Graduation exercises at Alice Deal Junior High were scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, but two specials guests — who happened to be the only two elected officials on the program — were absent.
Parents and teachers and students waited. And waited. At 10, “Pomp and Circumstance” played and the graduates filed in and took their seats.
A half hour later, Ward 3 Council Member Kathy Patterson took her seat. She apologized, but at least she showed.
One seat on the stage remained empty for the entire two-hour ceremony. School Board Member Victor Reinoso was a total no-show.
He gets a D for being Dismissive. He gave the students Ds by leaving them Disheartened. Readers occasionally ask why we need a School Board. I’m thinking D, because we Don’t.
Why is it important that the School Board member attend a junior high graduation? One: Deal is the largest junior high in the city. Two: It is the only one in Ward 3, which makes up half of the district we elected Reinoso to represent. Three: It’s the very least he can do to demonstrate his interest in education.
Here’s what Reinoso missed: two awe-inspiring pieces by the ninth-grade chorus — “Joshua Fought the Battle of Jericho” and “The Storm Is Passing Over”; honors for and exuberance from the 230 students, who hail from half a dozen countries and all over the city; and a touching tribute to Varnell Washington, who’s retiring after more than 30 years with the city schools.
Reinoso was to award the promotional certificates. In his absence, a school system official did the honors.
As we filed out into the midday sun and a sea of happy kids and parents, Ginette Suarez was handing out yearbooks. Deal’s veteran English teacher had chaired the day’s activities. Where, I asked, was Reinoso?
“I don’t know,” she said. “He didn’t come. He didn’t call. He didn’t come last year, either.”
Reinoso did not return my e-mail or phone messages. A secretary at the School Board said his wife had had a baby last week, which is great news but no excuse for not showing up. A note of congratulations and a substitute would have sufficed.
Reinoso’s negligence raises a larger question: Do we need a School Board?
Washington’s School Board is sacrosanct. For residents who have precious few chances to elect officials, no one wants to give up an opportunity to cast a vote. Electing a School Board in 1969 was our first exercise of local democracy in the modern era.
And since that time — for 37 years — the board has failed to help educate our children.
Last week, the “other paper” reported that special education funds are draining the system. School Board Vice Chair Carolyn Graham said the board had no idea where the money went and added: “We’ve accepted dysfunctionality as a way of being.”
The same can be said of the School Board. Perhaps it’s time for voters to show up and support an appointed board.
Maybe its members will show up at graduations.
Harry Jaffe has been covering the Washington area since 1985. E-mail him at [email protected].
