Complete rankings after the jump, listed by name, ward, grades, and overall quality on a 100-point scale.

Tier 1 (65-100%)

Elementary/Middle Schools

Achievement Preparatory Academy PCS — Ward 8 — 4–8 — 81.5%
Capital City PCS Lower School — Ward 1 — PK–8 — 73.1%
Capital City PCS Upper School — Ward 1 — 6–12 — 75.2%
Center City PCS – Trinidad Campus — Ward 5 — PK–8 — 69.0%
Center City PCS – Petworth Campus — Ward 4 — PK–8 — 70.0%
Cesar Chavez PCS for Public Policy – Chavez Prep — Ward 1 — 6–9 — 73.6%
Community Academy PCS – Butler Campus — Ward 1 — PS–5 — 76.2%
D.C. Preparatory PCS – Edgewood Middle — Ward 5 — 4–8 — 92.3%
E.L. Haynes PCS – Upper Elementary & Middle School — Ward 1 — PS–8 — 78.9%
Elsie Whitlow Stokes Community Freedom PCS — Ward 5 — PS–6 — 67.2%
Howard University Middle School PCS — Ward 1 — 6–8 — 71.0%
KIPP DC: AIM Academy PCS — Ward 8 — 5–8 — 85.2%
KIPP DC: KEY Academy PCS — Ward 7 — 4–8 — 86.4%
KIPP DC: WILL Academy PCS — Ward 2 — 5–8 — 85.5%
Latin American Montessori Bilingual (LAMB) PCS — Ward 4 — PS–5 — 84.4%
Paul Junior High PCS — Ward 4 — 6–9 — 70.9%
School for Educational Evolution & Development (SEED) PCS — Ward 7 — 6–12 — 73.1%
Two Rivers PCS  — Ward 6 — PS–8 — 75.0%
Washington Latin PCS – Middle School — Ward 4 — 5–8 — 79.3%

High Schools

KIPP DC: College Preparatory PCS — Ward 8 — 9–11 — 81.2%
Thurgood Marshall Academy PCS — Ward 8 — 9–12 — 80.2%
Washington Latin PCS – Upper School — Ward 4 — 9–11 — 76.1%

Tier 2 (35-64%)

Elementary/Middle Schools

Arts & Technology Academy PCS — Ward 7 — PS–5 — 41.4%
Center City PCS – Brightwood Campus — Ward 4 — PK–8 — 45.2%
Center City PCS – Capitol Hill Campus — Ward 6 — PK–8 — 52.5%
Center City PCS – Shaw Campus — Ward 2 — PK–8 — 46.9%
Cesar Chavez PCS for Public Policy – Parkside MS — Ward 7 — 6–12 — 52.7%
Community Academy PCS – Amos I — Ward 4 — PS–5 — 44.8%
Community Academy PCS – Online — Ward 4 — K–8 — 64.1%
D.C. Bilingual PCS — Ward 1 — PK–5 — 56.8%
Friendship Junior Academy PCS – Blow-Pierce — Ward 5 — PS–8 — 38.6%
Friendship PCS – Chamberlain — Ward 5 — PS–8 — 53.0%
Friendship PCS – Southeast Elementary — Ward 8 — PS–5 — 38.2%
Friendship PCS – Tech Prep Campus — Ward 8 — 6–8 — 51.8%
Friendship PCS – Woodridge — Ward 5 — PS–8 — 51.5%
Hope Community PCS – Lamond — Ward 4 — PS–7 — 41.6%
Hope Community PCS – Tolson — Ward 5 — PK–8 — 51.4%
Howard Road Academy PCS – MLK Campus — Ward 8 — 7–8 — 43.5%
Ideal Academy PCS – North Capitol Street — Ward 4 — PK–8 — 38.1%
Imagine Southeast PCS — Ward 8 — PS–5 — 35.7%
Mary McLeod Bethune PCS — Ward 5 — PK–8 — 40.8%
Meridian PCS — Ward 1 — PS–8 — 51.2%
Perry Street Prep PCS – Lower School —Ward 5 — PK–12 — 35.6%
Potomac Lighthouse PCS — Ward 5 — PS–6 — 45.6%
Roots PCS – Kennedy Street Campus — Ward 4 — PK–8 — 58.5%
William E. Doar, Jr. PCS Edgewood Campus – Lower — Ward 5 — PS–5 — 43.7%

High Schools

Booker T. Washington PCS 19–12, GED, & Adult Ed — 36.1%
Capital City PCS Upper School — Ward 1 — 6–12 — 64.6%
Cesar Chavez PCS for Public Policy – Capitol Hill — Ward 6 — 9–12 — 57.8%
Cesar Chavez PCS for Public Policy – Parkside HS — Ward 7 — 6–12 — 49.7%
Friendship Collegiate Academy PCS – Woodson — Ward 7 — 9–12 — 54.3%
Hospitality PCS — Ward 4 — 9–12 — 45.5%
National Collegiate Prep — Ward 8 — 9–10 — 48.6%
Perry Street Prep PCS – Upper School — Ward 5 — PK–12 — 46.6%
School for Educational Evolution & Development (SEED) PCS — Ward 7 — 6–12 — 63.4%
Washington Math, Science & Technology (WMST) PCS — Ward 5 — 9–12 — 57.6%

Tier 3 (0-34%)

Elementary/Middle Schools

Center City PCS – Congress Heights Campus — Ward 8 — PK–8 — 26.5%
Community Academy PCS – Amos III — Ward 5 — PS–8 — 29.7%
Community Academy PCS – Rand Campus — Ward 5 — PS–5 — 19.5%
Howard Road Academy PCS – Main Campus —Ward 8 — K–6 — 30.5%
Integrated Design & Electronic Academy (IDEA) — Ward 7 — 7–12 — 29.3%
Maya Angelou PCS Middle School Campus — Ward 7 — 6–8 — 31.2%
Options PCS — Ward 6 — 6–12 15.7%
Septima Clark — Ward 8 — PS–5 — 21.2%
Tree of Life PCS — Ward 5 — PK–8 — 33.9%
William E. Doar, Jr. PCS Edgewood Campus – Upper — Ward 5 — 6–8 — 26.3%
William E. Doar Jr. PCS – Northwest Soldiers Home Campus — Ward 4 — PS–7 — 31.3%

High Schools

Integrated Design & Electronic Academy (IDEA) — Ward 7 — 7–12 — 30.9%
Maya Angelou PCS Evans Campus — Ward 7 — 9–12 — 21.5%
Maya Angelou PCS Shaw Campus — Ward 1 — 9–12 — 13.6%
Options PCS — Ward 6 — 6–12 — 19.9%

Mayoral hopeful Vincent Gray released his education plan today which places heavy emphasis on transparency, citizen involvement, and giving charter schools more respect (but have they earned it?). On the Michelle Rhee front: He endorses a strong chancellor, but stops short of endorsing Rhee's top-down style. Embedded in all the lofty rhetoric, there's a few good digs at Mayor Fenty. The best one: Gray vows to "put an immediate end to management by ribbon-cutting and sound bites." You can read the full report here. (Hat Tip: Bill Turque)

*file photo by Darrow Montgomery.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT—"Lucky Bar Patron Not So Lucky," "Howard's Bid To Move Hospital Worries Those Left Behind," "Bag Tax Funding Restored To River Clean Up"

Howdy. D.C. Council Chair Vincent Gray was smart to televise the budget talks yesterday (and he's promised to continue to do so). These wonk fests suit him. The mayoral hopeful appeared at his deliberative best. You saw the anti-Fenty: detail oriented, fluent in acronyms, a man who will never make a snap judgment. If that bores you, well there were plenty dramatic moments provided by the other councilmembers. Gray let others drop a "God Damnit" (Evans) or Grahamstand (Graham) or crack a few jokes (Thomas Jr.). The D.C. Wire follows LL's lead item from yesterday and writes about this non-breaking new transparency after the day's talks ended. Now that's not winning the day! Tim Craig writes: "Last year, council Chairman Vincent C. Gray (D) allowed reporters into the room to document some — but not all — of the deliberations. Lobbyists and the public were still excluded, even though members were making major decisions on how to spend billions of dollars. Within the span of 48 hours, the council also agreed to raise the cigarette, sales and gas tax out of public view. But Gray, a Democratic candidate for mayor, has gone even further to let more sunshine into the budget negotiations this year. Responding to a formal request by the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute, a liberal think tank, and other advocates to open up the proceedings, Gray agreed to have them televised on the government access channel. Gray has been trying to make open government a key theme of his campaign against Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D), who has come under criticism for being too secretive. If last year's budget talks are any indication, viewers will probably be able to see council members shout at each other and trade insults as they jockey over how to spend tax dollars. The negotiations, which could once again result in higher taxes for some residents, are expected to last through at least Friday. But, since the council is entering new territory for openness, it's possible that the negotiations could drag on for a while, with the added element of possible grandstanding for the cameras." The D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute called the proceedings "must-see-TV"

But, NBC4's Tom Sherwood says the camera is no replacement for letting reporters in the room: "While the government camera picked up much of the conversation around the table, it wasn't the same as being there. You could see or hear the side conversations that go on among council members or between their staffs who line the room, but you couldn't see if someone passed notes or papers or other documents that were being discussed. In other words, seeing this work session from one camera angle is like seeing it through a peephole."

HUMAN SAFETY NET: DCist reports on yesterday morning's protest outside the Wilson Building. Organizers from the Fair Budget Coalition and Save Our Safety Net formed a "human safety net" around city hall in an effort to draw attention to the cuts to social services currently being debated on channel 13 (!). DCist's Sommer Mathis explains just how supportive the council is to the organizers' tax increase proposals: "A couple of different versions of the proposal are being debated by the Council — At-large member Michael A. Brown has proposed starting the first new tax bracket at $200,000, while Ward 1's Jim Graham has proposed $500,000. Both agree that an additional tax should be levied on those who make over $1 million. In addition to Brown and Graham, Ward 6's Tommy Wells, Ward 5's Harry Thomas, Jr., Ward 7's Yvette Alexander and Ward 8's Marion Barry have pledged their support for a new progressive tax as a means of avoiding deep cuts to social services in the cash-strapped 2011 budget." And yes, Barry did put on a "superhero" cape for his support.

AFTER THE JUMP: CDC misled District on drinking water, Fenty needs to worry about Ward 4 voters, Mendo goes after fire department overtime, charter schools are scared of the DCPS teacher's union contract, and much, much more!

DRINKING WATER: WaPo's Carol Leonnig reports that a House probe has found that the CDC misled District residents about the high levels of lead in our tap water: "A House investigative subcommittee concludes that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention made 'scientifically indefensible' claims in 2004 that high lead in the water was not causing noticeable harm to the health of city residents. As terrified District parents demanded explanations for the spike in lead in their water, the CDC hurriedly published its calming analysis, knowing that it relied on incomplete, misleading blood-test results that played down the potential health impact, the investigation found. The city utility says lead levels have been in the safe range in D.C. water since 2006, after a chemical change to reduce lead leaching. But the House report raises concerns about children in 9,100 residences throughout the city with partial lead-pipe replacements. Their parents may not know CDC research has found that children in such homes are four times as likely to have elevated lead in their blood." This is a must read. Key scare graph: "The committee did go back to the labs for the original test results for 2002-03 and learned that three times as many children had elevated lead levels as reported, 954 instead of 315. This means child lead poisoning was rising, not falling or staying the same, as the CDC had claimed." More coverage via WUSA.

CHARTER SCHOOLS FREAKING OUT: D.C. charter schools are perhaps the one entity not digging the proposed DCPS teacher's union contract. Why? Because the new teacher raises suddenly give public schools an advantage over charters in hiring. WaPo's Bill Turque writes: "The city's 57 publicly financed, independently operated charter schools, which educate 37 percent of the city's 75,000 public school students, have long been seen as competition to traditional public schools. But the contract has raised, for the first time in memory, the prospect of the tables turning. 'I do believe we will lose our best teachers,' said Donald Hense, founder and chief executive of the Friendship Public Charter School system, which serves about 4,000 students on six campuses and operates Anacostia High School under a contract with the District. John Goldman, chief operating officer for the William E. Doar Public Charter School for the Performing Arts, said that if ratified, the contract was a 'lose-lose' for charters. "We'll be forced to spend more money on teachers and less on other items, in order to get the same or a lesser product," he said. The city's top-performing charters usually pay slightly more than D.C. public schools, offering a premium for what is often a longer work day. Maintaining that edge would be challenging under the new public school pay scale, charter school officials say."

MENDO TAKES ON FIRE DEPT. OT: During a hearing yesterday, Councilmember Phil Mendelson slammed Fire Chief Rubin over an "orgy" of overtime pay in his department, NC8 reports. Key point: "Mendelson singled out the February snowstorms, in which the fire department spent more than $1 million on overtime for one day." The defense: "Mendelson, however, received a sharp retort from Fire and EMS Chief Denis Rubin. 'We have four or five significant fires, 25 buildings collapses — it's preposterous that you would take the good name of the members and use the term 'an overtime orgy,'' Rubin said." More back and forth: "Mendelson complained that the fire department's overtime bills continues to soar while the police and corrections departments' OT numbers have declined. He said the fire department is on track to overspend on overtime by $6 million, essentially double what was budgeted....Mendelson was also angry that Chief Rubin sent an e-mail to all members of the department Tuesday, warning them that overtime was threatened. Rubin gave the time and place of the hearing, but few firefighters showed to complain. Mendelson is so angry he sent the city's top accountant, Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi, a letter asking for a criminal probe of Rubin under the city's anti-deficiency law, which requires agencies to stay within their budgets." More coverage via The Examiner.

THE $400,000 DOG PARK: Talk about misplaced priorities. WTOP's Michelle Basch reports on a groundbreaking for a really lavish dog park in NW: "Mayor Adrian Fenty handed out dog treats to some of his furriest constituents Tuesday at the groundbreaking of the Newark Dog Park. The 11,000-square-foot park will be located off Wisconsin Avenue at 39th and Newark Streets in Northwest. 'Everywhere I go in the city, there are more people who want dog parks,' Fenty says. The District is spending more than $400,000 on the park, and residents raised another $25,000 to pay for amenities, such as park benches."

TROUBLE FOR FENTY IN WARD 4: WaPo columnist Robert McCartney counts up the campaign signs in Fenty's neighborhood and sees trouble for the incumbent mayor: "From modest brick rowhouses to affluent, landscaped ranch homes in Ward 4, Fenty's home district and the one he represented on the D.C. Council, the mayor's green placards are barely keeping up with the blue ones promoting his rival, council Chairman Vincent C. Gray (D-At Large). On two wide-ranging visits this week to the ward, which is in the city's northern corner, I counted 121 yard signs for Fenty (D), versus 143 for Gray." The Green Machine needs to step it up!

METRO MYSTERY: The man found dead on the red line earlier this week has been identified. WaPo has the story: "Rickey Jay Van Houter left his Rockville home at 9:45 a.m. Monday as he did many weekdays, driving to the Twinbrook Metro station before boarding a Red Line train to his government contracting job as a computer programmer. He had been up late the night before on a deadline for work, his family said, but they noticed nothing unusual Sunday as he helped his wife water her flowers in the back yard and hung a new American flag from their front porch. But Van Houter, 52, never made it to work. About 7 p.m., his wife, Ilene, said she got a call on her cellphone. It was a Metro Transit Police detective. He was waiting at her home. Ilene Van Houter said that she didn't ask what it was about but that she knew something was terribly wrong. Her husband of 29 years had been found dead, slumped over in a Metro train seat, five hours after boarding. A train operator discovered him at 2:55 p.m., almost three hours after the train had been taken out of service and just before it left the Shady Grove rail yard for the evening rush."

BRIAN BETTS: There's been another arrest in the Betts murder case (The Examiner, WUSA).

David Krakow, 28, tells City Desk that, under the terms of the deal, the charter school has further agreed to tack up a rather striking notice, which reads in part:

"FEDERAL LAW GIVES YOU THE RIGHT TO:

Form, join or assist a union;
Choose representatives to bargain with us on your behalf;
Act together with other employees for your benefit and protection;
Choose not to engage in any of these protected activities.

In recognition of our employees’ rights:

WE WILL NOT coerce you by telling you that you can not engage in protected concerted activities.

WE WILL NOT tell you that you are not a good fit, because you engage in protected concerted activities.

WE WILL NOT tell you that the school will close if you continue your union activities and/or protected concerted activities.

Terri Smyth-Riding, director of  human resources for Cesar Chavez Public Charter Schools For Public Policy, which operates the school, confirmed the amount of the settlement. However, she denied that Krakow was fired for his unionizing efforts. To the contrary, she explains, "We did not want to incur any further legal expense."

The dispute started in February 2009, when Krakow says he and some other teachers began meeting at coffee shops to discuss  problems at the high school, located at 709 12th Street SE. According to Krakow, the teachers gabbed about lots of work-related issues, but one emerged as a primary concern: Chavez was bleeding talent.

Though the D.C. Charter School Board doesn't keep data on teacher retention for individual schools, a spokesperson for the board noted that in 2008  and 2009, Chavez charter schools, as a whole,  managed to retain only 53 percent of its faculty.

At the Capitol Hill campus, Krakow says, it felt like about a third of the faculty disappeared each year.

The teachers' group  figured the problem was that faculty members weren't getting their needs met by the administration. So they decided to try to change that.

The group made it a point to not call itself a union, Krakow says. "People as an entire faculty couldn't get behind a traditional union," he explains. Nonetheless, in March 2009, the group began acting like one. It drafted a letter to school leaders asking for a revamp of teacher contracts. Among their requests:

"Having fewer than twenty students per class and eighty students total in order to make teachers much more effective and students more successful...

"Limited class size and adequate prep time...

"Limiting the number of teacher work days before the school year...

"Publishing a pay scale..."

The letter also seemingly attempted to set up labor negotiations:

"We plan to elect representatives shortly and we would like to schedule a meeting with the representatives and you for the week after spring break to begin this collaboration."

Though the correspondence was signed by members of the Capitol Hill faculty, Krakow says it was clear that he was spearheading the effort. Not long after the letter, the school informed him that his contract wouldn't be renewed.

Smyth-Riding says Krakow was let go for "legitimate business reasons," adding, "It had a lot to do with our finances." She described Krakow as a good employee, but that the school couldn't afford his position anymore.

But Krakow says he got a different answer during a meeting with Garrett Phelan, the school's principal at the time. "You're not a good fit for the school," he recalled the ex-administrator as saying.

That baffled the employee, as he'd gotten positive work evaluations and had recently been promoted to the position of  faculty mentor, a gig that essentially involved helping other teachers up their skills, he says.

Things became a lot clearer when he met with Sean Hanover, then the school's human resources director, Krakow says. "He told me the school was fundamentally opposed to unions." Hanover also told him that if Chavez teachers were to ever form a union, the school would shut down in retaliation, he says.

Krakow decided not to take the ousting lying down. In March, he filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which often mediates these types of disputes.

Smyth-Riding says that while the school has never had a union, employees are welcomed to form one. She dismissed Krakow's claim that Chavez is anti-union as "groundless." She says Chavez has never had union for a very simple reason: its teachers are too content. "Our employees feel like they have an HR department where they can come down and voice their concerns," she says.

During its own independent investigation of Krakow's complaint, however, the NLRB "found reasonable cause to believe that some of the allegations of the charge were meritorious," says Wayne Gold, the board's regional director. The agency issued a complaint accusing Phaelen, Hanover, and the school's vice-principal, Arturo Martinez, of union busting.

According to the NLRB complaint, investigators believe Phealan coerced teachers by telling them they couldn't engage in "protected concerted activity" and had also fired employees for engaging in similar activities.  Investigators also backed up the allegation that Hanover had "threatened and coerced employees with school closure."

Under NLRB guidelines, Krakow would have been eligible for an award of up to $5,000 in lost wages, as a result of the investigation's findings. However, the two sides agreed to settle for triple that amount prior to a scheduled April 7 hearing with NLRB.

Smyth-Riding insists that the settlement was not an acknowledgement of any wrongdoing on the school's part. "Multiple people who engaged in the same activities still work at Chavez," she says.

But Krakow, who has since found a new job at a private school in Bethesda, argues that point is irrelevant. "They only have to fire enough people to make everyone else afraid," he says. "Often firing one person is enough."

While this information is certainly cause for alarm, it does not accurately reflect the District's school system because the data specifically ignores the graduation rates of public charter schools, which, according to Friends of Choice in Urban Schools, is 24 percent higher than other public schools in D.C.  The data was also derived between 1996 and 2006, before Michelle Rhee came in to revamp the school system. Since then, graduation rates have risen but not drastically enough to signify a complete turnaround.  After all, the Obamas and other important figures in this city have rarely considered sending their children to public schools, favoring expensive private schools with plenty of resources or more stable public schools in the suburbs.

Speaking of suburbs, the discrepancy between the District's graduation rates and the graduation rates of neighboring school districts in Maryland and Virginia is truly astounding. A chart published on Education Week's Web site lists the graduation rates of the 50 largest school districts in the nation, and Montgomery County, Maryland, leads the country with a graduation rate of 80.7 percent.  Fairfax County Public Schools posts a graduation rate of 78.8 percent.  Location is by no means the only determinant in school success but access to resources and attention certainly make a difference.  D.C. is trying to keep up by developing more charter schools and closing underenrolled schools in order to save money, but something needs to be done in order to drag the city schools out of the depths.

Just ask Robert Cane.

Yesterday, the executive director of Friends of Choice in Public Education was among dozens of charter school advocates who showed up at a council budget hearing to plead for a restoration of facilities funding for charters cut in the mayor's proposal.

After Cane completed his testimony, Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray had a couple of questions. He produced an e-mail Cane had sent out to several charter groups ahead of the hearing before Gray, long a critic of certain charter-school practices.

The e-mail, which contained instructions for hearing witnesses, contained this line: "You may be asked policy questions after your testimony. Please understand that these questions are a trap for the unwary, especially if directed at you by [Tommy] Wells, Gray, or [David] Catania. Please do not answer unless you are confident that you have absorbed the talking points we've previously distributed to you."

That led to this exchange (watch it, forward to 2:32:50):

Starts Gray: "I'd love to hear you explanation of it."

"We always encourage the charter school leaders...not to talk about polict as ooposed to their own schools. It's because you're very smart, and you are hard-charging, and if they say anything at all, they're...gonna put their foot in their mouth even more than I have done," Cane replied.

"I really think you put your foot in your mouth."

"I just said I did....I apologize, Mr. Gray."

"Well, I appreciate that."

"It was bad judgment and I apologize..."

"I find it reprehensible, gratuitous..."

"Well, I think it was bad judgment and i apologize. I think that reprehensible is too strong...I'm sorry...."

"Can I finish?"

"A lot of people who got this [e-mail] will never hear this dialog, unfortunately. So let me tell you what I'd like you to do."

"I will."

"I'd like you to send out another e-mail to the same group of people, and say exactly what you just said."

"Happy to do so."

The conflict remains.

On Tuesday, Reinoso showed up before Gray for his office's budget hearing. Among the topics discussed was the charter school facility allotment, which is, rather controversially, being cut by $24 million. Gray and Reinoso discussed the topic for more than 15 minutes, and Gray seemed satisified enough with the answers that he invited Reinoso to attend the hearing on the charter schools budget two days later.

Reinoso, though, had a hard time committing to that date. He kept telling Gray that he'd confirm the next day; Gray didn't understand why he couldn't just give a yes-or-no answer. "Is that a decision you can make independently?" he asked Reinoso, who sheepishly replied that it was. [Watch the hearing, WMV format, forward to 3:07:50]

Fast forward to yesterday's hearing, where, surprise, Reinoso doesn't show.

"I'm gonna begin this portion of our hearing in a bit of an unusual manner," Gray began. He explained that he had asked Reinoso to attend the hearing, but because he hadn't heard back as promised, he called the deputy mayor's office. "We're told that since he had been the acting city administrator last week, he needed to take a couple of days off. So he is not at work today, and tomorrow presumably. So what I decided to do is something a little bit different from what we do here. Rather than just wringing my hands and decry the fact that he's not here to be able to talk on this issue, we took the time to excerpt portions of the hearing yesterday."

Gray then played the 15-plus-minute clip from Tuesday, complete with the scheduling squabble. [Watch the hearing, WMV format, forward to 00:01:30]

Applause and chuckles greeted Gray when the clip ended. "Well, there you have it!" he said, before engaging in some of that hand-wringing. "I think what is especially bothersome to me is that, if one was going to be off, you could have said that earlier in the conversation—that I can't be there because I'm not going to be at work on Thursday or Friday. Which, of course, would leave some cynic to believe that you decided that you were gonna be off Thursday or Friday after this exchange."

Said Gray before moving on to the rest of the hearing, "I think it would have been better if we could have had the deputy mayor here to present it himself, but, one step short of it, we had him on video, whether he chose to be or not."

This morning, LL was all over Fenty's announced District gov job cuts. Our aggressive political scribe reported: "Of the remaining 776 employees the mayor is proposing to lay off, 250 are in DCPS—mostly teachers aides and support staff, Tangherlini says." This may not seem like scary news, but it is.

I know what your thinking: teachers aides and support staff seem like easy cuts. What the hell do teacher aides do? What does support staff mean? Let me guess what they do: they help handle over-crowded classrooms, offer tutoring, lesson planning and generally help teachers get through the day. I'm not sure about support staff. But it could mean social workers, guidance counselors, secretaries, and librarians.

Do we really want to cut funding for these jobs? These cuts are coming on the heels of all those school closures last year. Catania made the argument today on the Politics Hour that enrollment is down at DCPS and that more and more kids are going into charter schools. But for every successful charter school, there are stories like City Lights Public Charter which recently had to close its doors before the school year even finished.

It seems like every other week, Colbert King is documenting another screwup with juveniles at DYRS (that few officials care about). If Fenty chooses to make these cuts at DCPS, the safety net for kids will get that much weaker. Do we really want to layoff social workers? Do we really want to cut school personnel that much more? I have met some of these school-based social workers and nobody works harder than they do. Nobody.

Which department should feel some hurt? I think DCPS should be saved from cuts as well as the DMV. Everything else should be on the table.

5:16 p.m. Update: Dena Iverson, press secretary for DCPS, writes in an e-mail: "I just wanted to make a quick but I think important clarification to your post on City Desk about the DCPS reduction of 250 positions.  The reduction in positions is so that we can align staff to lower enrollment.  We expect that the change in the number of staff will happen though staff retirement and attrition." That must be a lot of teacher aids that are retiring.

*photo of Fenty by Darrow Montgomery.

The teacher's lounge has turned into a showroom. Everything wears a Post-It with a price in blue ink. The conference table is selling for $150. The fridge is going for $50. The microwave is a steal at $5. Today is the last day for the City Lights Public Charter School.

Everything must go. Including that microwave.

"This stuff needs a home," explains operations manager Nick Battle. "Everything is at a good deal."

In late January, City Lights, a school for at-risk youth, announced it was closing. There were problems with enrollment and with funding. Now, all the kids have moved on to other schools. All that's left are a few teachers, Battle, the school's principal, and the beloved cook to sort through what's trash, what should be donated to other schools, and what can be sold.

In the hallway by the entrance, there is a box of locks. In the main office, there are more boxes. One box contains extension cords and a modem. In a nearby classroom, empty binders are stacked in threes. Principal Brenda Richards arrived at 9:30 a.m.

There were donuts.

"There's no money for a goodbye party," Richards says, sitting in the main office (she doesn't seem to have an office anymore). It's close to 11 a.m. "That was it—donuts."

On a wall in the health clinic, there are tags from Barry Farm and Condon Terrace. In a classroom, the lesson plan for January 21 is still on the dry-erase board "DC Gov Beginning." In the music room, two huge cymbals and two keyboards are left. In the library, there are still plenty of books including Lolita and Ragtime. Someone needs to take those books before close of business.

Richards became principal at City Lights in March of 2007. She didn't intend to stay long; she'd finish the year and that would be it. But she says one day a female student stopped her in the hall. This student had come to the school refusing to speak to anyone, but had blossomed. She begged Richards to stay. Richards asked her why she wanted her to remain principal.

"Because nobody stays with us," Richards recalls the girl explaining. "People always leave us."

"You fall in love with these kids," Richards explains. "So many people have left them."

Richards says she's not coming back to the school after today. She's leaving a lot of goals still unfinished. She says the school needed to get a curriculum or finalize one, that they were working toward getting its teachers certified in special education. None of the schools 12 teachers had yet achieved that certification. But Richards still wants to talk about the girl from the hallway, the one who never spoke. She says that eventually the girl began speaking and got a job working at a movie theater. It was a small triumph.

The school was made for those small triumphs. "Our successes are different from people who are looking at SATs," Richards explains. "The whole idea is we would improve the students behaviorally, eomtionally, and socially and at the same time working with their academics." The kids enrolled at the school came from group homes, sometimes missed school because they were incarcerated, had mental-health issues like ADHD or bi-polar disorder. Successes that counted: a Black History Month presentation that went off without a hitch.

Battle says that several students were expected to graduate this year. One had gotten into Trinity. Several others were preparing for the SAT. At least one college recruiter had visited the school.

In its four years of existence, City Lights gave students one thing they needed most—stability. One student, Richards recalls, hadn't attended the same school for two-straight years until City Lights. Every year for 10 years he had a different school. Both Richards and Battle joke that students tended to camp out in their offices, sharing their personal problems. The students could keep them until late in the evening. "I knew my kids," Richards says.

But the school's downfall hinged on knowing its kids. The school expected more students than it actually received for the school year. Instead of 75, they hit close to 60. And some of those students were not special-education students which meant drops in city funding. They also had difficulty establishing that their kids were District residents—even the 10-to-12 kids who were wards of the city, Richards explains, adding that they got the runaround from social workers on getting that paperwork.

"There are challenges," Richards says. Mike DeBonis reported in City Desk a detailed accounting of the school's problems in January:

"Nona Richardson, a spokesperson for the Public Charter School Board, which oversees City Lights, says the school’s financial difficulties are 'related to enrollment.' LL is told According to PCSB statistics [PDF], City Lights enrolled 62 kids in fall 2007; only one senior graduated the following spring.

A recent PCSB review of the school was critical in a number of areas. City Lights, the board found, had 'no overarching curricular framework reflecting [its] academic and nonacademic goals.' It also found problems with staff turnover and an 'urgent need…for certified special education teachers. Currently, there are none on staff.' In addition, the school was found not to have 'sufficient systems to collect, record and analyze student academic data and gauge success in the academic and nonacademic goals' and that 'very little in terms of academic and behavioral curriculum policies and procedures are written down.'"

Richards says that despite the school's problems, it did provide a safety net for her students. "Without this kind of support, some of them will go back to the street," she says. "Sometimes, sir, it wasn't about the test, it was about staying alive, not being abused by your boyfriend, not doing illegal substances, it was about being cared for."

Asked about Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton's demand that, in the wake of the Washington Post's reporting on alleged self-dealing, he resign his post, Nida said, "I serve at the pleasure of the mayor."

Asked if he would resign should Mayor Adrian M. Fenty ask him to, Nida said, "I'm a volunteer."

Nida said he had no plans to address the Post story at the meeting: "I'm in no-comment mode right now."

Indeed, at meeting's start, David Holmes, an advisory neighborhood commissioner from North Lincoln Park, strongly rebuked the board for various issues, including those raised in the Post report. Neither Nida nor any other board member said anything, and the board moved straight into its agenda.

UPDATE, 8:30 P.M.: In fact, ANC 6A is calling for the resignations of PCSB members and administrators and calling for additional reforms by the council. Letter after the jump.

Public Charter School Board – Request for Council Action

Based on the recent Inspector General's report and the Washington Post two-part series regarding the Public Charter School Board (PCSB), we have requested the following from the DC Council. First, the resignation of the Executive Director and members of the Public Charter School Board. Second, adoption of the Inspector General's recommendations from the December 4, 2008 report -most notably, to revise the D.C. School Reform Act to require charter school applicants to identify sites when they submit applications to open public charter schools. Third, amend the School Reform Act to require that PCSB members be residents of the DC as well as place the PCSB under the Chancellor of the DCPS.

We make these requests due to our community's involvement with AppleTree Institute for Education Innovation (AppleTree) when they decided to site a charter school in a residential neighborhood at 138 12th Street, ME. During the course of our work, we uncovered several issues. One, the PCSB is subject to the Advisory neighborhood Commission's Act (Attorney General report dated April 5, 2007). Two, the PCSB does not notify the AMCs of events affecting their neighborhoods, as required by the ANC Act (Office of the Inspector General report dated December 4, 2008). Three, that Charter Schools were not expressly covered in the zoning regulations (zoning code was written before charter schools). As a result of our efforts, the Zoning Commission amended the zoning regulation so that a charter school is no longer able to purchase a building in a residential zoned district and open a charter school as a matter of right. Four, the Washington Post two-day series (December 14 and 15) on the PCSB found conflicts of interest involving almost $200 million worth of business deals, at more than a third of the city's 60 charter schools. Several of those deals involve Thomas A. Nida, who chairs the PCSB and is also a senior vice president at United Bank.

If it wasn't for AppleTree's decision to site a charter school at 138 12th Street, NE as a matter of right under outdated zoning regulations – none of these issues might have been uncovered. While we may have lost the battle regarding construction of a charter school at 138 12th Street, AppleTree still needs PCSB approval to open a charter school at this location. In our efforts to force transparency regarding this pending AppleTree charter school application, a Washington Post series justifies our belief that the PCSB is not an unbiased board but instead one that appears to be more motivated by the business of real estate and loan transactions rather than the education of our children.

Given the flagrant violation of law, disregard for public input, and apparent automatic approval of increased enrollment requests to accommodate larger charter school loan financing, how can we believe the current PCSB will now accept public input into the decision making process? Several of the PCSB members do not live in our city, and one works for the banking industry that finances the very land purchases and construction resulting from their decisions. We need a clean start with new board members and changes in law to provide transparency and local accountability.

Joseph Fengler, ANC Commissioner 6A02
David Holmes, AMC Commissioner 6A03

Now Eleanor Holmes Norton is weighing in on the matter. She wants PCSB Chair Tom Nida and credit enhancement committee chair Barbara Hart to resign, and she wants the system by which board members are chosen to change. Currently, for each vacancy, the federal government draws up a short list of names, from which the D.C. mayor is obligated to make a final selection.

The result has been that, for as long as the board has been in existence (mostly under a Republican president), it has been populated by folks who have or have had vested interests in the success of charter schools from an ideological, business, or other perspective. (LL wrote about this in more depth over the summer.) And many have not been District residents. The concept of having "outside directors," as most corporate boards do, has not been the practice of the PCSB. That has meant that the board has been highly successful at growing the charter system, and somewhat successful at raising levels of student achievement, but undeniably aloof when it comes following well-accepted principles of good government and working as part of a larger body politic.

Whether that's a good thing or a bad think depends who you ask.

Says Norton, "The actions of Nida and Hart cast a shadow over a unique and remarkable alternative public school system whose success in educating the city’s children speaks for itself. The conflicts of interest revealed are so wide-ranging that it is impossible for these officials to proceed with charter school business with any public confidence."

The three newest appointments to the board, sworn in last week, are a mixed bag. John "Skip" McKoy, director of programmatic initiatives at nonprofit Fight for Children, is a familiar face in business and government circles locally, and by all accounts a fine choice. Darren Woodruff is a lesser known name; he's a principal research analyst focusing on education issues at the American Institutes for Research, a well-regarded nonpartisan think tank. But the appointment of Don Soifer raises questions of ideological motive. He's a co-founder of the Lexington Institute, an Arlington think tank with a libertarian tilt.

A release from Norton's office also points out that over the summer she introduced legislation that would strip the federal government of its role in appointing PCSB members: "Norton...believes that the mayor and city council should be given the appropriate authority and that a solution can be found to enable her to reintroduce and get the bill through this session. However, she said, 'immediate action is required now to remove any taint from the educational and financial decisions of the boards.''"

Soifer, whose group "actively opposes the unnecessary intrusion of the federal government into the commerce and culture of the nation," ought to support the move, one would think.

'Skins are looking dreadful. I watched two or three plays of their 20-13 loss to Cincinnati and decided I'd miss nothing if I kept the TV exactly where it should be: off.

DCist updates us on the disaster that is the Adams Morgan taxi stand. Think about this for a second: This is an attempt to carve an island of order and efficiency out of the late-night weekend scene in D.C.'s most mayheminent intoxication zone. Never was gonna work.

Peter Nickles–picking the wrong fight on spec. ed., according to City Desk.

Charter schools were supposed to provide public schools with some capitalistic competition; they were going to give parents new options, new hope; they were going to revolutionize public education. OK, now, depending on where you stand, they may have done all or none of those things. But one thing's beyond dispute: They're a great way for savvy people to access the taxpayer's money. Examples courtesy of Washington Post.

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