North Avenue

Last night’s conversation about school boards made me think about the current situation in DC and the role that politics play in our system. Politics are an undeniable force and in a school system they are especially dangerous because they distract us from our ever-important goal of educating children. Michelle Rhee of DCPS hinted at this when she spoke of her desire to clean out the central office, saying, “I am convinced that we must not let the rights, privileges, and priorities of adults to take precedence over what is in the best interests of students.” Since taking the helm in DC, she has encountered much ire from the union and many administrators for her willingness to call people to task and her hatred of inefficiency. One of Rhee’s primary goals is similar to that of Alonzo’s – to clean out the central offices and streamline the administrative process. Because she is appointed by the mayor, she has the luxury of an almost apolitical position. She has no constituents to appeal to, and the only person she is accountable to is Mayor Fenty.

Baltimore City can learn a lot about Rhee’s tenure in DC. As with most trends, Baltimore follows DC at about six months behind, so the upcoming changes at North Ave have already begun to transpire in DC. The situations are similar. 825 North Capitol St, (the DC North Avenue) has “kept schools from opening on time, swallowed repair orders by the thousands, made teachers’ paychecks disappear, consumed tax dollars by the millions without producing any discernible results and, ultimately, acquired a well-deserved reputation for treating schoolchildren as if they are nuisances.” I just had the strangest wave of déjà vu. I think most people breathed a sigh of relief when they heard that Alonzo was planning on clearing out North Avenue. Interestingly, DC observers note that solely downsizing personnel cannot improve the problem. A crucial problem in DC was the shocking lack of technology and the constant turnover in staff. In the DC central office, if information needs to be transferred between one office and another it is physically transferred on a form. There is no electronic HR system to speak of. The program that alerts HR of potential openings and personnel requires the internet, but is too heavy for the DCPS internet bandwidth. I have a feeling that similar inefficiencies exist at North Avenue. Maybe those inefficiencies can explain the massive amounts of important papers that go missing.

If we are going to make changes at North Avenue, we should recognize up front that it will take more than just downsizing staff. Most of the recent DC Superintendents have come into power and immediately downsized central office staff. This creates a lot of problems in a city that has a new superintendent every two to three years. It encourages people to only look as far as their own bottom line since they are constantly fearing for their jobs. It also creates a consistent number of employees that are new or being trained because they are replacing someone who was hastily (or politically downsized). Given these factors, it makes sense that central office employees would be reluctant to embrace change in the name of student achievement. If we make changes at North Avenue, an important change must be a culture change.