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Monday, April 28, 2003

By Karen MacPherson, Post-Gazette National Bureau

WASHINGTON -- About two years ago, voters in the nation's capital approved, but just barely, the creation of a new kind of school board they hoped would fix the troubled District of Columbia school system.

The "hybrid" school board, with five elected members and four members appointed by Mayor Anthony Williams, was supposed to give the mayor greater responsibility for the 68,000-student district.

But today, the district is still dealing with problems that have frustrated lawmakers and educational experts for decades:

Students without textbooks. Schools without adequate heat. School study materials riddled with grammatical and factual errors.

And a deficit of more than $30 million.

Still, some say there have been key improvements in the school system. Paul Vance, a nationally respected educator who was selected by the board as superintendent, has reorganized the schools' bloated central office by eliminating more than 100 positions.

He fired principals and teachers in 15 failing schools and hired more qualified replacements. He's begun the rehabilitation of the District's most deteriorated schools. Test scores have risen slightly in many grades.

In the midst of Vance's efforts, however, verbal sniping persists between Williams and school board members.

Although the idea of the hybrid school board was to give Williams more power over the schools, he's been stymied on many points by its strong-willed elected president, Peggy Cooper Cafritz, and other board members.

The resistance isn't coming just from the elected members, either. Even Williams' appointees on the school board have criticized him for failing to target more city money for the schools, and for supporting cuts in school programs.

Williams contended he has earmarked as much as possible for schools in a city budget squeezed by the poor economy. His anger over the spending spat led him to refuse to reappoint two members of the school board whose terms were up, including civil rights icon Roger Wilkins.

Williams also is upset the school board hasn't made the kind of major changes he'd like to see. At a recent conference in California, Williams said his partial authority over the D.C. school board is like "trying to drive a car with one pedal."

Some observers say Williams may have put himself in a no-win situation by supporting the idea of a hybrid board -- voters hold him accountable, yet his efforts to make changes are sometimes stymied.

Linda Moody, a former school board member and now president of the D.C. Congress of PTAs, said she doesn't believe the hybrid school board has made any difference in improving the schools.

"The only difference is that the people appointed by the mayor don't have the responsibility ... to meet with the community," said Moody.

Congress gave District residents the right to elect a school board in 1967, and school board elections have assumed great importance in a city that didn't have an elected city council until 1973 and still doesn't have voting members in Congress.

But the school board was stripped of its powers in 1996 when a financial control board appointed by former President Bill Clinton declared the board a failure and assumed most of its responsibilities.

As District officials prepared to take back power from the control board more than two years ago, they wrangled over whether -- and how -- to change the structure of the school board. Williams wanted an all-appointed board that would give him full responsibility for the school system.

But D.C. City Councilor Kevin Chavous, who chairs the council's education committee and is a potential rival to Williams for mayor, wanted an all-elected board. The two eventually compromised on the hybrid board, which was ratified by a razor-thin majority of D.C. voters in November 2000.

Chavous said he thinks the record of the hybrid board "has been mixed. Clearly, I think you could initially see tension between those members who are elected and those who are appointed by the mayor.

"But I do think that it is working better, and I do think that the school system is making some progress. From a structural point of view, I think that [the hybrid system] can work. Like anything else, you have to have the right individuals."

The city council votes next year on whether to keep the hybrid board or replace it with something else, Chavous said.

Kenneth Wong, a Vanderbilt University professor who is an expert on mayoral efforts to push school reform, said he thinks that D.C. schools are in a "critical phase" and that the next year or two will show whether Williams and the hybrid board have been able to really make changes.

"I think the vision and direction are right on track," Wong said. "In order to reform the whole system, you have to have the right kind of leadership at the top. And the mayor has done that by appointing Vance. Now we'll just have to see if they can consolidate a client-oriented culture and put resources to bear on helping the schools make changes."