Kevin Chavous
A Mayor for every neighborhood

DC Public Schools and Early Childhood Preparation

"Schools are the heart of a neighborhood. Our neighborhood schools must offer quality educational programming and modernized facilities in order to retain and attract neighborhood families."

The Chavous Record on the DC Public Schools

• held more than 40 hearings and roundtables in the 18 months of his chairmanship on the City Council Committee on Education, Libraries and Recreation
• provided the only forum for parents, students and communities to be heard about school issues during the last two years of control board school reform.
• placed additional $1.6 million in library budget to increase hours libraries are open
• demanded that the school system develop a master facilities plan which passes public comment and is approved by the City Council.
• reversed budget cutbacks that threatened the survival of The University of the District of Columbia
• supports school based budgeting and local school governance
• fought to reverse deterioration of DC public schools and worked with school officials to map strategies to improve student performance
• authored legislation to enable school facilities maintenance, construction and modernization

SmartStart . . so that all our children succeed

Chavous' "SmartStart" strategy begins public support for children's reaming from age three uses classrooms all day and all year, and teaches algebra and geometry and other higher-level skills as early as the sixth grade.

"SmartStart: A New Vision for D.C. Public Schools," has eight components:

1. Support public learning from age three.
2. Provide more time for learning to take place.
3. Provide rigorous curriculum at the elementary level.
4. Implement a rigorous curriculum for all high schools.
5. Create smaller schools smaller class sizes.
6. Manage special education for positive results.
7. Respect, train and reward our professional teachers.
8. Collaborate across agency lines to reduce truancy, drug abuse, crime and violence.

Chavous proposes to allocate "$50 million in net funding" per year to implement SmartStart tied to all child services of the District government — within five years.

Chavous will approach children's issues across agency lines, identifying and merging the often conflicting strategies but common goals of the school system, the police, the courts, the public health system and the foster care system.

Features of the Chavous plan include:

• Recapturing funds now spent on remediation, compensatory education, special education, retained students, summer school and incarcerated youth. Instead investments will be made in effective, longer-day, longer-year learning from age three.
• Tailoring school hours to parents working day.
• Extending the school year to 220 days per year.
• Matching high school curriculum to hi-tech jobs in Greater Washington.
• Creating an accredited International Baccalaureate School.
• Stopping current disposal of DC school buildings, focusing on creation of smaller schools.
• Capping school environments at 350 students for K-6 and 700 students for 7-12.
• Eliminating backlog of ordered assessments for troubled students by authorizing payments to private assessment professionals.
• Providing rigorous professional training to spot and deal with troubled children.
• Substantially increasing professional development of teachers and other school staff.
• Linking education services to all other District youth and family services to assure positive responses to the risks of drug and alcohol abuse, crime and violence.

Chavous’ blueprint for successful DC public schools

The Chavous administration will direct the District budget process to ensure that education is the priority. Both SmartStart — his Integrated child development initiative — and the DC public schools budget will reflect the priority this city gives to education.

Chavous will work with the DC public schools to:

1. Reconnect the DC public schools with District citizens. Citizens will have a voice through the elected Board of Education and through school management teams.

2. Assure accountability.

• Crisis management in the DC public schools must give way to detailed planning and budgeting, stable leadership and school-based management.
• The school system should has multi-year budgets, based on detailed implementation plans vetted through public review.

3. Coordinate the schools and social services for all students.

• All students must be prepared to ream. My administration will coordinate youth and family services with the schools to deal with nonacademic issues such as student health and nutrition, family tensions, abuse and neglect, youth violence and truancy.
• Neighborhoods must have access to quality childcare, before- and after-school programs, parent education and early childhood development programs.

4. Enlist business to become partners with the DC public schools.

• A businesslike partnership — not just good works and donations — must be established with the private sector to guide School to Work vocational programs.
• Partnerships will be formed with the information industries and cultural, academic and professional institutions both to engage students and to support life-long learning for the larger community.