21st Century School Fund Press Package on DC School Reform
January 21, 1998

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Parent and Community School Advocates Demand Oversight and a Greater Community Role in DC School Reform

Representatives of school advocacy groups from across the District today challenged the DC public schools administration to build on the knowledge of DC parents and advocates and to learn from the last 14 months of crisis in the DC public schools as well as the mistakes of its predecessors. The groups, part of a coalition of education advocacy and parent organizations, demanded that there be public monitoring and oversight of the DC public schools and that parents, community and advocacy organizations be allowed to be a part of solving problems. Without more informed decisions - decisions taken in consultation with parents and community - real reform will not take hold. They called on the Control Board to start over with a spirit of cooperation and to reach out to parents and the community.

"At this moment, the system is undergoing unprecedented change," said Marlene Berlin, Ad Hoc Parents Coalition. "We have got to make sure that reform is moving in the direction parents and community want. Parents want change that will be deep, broad, and sustainable. Edicts from the top without buy-in from the community won't work."

The groups noted the administrative confusion over the last 14 months: the chaotic school closings of the spring, the three week delay in schools opening, the roofing audit, the survey of principals, and the continuing crisis in special education.

"Becton has made this harder than it needs to be," said Sarah Woodhead, of the 21 st Century School Fund. "DCPS must start accepting partnership with parents, activists, and community members. We have experience and resources, we're locally based, and we have to live with the results of the current reform efforts."

The groups point out the major difference in Chicago's takeover, where the public saw significant change within six months, and the DC public schools experience: in Chicago the community was inside the process.

The coalition presented a poll conducted of parents across the District. Some of the findings were:

• More than three quarters of parents reported class sizes the same or larger than in pervious years.
• More than three quarters of parents reported the same or fewer course offerings as last year.
• A majority of parents reported the loss of good teachers from their schools.
• Many parents found that the loss of educational aides has had an adverse impact.

The coalition asked the DC public schools to:

• Introduce the proposed new standards aligned to the curriculum to parents and the community. Get the buy-in of parents and align standards, assessment, curriculum, and budget before imposing the sanctions implied by high-stakes testing

• Recognize that parents and communities are partners in school reform. Establish communication channels for two-way flow of information between parents and the school system.

• Develop competitive recruitment and retention packages for quality teachers. Revisit the decision on standard certification of new teachers, focus on a variety of qualification indicators and pay teachers accordingly.

• Establish plans, structures and procedures for school facilities maintenance and for a comprehensive modernization program. DCPS must develop a maintenance and modernization program that will provide educationally-appropriate as well as safe learning environments for all students.

• Establish checks and balances on the DC public schools budget and policymaking. There must be a governance structure in place that enables parents and communities to have a say in the allocation of public funds and the type and quality of education being designed for them.

• Provide quality services to special populations in the DC public schools. The situation can only be described as "in crisis." Parent groups are eager and prepared to work together with the DC public schools to find solutions to current service delivery problems. Stop missing filing dates for federal funds for special education.

The education advocacy groups represented at the press conference are: 21st Century School Fund, the Ad Hoc Parent Group, PACE, Project VOICE, the Washington Parent Group Fund and the Shaw Targeted Education Program.

These and other parent and education groups have undertaken an initiative to build a coalition of organizations that will be major participants in the current school reform. The mission of the coalition is to:

• Build a broad-based constituency of individuals, community organizations and the business and foundation community to participate actively and constructively in the school reform;
• Monitor and encourage a high standard of planning for facilities maintenance and school modernization;
• Review initiatives and programs of the DCPS administration with other stakeholders to assess the benefits and drawbacks of these actions; and
• Take positions on issues or school system actions that can benefit from higher visibility and greater public discussion.

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PRESS STATEMENT

21st Century School Fund
JANUARY 21, 1998

The 21st Century School Fund is a small organization, which has as its mission building the public will and capacity to modernize schools in the District of Columbia. Our interest in school modernization is to ensure the facilities support educational programs and that they stabilize and enhance neighborhoods and communities. We also work to develop alternative ways to finance school construction and are responsible for providing information and assistance to other urban school districts on facilities master and capital planning and on public/private development partnerships.

In November of 1996, the Control Board fired Superintendent Franklin Smith, reduced the Board of Education to an advisory board and put in a CEO, and an Emergency Board of Trustees. The Control Board gave the CEO broad powers in budget, procurement and personnel. The Control Board took these drastic measures because, in its words, "In virtually every area, and for every grade level, the system has failed to provide our children with a quality education and safe environment in which to learn."

As organizations and individuals committed to the reform and revitalization of the DCPS the problems in DCPS were all too well known to us.

It was our hope and understanding that the District of Columbia Fiscal and Management Authority's actions would at least address the fiscal and management shortcomings in the public school system. It is exceedingly difficult to educate children, but basic office and bureaucratic functions, like counting students and personnel, reporting expenditures, preparing budgets, procuring goods and services, responding to requests for information, communicating with local schools and the public _ these seemed manageable. Many school systems, even those with large numbers of students who are a challenge to engage in traditional schooling, are able to do these things well.

We have been stunned by the extent to which this new administration has failed first to understand, and then to address the fundamental management shortcomings of the public school system. What we have witnessed is rather than building institutional capacity, in the name of crisis and emergency, anything goes. We are here today to say NO to the crisis, emergency and siege mentality of this administration. These are still public buildings and they are public dollars and as Bonnie likes to point out, they are our children, your students.

The objective of this emergency administration should be to establish systems and processes that build capacity for a well-run school system. This administration coming in using emergency rules, read no rules, for achieving objectives, will leave the District far poorer, and without having addressed the fundamental cause of the dysfunction in the first place.

In school facilities management, which the 21st Century School Fund tracks comprehensively I, offer you the following indication that we are seeing the same fundamentally flawed management for which we are paying an even higher cost than we have before.

• Even though there is considerable skepticism about the number of students reported in the school system, the DCPS has not significantly revised its method for counting students and has not contracted to do an independent census of its students to establish a credible base line.
• The school systems long range master plan revealed an unwillingness, or inability to build on work already done, and a willingness to settle for lower quality rather than work with progress made before they arrived on the scene.

The insistence on proceeding with a plan even though it would cause the schools to remain closed for weeks into the school year indicated a complete disregard for the fundamental purpose of a school system – that of educating students.

Let me give you some information, which if you have been listening to the administration you would never know. I suggest, that the new administration does not even know this.

• Before this new administration, during the period from 1987 through 1996, roofs on 70 schools had been replaced.
• During the period from FY1991-FY1995, DCPS had $217 million worth of projects in planning, design or construction.

There were significant problems with the management of the capital program before and this administration is following the same path, only with more money.

• The premium paid by DCPS for its emergency management was not $7.2 million. This is understated and unsubstantiated, the GAO is doing a fiscal audit which should address this directly. In the meantime, there some clear indications that the school system wasted closer to $15 million dollars.
• DCPS determined to replace – not repair roofs. They spent $8.9 million replacing roofs on 13 schools that had had roof replacements within the last 9 years, according to DCPS records.
• The average cost to replace the built up roofs was $19 per SF, before all change orders are in. Prince Georges County pays on average between $6-$8 per square foot for roof replacement on their old schools. This means DCPS paid between $6 to $7 million on just 17 of the roofs they replaced.

Okay, so we paid a lot, and the work was done outside of a public procurement process. Did we get good work??

We do not know the answer to this. It appears that DCPS does not know the answer to this either. One of the areas in the contract files consistently not addressed was evaluation. We are calling on the Control Board to undertake an engineering audit to determine whether or not the work done was acceptable.

We also urge the GAO to complete its fiscal audit of the capital program as soon as possible.

One can say these were exceptional times, it was early in the new administration, they made mistakes, it won't happen again. But it is clear from the FY 1998 estimates, that we are not out of the woods. The DCPS is estimating that it will spend $18 million to replace windows at 22 schools. This is an average cost of $800,000 per school. During FY1991-FY1995 when DCPS replaced windows in 15 schools the average cost for design and construction was $339,995. Included within these 15 schools were Cardozo and Wilson Senior High School 2 of the largest schools in the system. Even when you adjust for inflation, the DCPS is estimating window replacements at a rate 100% higher than even DCPS typically higher costs. The same is true for their estimates for boiler replacements. If the DCPS historic cost of boiler replacement is used, based on boiler replacements in 15 schools completed between FYl991 and FY1995, the average cost was $145,153. DCPS is estimating a cost to the public of an average of $650,000 for boiler replacement for FY1998.

The District of Columbia can not afford to do local government like disaster relief or the pentagon. We need to use processes and procedures which are subject to public scrutiny and oversight. The schools are public buildings and the dollars are public dollars. We need to stop this nonsense now.

Contact:
Mary Filardo
(202) 745 3745

Sarah Woodhead
(202) 832-3870

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Attachments

Table 1 from the report by Cotton & Company
Facilities Management section from the Moving Toward an Exemplary System report

Comparison of Number of Students Tested on Stanford 9, Spring 1997, and Official DCPS Membership 1996-97 SY

Sources: DCPS Official Membership, October 3, 1996
District of Columbia Public Schools, School-by-School Results for Spring 1997 on the Stanford 9 Achievement Test
Prepared by the 21st Century School Fund

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FY 1997 Roof Projects

Roof Information from DCPS Court Documents and DCPS Contracts Administration, Contract Status Report as of 10/9/97

Prepared by the 21st Century School Fund, 12/2/97

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1/20/98

Action Alert! Action Alert! Action Alert!

Parents of DC Public School Students

Our school workers have not had a raise in 7 1/2 years. DCPS custodians, cafeteria workers, building engineers, school bus drivers and warehouse workers of Teamster locals 639 and 730 were promised pay raises in the 1990-93 and 1993-96 contracts. Principals and teachers had a modest raise, but not our school workers. They lost wages during furloughs, hours have been cut back and fellow worker shortages have increased their work. They have had enough!!

Help avoid a crisis by telling the District to resolve this dispute now. Right before Christmas DCPS paid a small part of what they owe, but unless they resolve this dispute, DCPS custodians, cafeteria workers, building engineers, school bus drivers and warehouse workers of Teamster locals 639 and 730 will strike February 1. Without heat, food service, custodial work and transportation for special education students, schools will be forced to close.

Support our school workers. The support staff in in the local schools is vital to the education of our children; their efforts have a constant and crucial impact on the quality of life within every school in the District, all day, every day. Along with our teachers and principals, their constant efforts directly affect the learning environment of every classroom in DC. If the front line work force is neglected, abused or mistreated, no amount of management will make this city or our schools work.

CALL TODAY and tell our city leaders to resolve this dispute and keep our schools open.

Our children cannot afford to miss even one more day of education.

21st Century School Fund (202) 745-3745; Parents and Communities for Public Education (PACE) (202) 526-2494: Project Voice (202) 783-2727; Ad Hoc Parents Coalition (202) 362-8866; Parents United for DCPS 833-4766.