging environment makes it possible to get a good education in the District, said Evans, who lives near Seventh and L streets NW. He said he dreams of playing professional football and likes having teachers at his games. In the classroom, he said, he appreciates being asked whether he needs assistance.”; Woodleee, Yolanda and Robert Samuels, “Who Is Going to Run District Schools?: Mayoral Candidates Offer Alternatives,” The Washington Post, DZ-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/23/AR2006082300687.html. “At least three of the candidates -- all members of the D.C. Council -- have plans to take control of the schools, while the other two want to play a pivotal role in running them. In a recent Washington Post poll, 24 percent of D.C. voters responding identified education as ‘the biggest problem facing the District today.’ Only crime and violence ranked above education, a showing that reflected residents' fear after a rash of homicides and the declaration of a ‘crime emergencyÆ in early July. . . . While the major mayoral candidates vary in their proposals to improve the school system, all agree that Superintendent Clifford B. Janey, who began two years ago, should remain in the job. And they all plan to keep the elected school board. Council Chairman Linda W. Cropp (D) and council member Adrian M. Fenty (D-Ward 4), the front-runners, said that if elected mayor each would include Janey in cabinet meetings. Fenty said the superintendent would be a member of his cabinet, while Cropp said Janey would be required to attend cabinet meetings so he could exchange ideas with other agency heads.”
August 23, 2006: Haynes, V. Dion, “D.C. Has All Its Teachers, But Some Lack Certificates,” The Washington Post, A-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/22/AR2006082201034.html. “D.C. school system officials have filled all teacher vacancies before the start of the school year, largely by retaining hundreds of uncertified teachers who were threatened early this year with dismissal. The school system had 866 teacher vacancies because of dismissals and early retirements, yet it will begin school Monday with only 20 unfilled slots for part-time librarians. That is in sharp contrast with recent years, when the system was struggling to fill vacancies long after schools opened. Officials said they filled more than half of this year's vacancies by rehiring 470 uncertified teachers who still need at least a year to complete requirements. The teachers must take up to four classes in their subject areas ù such as math, reading or special education — and pass exams to receive certification.”; Mathews, Jay, “Charter Schools Lag, Study Finds: Modest Difference in Test Scores Unlikely to Alter Debate,” The Washington Post, A-06, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/22/AR2006082201030.html. “Fourth-graders in traditional public schools nationwide did somewhat better on average than those in charter schools in reading and mathematics in 2003, a long-awaited federal report said yesterday. Earlier versions of the data have been used as weapons in a lively political and academic war between charter school advocates and opponents, but the new National Center for Education Statistics study appeared to provide little new ammunition for either side and little guidance for people trying to judge their schools. . . . The Washington Post reported yesterday that the District has 23 percent of its public school students in charter schools, a higher percentage than any other school district in the country. D.C. School Superintendent Clifford B. Janey has called for a moratorium on new charter schools but has received little support from elected officials, who note that voters have very little confidence in the traditional public schools. Two recent studies show D.C. charters outperforming traditional schools, but they are subject to the same problems of inadequate data and difficult interpretation that the center's report acknowledged in its national study.”; “Public Schools Outscore Charters,” The Washington Times, A-6, http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20060822-102308-1364r.htm. “Fourth-graders in traditional public schools score better in reading and math than students in charter schools, according to a government report that is likely to spur a fresh debate over the benefits of school choice. The report, released yesterday, says fourth-graders in traditional public schools scored an average of 5.2 points better in reading than students in charter schools on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) test in 2003. Students in traditional schools scored an average of 5.8 points better in mathematics. The report cautions that the results could have been influenced by factors other than the quality of charter schools.”
August 22, 2006: Doolittle, Amy, “Cropp Pledges to Take Over, Revive Schools: Mayoral Candidate Seeks Change in Charter,” The Washington Times, B-01, http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20060821-122639-5830r.htm. “Linda W. Cropp says that, as D.C. mayor, she would seek to change the D.C. Charter to give her direct control of poor-performing schools. ‘I really want us to develop standards that are very transparent and clear,’ Mrs. Cropp said during an interview with editors and reporters at The Washington Times.‘When those standards aren't met, the underperforming schools that don't meet them, I want those to come under the mayor. If the schools are working well, fine, but for those that aren't working well, we need to do something about it.’ Mrs. Cropp, chairman of the D.C. Council, is seeking the Democratic nomination for mayor in the Sept. 12 primary. To gain control of the city's poor-performing schools, Mrs. Cropp said that she would work with the D.C. Board of Education and the school superintendent and effect a change of the home-rule charter. Currently, the school system operates independently of the mayor and the council.”; Montgomery, Lori and Jay Mathews, “The Future of D.C. Public Schools: Traditional or Charter Education?,” The Washington Post, A-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/21/AR2006082101758.html. “Ten years after Congress imposed charter schools on a reluctant city, the District has emerged as one of the nation's most important laboratories for school choice and one of the first to confront a central tenet of free-market theory: Will traditional public schools improve with competition? Or will charters take over? Both sides agree that the District is approaching a critical juncture. With public confidence in the schools at an all-time low, more than 17,000 public school students — nearly one in four — have rejected the traditional system in favor of 51 independently run, publicly funded charter schools. That share is one of the largest in the nation and is expected to rise when six more charter schools open their doors this fall. As charters have proliferated, the number of students attending traditional schools has plummeted from 80,000 a decade ago to 58,000 last school year. Because tax dollars follow the student, charters now claim at least $140 million a year that might otherwise flow to neighborhood schools. That has led traditional schools to cut programs, lay off teachers and, for the first time in nearly a decade, close. Powerful forces in the national debate are watching closely to see whether D.C. schools can win those students back.”
August 21, 2006: Lively, Tarron, “For Area Students, Summer All Too Soon Draws to an End: PG's Schools Start Year with New CEO,” The Washington Times, A-01, http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20060821-122639-5830r.htm. “A stricter attendance policy — made by a truancy task force led by the D.C. Board of Education — will be also implemented this year. Under the new rules, secondary students with five or more unexcused absences in a class for a single advisory period will receive a letter-grade reduction for that subject. There are four such periods in a school year. A failing grade will be issued for 10 or more unexcused absences in that class. Additionally, a student with 30 or more unexcused absences will not graduate to the next grade — a change affecting elementary and secondary students. D.C. Public Schools (DCPS) has faced criticism for high truancy rates. Though there is no national standard for how a school system must compile truancy statistics, the District's truancy rate is about four times the national average of 3 percent to 5 percent, according to the National Center for School Engagement, which is funded by the Justice Department. D.C. officials previously set benchmarks to cut truancy rates to 21 percent in 2004-05, 18.5 percent in 2005-06 and 16 percent in 2006-07. By 2008, truancy rates should be 13 percent, according to DCPS. The D.C. school system also has had problems with security. The Metropolitan Police Department took over responsibility for security before the 2005-06 school year. In addition to school-resource officers and contract security personnel, officers from the city's seven police districts assist at the schools.”
August 18, 206: “No Moratorium on Charters: Better to Fix the Traditional Public Schools Than to Take Choice Away fro Parents,” The Washington Post, A-18, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/17/AR2006081701539.html. Editorial: “The call by D.C. School Superintendent Clifford B. Janey for a moratorium on new charter schools in the District is one part reasonable and one part self-serving. Taking the latter first, it's clear that charter schools have developed into a threat to the traditional school system since they were authorized by Congress 10 years ago. As Post reporter Lori Montgomery has reported, more than 17,500 students enrolled last year in charter schools. Meanwhile, enrollment in the traditional public school system has taken a nose dive, from about 80,000 students to about 58,000. The movement represents the action of parents starved for quality education who are voting on the traditional school system with their feet. If Mr. Janey's schools are unable to compete successfully with charters, whose fault is that? The proper response to fleeing families is not a moratorium but for the traditional system to start delivering on quality education. Mr. Janey, however, is on stronger ground when he asks whether charter schools are offering a high-quality alternative. He apparently has concluded that charters don't have a handle on measuring quality and that it would be a mistake and a disservice to children to allow the creation of additional schools without having a sound method for evaluating the 51 charter schools operating in the District. His concern about the track record of charter schools is well placed, based on the experience with the 17 charters authorized and overseen by the D.C. Board of Education.”
August 17, 2006: Andres, Gary, “D.C. Voucher Program Brings Hope: The Benefits of Educational Choice,” The Washington Times, A-19, http://www.washingtontimes.com/op-ed/gandres.htm. “The grades for the D.C. voucher program are not yet in, but if anecdotes were A's, this city's experiment in school choice should make the honor roll. Congress created and President Bush signed the D.C. school choice initiative in 2004, fashioning the first federal program of its kind. Formal evaluations of the 2-year-old program are not expected until sometime early next year. And even after that, the policy and political food fights will no doubt continue between advocates of the no-choice status quo and those interested in helping many D.C. kids enjoy the same options as those with more economic means. Yet if Holy Redeemer School, located just a few blocks north of the Capitol, is any indication of the hope, enthusiasm and early success of the program, the D.C. voucher pilot program is off to a cum laude launch.”; Labbe, Theola, “Charter School Closures Strand D.C. Students,” The Washington Post, A-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/16/AR2006081601521.html. “Less than two weeks before the first day of school, dozens of District parents are scrambling to find a school for their children after two popular charter schools closed this summer. D.C. ParentSmart, an information and resource center sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, has logged dozens of calls from frustrated parents since the New School for Enterprise and Development in Northeast closed in June and Sasha Bruce Public Charter School in Northeast closed last month. The closure of Sasha Bruce has hit parents particularly hard, since it happened just three weeks ago and thrust parents into the competitive charter school landscape when slots are scarce.”
August 15, 2006: Montgomery, Lori, “Janey Questions Charter Schools: D.C. Superintendent Seeks Moratorium, Pending Evaluations,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/14/AR2006081401072.html. “D.C. School Superintendent Clifford B. Janey is calling for a moratorium on new charter schools in the District, saying the independently run, publicly funded facilities are draining students and cash from the traditional school system while failing to offer a high-quality alternative. In an interview, Janey called on Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D), the D.C. Council and education officials to help develop a method for evaluating the city's 51 charter schools before permitting any more to open. . . . A moratorium would require the approval of the independent board that authorizes new charters. Its chairman dismissed the idea yesterday. Still, Janey said he would continue to press his proposal, which interjected a strong voice of caution into the debate over charter schools.”; “Probe Quickly: The Public Needs Answers About How Charter School Funds Have Been Spent — Or Misspent,” The Washington Post, A-12, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/14/AR2006081401115.html. Editorial: “It's been more than two months since the FBI raided the workplace and home of Brenda L. Belton, the D.C. Board of Education's executive director of charter schools, as part of a probe into the possible misuse of hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal and city funds. Sources have told The Post's Valerie Strauss that the federal investigation is expected to take several months more. That seems an awfully long time to have a cloud hanging over a component of the D.C. Board of Education, if not over the school board itself. As the D.C. Council's education committee chairman, Kathy Patterson (D-Ward 3), has observed, the probe raises questions not only concerning the propriety of the charter school office's expenditures but also about the thoroughness of the school board's oversight. The federal investigation should be conducted with a sense of urgency.”; Stewart, Nikita, “One Word Dwells on the Lips of Ward 3 Candidates: Schools: Hopefuls Try to Emerge from Crowd by Pacifying Uneasy Parents,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/14/AR2006081401223.html. “The Democratic primary for the Ward 3 D.C. Council seat is a contest about who knows more, who cares more and who can do more about public schools. And candidates are falling all over themselves to stand out. Bill Rice, who has no children, is distributing a doorknob placard boldly claiming, ‘Only Bill Rice Can Fix Our Schools.’ Shadow Sen. Paul Strauss said he jumped into the race because he is the only candidate who currently has a child in a public school. Mary Cheh, whose children went to a private high school, recently held an education forum to get ideas from a small group of parents. The race has turned into a feverish, single-issue election because the candidates primarily have talked about public schools, a longtime issue for the ward. Incumbent Kathy Patterson (D), who is giving up the seat to run for council chairman, began her political career 12 years ago as a public schools advocate.”
August 14, 2006: Strauss, Valerie, “Funds May Have Been Directed to Friends: D.C. Charter Schools Chief Investigated,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/13/AR2006081300818.html. “Federal officials are investigating whether the D.C. Board of Education's executive director of charter schools funneled federal funds to personal acquaintances working with the schools that she helped monitor, according to sources with knowledge of the investigation. They also are reviewing records to see whether Brenda L. Belton reaped any financial benefit from more than $350,000 paid to a private company to provide technical assistance to charter schools, sources said. The company was located in a building that Belton once owned and that is currently owned by her daughter, said sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the investigation. Belton, who was officially named head of the charter schools office in January 2003, was placed on paid administrative leave in June after federal authorities raided her home, office and the company. Belton's attorney, Danny Onorato, declined to comment.”
August 10, 2006: Barras, Jonetta Rose, “Bobb Announces His Candidacy for School Board President,” The Washington Examiner, P. 6, http://www.examiner.com/a-211043~Jonetta_Rose_Barras__Bobb_announces_his_candidacy_for_D_C__school_board_president.html. “Bobb is expected to pick up his nominating petitions today. Then, this evening at the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge at Fourth and E streets NW, he’ll rally the troops. On Sunday, he says he’ll be out on the streets, presenting himself as the right man for the job. ‘I am not going to be a guardian of the status quo,’ he says during an interview. Bobb has gained a reputation as a no-nonsense manager. With more than 30 years of experience in urban governments around the country, extensive knowledge and training focusing on trends and best practices in public education, whipping him in this race will take more than a notion. He has constructed an impressive campaign organization and conducted his own research. Some of it contradicts the chatter in the city, including a recent survey by Teach America, which identified teacher quality and student expectations of themselves as two of the top five challenges.”; Doolittle, Amy, “Bobb to Run for Head of School Board,” The Washington Times, B-03, http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20060809-110522-8843r.htm. “D.C. City Administrator Robert C. Bobb said yesterday that he will leave his position to run for president of the D.C. Board of Education. Mr. Bobb, 61, said that he will pick up his petitions today to put his name on the November ballot and that he will resign from the city manager's post within weeks. ‘It's going to be difficult to launch a campaign and still serve, so over some period of weeks I'll have to transition from my current position to something else,’ Mr. Bobb told The Washington Times. Mr. Bobb's announcement ends months of speculation about his political future. He repeatedly had dismissed reports that he would run for mayor or chairman of the D.C. Council. The decision to run for school board has been in the works for several months, he said.”; Woodlee, Yolanda, “D.C. Official to Quit Job in Bid to Lead School Board,” the Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/09/AR2006080901103.html. “Robert C. Bobb said yesterday that he will resign as city administrator to run for president of the D.C. Board of Education, a move that had been anticipated for months. Bobb, who oversees D.C. government operations and four deputy mayors, said in an interview that he had met with Mayor Anthony A. Williams on Tuesday and would work out his transition over the next few weeks. Bobb said that his organizers will meet this evening at the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge near One Judiciary Square to begin circulating nominating petitions. He needs to collect the signatures of 1,000 registered voters by Aug. 30 to qualify for a spot on the November ballot.”
August 8, 2006: Glod, Maria, “Schools Try Elementary Approach to Teaching Foreign Languages,” The Washington Post, A-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/07/AR2006080701284.html. “School systems across the Washington area are adding foreign language classes in elementary grades in response to a call from government and business leaders who say the country needs more bilingual speakers to stay competitive and even to fight terrorism. . . . Beginning this school year in the District, Shepherd Elementary School in Northwest Washington is planning to offer a pre-kindergarten French immersion program — with some lessons in French and others in English — and Thomson Elementary in Northeast is launching a Mandarin immersion class.”; Labbe, Theola, “Prosecutors Back Cut in Bullock's Sentence: Memo Cites Help Against Ex-Aides,” The Washington Post, B-04, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/07/AR2006080701260.html. “Federal prosecutors have recommended a sentence reduction for Barbara A. Bullock, the former president of the Washington Teachers' Union, to reward her for helping them convict two former union officials. Bullock is serving a nine-year prison term in a federal prison in Alderson, W.Va., after admitting in 2003 that she embezzled millions from the union. Under the sentencing recommendation, she would serve about seven years in prison, followed by one year at a halfway house. Federal prosecutors wrote in their memo that Bullock put a ‘human face’ on the conspiracy and gave key details on how it operated. They recommended the reduction ‘in recognition of her substantial assistance to the government in its investigation and prosecution of Gwendolyn M. Hemphill and James Odell Baxter II.’”
August 7, 2006: McElhatton, Jim, “Union Official Might Get Break: Prosecutors Cite Assistance in Making Their Court Cases,” The Washington Times, B-01, http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20060806-112754-1625r.htm. “Federal prosecutors want to reduce the prison sentence of former Washington Teachers' Union President Barbara A. Bullock, the leader of a multimillion-dollar embezzlement of teacher dues, for her help in identifying and convicting others in the scam. Bullock could be out of prison in about five years under a recommendation made Friday by the U.S. Attorney's Office, according to documents filed in federal court in the District. Prosecutors said Bullock gave ‘substantial assistance’ in the investigation of union office manager Gwendolyn M. Hemphill and treasurer James O. Baxter II. They told a judge that Bullock ‘put a human face on the core conspiracy.’ The reduction of Bullock's sentence by two years and two months, followed by a year in a halfway house, would mean she could end up serving significantly less prison time compared to Hemphill and Baxter. The recommendation still must be approved by a judge.”
July 28, 2006: Haynes, V. Dion, “Schools Warn of Testing Setback: Early Data Show More Fall Short of U.S. Standards,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/27/AR2006072701668.html. “D.C. school officials released preliminary data from a student assessment exam yesterday showing a likely increase in the number of elementary schools that fail to meet federal academic targets in math and reading. The school system administered the D.C. Comprehensive Assessment System for the first time in April, and the results show that a substantial number of elementary schools may fail to meet the "adequate yearly progress" required by federal law. School officials estimated that 79 elementary schools, up from 35 last year, may not meet the reading standard and that 90 elementary schools, up from 26 last year, may fall short of the math standard. Some officials said the results are not totally unexpected. They said school systems often experience a drop in scores when they switch to a new test. Still, some school board members expressed alarm. In April, the school system replaced the long-standing Stanford 9 achievement test with the new comprehensive assessment, devised to satisfy the federal No Child Left Behind law, which requires school systems to develop tests based on what students are taught in the classroom.”
July 26, 2006: Labre, Theola, “Board Pulls Charter for Struggling D.C. School: Sasha Bruce Was Warned About Financial Problems,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/25/AR2006072501905.html. “The D.C. Public Charter School Board revoked the charter of a 239-student school on Capitol Hill yesterday, saying that its history of poor financial management would not improve if it stayed open another year. Board members took the action against Sasha Bruce Public Charter School, which served students in grades 7 through 11 and would have had its first graduating class in 2007. The decision leaves students and parents scrambling to find alternatives before school opens in August. Several board members praised the close-knit community of parents, teachers and students and their devotion to keeping the school open but said there were too many financial problems to allow the school to operate. The board's concerns included three years of deficit spending and too few assets to cover its debts.”
July 23, 2006: Murphy, Carlyle, “Update: After Neighborhood Dust-Up, Potential New Rules for D.C. Schools,” The Washington Post, C-2, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/22/AR2006072200674.html. “Zoning officials in the District are considering new regulations for schools seeking to set up shop in residential areas — and opponents say the restrictions could prevent small public charter schools from moving into neighborhoods. The move comes after some Capitol Hill residents sought to block AppleTree Institute for Education Innovation from opening a preschool for about 50 children at 138 12th St. NE, in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. The school has yet to open amid a contentious zoning dispute. Supporters call the proposed regulations a reasonable compromise between the needs of charter schools and the desire of neighbors to retain the residential character of their streets. The D.C. Zoning Commission plans to take final action Sept. 11, after a 30-day public comment period. The new rules would do several things: They would explicitly equate public charter schools to D.C. public schools and allow schools to locate open in mixed residential/commercial areas. They also would impose minimum lot sizes for schools — 9,000 to 15,000 square feet, depending on the type of residential area. Lots also would need 120 feet of street frontage for parking and drop-offs. Schools that would not meet these minimums could seek a special exception from the Board of Zoning Adjustment.”
July 22, 2006: Lively, Tarron, “School Board Adopts Tighter Truancy Policy,” The Washington Times, A-7, http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20060721-102630-8542r.htm. “The D.C. public school system has adopted a new, more stringent attendance policy to curtail truancy and absenteeism. A truancy task force led by the D.C. Board of Education made the emergency rule changes Wednesday. Under the new rules, secondary students with five or more unexcused absences in a class for a single advisory period will receive a letter grade reduction for that subject. There are four such periods in a school year. A failing grade will be issued for 10 or more unexcused absences in that class. Additionally, a student with 30 or more unexcused absences will not graduate to the next grade — a change affecting elementary and secondary students. Audrey Williams, spokeswoman for the school board, said yesterday similar rules have been declared and enforced in the past, but the changes will now be officially added to school policy.”
July 18, 2006: McElhatton, Jim, “School Security Remains Questionable,” The Washington Times, B-01, http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20060717-103555-7726r.htm. “D.C. public schools, which have endured criticism and scrutiny of their security, continue to struggle with guards fraternizing with students and radios that cannot communicate, community and school leaders say. Their concerns are being aired on the heels of eight government audits highlighting problems in school security in the past few years and last year's takeover of school security operations by the Metropolitan Police Department. ‘It's kind of ridiculous to walk in at 4:30 [p.m.] and see everything wide open,’ Cathy Reilly, director of the Senior High Alliance of Parents, Principals and Educators, testified Friday during a D.C. Council hearing on school security. ‘There's nobody there.’ Marlene Berlin, a member of Wilson High School's local restructuring team, said the transition of security from the school system to the police department ‘has not gone very well, frankly.’ Security officers ‘flow in and out of the school’ without the principal being notified, and some officers refuse to deploy under the principal's orders, said Miss Berlin, who was testifying on behalf of Principal Stephen P. Tarason.”
July 12, 2006: Stewart, Nikita, “Officials Narrowly Keep School Measure Off the Ballot,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/11/AR2006071101279.html. “The D.C. Council rejected a controversial bill yesterday that would have allowed voters to amend the D.C. Home Rule Act to require ‘free, high-quality’ education for public school students. The council's 7 to 6 vote to table the D.C. Education Rights Charter Amendment Act means that the measure will not appear on the November ballot and that it might not be reintroduced. The vote took supporters by surprise, especially because the council preliminarily approved the measure 12 to 1 last month. The state of the District's public schools has become the biggest issue for residents in this year's council election. This year, the council approved giving $1 billion in sales tax revenue to renovate and repair the city's crumbling schools. There is a focus on raising academic standards and improving test scores as students flock to charter schools. Council members who opposed the education measure did so largely because they could not agree on a definition of high-quality education and worried that promising students a level of education that the system is struggling to provide would open the city to lawsuits.”
July 11, 2006: “School Improvement by Decree: If Wishing Could Make Things True, the D.C. Council Would Be on to Something,” The Washington Post, A-16, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/10/AR2006071001148.html. Editorial: “The D.C. Council is scheduled to hold a decisive vote today on an amendment to the city's charter requiring that the District provide ‘high-quality’ public education to all its school-age children. If the amendment is approved and then passes muster with voters in November, we can imagine three possible outcomes. None of them would be much help to the District's long-suffering pupils. Having charged itself with defining "high quality," the D.C. Council could set the bar so low that the city's schools could easily measure up. It could leave the requirement vague in the hope that a rhetorical commitment to good public education would compel teachers, administrators and elected officials to better address the dysfunction of the school system. Or it could pass stringent mandates regarding teacher-student ratios, education funding and other measures of school quality that states such as Virginia have adopted. The first option doesn't do anything for District schools. The second naively assumes that words can fix D.C. public education. And the third would give parents unhappy with D.C. public education just the legal language they need to sue -- and maybe even get their children placed in private schools on the District's dime.”
July 10, 2006: McElhatton, Jim, “Hemphill Asks for Closer Prison,” The Washington Times, B-01, http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20060709-110559-9401r.htm. “Former Washington Teachers Union office manager Gwendolyn M. Hemphill must report to prison in Connecticut this month amid concerns about having her locked up in the same West Virginia prison as former union President Barbara A. Bullock. Hemphill, 64, who was sentenced to 11 years in prison in May for her role in the embezzlement of millions of dollars in teacher dues, had hoped to report to the Alderson Federal Prison in West Virginia, where Martha Stewart was incarcerated. However, Bullock, 68, who testified against Hemphill, is serving her more than nine-year term at Alderson for fraud and conspiracy in the case, prosecutors said at Hemphill's May 22 sentencing hearing.”
July 9, 2006: Haynes, V. Dion, “City Strives to Fill Teaching Positions: Dismissal of Uncertified Instructors Could Create Up to 750 Vacancies,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/08/AR2006070800719.html. “D.C. school system officials are scrambling to hire new librarians and math and special education teachers -- an always difficult prospect for some hard-to-fill jobs that was exacerbated with the dismissal last month of 370 uncertified teachers. With the termination of the uncertified teachers and the expected retirement of hundreds more, school system officials said they could have up to 750 vacancies this summer, which would be almost double the usual number. School human resources officials said they have 950 teacher candidates assembled through widely expanded recruitment efforts, including at job fairs in Philadelphia and Detroit. Still, they are scrambling to replace 50 librarians, 50 math teachers and 100 special education teachers -- high-demand jobs for which there is always a short supply. About 40 special education teachers were among those dismissed June 30, intensifying the shortage.”
July 8, 2006: Haynes, V. Dion, “To Retain Students, Higher Income Rule Sought,” The Washington Post, B-08, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/07/AR2006070701308.html. “A senator on the D.C. Appropriations subcommittee plans to introduce legislation to increase the income guidelines for the District's federally funded school voucher program to prevent hundreds of students from being forced out of it in the next three years, officials said. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on the District, intends to introduce legislation Thursday that would increase the income guidelines to 300 percent of the federal poverty line, from 200 percent, according to an aide in his office. The aide said a potential exodus of 150 students a year could threaten a federally mandated evaluation of the program, which has about 1,650 students.”
To Retain Students, Higher Income Rule SoughtJuly 2, 2006: Hess, Frederick M., “In the District, Lawsuits Before Learning,” The Washington Post, B-08, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/30/AR2006063001153.html. “If your city's schools were spending more than $15,000 per student per year to produce horrendous academic results, a broken special education system and an inept facilities program, what would you do? Well, if you're the D.C. Council, you would embrace hollow rhetoric and invite the lawyers to sue your pants off. Just in time for the fall elections, the council is poised to amend the Home Rule Act by requiring that the city provide ‘free, high-quality public schools.’ On June 20, the council voted 12 to 1 to adopt the language. On July 11, council members are scheduled to give the proposal final approval, then put it before the voters in November. . . . The D.C. Council is already responsible for the District's schools. Having failed to provide even ‘medium-quality’ schools, it's unclear what council members think this language will accomplish. If they think the school system needs more money, they already have the authority to raise taxes. If the issue is reform and not revenue, courtrooms have proven a pretty lousy tool for ‘fixing’ schools. In fact, experience in cities such as Baltimore and St. Louis suggests that they may do more to sidetrack than stimulate school improvement. The District's sorry experience with special education is proof enough of that. The District needs leadership, not empty language. Let's hope council members remember that, even in an election year.”
June 30, 2006: McElhatton, Jim, “Judges' Panel Orders Bullock Resentencing,” The Washington Times, B-01, http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20060629-102756-1703r.htm. “A federal appellate court panel has ordered that former Washington Teachers Union President Barbara A. Bullock be resentenced for her conviction in the embezzlement of millions of dollars in union dues. The three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit unanimously ruled June 22 to vacate Bullock's prison sentence and send her case back to U.S. District Judge Richard Leon. A scheduling conference in the case is set for next week. Judge Leon sentenced Bullock to more than nine years in federal prison in 2004 after she pleaded guilty to theft and embezzlement charges. As part of a plea deal, she testified last year against two former union officials, each of whom was found guilty. Prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed to send the case back to U.S. District Court for resentencing. At issue is whether Judge Leon would have imposed the same sentence had the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in U.S. v. Booker been in effect. In that ruling, which was rendered after Bullock had been sentenced, the high court said mandatory federal sentencing laws are unconstitutional. The Supreme Court said federal sentencing guidelines are advisory, and its ruling gave judges more flexibility in sentencing.”
June 29, 2006: Haynes, V. Dion, “Board Votes to Close Five D.C. Schools: Others to Be Leased for Charter Programs,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/29/AR2006062900030.html. “The D.C. Board of Education last night approved the first major plan in nine years to significantly shrink its excess space, agreeing to close five schools and to make parts or all of eight other school buildings available for leasing to charter schools. Board members continued to face criticism of the plan, as they have throughout the six-month school-closure process. . . . The board is on a tight schedule to close the first round of schools and settle on a list for a second round of closures before five new members join the panel in January 2007, said a schools source who requested anonymity because the issue is politically sensitive. Moreover, the source said, board members urged Superintendent Clifford B. Janey to postpone the release of the second list until the fall, partly to minimize the issue during the mayoral and council races, the source said. In approving the plan, the school board addressed long-standing criticism from members of Congress and the D.C. Council that, in the wake of declining enrollment, the system was wasting money by operating far too many buildings. Last night's vote will trim nearly 1 million square feet from the school system's inventory, which consists of 16 million square feet of space. In two years, the school board will cut another 2 million square feet by closing or consolidating about 20 more schools. Under the plan, approved by a 6 to 1 vote last night, Shadd Elementary in Southeast, Fletcher-Johnson Educational Center in Southeast, Van Ness Elementary in Southeast and R.H. Terrell Junior High will close in August. The system will temporarily close McGogney Elementary in Southeast, shifting its students to nearby M.C. Terrell Elementary until yet-to-be-scheduled renovations at McGogney are complete. After that, M.C. Terrell will close. Last week, Janey pulled Merritt Educational Center in Northeast off the closure list, saying he wanted to relocate middle school students from Fletcher-Johnson there. Janey opted to close R.H. Terrell and keep open the nearby Walker-Jones Elementary -- the opposite of an earlier proposal -- because the Walker-Jones building is in better shape, he said. Seventh- and eighth-graders from R.H. Terrell will be relocated to the third floor of Walker-Jones; ninth-graders will go to Dunbar Senior High in Northwest or to other high schools.”
June 25, 2006: Haynes, V. Dion, “370 Uncertified Teachers Will Be Fired; 450 at Risk,” The Washington Post, C-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/24/AR2006062400782.html. “More than 370 D.C. teachers will be dismissed Friday because they have failed to produce proof of their certification or evidence that they are trying to obtain a license, school officials said. An additional 450 teachers who are close to receiving their credentials will lose their jobs in September if the school system is able to find certified teachers to replace them. If they stay on, they will have until June 2007 to obtain their license. Superintendent Clifford B. Janey announced early this year that all uncertified teachers would be terminated June 30. But some are getting a reprieve because school officials are worried that they might not be able to fill all the vacancies -- in addition to 300 or so caused by retirements -- with qualified teachers by the fall, said Erika L. Wesley, the system's licensure administrator.”; “How Not to Fix D.C. Schools: A Nice-Sounding Proposal The Council Should Flunk,” The Washington Post, B-06, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/24/AR2006062400784.html. Editorial: “It's the kind of mom-and-apple-pie proposal that no one -- certainly no politician in an election year -- could possibly oppose. The D.C. Council voted 12 to 1 last week to enshrine the right to "free high-quality public schools" in the city's governing charter. If this were just a feel-good platitude, you might wonder why the council is frittering away its time making proclamations instead of doing more to help actually fix the city's dysfunctional schools. But there's every reason to think that this new right, if it survives a second vote, could cause real mischief. When council member Carol Schwartz (R-At-Large) offered an amendment that would have prevented parents from using the measure as a basis for suing the school system, the rest of the council voted her down. As a result, the legislation practically invites families to file lawsuits.”; “What a Waste,” The Washington Times, http://www.washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20060624-111826-2937r.htm. Editorial: “School officials couldn't offer a full accounting for the spending. ‘That's the thing that's so frustrating with special education: We've accepted dysfunctionality as a way of being,’ the vice president of the school board, Carolyn N. Graham, told The Post. ‘We don't know how much we've paid. We don't know what we paid for.’ As forthcoming as those comments are, the overpayments for overtime, tuition and legal fees clearly are unconscionable. The mismanagement by school employees and the lack of oversight by the school board and the D.C. Council keep our children and their classrooms on the losing end. What's worse is school officials have no cogent plan in place to turn things around. Politicians can't afford to leave voters empty-handed all summer long.”
June 23, 2006: Haynes, V. Dion, “For the Love of Ballou: 2 Scholar-Athletes Made a Private Pact: To Nuture Hope at a Troubled School,” The Washington Post, A-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/22/AR2006062201657.html. “Eighteen days ago, Jachin Leatherman, 18, graduated from Ballou. He was the school's 2006 valedictorian. His best friend, 18-year-old Wayne Nesbit, also graduated. He was salutatorian. Jachin and Wayne: They love Ballou. Four years before, at the end of middle school, both had scholarship offers to an elite private high school in the Maryland suburbs. It was an offer that few from Southeast Washington, where Ballou is located, would refuse. But both ended up at Ballou because their fathers decided that an all-black inner-city school, rather than a mostly white suburban school, was what they wanted for their sons.”; Haynes, V. Dion, “In Detail: Black Males and High School,” The Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/23/AR2006062300504.html. “In the District of Columbia, 49 percent of black males graduated from high school in 2004 compared with 95 percent of white males. That disparity represented the largest gap in the nation among school systems with 10,000 or more students. While black males comprise 8.7 percent of the public school enrollment nationwide, they represent only 3.6 percent of students in gifted and talented programs. The number of black male students in gifted and talented programs would have to grow by 200,000 in order for the group to reach a level of representatation proportionate to its overall enrollment. Black males also are underrepresented in Advanced Placement math and science courses. Meanwhile, black male students are over-represented in special education: they comprise 20.6 percent of students diagnosed with mental retardation and 21.7 percent of students diagnosed with emotional disturbance. The number of African American males across the country taking the SAT increased from 50,817 in 2002 to 64,214 in 2005. Average scores for the verbal portion of the test increased slightly from 427 to 432; and for the math portion from 438 to 442. Sources: Schott Foundation for Public Education; The College Board”
June 22, 2006: Labbe, Theola S. and V. Dion Haynes, “D.C. Board Backs Off Closing Some Schools,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/21/AR2006062101760.html. “The D.C. Board of Education yesterday approved significant changes to a school closings plan announced last month, voting to spare two schools that had been targeted for closure, to grant a temporary reprieve to a third and to shutter five buildings instead of six. The revisions were recommended by Superintendent Clifford B. Janey, who said he was responding to legitimate concerns that parents, teachers and education activists had raised about his original proposal. He said his staff had thoroughly studied the points made at community meetings before drafting a new proposal. . . . Under the revised proposal, 935,513 square feet of space would be eliminated, Janey said. School officials said the amount of money generated by the closings -- in the form of lease revenue and savings in maintenance and personnel costs -- would be somewhat less than the $8.2 million in projected savings under the original plan. They said they had yet to come up with a new estimate. The board will take a final vote on the new proposal Wednesday.”
June 19, 2006: Haynes, V. Dion, “Charter Schools' Oversight May Shift: D.C. Board Weighs Relinquishing Role,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/18/AR2006061800956.html. “For the first time since the District's charter school movement began 10 years ago, D.C. Board of Education members are seriously considering the idea of giving up their authority to regulate the publicly funded and independently operated schools. The board today will take up a proposal to impose a moratorium on new charter applications, for an indefinite period, while it studies how well it has been monitoring the charter schools under its authority. A similar ban was in effect for about six months last year. Board members also will review a proposal laying the groundwork for them to get out of the charter oversight business altogether. That plan calls for them to hold a public hearing next month, involving Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) and the D.C. Council, to discuss turning over their chartering authority. Five of the board's nine members said in interviews Friday that they support both proposals.”
June 18, 2006: Nakamura, David, “Cropp Shifts on Control of Schools: Candidate Seeks Takeover If Standards Aren't Met,” The Washington Post, C-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/17/AR2006061701227.html. “D.C. Council Chairman Linda W. Cropp said that if elected mayor, she would seek to take control of the city's failing public schools on a case-by-case basis, a shift from her position on the council, where she sought to maintain the school system's autonomy. In a policy paper released by her campaign last week, Cropp (D) laid out a plan to ask the council and Congress for authority to allow the executive branch to take over public schools whose test scores are below federal standards five years in a row. Cropp's plan did not include specifics about how the schools would be managed once her administration took them over or how many schools would be targeted. Eighty of the city's 147 schools have made no progress on the federal No Child Left Behind Act standards. In an interview yesterday, Cropp said she has not talked to School Superintendent Clifford B. Janey about her proposal. But she remains supportive of his leadership.”
June 13, 2006: Fisher, Marc, “Vo-Tech That Just Might Work,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/12/AR2006061201662.html. “While McKinley is the showcase of the new career education, the D.C. system is starting to push the same ideas at other schools. David Thompson, a dynamic young former math teacher who is developing career programs for the D.C. schools, is reshaping auto repair and TV production classes at places such as Ballou High in Southeast so that they become multi-year sequences leading to real jobs, rather than single-year introductions to a craft. The idea is not only to get kids trained for the workplace, but also to give them a strong incentive to stay in school, Thompson says. By embracing the new career ed, the District can greatly increase the number of kids who graduate, Thompson says.”
June 7, 2006: “Unchecked School Spending,” The Washington Times, A-14, http://www.washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20060606-090947-7775r.htm. Editorial: “We applaud The Post for placing much-needed emphasis on the drain special education is placing on taxpayers. As the editorial pointed out, cost overruns at the dysfunctional school transportation system are a huge drain. But we differ with the editorial's position that "unbridled costs" are the problem. Year after costly year the school board has spent it wheels on reforming yet another aspect of the school system. And year after year the city's top overseers have prodded school authorities toward reform, but to no avail. So, here we are again, pointing out in an editorial that the costs of education are not the problem. The problem is a simple but long-standing one: failed leadership leads to unchecked spending.”
June 6, 2006: Haynes, V. Dion, “Bonuses, Relaxed Rules Proposed: Pilot Programs Are Responses to Gains by Charter Schools,” The Washington Post, B-04. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/05/AR2006060501572.html. “Aproposed contract to be voted on today by the more than 4,000 members of the D.C. teachers union would enable teachers to earn bonuses tied to student performance and to opt out of some union work rules. Although both programs would be voluntary and limited to a few schools, the proposals are a turnabout for the Washington Teachers' Union, whose leaders in the past have opposed various forms of pay-for-performance and more-demanding work schedules. Union President George Parker said the changes are needed so that the District's traditional public schools can compete more successfully with the public charter schools, which have lured away thousands of students.”; McElhatton, Jim, “10-Year Sentence for Union Treasurer,” The Washington Times, B-10, http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20060605-111151-9228r.htm. “The former treasurer of the Washington Teachers Union yesterday was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for his role in the pilfering of millions of dollars in teachers' dues. James O. Baxter also was ordered to pay $4.2 million in restitution. He is to report to prison Aug. 8. Baxter learned of his sentence two weeks after former union official Gwendolyn M. Hemphill received an 11-year sentence in the embezzlement scandal. The union's former president, Barbara A. Bullock, took a plea deal and testified against Hemphill and Baxter. Bullock is serving nine years in prison. Hemphill and Baxter were convicted Aug. 31 of 23 counts each that included embezzlement, money laundering, conspiracy and wire fraud. A third trial defendant, James A. Goosby, who provided accounting services for the union during late 2001 and part of 2002, was acquitted.”; “Unbridled Costs: As Special Education Spending Soars, D.C. Schools Raid Other Account,” The Washington Post, A-14, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/05/AR2006060501358.html. Editorial: “Yesterday's front-page story about the growing drain of special education tuition on D.C. public schools should have stopped school administrators, city leaders, parents and all taxpayers in their tracks. Spending on special education students assigned to private schools has risen 65 percent since 2000 to a whopping $118 million last year, Dan Keating and V. Dion Haynes report. To cover those costs, D.C. school officials have siphoned off tens of millions of dollars from classroom instruction, librarians, guidance counselors, supplies, equipment and maintenance. School board President Peggy Cooper Cafritz, acknowledging that she and other board members were unaware of the transfers, told The Post that special education spending was ‘so overbudget that they took it from whatever budget was available. It's the biggest scam in America.’”
June 5, 2006: Keating, Dan and V. Dion Haynes, “Special-Ed Tuition a Growing Drain on D.C.: Basic Needs Take a Hit to Cover Costs of Sending Kids to Private Schools,” The Washington Post, A-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/04/AR2006060400973.html. “The District spent $118 million last year on the tuition of special education students attending private schools, an expense that has increased 65 percent since 2000, and officials have covered the rising costs by transferring tens of millions of dollars a year from public school programs, records show. The huge expenditures have become a major financial drain on a troubled school system that has cut programs and struggled to keep classrooms supplied. Although the 2,283 students sent to private facilities represent 4 percent of the system's enrollment, they are consuming 15 percent of its budget. Under federal law, students with physical, emotional or learning disabilities are guaranteed a free education in an appropriate setting, and public school systems that cannot meet their needs must pay to send them to a private school that can. That happens often in the District, with hearing officers usually ordering the private school placements in response to parents' complaints about the services their children receive in public school. About one of every five special education students in the District attends a private school, compared with one in 11 in Prince George's County and one in 27 in Montgomery County.”
June 3, 2006: Haynes, V. Dion, “2 Workers from Charter Office Put on Leave,” The Washington Post, B-04, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/02/AR2006060201591.html. “The D.C. Board of Education put two employees from its charter school office on paid administrative leave yesterday while federal authorities investigate the possible misuse of public funds. The board would not name the employees, citing personnel policies. But school sources identified them as Brenda L. Belton, the office's executive director, and Steve Kapani, the financial data analyst. Belton appears to be at the center of an investigation into the handling of hundreds of thousands of dollars in funds earmarked to boost achievement at low-performing schools, according to school sources. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the probe is ongoing. Officials decided to put Kapani on leave because he has been cooperating with authorities, and they wanted to prevent any possibility of retaliation, the sources said.”; Hunsberger, Michael, “Agents Search Public Charter School,” The Washington Times, A-07, http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20060602-104728-2144r.htm. “Agents from three federal and D.C. agencies searched a D.C. public charter school Thursday night, confiscating more than a dozen file cabinets. The search occurred at the New School for Enterprise and Development Public Charter School at 1920 Bladensburg Road NE. "We don't know anything about the investigation," said Nona Richardson, a spokeswoman for the D.C. Public Charter School Board, which oversees the school. ‘We were not informed by the authorities.’ She confirmed that a warrant was issued Thursday at 3:30 p.m.”
June 2, 2006: Haynes, V. Dion, “Officials Report Additional Searches in Spending Probe,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/01/AR2006060101826.html. “Investigators who raided the workplace and home of the D.C. Board of Education's executive director of charter schools Wednesday also searched the offices of a company hired by the board and took files from the city's other chartering agency, school and law enforcement officials said yesterday. The searches were part of a probe into the possible misuse of hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal and city funds earmarked for programs to boost student achievement at charter schools, government and school sources said. One of those programs is operated jointly by the Board of Education's charter school office, which oversees 17 of the city's 51 charter schools, and the D.C. Public Charter School Board, which oversees the other 34. FBI agents conducted searches at the office and home of Brenda L. Belton, executive director of the Board of Education's charter school office. And investigators searched the offices of Equal Access in Education, which Belton's office hired to monitor the performance of charter schools, according to law enforcement sources.”; McElhatton, Jim, “Union Still Spends Lavishly,” The Washington Times, B-01, http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20060601-103210-1996r.htm. “The Washington Teachers Union spent tens of thousands of dollars for a river cruise, an annual conference and public relations consulting in fiscal 2005 despite posting more than $600,000 in debt for the second consecutive year. The teachers union, which is recovering from a multimillion-dollar embezzlement scandal, has filed its 2005 financial disclosure report after months of scrutiny by the U.S. Department of Labor. The department's Washington field office rejected an earlier report from the union, citing undisclosed shortcomings. The new report notes that the union's membership has fallen from 4,500 teachers to 4,128 and that total debt at the end of fiscal 2005 was $609,910, compared with $682,913 a year earlier.”
June 1, 2006: Haynes, V. Dion and Valerie Strauss, “FBI Raids Official's Home, Office: Investigation Targets Use of Funds for Charter Programs,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/31/AR2006053102543.html. “The FBI raided the office and home of the D.C. school board's executive director of charter schools yesterday as part of an investigation into the possible misuse of hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal and city funds, school board officials and law enforcement sources said. Investigators are focusing on the charter school office, which is responsible for overseeing 17 of the city's 51 charter schools. Brenda L. Belton, a school board employee, is the office's executive director. The other charter schools are overseen by the D.C. Public Charter School Board, which was not involved in the investigation. School sources, who asked not to be identified because the investigation is continuing, said authorities also are looking into whether some firms hired by the charter school office were connected to Belton. The sources said that the FBI search of the office began about 7 a.m. and continued for six hours and that numerous boxes of documents were confiscated.”; Pressler, Margaret Webb, “Schools, Pressed to Achieve, Put the Squeeze on Recess,” The Washington Post, A-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/31/AR2006053101949.html. “But for many kids today, the recess bell comes too late, for too little time, or even not at all. Pressure to raise test scores and adhere to state-mandated academic requirements is squeezing recess out of the school day. In many schools, it's just 10 or 15 minutes, if at all. In some cases, recess has become structured with organized games -- yes, recess is being taught.”
May 27, 2006: Haynes, V. Dion and Clarence Williams, “D.C. Schools Locked Down by Fears of Emergency,” The Washington Post, A-08, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/26/AR2006052601776.html. “D.C. school leaders said they locked down all of the city's 147 public schools during yesterday's ordeal on Capitol Hill because they believed that the report of possible gunfire in a House office building could signal a national security problem. This was the third time in the past five years that school leaders activated a "shelter in place" policy for all schools, keeping students indoors and prohibiting visitors from entering buildings.”
May 23, 2006: Doolittle, Amy, “Council Urged to Leave School Budget to Board,” The Washington Times, B-01, http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20060522-111814-5860r.htm. “D.C. education officials and residents testified yesterday against a proposed school charter amendment that would give the D.C. Council the power to decide how money in the public school budget is spent. ‘This legislation is not necessary to ensure that the board exercises its oversight responsibilities over the budget,’ said Peggy Cooper Cafritz, president of the D.C. Board of Education. The council currently approves only the amount of money the D.C. Public Schools (DCPS) system receives. The council does not have the power to determine how the system spends the money. DCPS currently has a $1.1 billion budget. Council member Vincent B. Orange Sr., Ward 5 Democrat and mayoral candidate, said the council should be allowed budgetary control because the school board is not doing an effective job.”; Fisher, Marc, “With Less and Less, Some at Eastern High Just Try Harder and Harder,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/22/AR2006052201632.html. “The jewels of Eastern High, a school once so esteemed and popular that it turned students away, have been buried in neglect. The choir, which once toured the globe collecting accolades, is in limbo. The baseball team has had to play most of its home games across town at Banneker High because no one bothered to mow Eastern's own field, which lies but one block from RFK Stadium. The band, once a powerhouse that marched in three presidential inauguration parades, ‘kind of fell off,’ says Sandra Odom, president of the Band Parents Association. Despite rusting 40-year-old instruments and ‘the raggedyest uniforms in the world,’ the Blue and White Marching Machine would send nearly all of its graduates to college.”; McElhatton, Jim, “Hemphill Given 11 Years for Union Embezzlement,” The Washington Times, B-01, http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20060522-111813-2310r.htm. “Former Washington Teachers Union office manager Gwendolyn M. Hemphill yesterday received an 11-year prison sentence for her role in an embezzlement scheme to bilk millions of dollars of dues from D.C. public school teachers. Hemphill, 64, apologized in a brief statement to U.S. District Court Judge Richard J. Leon, saying she was ‘deeply sorry.’ She said she engaged in fraud because she sought approval from former union President Barbara Bullock, whom she said she viewed as a ‘mother figure.’ Judge Leon told Hemphill that her criminal conduct was ‘reprehensible.’ But he stopped short of giving her the 20-year prison sentence sought by prosecutors. He said 20 years ‘is so much greater than necessary.’ Judge Leon also ordered Hemphill, who served as co-chairman of D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams' 2002 re-election campaign, to pay $4.2 million in restitution and to report to prison by July 22. Hemphill attorney Nancy Luque said she plans to appeal the sentence.”; Weiss, Eric M., “Former Teachers Union Official Sentenced: Hemphill Gets 11 Years in Prison in Embezzlement Scam,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/22/AR2006052200749.html. “Former Washington Teachers' Union official Gwendolyn M. Hemphill was sentenced yesterday to 11 years in prison for helping embezzle more than $4 million from union coffers and using some of the money to buy lavish personal items. The sentence was two years longer than that received by Hemphill's boss, former union president Barbara A. Bullock, who pleaded guilty in 2003 to a leading role in the scheme and was the government's star witness during Hemphill's trial last year. Hemphill, a community leader who was co-chairman of Mayor Anthony A. Williams's 2002 reelection campaign, stood before U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon and, in a shaky voice, asked for leniency.”
May 21, 2006: Ernst, Ruth, “Support a Successful Bilingual Program,” The Washington Post, B-08, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/19/AR2006051901364.html. “The Oyster Local School Restructuring Team, made up of parents, teachers and staff, has submitted a detailed proposal to D.C. School Superintendent Clifford B. Janey and to the D.C. Board of Education to expand Oyster's program, which now stops at grade six, through eighth grade. The team also is asking that the school be designated as a demonstration model so that it can serve as a training and support site for other dual-language programs in the D.C. school system. Included in the just-released superintendent's report on school consolidation is the recommendation to merge Adams Elementary School, an ‘underutilized facility,’ with Oyster in order ‘to expand capacity’ for bilingual education programs. The recommendation is a clear sign that the superintendent supports increasing access to bilingual education, but how the consolidation would be configured needs to be explained in detail to those concerned with both affected schools. No one at Adams should be forced to be part of a dual-language education program, and no dual-language education program can be successful unless all of the children, families and staff of the school in which the program resides want to be part of the program.”; Garriott, Omar, “Beware of Unintended Consequences,” The Washington Post, B-08, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/19/AR2006051901363.html. “I don't disagree that closing schools in an underenrolled, underperforming system is a necessary evil. But an African proverb says, ‘When elephants fight, it's the grass that suffers.’ Good policy always should be couched in an understanding of what the repercussions will be at its farthest point out — in this case, young people already in a state of near-crisis. The students and families affected by school closings are not just numbers; they are lives and yet-to-be-determined futures. As we go through this uncomfortable process, let's make sure that we are rigorous about fulfilling our obligation to the young people in harm's way. We need to make good on our promise that we will enrich their lives through an improved educational experience — all the while being careful not to rob them of the sense of community that they need.”
May 20, 2006: McElhatton, Jim, “20-Year Prison Term Sought: Hemphill Stole from Teachers,” The Washington Times, A-09. “Federal prosecutors plan to seek a 20-year prison term for former Washington Teachers Union official Gwenolyn Hemphill when she is sentenced next week, dismissing arguments for leniency based on mental illness. Defendant Hemphill's only real mental condition is anxiety that her gig if finally up, prosecutors said in a sentencing memo filed this wee. Hemphill, 64, is scheduled to be sentenced for her role in the union's multimillion-dollar embezzlement scandal that has resulted in convictions of several former union leaders.”
May 19, 2006: Haynes, V. Dion, “Charters See Openings in Closings: Independently Run Schools Want First Shot at Excess Space,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/18/AR2006051801973.html. “For charter school officials, who are marking the 10th anniversary of the launch of their movement with festivities this weekend, the downsizing of the regular school system is a golden opportunity to relieve a longstanding space crunch. The District's pricey real estate market has forced many of the independently run schools to hold classes in less-than-ideal places -- community centers, church basements, warehouses, even spaces above or beneath convenience stores. Now they are eyeing the six schools that Superintendent Clifford B. Janey wants to close, as well as space in nine other school system facilities that would be available for leasing under his plan. The school board plans a final vote June 28 on the proposal, which would eliminate 1 million square feet of space. The board has promised to shed another 2 million square feet by August 2008.”; Washington, Adrienne, “Call Closings What You Want, But Not Equitable,” The Washington Times, B-01, http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/adwashingt.htm. “Few folks in the District are able to argue reasonably that all the city's abysmal schools should be spared from the chopping block. However, the who, the what, the when, the where and the how some of the system's 147 crumbling buildings should be closed raises a ruckus in almost every quarter. . . . As usual, the neighborhoods where the schools will be closed first are those that traditionally are the least served when it comes to getting government goodies. And, these neighborhoods east of the city, where unemployment and dropout rates are extremely high, are the ones that need public services most. . . . Here again, we punish the victim. Yet, some folks don't like it if you don't dance around the devil in the details.”
May 18, 2006: Haynes, V. Dion, “Off to a Running Start Toward College: For Needy High Schoolers, Free Classes at UDC Mean Time and Money Saved,” The Washington Post, DZ01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/17/AR2006051700905.html. “Flonora is among 69 students at Friendship Public Charter School's Collegiate Academy in Northeast Washington who are enrolled in the school's early college program. It allows them to take courses without charge at the University of the District of Columbia. If her plans fall into place, Flonora, upon graduation from Friendship in June 2008, will have earned about 60 credit hours from UDC, saving her parents thousands of dollars in tuition and giving herself a two-year head start on college. . . . For now, the UDC professors come to her and other 10th-graders at Friendship. When she reaches 11th grade, she will travel to the university's Northwest Washington campus to take her courses. Friendship is one of two D.C. public schools offering the early college program. At Bell Multicultural Senior High, a traditional public school in Northwest, students have the opportunity to enroll in Northern Virginia Community College.”; Haynes, V. Dion, “Worries Mount as School-Closing Plan Advances,” The Washington Post, B-02, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/17/AR2006051702437.html. “The D.C. Board of Education gave preliminary approval last night to Superintendent Clifford B. Janey's school-closing proposal as concerns grow that more study and a detailed explanation about the process are needed. By a consent vote, board members accepted Janey's proposal to close six underused schools, clearing the way for an accelerated schedule of public hearings leading up to the board's final decision June 28. The proposal, introduced Monday, also calls for consolidating two schools and making available excess space in eight other low-enrolled schools to charter schools and city agencies. Several parents, teachers and education activists called on the school board yesterday to either cut by half the number of school closures or delay the implementation a year, to August 2007, to allow more time for community input and planning. The activists, who represented groups including the School Modernization Fund, Parents United for the D.C. Public Schools and the Washington Teachers' Union, urged school officials to prepare a detailed report outlining how the closings would improve education and how they would carry out the plan.”; Labbe, Theola S., Closings Proposal Gets Mixed Reaction: Four of Six Schools Targeted Are in S.E., The Washington Post, DZ03, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/17/AR2006051700777.html. “Parents and educators are taking a cautious approach to a proposal that would close six District schools, four of which are in Southeast. D.C. School Superintendent Clifford B. Janey said in a statement with his closing recommendations that his plan was needed because ‘an enrollment decline has created a situation in which [D.C. Public Schools] must continue to maintain over 1.9 million square feet of underutilized space in schools.’ Although there was little argument over the need to better use space and resources, there was some concern about the location of the schools that would be closed. . . . Education activists also are reaching out to parents at the schools that Janey has proposed to close. His announcement this week is part of a long-term effort to use space more wisely and redirect funds to improve student performance. The schools recommended for closure are: Fletcher-Johnson Educational Center, Shadd Elementary, M.C. Terrell Elementary and Van Ness Elementary in Southeast; Walker-Jones Elementary in Northwest; and Merritt Educational Center in Northeast.”; Woodlee, Yolanda, Student's Life Is Testament to Power of Mentors, The Washington Post, DZ03, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/17/AR2006051700894.html. “Mona Sanders, executive director of Mentors Inc., said that the citywide program, founded in 1987 by a parent, Shayne Schneider, and a principal, Betty Brooks, has 200 mentors and is open to any public or charter high school student. In 19 years, it has helped nearly 4,000 students prepare for college, explore careers and develop lifelong coping skills. More than 90 percent of its participants graduate. During her talk, [Onyebuchi] Olisemeka described how at age 16, she was the oldest freshman at Coolidge, where her first days ‘weren't good. In fact they were horrible,’ she said. Students teased her because of her foreign accent and short hair. She was despondent and about to drop out when she learned of Mentors Inc. She was paired with Shebba Ntangsi, a federal government consultant less than 10 years her senior.”
May 17, 2006: “D.C. School Closings Begin: The Process Is Painful But Unavoidable,” The Washington Post, A-22, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/16/AR2006051601816.html. Editorial: “The facts about D.C. public schools, as reported by V. Dion Haynes, leave the school board and superintendent with little choice. In the past five years, enrollment has declined by 10,000 students, to 58,000. Half of the system's 147 schools are underenrolled. No school district can afford to maintain such a vast inventory of underused buildings, especially when resources are needed to improve student achievement. The school board, to its credit, recognized the need to downsize the system through closing and consolidating several of its public schools. This week's recommendations on school closures by D.C. School Superintendent Clifford B. Janey are the first steps in implementing the board's sensible policy.”; Haynes, V. Dion, “Parents, Teachers Seek to Delay or Cut Back Janey's Proposal,” The Washington Post, B-04, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/16/AR2006051601645.html. “A coalition of parents, teachers and education advocates is urging the D.C. Board of Education to either scale back a plan to shutter six schools by August or delay the closings for a year. Members of the group -- which includes representatives from the District PTA, Parents United for the D.C. Public Schools, the Washington Teachers' Union and several other organizations — said yesterday that a one-year delay would allow more community input and more time to plan for the transfers of students and staff. They said they will try to make their case today at a meeting at which the board is to take a preliminary vote on the list of closings, which Superintendent Clifford B. Janey issued Monday. The board is scheduled to take a final vote June 28, with the closings going into effect two months later.”; “Rightsizing and Downsizing Schools,” The Washington Times, A-18, http://www.washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20060516-085749-4021r.htm. Editorial: “While more must be done, school officials should be commended for taking steps to rightsize the DCPS inventory, a thorny issue that must be consistently revisited every few years. Still, we read some discouraging reports about downsizing. Specifically, that ‘no school staffers will lose their jobs.’ That simply cannot be. If DCPS is losing thousands of students each year, necessitating the call to rightsize the inventory, then downsizing the payroll should be on the superintendent's to-do list as well.”; Wagner, Arlo, “Winning Thoughts: 40 Students Write How Justice Affects Their Lives, Those Nearby,” The Washington Times, B-01, http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20060516-102910-5777r.htm. “Forty students from 14 D.C. schools were rewarded yesterday for writing essays about justice and how it affected their personal lives and those around them. One student wrote about drugs on a neighborhood playground. A fourth-grade student wrote about ‘taxation without representation’ in the District. A few students wrote about the D.C. public school system, their school buildings and scarce resources. Several winners read their essays to nearly 150 other students, parents and teachers at the 19th annual Celebration of Youth at the Sumner School in Northwest yesterday.”
May 16, 2006: Doolittle, Amy, “6 Schools Slated to Close in City: Janey Says No Staff to Lose Jobs,” The Washington Times, B-01, http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20060515-111550-6487r.htm. “Members of the D.C. school board and Superintendent Clifford B. Janey announced yesterday the closure of six public schools before the fall term, an action that will move affected students into other facilities in a bid to downsize the system, save money and combine resources. The schools that will be closed are Shadd, Terrell and Van Ness elementary schools and Fletcher-Johnson Educational Center in Southeast; Merritt Educational Center in Northeast; and Walker-Jones Elementary School in Northwest. The recommendations are the first phase of a plan to close as many as 30 schools before the 2008 school year.”; Fisher, Marc, “This Is No Time to Be Timid,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/15/AR2006051501719.html. “Three years into Washington's experiment with charter schools, after they had sucked away 15 percent of the students from regular public schools, I asked then-Superintendent Paul Vance what he had changed to compete with the charters. His one-word answer: ‘Nothing.’ Seven years later, enrollment in the D.C. public school system has dwindled to the point that half its buildings are underused, and the new superintendent, Clifford Janey, is doing something: Yesterday, he announced the shuttering of six schools, with lots more to come in the next two years. This is not exactly the robust competition that boosters of charter schools had in mind. . . . Now, with 3 million square feet of excess space in a city that hungers for somewhere to put new housing and businesses, the school system would seem to be sitting pretty. Surely, it could sell off its excess space and use the money to bring other sorry buildings into the 21st century, or at least the 20th. Alas, yesterday's announcement heralded the most timid possible approach. But if this round of closings avoids upsetting the city's more affluent parents — no schools are slated for closing west of Rock Creek Park or on Capitol Hill — the picks also guarantee a pointless new round of battles over race and class. Five schools chosen for closing are more than 98 percent black. Four of the six are east of the Anacostia River, where 40 percent of the city's school-age population lives. . . . Credit Janey for closing schools that need to be shut down and for standing up to those who would have him mindlessly divide the closings equally by neighborhood, just to avoid headaches over race. But why take on the trouble if you're not going to win substantial new resources? Sure, some schools will get an extra reading or math teacher as the staff of a closed school joins a nearby facility. But Janey went out of his way to say that the principals of the shuttered schools will remain principals, no teachers will lose their jobs and even the building staff will stay on the payroll. Only the D.C. schools could come up with a downsizing that involves no personnel cuts and excludes the possibility of selling off unused properties, but still carries the potential to stoke the embers of the city's racial and class tensions.”; Haynes, V. Dion, “Janey Proposes 6 Schools to Close: D.C. Moves to Cut Underused Space,” The Washington Post, A-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/16/AR2006051601645.html. “D.C. School Superintendent Clifford B. Janey yesterday recommended closing six of the city's public schools by August, the first phase of an effort to shrink a vast inventory of underused buildings and redirect millions of dollars into academic programs to reverse dismal student achievement. Proposing the first school closings in the District in almost a decade, Janey said he selected the facilities based on their severe underenrollment, low academic achievement and poor physical condition, as well as the location of better schools within walking distance. The school board will hold public hearings on the plan and take final action June 28. Several board members and parent activists praised Janey's recommendations, saying that the list of closures made sense and that downsizing is long overdue in a 58,000-student school system that has lost 10,000 students in the past five years and badly needs to cut administrative overhead. Almost half of the system's 147 schools are underenrolled.”
May 15, 2006: Myers, Bill, “D.C. Schools Downsizing Plan Causes Anxiety for Some, Who Say Chaos Looms,” The Washington Exacminer, http://www.examiner.com/a-108245~D_C__schools_downsizing_plan_causes_anxiety_for_some__who_say_chaos_looms.html. “School reform activists say they’re willing to keep an open mind about D.C. Public Schools’ downsizing plan, but some say they have little hope that the plan will go smoothly. . . . Few dispute that Washington’s schools need to regroup after 10,000 students left the district in the past five years. Several schools are expected to be shut down as the district closes 1 million square feet of space, to be detailed in an announcement this morning. But critics say they’re worried that school officials haven’t thought the plan through and will end up cutting more muscle than fat. They also say they’re angry that officials haven’t done more to reach out to them.”; Nicholson, David, “Why D.C. Can't Read,” The Washington Post, A-17, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/14/AR2006051400804.html. “D.C.'s Master Education Plan pays lip service to the importance of libraries, calling for elementary schools to have librarians who work at least half time and for middle schools to have ‘a fully functioning library.’ But it says nothing about libraries in high schools. . . . [M]ore than half the city's schools — including seven high schools — have no librarian. . . . That shouldn't be surprising, however, in a system that believes computers are more important than books. It is committed to a kind of industrial education that focuses on measurable outcomes and that all too often seems designed for the convenience of teachers and administrators rather than for the students it's supposed to serve.”; “Rightsizing Schools,” The Washington Times, A-18, http://www.washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20060514-094343-4847r.htm. Editorial: “News reports have said up to 10 schools with low enrollments could be closed or consolidated by the end of this school year. There also have been reports of school mergers and traditional schools and charter schools sharing facilities. Initial plans were somewhat modified earlier this spring, when school authorities decided to include using underutilized schools for office space. All of the above efforts are needed. The fact of the rightsizing matter is that D.C. Public Schools' inventory consists of too many schools (140-plus) for its steadily declining enrollment, which now stands at about 55,600 students and continues to drop by the thousands each year. For taxpayers and underachieving students, the cost to maintain that many buildings is prohibitive. The Board of Education is scheduled to vote Wednesday on the Janey facilities plan. It's a vote that follows planning meetings among parents, activists and other stakeholders. It also follows a vote by the D.C. Council to appropriate hundreds of millions of dollars each year to renovate the school inventory. The superintendent's No. 1 challenge is to raise the academic stock of D.C. students. He can accomplish that by closing some schools, handing some schools over to private and non-for-profit organizations, and modernizing the remaining inventory for students and teachers. If Mr. Janey neglects to propose as much, and if he focuses on ‘the school system’ instead of the school students, then the board should have no problem rejecting his plan.”

May 14, 2006: Glazer, Lee, “Seeds — Not SEED — in Kingman Park,” The Washington Post, B-08, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/12/AR2006051201526.html. “The School for Educational Evolution and Development (SEED) wants a fenced, 15-acre campus for 600 students, and it went to the mayor and Congress to get it. At the request of D.C. Mayor Tony Williams, Congress agreed to give the land to the District for use as a publicly funded boarding school -- and SEED is the only such school in the city. SEED, which operates a 320-student boarding school in the District, receives ample public and private funding. It has spent more than $39.5 million in D.C. tax dollars to produce 41 graduates. And while the school boasts that all 41 have gone to college, what goes unsaid is that the graduation rate for entering seventh-graders is only 58.6 percent. More serious than this profligate use of public money is the question of what happens to SEED students who don't make it to graduation day. The school has an unusually high rate of suspension and expulsion. Even more students voluntarily leave after several years, often without receiving a single Carnegie unit toward high school graduation. Former SEED students have reported feeling traumatized and needing treatment for depression. Williams claims that if SEED is blocked, the site will become a mail-sorting facility. Legislation to that effect has not surfaced, and the mayor's statement seems calculated to force residents into an untenable "either-or" situation and to divert attention from the community's positive vision for the park. Washington's children are too precious to be the subjects of a dangerous educational experiment. City residents have the right to create more livable communities by expanding green space. Kingman Park should not be allowed to go to SEED.”

Haynes, V. Dion, Anxieties, “Criticism Precede Janney Decision: Downsizing Decision to Be Announced Tomorrow Could Cut the Equivalent of 10 Buildings,” The Washington Post, C-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/13/AR2006051301063.html. “The District is about to embark on a plan to close or consolidate several of its public schools, a downsizing with the potential to disrupt neighborhoods, distress parents and dislocate thousands of students. Shuttering schools is a painful experience for any community, experts say. But in the District's case, the anxiety and criticism have flared even before the announcement of which schools will be closed or merged. Many parents, teachers and independent analysts say that D.C. school officials are rushing a process that requires careful planning and extensive community input. School Superintendent Clifford B. Janey is to announce tomorrow how he proposes to eliminate 1 million square feet of space, the equivalent of about 10 schools. The school board, which gave Janey two months to come up with the proposal, is to take a final vote June 28, and the plan would go into effect when classes start Aug. 28. There is wide agreement that shedding space is long overdue in a school system that has lost 10,000 students in the past five years. But critics say school officials have not allowed enough time for the logistics of reassigning staff, moving records, presenting parents with transfer options and refurbishing the schools that will take in more students. They also contend that residents should have been given a greater role in developing the list of affected schools.”
May 13, 2006: “Political Vandalism: A D.C. Council Lin-Item Veto Would Return the Schools to the Bad Old Days,” The Washington Post, A-16, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/12/AR2006051201799.html. Editorial: “On Monday, the D.C. Council's Committee of the Whole is scheduled to consider a bill that guarantees a return to chaos in the governance of D.C. public schools. The legislation, crafted by council member Marion Barry (D-Ward 8), would amend the Home Rule Charter to give the D.C. Council a line-item veto over the D.C. Public Schools' budget. A better example of legislative overreaching and dangerous micromanagement would be hard to find. The Board of Education, by law, oversees the school system and is responsible for developing and implementing its budget. Inherent in the board's powers, which current board members fully exercise, is line-item authority over the budget. It is neither necessary nor practical for Mr. Barry and his colleagues to duplicate the school board's role — a point aptly made by Superintendent Clifford B. Janey in a letter to D.C. Council Chairman Linda Cropp earlier this week.”
May 9, 2006: Romano, Lois, “Boston's Success Could Be Lesson for D.C. Schools: Facing Similar Challenges a Decade Ago, Leader Persevered to Reverse Course,” The Washington Post, A-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/08/AR2006050801398.html. “In the past 10 years, the Boston schools, led by the same superintendent, have seen a steady upward trajectory of performance. State and national tests show that while reading gains have been slower, mirroring national trends, math performance has been extraordinary. Seventy percent of 10th-graders passed math last year, compared with 25 percent in 1998. During the same time period, proficiency in language arts among fourth-graders went from 4 percent to 25 percent. Eighth-grade math performance has gone from 11 percent proficient in 1998 to 17 percent proficient today. And 76 percent of the Class of 2004 — the most recent tally — pursued postsecondary education or training, up seven percentage points from the Class of 2000. Officials in Boston have achieved these gains with a school district that is remarkably similar to that of Washington, D.C., in terms of minority demographics, poverty levels and overall budget. Few would dispute, however, that today the two districts are a universe apart in quality of instruction, leadership stability and achievement.”
April 29, 2006: “A Dubious D.C. Distinction: Washington's School System Is the Only District in the Continental U.S. Declared 'High Risk' by the Feds,” The Washington Post, A-16, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/28/AR2006042801918.html. Editorial: “The U.S. Education Department is so concerned about the D.C. Public Schools' administration of federally funded programs that it has designated the system a ‘high-risk’ recipient of all grants received from that department. No other school district anywhere in the continental United States can claim that distinction. Only Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and American Samoa are in D.C.'s company. Superintendent Clifford B. Janey was notified of DCPS's unique standing in an April 21 letter from the Deputy Education Secretary Raymond Simon, reports The Post's V. Dion Haynes. The deputy secretary also used the occasion to remind Mr. Janey that ‘DCPS is currently at the lowest levels of state educational agency performance as measured by National Assessment of Educational Progress scores.’ Mr. Simon went on to advise the superintendent that ‘DCPS's average scores in the 2005 Trial Urban District Assessment (for reading and for math at both tested levels) were lower than every other participating city school district.’”
April 27, 2006: Fisher, Marc, “Dropouts Build New Foundations at D.C. Charter School,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/26/AR2006042602395.html. “Now they are back in school, on track to earn a diploma and know a trade -- construction, learned on the job, on Holbrook Terrace NE near Gallaudet University, where students from YouthBuild charter school are gutting and rebuilding three apartment buildings that will soon be sold as affordable housing. As the D.C. public school system prepares to shut down many of its smallest facilities, this school of 36 students — now completing its first year — is quickly starting to change lives. Students alternate between two-week sessions in the classroom on 14th Street NW and at the construction site. Given up for lost by the public schools, most of these students will start community college this fall. Few YouthBuild students live with a parent; they're on their own or with siblings, cousins or other relatives. One-third are parents themselves. Half are black and half are Latino. Eighty percent are 18 or older; the age range is 16 to 23. Eighty-four percent of the students come in reading at eighth-grade level or worse.”; Montgomery, Lori, “D.C. Was Warned in Charter Deal, Firm Says: Court Filing Denies Fraud in Handling of $21 Million for Schools,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/26/AR2006042602389.html. “Before selecting a newly formed Maryland firm to handle nearly $21 million in public charter school funds, District officials were warned that it had "no operating history" and that it planned to use the money to purchase a financially troubled corporation, according to papers filed yesterday in federal court. D.C. officials nonetheless entrusted millions in local and federal funds to Geneva Capital Partners LLC beginning in July 2003, when the private company was less than three months old, court papers show. Geneva later made a $250,000 loan to a company partly controlled by the city consultant who negotiated the deal. The information was contained in Geneva's response to allegations of fraud filed this month against the company and its owner, Eric M. Westbury of Silver Spring. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has accused Geneva of defrauding the District by using the city's money to prop up failing subsidiaries and by neglecting to tell D.C. officials that two of the city's advisers on the charter school fund had a financial stake in Westbury's companies. Geneva owes the District about $11 million. U.S. District Judge Deborah K. Chasanow has barred Westbury from making payments to any investors while the allegations are pending. A hearing is scheduled for May 12.”; Rupert, Mike, “Groups Challenge School's Success as Battle Over RFK Site Gets Under Way,” The Washington Examiner, http://www.examiner.com/a-90970~Groups_challenge_school_s_success_as_battle_over_RFK_site_gets_under_way.html. “Opponents of a plan by the SEED School to build a campus in the Kingman Park neighborhood near RFK Stadium are raising questions about the school’s academic record. SEED, the nation’s only urban boarding school, has been lauded by D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams and Congress as a national model. The school already has one campus in Southeast and plans to expand the program to at least four other states in the next few years. The group regularly boasts that all 41 of its graduates to date have gone on to college. But Lee Glazer, co-founder of local watchdog Save Our Schools, said the school has misled everyone by ‘weeding’ out underachieving students to pad graduation statistics. ‘Parents are being bamboozled,’ Glazer said. ‘What this is is a dangerous exercise in social engineering. They have spent $30 million of taxpayers’ money and only graduated 41 students.’ Dozens of parents of current and former students have written saying their children have been “forced out” of the school or held back for as long as four years.”
April 26, 2006: Rupert, Mike, “Council Members Attempt to Block Out New School,” The Washington Examiner, P. 5, http://www.examiner.com/a-89630~D_C__Council_members_move_to_block_school_expansion.html. “Several D.C. Council members are preparing to introduce legislation that would stop a charter school from opening a second campus in the Kingman Park neighborhood near RFK Stadium. Mayor Anthony Williams, an ardent supporter of the School for Educational Evolution and Development, the nation’s only urban boarding school, said the attempt to block its efforts was ‘ill-advised.’ The legislation, being supported by D.C. Council Members Adrian Fenty, Vincent Gray and Kwame Brown, coincides with neighborhood leaders’ plan to rally today outside of the offices of the SEED Foundation in Northwest to protest what they call an ‘outrageous’ attempt by the group to put a new campus in their neighborhood. SEED is proposing a 600-student campus — nearly twice the size of its current campus in Anacostia — on a 15-acre site that currently serves as a parking lot for RFK Stadium. Neighbors want to see the site reverted to parkland that would serve as an entry point for the planned state-of-the-art nature center to be built on nearby Kingman Island.”
April 25, 2006: Fisher, Marc, “When the Ax Falls on Schools, It Should Be About More than Size,” The Washington Post, B-01, “In the next few weeks, the D.C. school system will announce which schools will be closed because they are small. Meanwhile, parents are falling over one another to find places for their children in charter, parochial and private schools, in good part because those schools are small. Something is wrong with this picture. With the right leadership, small schools can do wonders by giving children the gift of intimacy. I am forever meeting teenagers who have dropped out of public schools because, as they always put it, ‘no one knew who I was.’ Those kids likely had other problems — drugs, pregnancy, a tattered home life — but they knew in their gut that if only someone had bothered to connect with them, they might have found school to be transforming. Yet one of the enduring tragedies of the D.C. schools is this: Smaller is not better. Here's how the Council of the Great City Schools put it in a recent study: ‘Nothing in D.C.'s data indicates that the system's small schools get better academic results than do its larger ones, or that the district has thought about how to take advantage of its small schools.’”; Haynes, V. Dion, “D.C. Schools' Accounting Is Termed 'High Risk': U.S. Education Officials Threaten Penalties,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/24/AR2006042401625.html. “The U.S. Department of Education has declared the D.C. school system at ‘high risk’ for mismanaging federal funds, a rarely used designation that puts the District in the same category as Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands and American Samoa, officials said yesterday. If the problems are not corrected, the school system could face — as a last resort — having an outside agency manage its $120 million in federal funds or could lose up to 1 percent of the money. Federal funds represent about 14 percent of the system's budget. The likely scenario is that the Education Department would work more closely with D.C. school administrators to resolve the accounting deficiencies, federal officials said. In an April 21 letter, Deputy Education Secretary Raymond Simon said federal dollars are jeopardized by numerous weaknesses in the school system, including lack of timely audits, poor monitoring of federally financed programs, lack of appropriate documentation for salaries and poor record-keeping on funding of charter schools.”
April 20, 2006: Cauvin, Henri E. “Tackling Truancy at the Source: Court Program Delves into Family Issues that Keep Kids from School,” The Washington Post, DZ-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/19/AR2006041901264.html. “In a public school system in which 21 percent of the students are chronically absent without an excuse, Garnet-Patterson is about average -- far from the worst but a long way from the best. The new program, started last fall by the court, the mayor's office and D.C. public schools, is a pilot effort to curb truancy by not only attacking the absenteeism itself but also by dealing with the family dynamics that often foster it, such as a relative's chronic illness or a lack of reliable child care. Parents are counseled, too, and not just in the 12 weekly meetings at the school. Social workers visit the families between meetings to help them find a job or a GED program or child care, whatever is needed to bring some stability and accountability to the families' lives. A few weeks into the program, accountability, it appeared, was having a hard time taking hold.”; Haynes, V. Dion, D.C. “Charter School Inquiry Widens: Inspector General Investigating Grades, President's Salary,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/19/AR2006041902554.html. “The D.C. Inspector General's office is investigating a Northeast Washington charter school's decision to pay a $100,000 salary to a board member who served as school president and allegations that the principal attempted to alter transcripts to improve the school's overall grade-point average, an official said yesterday. Deputy Inspector General Austin A. Andersen said his office has launched a probe of New School for Enterprise and Development, which the D.C. Public Charter School Board is closing June 30 for failing to meet a range of academic goals and to submit timely financial audits. Over its six years of existence, the 441-student school has operated on about $30 million of city money. All public charter schools receive city funds based on enrollment.”
April 19, 2006: Haynes, V. Dion, “Atypical Payments to Trustees Detailed: Salary Equalled Shortfall at NE Campus, Audit Shows,“ The Washington Post, B-04, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/18/AR2006041802107.html. “A Northeast Washington charter school that laid off employees citing a $100,000 budget shortfall was paying that much in salary to its chief executive, who was also president of its trustees, an internal audit shows. The audit says that the New School for Enterprise and Development paid Charles Tate, the chief executive and president, $100,000 in fiscal 2005. Board of trustees presidents usually are not paid and do not serve as administrators at the schools, an official with the D.C. Public Charter School Board said. The audit also says Tate had an agreement with trustees to receive up to $500,500 for work he did for the school before it opened in 2000. The audit's assertions come as an investigation is being launched into alleged grade tampering at the school, which the charter board intends to close June 30. The board contends that the New School failed to meet most of its academic targets and did not submit required financial audits on time. The charter board said last week that it is looking into allegations by two former staff members that the principal asked them to change student transcripts to raise the school's grade-point average, in what they said was an attempt to save the school.”; Lively, Tarron, “Students to Get Dinner Meals: About 25,000 in After-School Programs to Benefit,” The Washington Times, B-03, http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20060418-102820-4129r.htm. “Officials yesterday announced an expansion of the District's student-meal program to include dinners — part of a comprehensive plan to eradicate child hunger in the city within the next decade. The D.C. State Education Office, which facilitates the student-meal program, will expand to include a third daily meal for the approximately 25,000 students who participate in after-school programs, said Deborah A. Gist, the state education officer. Nutritiously-balanced dinners such as turkey, vegetables and juices will replace the small afternoon snacks currently provided -- fruit, graham crackers, granola bars and milk. The dinner program, which will operate in conjunction with the D.C. Parks and Recreation department, begins in about a month, Miss Gist said. The Partnership to End Childhood Hunger in the Nation's Capital, a group of nonprofit organizations dedicated to ending child hunger citywide, detailed the 10-point comprehensive plan at the Kennedy Recreation Center in Northwest.”
April 17, 2006: Haynes, V. Dion, “New D.C. Test Demands More than Circling an Answer: With Exam Next Week, Schools Busy Showing Students How to Turn Analytical Skills into Written Responses,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/16/AR2006041600814.html. “Washington students in grades 3 through 8 and grade 10 face a new standardized exam next week — one embraced by many but not all teachers — and the drilling for it has long since begun. . . . The exercise is one of many methods being used to spur high achievement on the D.C. Comprehensive Assessment System — nicknamed D.C. CAS — that replaces the long-standing Stanford 9 exam. Students will notice a key difference on the new test: In addition to multiple-choice questions, it includes many "constructed response" questions, requiring them to explain in three or four sentences how they arrived at their answers. The Stanford 9 test was entirely multiple choice. The Stanford 9 analyzed the performance of D.C. students based on the achievement of their peers across the country. The new exam will bring the system into compliance with the federal No Child Left Behind law, which requires systems to replace such ‘norm-referenced’ tests with exams that measure students against what they are taught in their classrooms.”
April 16, 2006: Haynes, V. Dion, “Allegations of Grade Tampering Spur Inquiry at NE Campus,” The Washington Post, C-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/15/AR2006041500870.html. “The agency overseeing the District's charter schools will investigate allegations that an administrator at a Northeast Washington charter school sought to alter students' transcripts to reach an overall grade-point average that would have allowed the facility to stay open, according to board officials. The allegations were made before the D.C. Public Charter School Board voted last month to revoke the charter of the New School for Enterprise and Development. The board decided to shutter the six-year-old high school June 30 after identifying an array of problems, including weak curricula, underqualified staff and a low schoolwide GPA of 1.8. Based on the funding formula for charter schools, the city has spent $30 million since 2000 to operate the New School, charter board officials said. The board agreed to send a four-member team of consultants to the school Wednesday to begin reviewing transcripts for each of the 441 students after it ‘had been given information about the questionable transcript situation,’ said charter board spokeswoman Nona Mitchell Richardson. The complaints were made by two one-time New School employees: Tyion Miller, the former registrar, and Maatenre Ramin, a former counselor, Richardson said.”
April 10, 2006: McElhatton, Jim, “School Board Loses Ruling,” The Washington Times, B-01, http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20060409-113632-4778r.htm. “A federal judge has decided that the D.C. Board of Education was wrong to reject a labor deal last fall with 1,350 part-time school-bus attendants. U.S. District Court Judge Paul L. Friedman approved the deal Friday. He also gave sole authority in brokering new and existing labor deals to David Gilmore, the court-appointed administrator in charge of the school system's troubled transportation division. Judge Friedman ruled that ‘neither the superintendent nor the District of Columbia Board of Education has authority’ to disapprove of labor deals negotiated by Mr. Gilmore. . . . Judge Friedman ruled that the school board's vote to reject the bus attendants' labor deal ‘violates the consent order and is null and void.’”
April 6, 2006: Cella, Michael, “Two Shot Outside School,” The Washington Times, B-01, http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20060405-102501-5979r.htm. “A 19-year-old student was seriously injured and an 18-year-old received minor injuries yesterday morning when they were shot outside a high school in Northwest. The incident occurred about 9:15 a.m., a half-hour after classes began, in a parking lot behind Theodore Roosevelt High School at 4301 13th St. According to police, the two male students were walking on the sidewalk along Iowa Avenue when shots were fired from a car that had just exited the school parking lot. The car then sped from the scene. Roosevelt High School backs up to MacFarland Middle School, on Iowa Avenue. Both schools were locked down until the end of the school day, and officials advised parents not to come to the school until that time.”; Haynes, V. Dion, “Vote Set on D.C. School Closings,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/05/AR2006040502349.html. “D.C. school officials released a schedule yesterday that shows that the school board will make a final decision June 28 on which schools to close or consolidate this fall, leaving two months to transfer students and teachers and get buildings ready for the mergers before classes begin Aug. 28. In a meeting with Washington Post editors and reporters, Superintendent Clifford B. Janey and board members discussed their plans to eliminate 1 million square feet of excess space by this fall and an additional 2 million by fall 2008. They said they think the public generally recognizes the educational and financial benefits of merging schools, in contrast to the widespread opposition that greeted previous school-closing efforts in which residents did not have as much input.”; Montgomery, Lori and Elissa Silverman, “District Notebook: Free School Could Be a Right,” The Washington Post, G7, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/05/AR2006040501007_2.html. “In 48 states, children have a constitutional right to a public education. The exceptions: Alabama, Iowa. And the District. Now, Parents United for the D.C. Public Schools is proposing to remove Washington from the list by amending the Home Rule Charter to declare that a ‘fundamental right to free educational opportunities is a basic value of our society and serves as a foundation of our democratic system of government. Accordingly, the District of Columbia is hereby obligated to provide a system of free high quality public schools to every child.’”; Schemo, Diana Jean, “Program on Vouchers Draws Minority Support,” The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/06/education/06voucher.html?_r=1&oref=slogin. “Amie is one of about 1,700 low-income, mostly minority students in Washington who at taxpayer expense are attending 58 private and parochial schools through the nation's first federal voucher program, now in its second year. Last year, parents appeared lukewarm toward the program, which was put in place by Congressional Republicans as a five-year pilot program, But this year, it is attracting more participation, illustrating how school-choice programs are winning over minority parents, traditionally a Democratic constituency. Washington's African-American mayor, Anthony A. Williams, joined Republicans in supporting the program, prompted in part by a concession from Congress that pumped more money into public and charter schools. In doing so, Mr. Williams ignored the ire of fellow Democrats, labor unions and advocates of public schools.”; Wilber, Del Quentin and V. Dion Haynes, “Drive-By Attack Wounds 2 Students Near D.C. School,” The Washington Post, A-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/05/AR2006040500909.html. “Two students were shot yesterday morning in a drive-by attack outside a Northwest Washington high school that sent dozens of other panicked youths racing for cover. The gunfire took place at 9:15 a.m. on a crowded sidewalk between Roosevelt Senior High School and MacFarland Middle School. Officials immediately hustled students inside the buildings and locked down both schools as police unsuccessfully searched for suspects. A 19-year-old senior was struck in the back and taken to Washington Hospital Center, where he underwent surgery and was in critical condition last night. The second victim, an 18-year-old senior, suffered a graze wound to the shoulder and was treated by a school nurse. Police officials did not release their names, but law enforcement sources identified the 19-year-old as Deonte Woodson.”
April 5, 2006: Montgomery, Lori, “D.C. Was Cheated, SEC Says: Firm Owes Funds for Charter Schools,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/05/AR2006040500035.html. “Federal securities regulators yesterday accused a Maryland firm of defrauding the District of millions in federal and local funds earmarked for D.C. charter schools, saying the firm used the cash to try to prop up two failing subsidiaries. In a complaint filed in federal court, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission alleges that Geneva Capital Partners LLC and its owner, Eric M. Westbury of Silver Spring, obtained investments of more than $21 million from the District without telling D.C. officials that two of the city's advisers had a financial stake in Westbury's firms. Westbury then used some of the cash to cover losses at his other companies, which together owe about $33 million to more than 2,000 small investors nationwide, the complaint says.”
April 4, 2006: McElhatton, Jim, “Audit Reveals School Project in Northwest Overdue, Costly: Army Corps Defends Work, Hits D.C. Officials,” The Washington Times, B-01. “A recent government audit has found millions of dollars in cost overruns and months of delays in the construction of Barnard Elementary School by the D.C. public school system and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Though the project was supposed to cost $17.1 million and be finished by September 2002 under a fixed-price contract, the school at 430 Decatur St. NW did not open until January 2003 and ended up costing closer to $21 million, according to the D.C. Office of the Inspector General.”; “A Trial Lawyer's Dream,” The Washington Times, A-20, http://www.washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20060403-091645-8883r.htm. Editorial: “D.C. Council member Kathy Patterson is poised today to introduce legislation that calls for changing the D.C. Home Rule Charter. Called the D.C. Eduation Rights Charter Amendment Act, the measure is being billed as guaranteed access to ‘a system of free high quality public schools to every child.’ Many appreciate the concept behind the amendment. But we suspect the change, if approved by the elections board and voters, will open up a series of litigious doors to various special-interest groups. . . . Mayor Tony Williams is seemingly on the same page as we are, reportedly saying that guaranteeing such educational rights by way of a charter amendment will likely open the "floodgates" to lawsuits. In fact, that is the precise effect following the implementation of federal and local laws as they pertain to special education. The D.C. Board of Education already has passed a favorable resolution on the amendment. Numerous legal and rights advocates have signed on as endorsers, including such liberals as Marian Wright Edelman and her husband, Peter, and the president of the Washington Teachers Union. The list of endorsers from prestigious law firms and law schools is unending. Indeed, the partial list of endorsers is a clear but ominous sign that the D.C. Education Rights Charter Amendment Act will likely mean bad news for children -- the very people its endorsers propose to aid.”
April 3, 2006: “Janey Springs Forward,” The Washington Times, A-16, http://www.washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20060402-112828-5525r.htm. Edtorial: “Mr. Janey's proposal calls for something this page has long advocated: Closing or merging schools to align them with enrollment and workforce trends. His is a plan that coincides with the D.C. Council's legislative proposal to pour billions into modernizing school facilities. If planned and implemented properly, the city can finally begin springing forward toward an effective public education system. If not, the city will continue frittering away lost academic and economic opportunities. As special-interest groups begin erecting surmountable hurdles, we urge elected and appointed officials to solicit the support necessary to turn around the city's school system. The means to that end can be achieved with earnest backing from parents, the Board of Trade and Capitol Hill.”
April 2, 2006: Haynes, V. Dion, “Closure Plan Draws Heated Objections: Fear of Losing Students to Charters Cited,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/01/AR2006040101222.html. “They crammed into a musty fifth-floor room without air conditioning for 3 1/2 hours yesterday to give the D.C. Board of Education a piece of their minds about a proposal to close or merge an estimated 30 schools. The crowd of about 100 parents, teachers and activists filled all the seats in the school board chambers, and nearly 40 of them took a turn launching a three-minute attack. Some criticized specific elements of the proposal, such as one that would generate money for the cash-strapped system by leasing space to fast-growing charter schools. And others offered impassioned arguments about why their schools should be spared from the chopping block.”; Porter, Stephen W., “Education Is Our Business,” The Washington Post, B-08, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/31/AR2006033101486.html. “Last month the D.C. Chamber of Commerce devoted its annual business summit to the city's public schools and to ways that businesses in the city could assist them. The chamber focused on the schools because the D.C. economy depends on their quality. On the surface, the D.C. economy appears to be in good shape because job creation is outstripping that of equivalent U.S. cities. However, finding D.C. residents who are qualified to fill these jobs has become a problem. Unlike most jurisdictions, the District has more jobs than residents. Unfortunately, suburbanites with advanced educations and skills, not city residents, are being tapped to fill many positions. Between 2000 and 2005 Washington added more than 30,000 jobs, but the number of employed D.C. residents actually fell by about 13,000. Simply put, D.C. residents are not participating in the economic growth of their city because they lack job skills to do so.”
Closure Plan Draws Heated ObjectionsApril 1, 2006: Haynes, V. Dion, “Principals Maneuver Over D.C. Closings: Officials Attempting to Combine Schools,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/31/AR2006033101896.html. “Ludlow-Taylor is among about a dozen underenrolled schools that might take advantage of an offer by Superintendent Clifford B. Janey to consolidate to avoid being closed. Janey, grappling with an enrollment that has declined by 10,000 students over the past 10 years, is scheduled by the end of the month to identify how he will eliminate about 1 million square feet of excess space -- the equivalent of 10 schools. The space must be eliminated by August. Next month, he is scheduled to outline how he will pare another 2 million square feet -- an estimated 20 schools -- by summer 2008. The Board of Education will hold a hearing today to solicit public comment on Janey's draft criteria for closing schools. He has not produced a specific plan for closing schools or estimated the amount of money consolidation would save. Whatever amount is saved, school officials say, would be invested into classrooms at remaining schools.”
March 31, 2006: Haynes, V. Dion, “12 Schools Open to Mergers,” Janney Says, The Washington Post, B-04, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/30/AR2006033001990.html. “D.C. School Superintendent Clifford B. Janey listed six pairs of underenrolled schools yesterday that he said have voluntarily begun discussions on consolidating with one another, and he encouraged other underutilized schools to follow suit. The school board has agreed to close or consolidate an estimated 10 schools by August and about 20 more by summer 2008, with plans to name all those schools this spring. At a public hearing tomorrow, Janey is to introduce his proposed criteria for choosing the schools. In an interview yesterday, Janey and three members of his staff said they have not decided whether the schools that are engaged in talks about consolidation will be on the list. But he said that such voluntary arrangements, if approved by the superintendent and the school board, would result in fewer schools having closure or consolidation forced upon them.”; Rupert, Mike, “D.C. Council to Introduce Education Rights Amendment: Effort Would Have to Be Approved by Voters on November Ballot,” The Washington Examiner, P. 7, http://www.examiner.com/Search-a63829~D_C__Council_to_introduce_education_rights_amendment.html. “Nine D.C. Council members are expected to introduce legislation next week that would guarantee District children the right to a ‘free high-quality education’ — a move that could ignite lawsuits against the long-troubled D.C. Public Schools. Parents United for the D.C. Public Schools, a consortium of school advocacy groups, unveiled the proposal Thursday, saying residents will have the opportunity ‘make a statement’ about what priority city officials should give to schools. City officials said the proposed change to the charter also would give Superintendent Clifford Janey and the D.C. Board of Education, both of whom have endorsed the proposal, more ‘leverage’ in budget request negotiations with the city. Mayor Anthony Williams said he is very supportive of the concept, but worries that measures like this could open up ‘the floodgates’ for lawsuits. Only the District and two states — Iowa and Alabama — do not have constitutional provisions requiring a system of free, high-quality public schools. Voters would have to approve any charter amendment in November.”; Rupert, Mike, ‘School Closure Picture Sharpens,’ The Washington Examiner, P. 4, http://www.examiner.com/Search-a63833~School_closure_picture_sharpens.html. “An analysis of D.C. Public Schools budget figures released this week gives some clue into which schools Superintendent Clifford Janey is considering closing or consolidating this fall. Eight elementary schools — all in Southeast and Northeast — which were listed separately in the budget figures released March 3 are now shown with consolidated budgets, according to figures released Wednesday. The enrollment figures for the schools are also combined in the most recent report. Other schools show significant changes in projected student enrollment for next year in comparison with the March 3 report. And some schools, including Van Ness Elementary in Southeast, no longer have budgets, according to the budget documents.”
March 30, 2006: Haynes, V. Dion, “Schools Lose Key Official to Minn.: Carstarphen Led Several Reforms,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/29/AR2006032902366.html. “Meria J. Carstarphen, a D.C. school official who has been in charge of some of Superintendent Clifford B. Janey's key initiatives, is leaving to become school superintendent in St. Paul, Minn. In a school system where turnover has long been a problem, Carstarphen's impending departure prompted concerns yesterday among D.C. Council members, school board members, parents and principals that academic reforms launched by Janey could be jeopardized. Carstarphen, 36, who was selected from among five candidates by the St. Paul school board Tuesday night, has been the D.C. school system's chief accountability officer for 18 months. During that time, she oversaw the development of reading and math standards introduced in the fall, completing in less than a year a process that typically takes three to five years in most school districts. She also assisted in the hiring of a record number of new teachers and principals last year and the introduction of a computer system.”; McElhatton, Jim, “School Official's Brief Tenure Draws Fire,” The Washington Times, B-03, http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20060329-103620-5957r.htm. “Some D.C. education officials are calling for new hiring practices after the school system's chief accountability officer accepted a job Tuesday as superintendent in St. Paul, Minn., after less than 18 months working for the District. The departure of Chief Accountability Officer Meria J. Carstarphen to St. Paul was met with dismay among D.C. school officials. ‘If we're making a commitment to paying a salary of $170,000, we're doing that to keep you here,’ school board member William Lockridge said yesterday. He said Miss Carstarphen "was doing a fairly decent job" in the District. Mr. Lockridge said he just learned last week that Miss Carstarphen had plans to leave.”; Rupert, Mike, “Key Architect of D.C. Public Schools Reform to Depart,” The Washington Examiner, P. 7, http://www.examiner.com/Search-a62627~Key_architect_of_D_C__schools_reform_to_depart.html. “A key architect of D.C. Public Schools’ sweeping academic reform effort is leaving to take the top job at the St. Paul, Minn., school district — after just 18 months on the job and before much of the plan has been implemented. DCPS Chief Accountability Officer Meria Carstarphen, 36, was chosen by unanimous vote by St. Paul’s Board of Education Tuesday to become superintendent of the 40,000-student school system. Carstarphen’s departure is the first by several top-level administrators hired by D.C. Superintendent Clifford Janey as he began a massive effort to reinvigorate the long-troubled school system. She was responsible for all school sites, students, assistant superintendents, and school principals and oversaw a budget of $350 million. While Janey lauded Carstarphen for her ‘effective’ but ‘brief’ tenure, he shrugged off concerns that her departure would slow academic reform efforts.”
March 27, 2006: McElhatton, Jim, “School Officer Looks at Leaving: Will Interview in Minnesota,” B-01, http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20060326-105729-8103r.htm. “The D.C. public school system's $170,000 per-year chief accountability officer is scheduled to interview for a job with another school district today, less than 18 months after filling the newly created D.C. position. Meria J. Carstarphen, 36, tied as the second highest-paid employee in the D.C. school system, is one of five candidates scheduled to interview for the St. Paul, Minn., school superintendent's job. The St. Paul Board of Education last week posted Miss Carstarphen's biography on its Web site and announced that it had scheduled interviews with her and other finalists for this week. Neither Miss Carstarphen nor D.C. school officials could be reached for comment yesterday. In October 2004, Miss Carstarphen was one of five key staff appointments made by incoming D.C. schools Superintendent Clifford B. Janey. She has been responsible for the schools' compliance with the federal No Child Left Behind Act and for implementing new academic standards. The job did not exist before her appointment.”; Rupert, Mike, “SEED School Mum on RFK Site Plans,” The Washington Examiner, P. 4, http://www.examiner.com/Top_News-a59114~SEED_School_mum_on_RFK_site_plans.html. “The D.C. Office of Property Management began soliciting offers Friday for the 15-acre site near RFK Stadium that has been set aside by federal officials — at the request of President Bush — for a pre-collegiate urban boarding school. Luckily for the School for Educational Evolution and Development, located in Southeast, and better known as the SEED School, it is the only such school in existence. . . . SEED’s director of new schools development, Michael Robbins, said the school, which announced plans for the site more than a year ago, has yet to see the solicitation notice and will likely not comment on its plans until later this week.”
March 21, 2006: McElhatton, Jim, “D.C. School Salaries Skyrocket,” The Washington Times, A-01, http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20060321-120724-7872r.htm. “More than a dozen D.C. public school system central office administrators are taking home base salaries of at least $150,000 per year, compared with just one official earning that much two years ago, according to an analysis of payroll records. The salary information, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, shows 14 central administration officials receiving a base pay of at least $150,000 in fiscal 2006, including five officials making $170,000 or more. By comparison, pay records approved by the Board of Education in July 2004 show only one administrator — former interim Superintendent Elfreda Massie — earning at least $150,000. She was paid $175,000.”; Montgomery, Lori, “Firm Fails to Return D.C. School Funds on Time,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/20/AR2006032002075.html. “A Maryland investment firm entrusted with more than $21 million in District and federal funds earmarked for D.C. charter schools missed a deadline yesterday to return the money and was asking for more time to come up with it, city officials said. ‘As of close of business today, no money has been paid and the parties are negotiating,’ said Traci Hughes, a spokeswoman for D.C. Attorney General Robert J. Spagnoletti. Spagnoletti and D.C. Chief Financial Officer Natwar M. Gandhi sent a letter Wednesday to Eric M. Westbury, president of Geneva Capital Partners LLC, saying the city had concluded that the firm may be ‘financially unsound’ and demanding return of the money within five days.”; “Wanted: A School Board Chief,” The Washington Post, A-16, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/20/AR2006032001456.html. Editorial: “The D.C. Board of Education, the official policymaking body for educational issues in the city, is in search of a president. The incumbent, and first school board president to be publicly elected citywide, Peggy Cooper Cafritz, recently announced that she will not seek reelection in the fall. . . . he position does require presiding over a strong-willed board consisting of five elected members (the president and four members from school districts), four at-large members who are appointed by the mayor and two student representatives. In addition, the school board president must juggle competing demands and occasional criticism from members of the D.C. Council, the mayor's staff, congressional committees, parents, school activists, the public, the media and potential opponents in the next election. . . . We would like to know what you think the D.C. school board president should bring to the table -- and who you think might be the right person for the job. Here's a Web page where you may submit your comments and read what others have said: http://blog.washingtonpost.com/editorialinbox/ ”
March 20, 2006: McElhatton, Jim, “Teachers Struggle to Find Parking: Spaces Lacking in School Lots,” The Washington Times, B-01, http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20060320-120805-9657r.htm. “Every school day, teachers in Columbia Heights leave their classrooms every two hours to move their cars because they cannot get special parking permits from city authorities. ‘It's been an issue for a while,’ says Sharon L. Bovell, principal of Harriet Tubman Elementary School. ‘We've had some teachers get tickets.’ About a dozen teachers at Harriet Tubman have to leave school each day because the school's parking lot isn't big enough to hold all of their vehicles, Miss Bovell says. George Telzrow, a social studies teacher at Cardozo High School in Columbia Heights, says the lack of available parking has forced many school employees to park near the end zone of the school's football field. . . . Parking looms as a problem at other schools in Columbia Heights, says Alex Hogan, a advisory neighborhood commissioner in Ward 1.”
March 19, 2006: “An Earmark Set on Its Ear,” The Washington Post, B-06, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/18/AR2006031800984.html. Editorial: “There is no evidence that the District's elected officials, including the mayor, Council members and elected members of the Board of Education, requested Congress to appropriate a single dime of the millions of dollars that were tucked into D.C. appropriations bills from 2003 to 2005 for charter schools. But lo and behold, the bill for fiscal 2003 emerged from Capitol Hill with $8 million earmarked for charter school improvements and an additional $5 million earmarked for a charter school improvements loan fund — to be spent without any oversight by the locally elected government. More money followed after fiscal 2003. Boasted a March 23, 2003 report by the Congressional Research Service, ‘These provisions demonstrate Congress's continued support for the District's charter school movement.’ Yeah, thanks. It seems as though Congress, in its wisdom and without consultation with local legislators or their constituents, initially delegated administration of the funds to the D.C. Banking Office but later switched custodians, bringing into the picture the little-known State Education Office. Today there is fear that some of the funds could have disappeared. Why? Because somewhere along the way, fund administrators decided to use the money like an endowment.”; Haynes, V. Dion, “Parents Fearful of School Closings: Smaller Enrollments Could Be Key Criterion,” The Washington Post, C-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/18/AR2006031801264.html. “As D.C. School Superintendent Clifford B. Janey moves swiftly toward recommending the closure or consolidation of an estimated 30 schools, many parents across the city are worried that he will heavily target buildings with the smallest enrollment. The school board, faced with a decrease of 10,000 students over the past five years, decided last month to eliminate 3 million square feet of space — the equivalent of about 30 schools — by August 2008. Last week, the board accelerated the pace of the downsizing, voting to shed the first million square feet of space by Aug. 28 of this year. Board members said that by leasing the space, they hoped to generate money quickly for the many schools that are threatening to cut staff and programs to cover projected shortfalls in their fiscal 2007 budget. Janey plans to announce next month which schools he wants to close or consolidate this year, and announce in May the schools he would close by 2008. School officials said he will provide the board this week with his criteria for selecting the schools. The guideline he has emphasized — in a ‘master education plan’ he issued last month and in subsequent comments — is enrollment. His master plan specified the minimum enrollment a school must have to be considered educationally viable: 320 students for an elementary school, 360 for a middle school and 600 for a high school.”
March 17, 2006: Strauss, Valerie, and Lori Montgomery, “D.C. Seeks Return of Funds: Md. Firm Investing for Charter Schools,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/16/AR2006031602093.html. “District officials are demanding the return of millions of dollars earmarked for charter school improvements and invested with a private Maryland firm, saying they are no longer certain the company is financially sound. Attorney General Robert J. Spagnoletti and Chief Financial Officer Natwar M. Gandhi co-signed a letter faxed Wednesday to Eric M. Westbury, a principal in Geneva Capital Partners LLC, demanding that Westbury return the funds within five days or face legal action. The dollar amounts on the investment certificates total more than $20 million, although a government source familiar with the case said the actual amount being sought is about $10 million. Most of the money was appropriated by Congress from 2003 to 2005 and placed in the D.C. Credit Enhancement Fund. The fund, which is administered by D.C. government officials, helps charter schools purchase, construct and maintain facilities by lending them money directly or leveraging loans from other institutions. City officials and D.C. charter school activists said the fund has assisted about 15 charter schools in recent years.”
March 16, 2006: Haynes, V. Dion, “Board Votes to Close More Schools by Fall: Budget Pinch Forces Speedup of Plans,” The Washington Post, B-05, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/15/AR2006031502813.html. “The D.C. Board of Education agreed last night to accelerate the school closing process, quadrupling, to 1 million square feet, the amount of excess space to be eliminated by the start of the next school year. Last month the board, noting a decline of 10,000 students over the past five years, voted to eliminate 3 million square feet of space by the summer of 2008. Under its original schedule, the system was to shed 250,000 square feet, or close three schools, by September. But with a budget drama unfolding, board members are seeking fresh ideas on how to provide quick money to the many schools that are threatening to cut staffs and programs to cover soaring costs in fiscal 2007. City schools, which submitted their budget proposals Friday, were told to factor in a three-year, 12 percent increase in teacher salaries because of a collective-bargaining agreement that is being negotiated. For Wilson Senior High School in Northwest Washington, according to officials there, the resulting $438,000 shortfall could force the elimination of up to six teachers.”
March 14, 2006: Haynes, V. Dion, “D.C. Schools to Test New Special-Ed Rule,” The Washington Post, B-03, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/13/AR2006031302083.html. “The D.C. Board of Education last night approved a controversial proposal that will place the burden of proof on parents who seek due-process hearings to challenge the adequacy of instructional plans for their special-needs children. Board members, who have been divided over the issue since it was introduced late last year, debated whether the policy change would reduce the system's $300 million special education budget, as intended, or would make it more difficult for parents seeking help. As a compromise, the board agreed to enact the policy for a year and then evaluate it. The measure, which takes effect immediately, will be evaluated to determine whether the number of due-process hearings has decreased, whether the school system is winning more of those cases and whether more disputes are settled in resolution meetings.”; McElhatton, Jim, “Schools Probe Security Company: Audit Found Double-Billing,” The Washington Times, B-01, http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20060313-104228-7403r.htm. “The D.C. public school system has begun an inquiry into the billing practices of a Vienna, Va.-based company that provided school security for more than six years. The inquiry comes after an audit by the D.C. Office of the Inspector General found instances of double-billing. The audit, completed earlier this month, also found that MVM Inc. failed to abide by contract requirements to replace absent school security guards. The D.C. Office of the Inspector General said it uncovered nearly $40,000 in questionable costs during a review of millions of dollars in invoices that MVM submitted from January 2002 to July 2003. The inspector general also recommended that the school system look into billing throughout MVM's tenure, from 1996 to 2003.”
March 13, 2006: McElhatton, Jim, “Union Fixes Filing Errors,” The Washington Times, B-01, http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20060312-112057-3252r.htm. “The parent organization of the Washington Teachers' Union said officials have fixed problems that federal regulators found in the local organization's 2005 financial report. The Department of Labor said last week that it was looking into unspecified deficiencies in the union's fiscal 2005 financial filing, which was due in the fall. A Labor Department spokeswoman declined to elaborate on the problems. A spokesman for the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), which oversees the Washington Teachers' Union, called the problems ‘routine technical shortcomings.’ A Labor Department investigator contacted the union in January over ‘some procedural questions in nature’ and added that there were ‘no questions of financial improprieties,’ AFT spokesman Alexander Wohl said.”
March 12, 2006: Haynes, V. Dion, “D.C. School Board Chief Won't Run Again: ‘I Want My Life Back,’ Cafritz Says in Her Sixth Year,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/11/AR2006031101076.html. “Peggy Cooper Cafritz, in the sixth year of a sometimes tumultuous tenure as D.C. school board president, said she has decided not to seek reelection in November. Cafritz said in an interview last week that she wants to spend more time with her 14-year-old son and resume taking in foster children. "I want my life back," she said. She also said that much of what she set out to do -- modernizing schools, establishing new academic standards and getting rid of uncertified teachers -- is in the works and that it is someone else's turn to fight the battle.”
March 11, 2006: “Janey's Masterful Stroke,” The Washington Times, A-12, http://www.washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20060310-092019-5033r.htm. Editorial: “In his recently released proposal, D.C. Superintendent Clifford Janey offered both insight into his ‘master’ plan for restructuring the D.C. Public Schools and his short-sightedness. Public charter schools, for sure, played a significant role in the superintendent's decision-making. Saying that declining enrollment in traditional public school translates into ‘a loss of $39 million in revenue,’ Mr. Janey all but conceded that the competition created by public charter schools was miscalculated by an entrenched bureaucracy. Since the first two public charter schools opened in the District in 1996, enrollment has jumped to nearly 18,000 while the number of schools has now reached 51. The popularity of charter schools continues despite the fact that traditional public schools discriminate against some students (sometimes for academic reasons and sometimes because of where the student lives). Attempting to turn around declining enrollment and recoup revenue, Mr. Janey offered a number of proposals, including consolidating three schools to save $2.9 million, increasing class sizes in the primary grades from 16 to 17 students to save $20.2 million and implementing an 8 percent cut in central-office staffing to shave $5.9 million off the operating budget. We applaud the superintendent for even acknowledging the fact that there is fat in the bureaucracy. But the central office must be cut, not merely trimmed. If Mr. Janey wants to mimic the charter-school movement (and we explain how he is doing that shortly), then he will propose deeper cuts in the bureaucracy.”; “Rebuilding D.C.'s Schools,” The Washington Post, A-18, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/10/AR2006031001877.html. Editorial: “The amount is as unprecedented as the goal is ambitious: to set aside $100 million a year of city sales tax revenue for at least 10 years to renovate and modernize the District's public school buildings. That is the plan the D.C. Council approved this week by a unanimous vote that followed months of debate, negotiations and pressure from a large grass-roots coalition of community activists, parents and educators. A council vote is no guarantee that fire sprinklers, air conditioning and state-of-the-art science labs will materialize in the District's crumbling schools anytime soon. But now school officials have the money to transform the buildings in which children are educated. As council member Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) said, ‘Providing the funding is actually the easier part of it.’ The next step is for Superintendent Clifford B. Janey and the Board of Education to see that wise use of the money leads to improvements in student achievement. The school board's track record on improving school facilities is not enviable. Previous capital budgets have been frequently overspent. A repeat performance would be disastrous, not only for students and parents, but for the effort to give the board greater responsibility. That well-founded concern is the basis for the council's requirement that the board provide a plan by May 1 detailing how the funds and the larger capital program will be managed. The new law also requires the superintendent to issue yearly benchmarks on rebuilding progress. Likewise, the board, working with Mr. Janey, will have to produce a plan to consolidate and close schools with excess space by fall. Only then can a useful modernization plan be implemented.”
March 8, 2006: McElhatton, Jim, “Teachers Union Again Under Federal Inquiry: Reporting Deficiencies Found in Filing,” The Washington Times, B-01, http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20060307-114254-5025r.htm. “The U.S. Department of Labor yesterday said it has begun a new inquiry into financial reporting deficiencies at the 4,500-member Washington Teachers Union. The Labor Department's Washington field office opened the inquiry after federal regulators rejected the union's fiscal 2005 report because of undisclosed shortcomings, officials said. A Labor Department spokeswoman yesterday declined to elaborate on the deficiencies in regulatory filing, citing an active inquiry into the matter. Spokeswoman Leni Fortson said the union's financial report for 2005, due Sept. 28, was rejected because of "deficiencies." She said regulators in the Washington field office have since opened up a ‘deficiency case’ to ‘garner an acceptable report.’ The Labor Department disclosed the inquiry yesterday in response to a request by The Washington Times earlier this week for the union's 2005 financial information.”; Weiss, Eric, “$1 Billion More Voted for Schools: $100 Million a Year Would Go to Renovations,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/08/AR2006030800031.html. “The D.C. Council yesterday approved an unprecedented $1 billion-plus effort to rebuild crumbling school buildings, which city leaders see as a key to drawing families into the city and keeping them there. The plan, adopted unanimously, sets aside $100 million a year, for at least a decade, of city sales tax revenue to repair public schools. The money would be in addition to the city's regular yearly spending and borrowing for education -- roughly doubling, for now at least, the dollars going for school modernization. . . . With the school board planning to close underpopulated schools and Superintendent Clifford B. Janey working on a comprehensive school facilities plan, council members say there is a window of opportunity for dramatic improvement in the chronically underperforming system.”
March 6, 2006: Hiatt, Fred, “‘Poised to Make a Difference’ in D.C. Schools,” The Washington Post, A-15, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/05/AR2006030500942.html. “By rights, D.C. school Superintendent Clifford Janey should not be as cheerful and relaxed as he appears. Last year, his first in Washington, only 11 percent of his fourth-graders and 12 percent of his eighth-graders scored at or above “proficient’ in reading, according to figures contained in the "Master Education Plan" he published last week. Enrollment is steadily declining, as private and charter schools entice students from a dysfunctional system; more than 2,200 high school places are empty. This year there are 4,247 ninth-graders and only 2,318 12th-graders, the difference providing some measure of how many children are lost to the system before they graduate. More than a third of high school students are overage for their grade, usually because they've been held back at least once. . . . What might be among his most far-reaching reform proposals is barely hinted at, in two paragraphs on the 91st page of a 122-page report. There Janey holds out the possibility of giving more ‘flexibility and autonomy’ to high-performing or improving schools. Other systems (most famously Edmonton's, in Canada) have found that this can work: Make the principal responsible for progress, then free the principal from the downtown bureaucracy. If the school can fix its own broken windows faster and more cheaply, let it. If it wants to hire an extra music teacher in place of a guidance counselor, go for it. But this works only if principals can hire the teachers they want to hire, something that teacher union contracts up until now have made extremely difficult. Janey is in the process of negotiating a new contract (which is already almost two years overdue). As one measure of how serious he is about reform, watch whether he manages to pave the way for at least a pilot autonomy program for, say, 10 schools in the first year.”
March 5, 2006: Haynes, V. Dion, “Questions Cloud School Transition Plan: Funding Among Critics' Issues with Academies,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/04/AR2006030400907.html. “D.C. School Superintendent Clifford B. Janey's proposal to turn five low-performing high schools into specialized academies has prompted debate over whether the schools would be given enough money and expertise to carry out the plan. Janey acknowledged that the idea, part of a ‘master education plan’ he presented last week, is central to his effort to persuade more parents to keep their children in the public school system after the elementary grades. It is also an attempt to compete more effectively with the city's independently run public charter schools, which enroll 17,419 students, compared with the traditional system's enrollment of 58,394. There are 15 charter high schools in the District, including a boarding school and schools focusing on such areas as law, public policy, electronics, foreign languages and the hospitality industry. Under Janey's proposal, which would take effect in fall 2008, Spingarn Senior High in Northeast would become a boarding school for students interested in construction trades; Ballou, in Southeast, a media and communication arts school; Anacostia, in Southeast, a health and medical science school; and Cardozo, in Northwest, a ‘trans-tech’ school for the study of transportation and aeronautics.”
March 3, 2006: McElhatton, Jim, “Truancy Officials Noticeably Absent,” The Washington Times, B-01, http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20060302-105551-3701r.htm. “Nearly half the positions in a D.C. public school system division charged with fixing the city's truancy problem remain vacant despite absence rates that have ranked highest in the region and well above the national average. Five of the 12 positions in the school system's office of intervention services are not filled, including the director's post, according to 2006 school pay records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. The vacancies come at a time when the school system is facing questions over its high truancy rates and over whether officials accurately process and report data. School districts are required to report truancy rates under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.“
March 2, 2006: Fisher, Marc, “Big Plans Haven't Produced D.C. School Reform,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/01/AR2006030102312.html. “You could heat your house for an entire winter using as fuel the massive D.C. school reform plans churned out every few years. When a lesson repeatedly fails to click, good teachers don't hammer children with the same plan; they try another approach. Elements of Janey's plan are worthy, even exciting. He seems serious about addressing the system's embarrassing roster of empty or nearly empty buildings, a resource that could be used to create state-of-the-art facilities at relatively little cost. But he has fallen victim to a disease that has consumed too many of his predecessors -- the master plan syndrome. Superintendents rarely stick around for more than three or four years, not remotely enough time to implement grand plans. The D.C. schools will get better one classroom and one school at a time, and the people who will make them better are talented principals with the authority to hire passionate teachers and motivate children, parents and neighborhoods. Superintendents who spend their time with fancy consultants churning out thick reports succeed only in burnishing their résumés and deepening the city's reservoir of cynicism.”; Rupert, Mike, “$1.1 Billion Schools Budget Approved: D.C. Council Will Be Next to Take Up Proposal, $2 Billion Modernization Plan,” The Washington Examiner, B-05, http://www.dcexaminer.com/articles/2006/03/02/news/d_c_news/04newsdc02schoolsbudget.txt. “D.C. Public School Board members approved Superintendent Clifford Janey's $1.1 billion 2007 fiscal year budget proposal on Tuesday, just 18 hours after they had received details of the plan - but the proposal didn't satisfy everyone. Board Member Jeff Smith, who represents Wards 1 and 2, said he couldn't support a plan when there were still so many questions left unanswered. While others agreed, the questions were not enough to stop the board from voting 5 to 2 in favor of the proposal, which now heads to the mayor's office. Smith and Board Member William Lockridge, Wards 7 and 8, voted against the proposal. Janey's proposal, which had already been delayed for months as he reworked it to better align with his recently released education reform plan, was expected to be delivered to Mayor Anthony Williams Wednesday night. Janey originally asked for a two-month extension in December.”
March 1, 2006: Rupert, Mike, “Can DCPS Pay for Reform Efforts?,” The Washington Examiner, P. 5, http://www.dcexaminer.com/articles/2006/03/01/news/d_c_news/05newsdc01dcps.txt. “D.C. Public Schools Superintendent Clifford Janey touts his master education plan as the culmination of a yearlong community effort to create a "blueprint" to help reform the city's struggling schools. But can the school system afford the $264 million plan with just $42.8 million set aside for the effort? And how much are some schools willing to sacrifice as others reap the benefits of the plan? The D.C. Board of Education will immediately have to come up with answers to these difficult questions as it meets today to approve the fiscal 2007 budget. Janey, who was granted an extension in December to include portions of his Master Education Plan, has until tonight to send his proposal to the mayor.”
February 28, 2006: Haynes, V. Dion, “D.C. Schools May Specialize: Janey Proposal Is Effort to Boost Student Achievement,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/27/AR2006022701407.html. “D.C. School Superintendent Clifford B. Janey yesterday proposed converting five of the city's public high schools into specialty schools by the fall of 2008 as part of a broad plan to boost student achievement at all grade levels. Janey's "master education plan" also calls for an expansion of preschool and pre-kindergarten classes, more language immersion programs in middle schools and more math and science courses in high schools. Starting in the fall of 2007, he would replace the school system's current hodgepodge of grade configurations with a standard structure for all elementary and secondary schools. The 120-page document, which Janey has been working on for a year, is aimed at introducing more rigor, organization and accountability to the beleaguered 58,394-student system, in which 80 of 147 schools are on a federal watch list because of weak test scores.”; McElhatton, Jim, “IRS Hits School Constractor,” The Washington Times, B-01, http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20060227-103741-2261r.htm. “A Rockville-based company that has won a multimillion-dollar speech therapy and health services contract with the D.C. public school system has been hit with a claim for more than $500,000 in unpaid federal taxes. Atlantic Health Services Inc. also is bankrupt and owes about $600,000 to a local contractor that sued the company in D.C. Superior Court over a business deal gone awry. The company remains in business while seeking to restructure it debts, which include financing on a 2004 Mercedes-Benz and $550,000 in personal loans by the company's chief executive and chief financial officer, bankruptcy records show. The company's chief executive, Donald Gladstone, did not return phone messages yesterday. The company filed for Chapter 11 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Greenbelt in January.”; Rupert, Mike, “D.C. Schools Superintendent Unveils Master Education Plan: $264 Million Program Costs Nearly Twice What District's System Has Available,” The Washington Examiner, B-03, http://www.dcexaminer.com/articles/2006/02/28/news/d_c_news/00newsdc28mep.txt. “D.C. Public Schools Superintendent Clifford Janey on Monday unveiled his long-awaited Master Education Plan, which calls for higher academic standards and sets the stage for schools closings, consolidations, and the reorganization of neighborhood schools and grade configurations. The 124-page document outlines what Janey has called "a major face-lift" for the beleaguered school system, which has lost nearly 20,000 students during the past decade. Full implementation of the plan, which covers everything from technology improvements to class size to teacher training requirements, will cost DCPS $264 million over the next three years nearly twice what the system has available. DCPS spokeswoman Roxanne Evans said the system has not identified exactly where the additional funding will come from, but added it could request more money from the D.C. Council.”; Zonker, Brett, “Janey Eyes Overhaul of City's Schools,” The Washington Times, B-03, http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20060228-120314-6119r.htm. “D.C. Superintendent Clifford B. Janey called for an overhaul of the city's middle schools and new standards for all grade levels yesterday as part of his master education plan for the troubled school system. The plan would require all elementary and middle schools to commit a set amount of classroom time to reading, math and science every day and would add additional community service and math requirements to the high school curriculum. It also includes new initiatives to create more specialty high schools, including a Latin school, and vocational schools for construction and hotel careers. Some of the proposals for restructuring schools are similar to the city's popular charter school movement, which has grown to serve nearly 20,000 students. Enrollment in the public schools has fallen by the about same number of students over the past 10 years to 59,000 students this year.”
February 27, 2006: McElhatton, Jim, “Labor Probe Showed Flawed WTU Vote,” The Washington Times, B-01, http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20060226-110627-7697r.htm. “The Washington Teachers Union and its parent organization last year ruled that four members' complaints over election irregularities did not warrant further investigation, even though federal regulators later found problems so widespread that they now want to force a new election, documents show. The Labor Department says its investigation into the local union elections last year and in 2004 showed ineligible voting as well as members who did not receive ballots, denying them the right to vote. The investigation was prompted from challenges filed by four union members, including one who ran unsuccessfully for the union's presidency. Seeking a court order to void the election results, federal regulators filed a lawsuit Feb. 15 in federal court in the District against the 4,500-member union. The complaint says the irregularities might have swayed results. The American Federation of Teachers (AFT), which ran the election and operated the local union for two years after an embezzlement scandal, has sent letters to local teachers defending the elections as "neutral and fair.¦”
February 24, 2006: McElhatton, Jim, “Ex-School Official Indicted in Bribe, Conspiracy Case,” The Washington Times, B-01, http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20060223-104312-1758r.htm. “A former business manager with the D.C. public school system has been indicted for her role in a series of deals in which federal prosecutors said tens of thousands of dollars was traded for contract work and phony invoices. Lorelle S. Dance, who for years handled contracting duties for several D.C. elementary schools, faces felony bribery and conspiracy charges for giving preferential treatment to a Maryland contractor, prosecutors said. She faces up to five years in prison under a conspiracy charge and up to 15 years for bribery under an indictment handed up by a federal grand jury earlier this week, said Channing Phillips, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office. According to the indictment, Miss Dance, who left the school system in 2003, steered work to two Maryland firms owned by former contractor Charles Wiggins, in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars, including monthly mortgage payments for her house.”
February 23, 2006: McElhatton, Jim, “Teachers Union Defends Elections,” The Washington Times, B-01, http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20060221-111307-8391r.htm. “The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) defended its handling of last year's Washington Teachers Union elections yesterday, days after federal regulators sought to void the results because of irregularities that may have swayed the outcome. George Springer, the AFT administrator who oversaw the voting, said officials made "an extensive effort" to reach the union's 4,500 members, which resulted in high turnout. However, the U.S. Department of Labor last week filed a lawsuit against the Washington Teachers Union in federal court in the District. The suit, which seeks to force the union to hold new elections, said some teachers never received ballots and others who were ineligible voted.”
February 22, 2006: Haynes, V. Dion, “Federal Court Is Asked to Void Last DC Teachers Union Election,” The Washington Post, B-04, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/21/AR2006022101686.html. “The U.S. Department of Labor has asked a federal court to overturn the results of a Washington Teachers' Union election held more than a year ago and to order a new election of union leaders. Union members chose 21 officers, including President George Parker, in a December 2004 election and a January 2005 runoff, both of which were conducted by mail. At the time, the 4,500-member union was returning to self-rule after a two-year takeover by the American Federation of Teachers, which assumed control following a financial scandal involving former union president Barbara Bullock. Bullock was imprisoned after pleading guilty to conspiracy and mail fraud charges. Parker pledged to reform and bring together a union plagued by corruption and discord. But after a nearly nine-month investigation, the Labor Department filed a complaint last week in U.S. District Court asking a judge to declare the last election void. The complaint alleges that the union violated federal law by failing to mail ballots and notices about the contest to all its members 15 days before the election. Several hundred members did not receive ballots, according to the teachers who initially complained about the voting. The department also said the union violated its bylaws by allowing retired teachers to vote.”
February 21, 2006: “Charter School Dust-Ups,” The Washington Times, A-14, http://www.washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20060220-101002-3166r.htm. Editorial: “There has been substantial movement on several fronts in recent weeks that threatens public charter schools, the very backbone of school choice in the District of Columbia. Consider legislation introduced Feb. 7 by D.C. Council member Kathy Patterson. The Public Charter School Assets and Facilities Preservation Amendment Act of 2006 would amend both the D.C. Public Charter School Act of 1996 and the D.C. School Reform Act of 1995 to mandate that all assets of a closed charter school ‘be deemed the property of the District of Columbia.’ Assets include such things as textbooks and computers, as well as real property. The offense in this egregious legislative move is that D.C. lawmakers assume -- mistakenly, we hope -- that Congress and school-choice proponents will simply ignore the fact that local authorities are trying to amend federal legislation. . . . These and other heavyhanded tactics are worrisome. On the one hand, they prove that charter schools are performing an important role in public education -- competition. (Enrollment numbers provide more than circumstantial evidence.) On the other hand, these actions prove the need for both federal lawmakers and school-choice proponents of all stripes to stand ever vigilant. It is possible that since authorities have yet to reform DCPS that they now want to get rid of their No. 1 competitor -- which, of course, is charter schools.”; “A Shrinking School System,” The Washington Post, A-14, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/20/AR2006022001235.html. Editorial: “It should come as no surprise that D.C. School Superintendent Clifford B. Janey has proposed decreasing the teaching staff, reducing central-office spending and consolidating schools. The numbers explain why he was forced to act. D.C. public schools had projected an enrollment of nearly 61,870 students in the 2005-06 school year. The newly certified enrollment, however, turned out to be 58,394. The decline can be attributed to charter schools, an alternative educational system that has grown from 6,980 students in 2000 to 13,575 last year. The shrinkage in traditional public school enrollment has produced unavoidable consequences. The city's chief financial officer was forced to revise downward the school system's expected revenue, thus leaving a budget gap of $84.8 million that Mr. Janey is trying to close with staffing and central-office cuts and school consolidations. At issue is whether Mr. Janey can achieve his desired reductions in staffing levels and spending without further compromising education in the classroom.”
February 19, 2006: Lively, Tarron, “Newly Founded School Joins Voucher Program,” The Washington Times, A-10, http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20060218-105838-6369r.htm. “A private school in Northwest this fall will be the first newly formed school in the District to join the city's voucher program. J. Daniel ‘Danny’ Hollinger, who founded Rock Creek International School 18 years ago, announced last week that he has founded Coeus International School, at 4401 Connecticut Ave. NW. Coeus officials said the school is another possibility for students trying to earn an education through the federally funded voucher program, particularly those who have scholarships but cannot find space in the city's few non-public high schools. . . . The curriculum at the 15-teacher, 100-student school will include dual-language immersion in Arabic, French, Mandarin and Spanish and will focus on experiential learning inside and outside the classroom, Mr. Hollinger said. He said the interconnected curriculums at Coeus will offer students a unique learning opportunity. . . . The school is accepting applications for students in the fifth through 10th grades. Grades 11 and 12 will be added in the 2007-2008 school year, and a lower school will be added as soon as possible, school officials said. Tuition will cost about $26,000 a year. Voucher recipients will be required to pay $250. The remainder is covered mostly by financial aid and other scholarships, Mr. Hollinger said.”
February 17, 2006: Rupert, Mike, “Modernization Plan Now in Doubt: City May Not Have Funds to Overhaul Schools,” The Washington Examiner, P. 5. “A $3 billion proposal to overhaul the District's aging public school buildings was thrown into question Tursday after city officials said the money that was to be set aside for the project is simply not there. The bill, which would set aside millions each year in sales tax revenue to fund the project, was given initial unanimous approval by the D.C. Council on Feb. 7. But new numbers from D.C. Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi show the city is $55 million short.”; Rupert, Mike, “Plans for NE Charter School Halted: Emergency Regulations Snare Project,” The Washington Examiner, online, http://www.dcexaminer.com/articles/2006/02/17/news/d_c_news/03newsdc19appletree.txt. “The D.C. Zoning Commission approved emergency regulations this week that restrict the ability of public schools to locate in city neighborhoods - essentially killing the plans of a charter school organization to put a preschool on a heavily residential stretch of 12th Street NE. The temporary regulations, which were approved unanimously, are effective immediately and can be left in place for up to 120 days. The new regulations limit the lot size, street setbacks and parking availability. The AppleTree Institute, a nonprofit group that runs a similar school in Southwest, had hoped to turn the two-story brick building into a school for as many as 55 students. When AppleTree bought the building for $1.5 million in July, the minimum lot size required for location in the neighborhood was 4,000 square feet with a lot width of 40 feet. The new regulations raise these figures to 9,000 square feet and 120 feet, respectively.”; Weiss, Eric M. “Reserves, Deed Tax May Plug D.C. Gap,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/16/AR2006021602188.html. “The District's chief financial officer yesterday estimated that revenue will be $45.3 million more than initially projected for the next budget year. But D.C. Council members were hoping that revenue growth alone would be enough to replace the $100 million in sales tax revenue they plan to commit to rebuilding schools in fiscal 2007, the first year of a council measure calling for the District to spend $1 billion in the next decade to modernize schools. In response to estimates released yesterday by Chief Financial Officer Natwar M. Gandhi, council leaders said they would amend their legislation -- scheduled for a second, and final, vote March 7 -- to tap District reserves for the first year and to increase the deed recordation tax in later years if necessary. The council gave the bill preliminary approval this month.”
February 15, 2006: Haynes, V. Dion, “D.C. Considers Teacher, Staff Cuts to Help Make Ends Meet,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/14/AR2006021402432.html. “D.C. School Superintendent Clifford B. Janey last night proposed reducing the teaching staff by 351, cutting central office spending by 8 percent and consolidating three schools, efforts aimed at aligning expenditures with a declining enrollment and closing a budget gap. Janey made the recommendations as part of the proposed fiscal 2007 budget, which he outlined at a public hearing. The budget, which will be submitted March 1 to Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D), was delayed for more than two months to give Janey an opportunity to include in it some ideas from his coming comprehensive plan on school reforms.”
February 14, 2006: Haynes, V. Dion, “Vote on Special-Ed Disputes Postponed: Resolution to Shift Burden of Proof Divides D.C. School Board Members,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/13/AR2006021301988.html. “The D.C. school board yesterday tabled a resolution seeking to change a law that puts the burden of proof on the school system when its instructional plans for special education students are challenged by parents. . . . Advocates of the change, noting that the District school system spends a disproportionately large portion of its budget on special education, contend that shifting the burden of proof to parents could reduce the number of legal challenges filed against the system and save money. But other board members say requiring the school system to show why its plans are adequate is an appropriate safeguard, given the system's long-standing problems in delivering special education services. They also argue that school administrators have offered little evidence that changing the law would have much financial impact.”
February 13, 2006: “Public Charter Schools,” The Washington Times, A-, http://www.washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20060212-101456-5305r.htm. Editorial: “A local group called Northeast Neighbors for Responsible Growth filed a lawsuit Feb. 2 in D.C. Superior Court seeking to block the opening of a charter school on Capitol Hill. It claims that noise and traffic generated by the attendance of 50 or so preschoolers would cause "irreparable" harm to both the residents of Capitol Hill and the historical character of the neighborhood. But the residents also claim something else that is very sinister: that charter schools are not public schools. . . . The fact of the matter is that the lawsuit filed by these Capitol Hill residents poses a potential threat to charter schools throughout the country. And what the residents are asking of Apple Tree outside of the lawsuit -- to seek an exemption from the zoning board -- would set a bad precedent. In the District as elsewhere, parents and other advocates of school choice fought the long good fight to establish public charter schools as academic alternatives to large, violent and underachieving urban schools. In some states, parents are still battling the status quo. All Apple Tree wants to do is open a preschool for 50 or so children. The notion that doing that in a residential neighborhood would cause ‘irreparable’ harm simply does not have sturdy legal legs. Neighborhoods and schools -- especially schools for preschoolers and grade schoolers -- have always been perfect partners. That's precisely why they are called neighborhood schools.”
February 8, 2006: Weiss, Eric, “Council Promises Schools Millions: D.C. Sales Taxes Could Fund Repairs,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/07/AR2006020701251.html. “The D.C. Council unanimously approved the largest investment ever in the city's crumbling school buildings yesterday, pledging to dedicate $100 million a year in sales tax revenue for renovations and expansions. Combined with the pledge this week by the city's Board of Education to close 3 million square feet of underused school space, school proponents said the pieces are in place for the biggest transformation of the city's long-troubled school system since the District won home rule in the 1970s.”

February 7, 2006: Wilgoren, Debi, ”D.C. Deal Could Get Schools, Libraries: City Would Let Developers Build Housing, Shops,” The Washington Post, A-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/06/AR2006020601526.html. “The old schools and libraries need to be replaced. Developers are hungry for space for even more condominiums. So D.C. officials want to make a deal: The developers would build new libraries, schools and maybe even police stations, and get the privilege of putting condominiums or shops on top of or alongside them. . . . Even as the District and federal governments are considering proposals to increase funding to rebuild libraries and schools, Cropp (D) has introduced a bill to launch private redevelopment of some of those facilities as a way to bring in corporate dollars and move projects more quickly through the pipeline. The approach is being used increasingly to renovate libraries in other cities but remains rare on public school campuses. Aides to D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) say more than a dozen sites are ripe for public-private development and could make way for hundreds of new apartments or offices, along with new facilities, boosting the city's tax base and population. City planners cite such complexes as the Marie H. Reed Community Learning Center in Adams Morgan -- a four-acre compound smack in the center of one the District's liveliest neighborhoods.”

February 5, 2006: Montgomery, Lori, “Record Funding Boost Likely for Schools: Costly Stadium Plan Provoked Advocates to Fight for Systemwide Renovations,” The Washington Post, C-06, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/04/AR2006020401008.html. “The D.C. Council is expected to approve the biggest school funding increase in city history after months of pressure from more than 1,000 parents, educators and activists galvanized by the decision to pay millions for a new ballpark. Long rebuffed in their pleas for more money for decrepit public schools, frustrated parents said they were outraged when the mayor and council agreed in 2004 to spend more than $500 million on a baseball stadium, a price tag that since has risen. Over the past year, groups across the city banded together to form a single, powerful lobby focused on forcing city leaders to do for schoolchildren what they agreed to do for Major League Baseball. The campaign appears to have worked. On Tuesday, the council is expected to give preliminary approval to a bill that would devote an additional $100 million a year -- $1 billion over the next decade -- to school modernization, enough to complete a systemwide overhaul. Although debate continues over how to fund the measure, council Chairman Linda W. Cropp (D) said passage is all but assured, and a spokesman said the mayor intends to sign it.”
February 3, 2006: McElhatton, Jim, “Busing Budget Under Review: Some Salaries, Deals Under Review,” The Washington Times, B-01, http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20060202-103631-6671r.htm. “The transportation division for D.C. special-education students is coming under sharp scrutiny after recent budget submissions that include consulting contracts and a payroll accounting error showing a bus attendant earning more than $1.8 million a year. Schools Chief Financial Officer John Musso requested the review in a Jan. 17 letter to David I. Gilmore, the division's court-appointed administrator, according to recent federal court filings obtained by The Washington Times. Mr. Musso also is asking for a breakdown of all $350,000 in consulting deals, $500,000 for satellite technology in buses and an explanation for giving no-bid contracts to instructors and uniform suppliers. The request also calls for job descriptions for an assistant transportation administrator making $139,739 a year, a senior associate to the transportation administrator making $102,692 annually and a senior advisor making $80,153 a year.”
February 2, 2006: Haynes, V. Dion, “D.C. Schools Promise to Cut Space,” The Washington Post, B-04, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/01/AR2006020102674.html. “The D.C. Board of Education last night agreed to eliminate 1 million square feet of excess space by the summer of 2007 and 2 million more by the summer of 2008 in a plan that will consolidate and close schools. With the departure of nearly 10,000 students in the past five years, the school board has been under pressure from the D.C. Council and Congress to align the schools' space with enrollment. One independent study asserted that the schools have about 6 million square feet of excess space, but school system officials say the amount is about half that. The board previously had supported a space-reduction plan in concept, directing Superintendent Clifford B. Janey to release in the spring a list of schools to be consolidated and closed. But in passing a three-page resolution, board members for the first time specified the amount of space to be reduced. They said they wanted to demonstrate fiscal responsibility as the council prepares to consider a measure Tuesday that would provide more than $1.5 billion to modernize schools.”
February 1, 2006: Lively, Tarron, “Study Urges Restructuring of D.C. School Vouchers,” The Washington Post, B-03, http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20060131-110150-3090r.htm. “The District's school voucher program would be better off without federal funding and should be open to all D.C. students, according to a study of the program released yesterday. Conducted by the Cato Institute and the Milton & Rose D. Friedman Foundation, the study found that the program is ‘inconducive to excellence’ and rewards the public school system for decreasing enrollment numbers. Susan Aud, senior fellow with the Friedman Foundation, said the voucher program saves taxpayers money but would go further if it is restructured and expanded to include all public school students.”
January 25, 2006: “Cafritz: No Plan to Seek 3rd Term,” The Common Denominator, http://www.thecommondenominator.com/012306_news2.html. “D.C. Board of Education President Peggy Cooper Cafritz says she has no plans to seek re-election to a third term this fall.”
January 24, 2006: Haynes, V. Dion, “D.C. Bid to Start School Term Aug. 14 Sparks a Backlash: Vacations, Air Conditioning at Issue,” The Washington Times, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/23/AR2006012301673.html. “D.C. school administrators are considering recommending that classes begin Aug. 14, which would give the District the earliest school start date in the Washington area. But the proposal has sparked a furor among many parents, who say that starting classes in mid-August would interfere with summer vacation and camp plans they have already made. And some members of the Board of Education, which has final say on the school calendar, said they think such a change should be put off until fall 2007. Supporters of the early start date said the main advantage is that students would complete the first semester before the winter holidays. Teachers have noted that students often have forgotten material when they return to school after the long break and that it tends to hurt their first-semester grades. Meria J. Carstarphen, the school system's chief accountability officer and head of a task force reviewing the proposal, said yesterday that her office will survey hundreds of parents by phone this week to solicit their opinions of the proposal. She said the feedback will play a role in whether the proposal is forwarded to the school board.”; McElhatton, Jim, “School Administrator Seeks to Bypass Board,” The Washington Times, B-01, http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20060123-114336-4124r.htm. “The federally appointed administrator in charge of reforming the D.C. public school system's special education transportation division is seeking a court order to approve contracts and acquire property without permission from the school board. Transportation Administrator David Gilmore has requested greater contracting authority during an increasingly bitter power struggle with the school system's administration and the D.C. Board of Education, which voted in November to reject his $72.8 million budget request. Citing ‘substantial obstacles’ from the school board, Mr. Gilmore also has asked a federal judge to allow him to enter into labor agreements without the board's approval, according to his Dec. 28 request.”
January 23, 2006: \Rupert, Mike, “Teacher Transfer Irks Parents: School Officials: Moves Reflect Enrollment Shift,” The Washington Examiner, P. 3, http://www.dcexaminer.com/articles/2006/01/23/news/d_c_news/04newsdc23transfers.txt. “Nearly 50 D.C. teachers were shifted to new classrooms this morning as D.C. Public Schools officials realigned staff to match shifting - and plummeting - student enrollment in city schools. The move has irked some parents who feel the decisions were being made arbitrarily and worry that student performance will suffer. Parents at Eaton Elementary in Northwest said they were given only two days' notice that two teachers at the school were being forced to relocate. ‘John Eaton Elementary School is very fragile - children and families need to be treated with respect and with the children's best interests in mind,’ said Eaton PTA President Rose Audette. ‘Transferring teachers midyear can be a catastrophe and damage the school irreparably.’”
January 22, 2006: Haynes, V. Dion, “Schools Plan Would Shift Power: Janey to Propose Overhaul Based on Canadian Governing Style,” The Washington Post, C-07, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/21/AR2006012101210.html. “As D.C. School Superintendent Clifford B. Janey sees it, the 59,000-student school system is about to get a much-needed makeover. Janey wants to replace the top-down, authoritarian approach of the central office with a user-friendly, service-oriented system that shifts much of the decision making power to the schools. He wants schools, many of which have been hemorrhaging students every year, to become neighborhood hubs of activity that offer the community such services as medical and dental care, job training and recreational activities. And he wants to vastly expand programs for gifted and talented students, spreading them throughout the city rather than confining them to a few specialty schools. These are some of the initiatives contained in Janey's "master education plan," a long-term blueprint that school system officials hope will boost lackluster student performance -- and in the process transform the school system's image from inept to innovative. Janey initially planned to introduce the proposal to the school board this week. But in an interview Friday with the superintendent and three of his deputies, Janey said he will postpone his presentation until next month, giving him more time to reconcile his lofty ideas with down-to-earth realities of the budget. The document will be a guide for future growth and will serve as a precursor to what probably will be a controversial announcement in April: naming which underused schools are candidates for consolidation or closure.”; Mead, Sara, “Checklist for Charter Schools,” The Washington Post, B-08, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/20/AR2006012001575.html. “To strengthen the District's charter schools we must: Improve authorizing and school quality. . . . Think strategically. . . . Incorporate charter schools into economic and community development. . . . Learn from success. . . . Charter schools are not a panacea, but they are an important tool of educational reform. Chicago and New York City already use charters to fill unmet needs, increase the number of good schools, and bring talent and resources into public education. By learning from their example, the District can improve its charter schools and expand the educational options for all the District's children.”
January 18, 2006: Haynes, V. Dion, “Special-Ed School in D.C. to Give Up Its Charter,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/17/AR2006011701898.html. “D.C. school board members said last night that they will immediately take over the Jos-Arz Therapeutic Public Charter School after school leaders failed to introduce required improvements -- including obtaining accreditation and providing a proper curriculum -- at the special education facility. Board members said leaders of the school in Northeast Washington agreed to surrender the charter, and school system staff members have been directed to oversee the school until the academic year ends in June. The 42 or so students will then be reassigned to other schools. Jos-Arz was designed to reduce the city's substantial special education budget but ended up a costly failure. The school system spends about $40 million annually to house severely emotionally disturbed students in facilities across the country. School founders obtained a charter in 2000 based on their commitment to bring as many as 190 high school students back into the city -- proposing to enroll 70 in a residential program and 120 in a day program.”
January 15, 2006: “Leave the Uncertified Behind,” The Washington Post, B-06, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/14/AR2006011400861.html. Editorial: “If D.C. school Superintendent Clifford B. Janey remains true to his word about "putting a premium on teacher quality," he will stick with his plan to dismiss 1,100 uncertified teachers if they fail to obtain proper credentials by June 30. True, the number represents about 25 percent of the system's teaching force. But it is also true that unlicensed teachers can negatively affect the quality of the education that children receive. In the District's case, teachers without proper credentials were warned repeatedly that they were in danger of being dismissed if they did not comply, reports V. Dion Haynes.”
January 14, 2006: Haynes, V. Dion, “$1.5 Billion Proposal for School Rebuilding Heads to D.C. Council: Funds Would Come from Sales Taxes,” The Washington Post, B-02, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/13/AR2006011301755.html. “The D.C. Council's finance committee approved legislation yesterday that would provide $1.5 billion in new money over 15 years to modernize the city's dilapidated schools. During a five-minute meeting, the committee agreed to advance to the full council a proposal to dedicate an annual allotment of $100 million in city sales tax revenue to modernize schools. The proposal replaced a version that had been denounced by business leaders for relying largely on increases in commercial real estate taxes. The measure could come for a vote before the council as early as next month. . . . Under the revision, Evans said, the city would deposit the first $100 million in sales tax revenue collected after April 1 into a new Public School Capital Improvements Fund. The contribution, he said, would adjust for inflation every year. Existing capital funding for the schools -- budgeted at $150 million this year -- would remain in place, a provision Evans said was not included in earlier versions of the bill. Protecting the existing funding stream, he said, would ‘make it very difficult for a future mayor or council to decide to defund the [school system's] capital budget and use the $100 million in sales tax as the sole source of funding.’”
January 13, 2006: Holly, Derrill, “School Vouchers Called a Success,” The Washington Times, B-03, http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20060112-102122-2517r.htm. “Officials who run the D.C. school voucher program are calling it a success, though they said yesterday that it has been more expensive to operate than expected. Still, the Washington Scholarship Fund (WSF) is hoping Congress will reauthorize the program — the first federally funded program in the U.S. — and has offered its experience as a blueprint for expanding the program to other cities. ‘We now are serving 1,700 students, and we will be giving out about $12 million in scholarships to those students,’ said Sally Sacher, president of the nonprofit group administering the program for the D.C. government and the U.S. Department of Education. Congress capped allowable administrative expenses at $375,000. The WSF has met its $1.6 million operating costs with grants from foundations. When the five-year program began in the 2004-05 school year, 1,011 students were placed in 53 schools. Scholarship recipients now are enrolled at 58 schools, and the overall retention rate has been about 90 percent.”; Rupert, Mike, “Student Enrollment Falls as New Positions Are Added,” The Washington Examiner, P. 3. “Enrollment in D.C. Public Schools fell by 3,000 students in 2005-06 school year — down to 59,600 students — yet a recent audit of school staff showed the District added 500 new positions during the same period, officials said. John Musso, DCPS Chief Financial officer, said the District has 11,075 full-time employee positions — nearly 1,000 more than last school year. Of those 1,000 positions, 500 were filled. Musso said the rest were either waiting to be filled or were ordered to remain vacant.”; Simmons, Deborah, “Fumbling Amid the Crumbling,” The Washington Times, A-23, http://www.washingtontimes.com/op-ed/dsimmons.htm. “D.C. folks will soon learn the details of Superintendent Clifford Janey's plans to reorganize D.C. Public Schools. Mr. Janey does not call it a reorganization, of course, for fear of frightening labor leaders. In Washington, the powers that be use terms like ‘master’ facilities plan, ‘strategic’ academic proposal and "multi-year" capital improvement program. But the problem in Washington isn't the title of the plan; the problem in Washington is that everybody has a plan but none of the plans has raised the academic standing of public school students (public charter schools are the remarkable and lone exception). We are fast approaching several pivotal moments concerning public education: 1) The superintendent has yet to deliver a budget for the 2006-07 school year; 2) an estimated 1,100 teachers (or 1:4) do not have proper teaching credentials; 3) the D.C. Council has, in effect, put the cart before the horse by trying to mandate a stream of revenue for school modernization while the superintendent doesn't even have a plan in hand on how to spend the money. Moreover, Mayor Tony Williams, who failed to generate the necessary support to turn control of public schools over to the executive and legislative branches, is preparing to give his last State of the District address as mayor and two-thirds of the members of the legislature are running for either re-election or are in search of other seats in City Hall. School board elections will be held as well. In the throes of such an unprecedented political atmosphere, it's anybody's guess where the chips will fall for D.C. youth, who, because of no fault of their own, can't seem to measure up. That has been the case in the city for two decades.”
January 9, 2006: McElhatton, Jim, “Arlington Firm Will Tout City Schools: Will Market Janey's Plan,” The Washington Times, B-01, http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20060108-104554-7360r.htm. “The D.C. school system has awarded a no-bid contract for more than $250,000 to an Arlington consulting firm to ‘educate the public’ about D.C. Schools Superintendent Clifford B. Janey's upcoming master plan. Citing a recommendation by Mr. Janey, the school board last month approved paying KSA-Plus Communications Inc. $257,611 to ‘write, edit, distribute and educate the public’ on the master plan. Meanwhile, the D.C. school system has a ‘writer/editor’ position and a “media strategist” on staff, according to 2005 pay records. Mr. Janey's master plan would include his ideas for closing or consolidating schools and partnering with outside management groups to help run low-performing schools, officials say. Mr. Janey is expected to deliver the master plan to the D.C. Board of Education later this month. KSA's contract runs through Jan. 31, according the board's resolution.”
January 7, 2006: Haynes, V. Dion, “1,100 D.C. Teachers Might Lose Jobs,” The Washington Post, B-01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/06/AR2006010601845.html. “D.C. School Superintendent Clifford B. Janey has notified 1,100 uncertified teachers -- about 25 percent of the system's teaching force -- that they will lose their jobs if they do not obtain proper credentials by June 30. Most of those teachers have expired provisional licenses or have not submitted proof of a valid D.C. teaching license. Janey said yesterday that he took the action because the teachers had been warned repeatedly that they were in danger of being dismissed if they did not comply. He also cited teacher standards in the federal No Child Left Behind law. But Janey acknowledged that his dismissal plan goes well beyond what that law requires. According to that law, school districts must demonstrate by June that they are making a good-faith effort to put only "highly qualified" teachers in their classrooms, a standard that includes full state certification.”
January 5, 2006: McElhatton, Jim, “Security Firm Hit with New Tax Lien,” The Washington Times, B-01, http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20060104-101238-3940r.htm. “The D.C.-based company that posts hundreds of guards in city schools and other government buildings is facing a new federal tax lien for unpaid balances totaling more than $1.4 million, according to recent government records. The Internal Revenue Service filed the lien in November against Hawk One Security Inc. for delinquent taxes between 1998 to 2002. The filing became public record last week at the D.C. Office of the Recorder of the Deeds. The tax troubles come months after Hawk One executives said the company was close to negotiating the settlement of federal liens that stemmed from financial difficulties experienced under previous management more than a decade ago.”

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