By Bill Turque
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 4, 2010; B01
There are signs that the lingering dispute over Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee's decision to replace Hardy Middle School Principal Patrick Pope may be driving away the very families she sought to attract with the change: those in the "feeder" elementary schools in Northwest Washington.
Parent leaders told Rhee at a meeting Tuesday that the Georgetown school, which requires that students apply for admission, has received no completed forms from any of the approximately 150 fifth-grade families at Hyde-Addison, Key, Stoddert or Eaton elementary schools.
Last year, about 35 percent of fifth-graders from the feeder schools entered sixth grade at Hardy. Many of the rest secured spots at Deal Middle School, Washington Latin Public Charter School or parochial or other private schools.
Applications from students at other city elementary schools are also down sharply, from 162 at this time last year to 30 as of Monday morning, parents reported, although many more students are seeking admission through a school system lottery.
"Clearly the removal of Mr. Pope has hurt the program," said Keenan Keller, chairman of the panel of parents, teachers and administrators known as the LSRT (Local School Restructuring Team) for Hardy.
An enrollment decline would have funding consequences for the school, which has about 160 sixth-graders. Pope, who will leave his post in June, confirmed the numbers and said he was "very concerned." But with a March 31 application deadline, Rhee said it is still too early to draw conclusions.
"We would have to wait until the application deadline to have data that is really meaningful," she said in an interview after the meeting.
Rhee announced late last year that Pope, founder of the arts and music program that draws a majority-African American student body from across the city to the newly renovated school, would be replaced in June by Hyde-Addison Principal Dana Nerenberg.
Rhee said she wanted to strengthen Hardy's identity as a neighborhood school despite the application process, which she describes as confusing for local families. Rhee has assigned Pope to begin planning a middle school arts magnet. Nerenberg will run both Hardy and Hyde-Addison, underscoring the continuity between Hardy and its surrounding feeder schools.
Some African American parents at Hardy said Rhee is trying to alter the demographics of the school, an assertion she denies.
Parents at some of the feeder schools said that instead of making Hardy more inviting, the turmoil has given them pause. Sherry Woods, who has a fourth-grader at Eaton and two children at Hardy, said there is concern about having a principal running two schools.
"I don't want a principal who's got her feet in two doors," Woods said. "One of those learning environments is going to be grossly impacted. Bottom line, it will be the middle school."
Allan Assarson, who has a third-grader at Key and a sixth-grader at Hardy, said Key parents are worried about Hardy faculty following Pope out the door. "There are a lot of concerns about the transition Rhee is imposing," he said.
Rhee is also locked in a dispute with the LSRT over the District's annual out-of-boundary lottery for parents seeking to place students in schools outside their neighborhoods.
Until this year, Pope ran Hardy with an unusual degree of autonomy, based on a 2003 decision by the old Board of Education designating the school as a "special program." He instituted an application process that includes a student letter, teacher recommendation, the most recent report card and a school visit. Pope and Keller have said that it was set up as a way to assess students' needs and reach out to parents, not as a device to exclude anyone.
Families within Hardy's attendance boundaries are guaranteed spots. And rarely has an out-of-boundary family that completed the application process been denied admission, Pope has said.
But Rhee wants Hardy to draw out-of-boundary students from the lottery and then require them to complete the application process as a condition of admission. Citywide, interest in Hardy remains robust.
In the lottery that closed Sunday, 151 students put in bids for sixth-grade seats at the school, up from 88 last year.
"I actually believe that what we want to create here is a process where any family, regardless of where they live, as long as they fulfill the requirements of the application, have an equal opportunity," Rhee said.
Keller, an attorney for the House Judiciary Committee, said District law allows specially designated schools such as Hardy to admit by application and to use the lottery at the back end of the process if necessary to fill spaces.
Rhee and the LSRT ended the meeting at an impasse.
"Once again, you are creating instability at Hardy," said Keller, who contended that Rhee was "not in compliance" with D.C. law.
"I disagree," Rhee said.
Inquiries to D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles and school system General Counsel Jim Sandman were referred to Rhee spokeswoman Jennifer Calloway, who said in a statement late Wednesday: "The Chancellor has the authority to set the selection criteria for Hardy, and she has determined that selection of out-of-boundary students shall be based on the good-faith completion of all elements of the application process and participation in the out-of-boundary lottery."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/03/AR2010030302585_pf.html
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