Jonetta Rose Barras: Boundary War
By: Jonetta Rose Barras
Examiner Columnist
November 12, 2009
Some District parents called plans to relocate Duke Ellington School for the Arts, revise the academic program at Hardy Middle School and remove its principal, the dawn of education apartheid. That's an exaggeration. But there are racial elements in the quiet fight over schools west of Rock Creek Park.
Ellington and Hardy are in Ward 2. No one cared much that they have substantial African American populations, although their surrounding communities are predominantly white. The education reform movement and construction of new buildings changed that.
Now, parents in Wards 2 and 3 have begun pushing for fewer slots for out-of-boundary students and more traditional academic programs, according to government sources and parents.
"There isn't a high school in Ward 2. If they move Ellington to a central location, that allows the current building to be renovated for a traditional high," said a government source familiar with internal DCPS discussions.
"I keep hearing that such is being discussed. But when it comes to relocating or renovating Ellington, I have not been included in any significant conversations," Rory Pullens, Ellington's chief executive officer, told me.
Patrick Pope, Hardy's principal, didn't return my telephone calls.
"Hardy is nicer than the private school I send my children to," said another government source.
"There is no justifiable reason to make any changes at Hardy that would cause a disruption of the education of our children," wrote Ward 5 resident and Hardy parent Candy Miles-Crocker, in correspondence to DCPS Chancellor Michelle Rhee.
Rhee told the Citizens Association of Georgetown to expect a "major announcement" next month. "[Hardy's] not going to turn overnight, but I think the plan we're moving forward on is one that is really going to boost [it as an] option," she added.
"What's that suppose to mean?" asked Keenan Kellar, Ward 1 resident and Hardy parent "African-American parents have a great sensitivity to that kind of coded language."
Kellar said Hardy parents scheduled a meeting in February with Rhee to discuss the school's future. She chose instead to meet with "12 people [from Key Elementary School] in a private home to talk about Hardy."
Patricia Sulser, spokeswoman for the Life after Key parent committee, was at that meeting. "Most families would strongly prefer to have their children remain with friends and attend high caliber public middle schools in their neighborhoods," she said. Last year, 40 percent of Key students didn't enroll at Hardy, although it's Ward 2's only middle school. Sulser declined to discuss whether parents requested Pope's removal or restrictions on out-of-boundary slots.
DCPS officials are keeping secrets and parsing words. Jennifer Calloway told me: "At this time [there] are no plans to move Ellington." She said Rhee's office doesn't have a record of scheduling any meeting at Hardy. She confirmed there have been "consultations" with Pope "about the direction for the school."
Kellar called Rhee's tinkering with a successful program "very dangerous." Do you think he means that as a threat?
Jonetta Rose Barras, hosts of WPFW's "D.C. Politics with Jonetta," can be reached at Rosebook1@aol.com.
