FRIDAY, JUNE 4, 2010
Metro casts wide net in search for manager
Agency open to
candidates without transit experience
by Ann Scott Tyson
Metro’s board of directors in- tends to have a large pool of can- didates by this summer to fill the permanent Metro general man- ager position vacated by John Ca- toe in April, and to begin narrow- ing the list by early fall, accord- ing to the board’s Chairman Peter Benjamin. Benjamin said that, depending upon the outcome of interviews with candidates beginning in the fall, a new Metro chief could be selected quickly. “We are in the active search phase now. We are out there looking,” Benjamin said. “We plan to take a relatively large group of candidates and narrow it down, so in the early fall the board may be prepared to do some interviews. Based on what we find, we could draw it out lon- ger or bring it to a quick conclu- sion.”
Benjamin and three other board members — Jeff McKay of Fairfax, Neil Albert of the Dis- trict and federally appointed member Mortimer Downey — make up the board’s search com- mittee, which is responsible for screening and paring down the initial pool of candidates. Benjamin said that the full
Metro board will conduct the fi- nal interviews with all candi- dates, and will also make the choice of a new general manager. Metro’s board last month ap- proved a $150,000 contract for the D.C. search firm Heidrick & Struggles to begin a “national and international search within and beyond the transit industry” for a replacement for Catoe. In- terim General Manager Richard Sarles, former head of New Jer- sey Transit, took over when Ca- toe departed and has a year-long contract. When Metro announced the
contract, it said the firm would begin the search immediately, with the goal of “selecting a new general manager within six months.”
Benjamin said that the search committee has outlined for the search firm the qualifications it is seeking in a general manager, and the search firm has begun advertising as well as turning to its own data to compile the ini- tial group of candidates. The firm will also consult with the Riders’ Advisory Council and the local transit union for sug- gestions on characteristics, he said.
“Our primary search is for somebody in the public sector who is an exceptional manager, administrator and communica- tor, and a leader,” he said, adding that transit experience, while de- sired, was not critical. “We don’t want to rule out the possibility that somebody with incredible skills is out there” who would be “fantastic in dealing with the broader leadership and management issues” but who has no transit background, he said. Such a candidate would be ex- pected to hire transit experts for assistance, he said. Nevertheless, he added, “we would be even more pleased if we could find someone with all those characteristics and a trans- portation background.” He said the search could in- clude candidates from around the world, and mentioned as hy- pothetical examples a transit general manager from Hong Kong or Denmark.
tysona@washpost.com
Park work will shut guests out
park from B1
ran Jr. (D-Va.) on Wednesday. The problem with doing the work in phases, said Park Service and VDOT officials, is that it would add two years and $2 mil- lion to the project. “We’re always open to listen-
ing, but . . . we’re more in sync with the idea of plowing for- ward,” said Jon James, deputy su- perintendent of the Park Serv- ice’s George Washington Memo- rial Parkway division. “Having to phase it would really slow it down and really bump up the cost.” John Undeland, a VDOT
spokesman for the bridge proj- ect, noted that the park renova- tion requires pile driving, instal- lation of an irrigation system and other heavy work that could pre- sent safety concerns if residents are allowed to enter. “Unlike the bridge construc- tion, there will be construction all over the park,” he said. Authorities stressed that the
Mount Vernon bike trail will re- main open, if in some cases di- verted. The park plan has been contro- versial for 10 years, when it was tied to the bridge project. A pro- posal to build a large parking lot under the bridge was scrapped
because of security concerns af- ter the Sept. 11 attacks. Some resi- dents opposed the addition of the athletic fields when they were in-
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cluded with the current plan in 2005.
Civic activists said they were blindsided by the decision to close the park, having learned of it just last month when one homeowner called the Park Serv- ice to talk about an unrelated matter. VDOT is scheduled to seek proposals from construc- tion companies Tuesday, and res- idents worry that they will have no say in the timetable once a firm has signed a contract. “We all started feeling help-
less,” said Yvonne Weight-Calla- han, who is helping to circulate a
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petition to keep the park open. “It’s just remarkable how all this has happened in complete dark- ness.” James said the plans were dis-
cussed in previous meetings of a citizens group that was formed to monitor the bridge project. That group disbanded last year. James Spengler, head of Alex-
andria’s parks and recreation di- vision, said he thinks that a com- promise, in which the contractor would agree to occasionally move the construction fences to allow partial use of the park at times deemed safe, can be reached.
nakamurad@washpost.com
Cup viewing party in Dupont Circle nears its goal
by Christy Goodman
The two biggest hurdles — per- mits and money — have been cleared for Dupont Festival: Soc- cer in the Circle. “They got it,” said Mac Nwulu, an ESPN spokesman, referring to his company’s blessing of a FIFA permit to show World Cup matches in Dupont Circle. The Dupont Festival is collect- ing on pledges that total the $20,000 needed to show three matches on June 12, said organ- izer Aaron DeNu. “I don’t have the license in
hand,” said Michael Lipin, an- other organizer, who was also be- hind the Dupont snowball fight
in February. The Brazilian Sugarcane In-
dustry Association, which is host- ing smaller World Cup viewing parties, contributed $10,000. Joel Velasco, the Brazilian group’s North American representative, said it thought the Dupont Festi- val “was well worth the invest- ment for a very exciting party that only happens every four years.” The highlight of the June 12 games shown on big screens in the circle will be the United States vs. England. The matches are scheduled to end at 4:30 p.m. The National Park Service is processing a permit for Soccer in the Circle good from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., said Bill Line, a Park Service
spokesman. Two hours after the soccer, the Capital Pride Parade, celebrating the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community, will kick off. The parade, which does not travel through the park, begins near 23rd and P streets and makes its way around the north side of the circle before moving on to New Hampshire Avenue and Thomas Circle. “I don’t think there will be any overlap between their group and ours,” said Dyana Mason, Capital Pride’s executive director. “We welcome them to hang out. I think it will be a great day to be in the circle.” Both organizations are encour- aging participants to use public transportation, as there will be
limited parking. DeNu also said increased sup-
port, such as a donation from D.C. United, could lead to VIP viewing areas or D.C. United players attending. Smaller donations have come in from such businesses as Deals for Deeds, a daily deal Web site that supports community devel- opment and social giving. More than $1,500 has come in from in- dividuals, and several hundred dollars has been raised from pub crawls, DeNu said. “I think we’ll have enough
money to do another one,” he said. “Our strategic goal from the beginning is to make sure we can execute the 12th.”
goodmanc@washpost.com
“People go there to picnic, play soccer. There’s a waterfront where people fish all the time.”
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D.C. teachers’ deal has a familiar ring
Kate Walsh, president of the
by Bill Turque
The language in the contract
between the District and the Washington Teachers’ Union soars with promises of a new day. There will be collaboration, school turnaround efforts, pay- for-performance and serious mentoring for novice instructors. It vows “to jointly engage in the struggle to rebuild public confi- dence in the educational product offered by D.C.’s public schools.” With this agreement, it adds, “we hope to signal that we’re on the right track.” It’s also the contract that ex- pired Sept. 30, 2007, with many of its promises left unrealized. On Wednesday, D.C. teachers
ratified a new deal with provi- sions that include performance pay, new school turnaround mod- els and improved mentoring. And language that soars with promises of a new day. “We must challenge ourselves each day to improve student learning,” the preface says, “based upon academic rigor, necessary supports, newfound flexibility, meaningful assessments and true accountability.”
PHOTOS BY MARK GAIL/THE WASHINGTON POST
For high school seniors, mission accomplished
Sarah Dice shows off her diploma as she crosses the stage Thursday at the University of Maryland’s Comcast Center, where 500 members of Northwestern High School’s senior class participated in commencement exercises. At left, Denzel Robertson waves his diploma above his head as he and classmates from the Hyattsville school celebrate at the ceremony in College Park.
Both sides agree that the ac- cord, which awaits final approval by the D.C. Council, will mean something only if both parties are serious about fulfilling its terms. Even the 2004-07 contract ac- knowledged that past agreements were undermined by a lack of trust, poor communication and chronic turnover in school dis- trict leadership. “We’ve never had an agreement fully implemented,” said union president George Parker. “The challenge for all of us is to act to implement” the new agreement so that it doesn’t become what he called another “paper tiger.” Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee
said Thursday that the new con- tract will have a lasting impact because it virtually eliminates seniority rules, giving principals unprecedented power to select staff on the basis of performance. “Giving them this authority is one of the most powerful things you can do to increase achieve- ment,” she said in an e-mail. Parker said one reason that in-
novations in the previous deal languished was that the schools leader he negotiated with was gone within a year of ratification. Superintendent Clifford Janey was forced out by then-new May- or Adrian M. Fenty (D) when a change in the law gave him con- trol of the school system. Rhee, Fenty’s choice to be the District’s first chancellor, focused on mak- ing her own mark. Some experts wonder whether the proposals embedded in the new pact will suffer the same fate if Fenty is defeated by D.C. Coun- cil Chairman Vincent C. Gray in the September primary. Gray has not committed to keeping her, and Rhee has not committed to staying if asked.
— Eric Stark, Alexandria resident
National Council on Teacher Quality and a staunch Rhee ally, said that if the chancellor de- parts, the main features of the contract and new evaluation sys- tem “would be likely to die on the vine.”
Rhee disagrees, contending
that sustainability was a chief concern when putting together the deal. “The core changes — pay-for-
performance, [more power for principals] on hiring decisions and the elimination of red tape when staff separations are neces- sary — change the game entirely for future leaders,” she said. “Now their starting point for negotia- tions is a structure that allows leaders to reward and attract the best teachers, and to easily sep- arate those whose teaching is in- effective despite the added sup- ports.”
But some of the most impor- tant provisions of the contract — and a series of “side letters” ac- companying the deal — call for continuing discussions between the District and the union to fill in critical details. Those include the voluntary performance pay sys- tem, which could add tens of thousands of dollars to teacher salaries. Part of the money will be awarded to teachers on the basis of better-than-expected growth in their students’ test scores. There is broad agreement that other metrics must be used to measure a teacher’s value, but those have not been spelled out. Other collaborations involve
IMPACT, the new teacher evalua- tion system that uses test-score growth to assess some teachers. Although the details of the system are not directly addressed in the contract, many instructors have said it is excessively complex and rigid. In one side letter, the Dis- trict agreed to a joint working group to meet monthly and re- view teachers’ concerns. Another side agreement calls for mutually agreed-upon experts to review IMPACT and make recommenda- tions to improve it. Changes laid out in the con-
tract will also require breathing life into often-moribund school- level institutions. Local School Restructuring Teams (LSRTs), for example, are groups of adminis- trators, teachers, parents and community members set up to advise principals on policy mat- ters. Under the new agreement, when schools must pare staff be- cause of enrollment or program changes, LSRTs are supposed to make recommendations on which areas of school staff to cut. Final decisions remain the princi- pals’. But if they depart from the LSRT’s recommendations, princi- pals are required to prepare a written justification for Parker and Rhee. But not all schools have functional LSRTs, something that Rhee’s office and the union have been trying to address.
turqueb@washpost.com
Montgomery schools face layoffs and larger classes
by Michael Birnbaum
Montgomery County public schools next year probably will see fewer new textbooks, re- duced support staff and some layoffs as the system faces its first year-to-year budget cut in recent memory, officials said Thursday. The latest proposals were re- leased Thursday in response to the final county budget approved last month. Taken as a whole, the cuts will be felt most deeply by teachers, as professional devel- opment and supplementary ser- vices are cut and salaries frozen. Average class sizes will in- crease by one, as the school sys- tem eliminates 252 teaching po- sitions, and other programs also face the ax as the system deals with a 4.4 percent budget cut next year, along with an expected 2 percent increase in enrollment. “It’s not what any of us want,” said Board of Education Presi- dent Patricia O’Neill (Bethesda- Chevy Chase). She said that she expected next year to be tough, too. “We haven’t come out of the valley yet.” The school board will vote on
the final budget Tuesday. Some of the worst cuts that had been on the table were avert- ed, such as a proposal to elimi- nate bus transportation to op- tional education programs out- side attendance zones, such as magnet schools. Nervous parents had said that changes of that sort could threaten the viability of the programs.
Still, officials said that the cuts would hurt. “Class sizes is a huge change in
direction,” said Larry Bowers, the school system’s chief operat- ing officer. He said that he could not remember a time, certainly not within the past 40 years, when the school system had had to contend with an outright cut to its budget. In December, when staff mem- bers were developing the budget, the worst-case scenario antici- pated was a flat budget, he said. But then the county’s fiscal out- look worsened. Bowers said that about two dozen employees would be laid off, about 20 of them teachers. He said that teachers would be notified of layoffs Monday and that cuts were generally confined to subjects with low enrollment. More than 380 other positions are being eliminated through re- tirements, reassignments and other attrition, he said. Other moves include cutting
the textbook budget by 30 per- cent, getting by with six fewer maintenance workers and no af- ter-school buses for elementary school activities, which probably will limit the types of clubs avail- able and the range of activities they can do. Central office funding is also being reduced by $6.5 million. Bowers said it had been reduced 18 percent since 2008. The total schools’ operating
budget is being cut by $97 mil- lion for fiscal 2011, to $2.1 billion.
birnbaumm@washpost.com
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