Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.metro From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: School board races focus on solutions Date: Thu, 29 Oct 92 14:38:17 EST Message-ID: \SE B;METROPOLITAN \HD School board races focus on solutions \BY Darryl Lynette Figueroa \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES The 17 public schools in Ward 1 have the highest dropout rate in the city and some of its lowest test scores. Many are overcrowded and the ward has the greatest number of Spanish- and Vietnamese-speaking students in the city. No one is debating the facts, so the question in the school board race in Ward 1 is, "Should we turn to someone new or should we stick with experience?" said Alice Kelly, Advisory Neighborhood Commission chairman in Ward 1, which includes Adams Morgan, Columbia Heights and Kalorama. Six-year incumbent Wilma Harvey, a former teacher, gets high marks from some voters for saving the Garnet-Patterson Junior High School from closing and for helping to create a new program called the Tri-School Learning Academy. "It's in its infancy stage," Mrs. Harvey said. "One reason I want to stay on is to see this program on sound footing." She faces three first-time candidates: Beatriz "BB" Otero, owner of two day care centers and the first Hispanic woman to run; Jim Joy, a zoologist, who wants to improve school buildings and offer environmental studies; and Monica Guyot, founder of a child care center and a former civil rights activist. Mrs. Otero cited her ties to the community as a member of the D.C. Latino Civil Rights Task Force and longtime PTA president at Oyster Elementary School. "I can walk in as someone who is well versed in the system and can get to work," she said. "Will I be sensitive to issues of other cultural groups? Absolutely. But I will have been elected by the whole community." Mrs. Guyot, whose husband, Lawrence, is an ANC commissioner, is running as the outsider. She said she is beholden to no one and would therefore be the most effective. "I am not the administration candidate. That is Ms. Otero, and Frank Smith supports Harvey," she said. "I am not accountable to anyone but you." In Ward 5, test scores and dropout rates are concerns, too, but parents there also complain about dilapidated buildings and playgrounds. The ward, which makes up the greater part of the Northeast quadrant, includes some of the city's older and middle-class neighborhoods - Brookland, Woodridge and North Michigan Park. "Parents are not impressed with the schools," said Kathryn Pearson-West, an ANC member. She is especially upset about several failed attempts to make Backus Junior High a magnet school. "We're middle-class, we take our civic responsibilities seriously and yet we never seem to get the best," she said. "Our schools should be showcases, but most of my neighbors send their children to private school," said longtime resident and community activist Norma Broadnax, who did the same with her own son. "Residents feel that schools are just in general in a declining mode in any area you can think of." Critics said incumbent Angie King Corley is not aggressive enough to be effective, while supporters said she is visible and tries hard. She faces Mary Baird Currie, a school counselor, former teacher and ANC commissioner; the Rev. Imagene Stewart, a longtime community activist who runs a women's shelter in Shaw; and Edward Wolterbeek, a real estate broker and Fort Lincoln community activist involved in leadership programs with city junior high and high schools. Mrs. Corley, a former schoolteacher and counselor, said she wants to attack the dropout rate, counter school violence with electronic monitoring equipment, and raise salaries for teachers and principals. Ms. Stewart wants school prayer back in the schools. Mrs. Currie wants better early childhood programs and shuns student suspensions. Mr. Wolterbeek touts a program that would match each Ward 5 public school student with a trainer, an educator and a mentor. In Ward 6, several of the 21 schools have a good or decent reputation, said Bernice Smoot, co-chairman of Parents United and a ward resident. The ward also has the most special-education schools. Schools in Ward 6, which stretches from Capitol Hill to Anacostia, need some of the most basic staff and equipment - Xerox machines and full-time music and science teachers. "In 1992, when we put space shuttles in the sky, build phenomenal telescopes, can produce solar energy, we have a pre-Victorian school system in terms of resources available for our children," said Patricia Yates, president of the Kingsman Elementary PTA. Incumbent Iris Toyer's challengers include Bernard Gray, a lawyer who also has run for D.C. Council, and Benjamin Bonham Jr., a former teacher, community activist and coach. Both challenged her in a 1991 special election. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM