Some want the private sector in charge of D.C. Public Schools’ multibillion-dollar modernization fund — not Superintendent Clifford Janey. Others want the D.C. Office of Property Management to handle routine maintenance. Security already is under the Metropolitan Police Department.
Since his mayoral primary victory, D.C. Council Member Adrian Fenty has been talking education takeover. Next week, he leaves for New York to scope out reforms implemented under Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Outgoing D.C. Board of Education President Peggy Cooper Cafritz sees disaster writ large.
During the control board era, the Army Corps of Engineers renovated existing schools; it botched the job. Recent court testimony from OPM’s former deputy director Michael Lorusso proves that agency is no paragon of efficiency — or ethics. Let’s not talk about MPD.
Interviewed at her Northwest D.C. home, where she is confined with a serious illness, Cooper Cafritz opens her own bottle of elixirs: longer school days; a merger of government recreation and school sports programs; certified teachers in Head Start; Benjamin Banneker High School as model for all regular high schools; decertification of the Washington Teachers’ Union; and a wrap of social services, including mental health care, at every school.
“Before there’s a takeover, we have got to see the mayor’s office and the school system working together in a substantial way,” she says, adding that New York has a deeper and better-trained cache of teachers, accounting for its success.
“A lot has been accomplished in two years,” Council Member Kathy Patterson said, underscoring the school board president’s assessment. “But some of the things that haven’t been accomplished are the most visible.”
“[Janey] just needs to quicken the pace,” Cooper Cafritz added. But complaints extend beyond pacing and include a school calendar with less than the legally required 180 days of instruction, declining test scores and unfulfilled promises.
Recently, several schools, including School Without Walls, Wilson Senior High, Hearst Elementary and Walker-Jones Elementary were told to cut their budgets. Patterson says she is looking into the problem.
The principal of Walker-Jones was told “her budget was too big; she expects a $1 million reduction,” one informed education insider said.
School finance officials say it’s not that much — just slightly more than $300,000. But when Walker-Jones consolidated with R.H. Terrell Junior High, the superintendent promised more resources and money. Eight weeks into the school year, the story changes.
“She may have to cut teachers and supplies,” the education source said. “There are highly paid individuals in the central office sitting around doing nothing. Janey has a chief of staff, Peter Parham. He has a special assistant, Robert Rice. Why does he need both?
“[Janey] is smart,” the source continued. “[But] I’ve never seen anyone so dumb when it comes to implementing his own ideas.”
That frustration is one reason why there is a budding “dump-the-superintendent” movement — though no one calls it that.
Jonetta Rose Barras is the political analyst for WAMU radio’s D.C. Politics Hour with Kojo and Jonetta. She can be reached at [email protected].
