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September 11, 1997

Your Electronic Backfence

Dear Neighbors:

Replacing dozens of school roofs isn’t exactly the same thing as going to war, which is why the generals in charge may be experiencing so much difficulty. What we now seem to be learning from Kathy Patterson’s office is that funding for school roofs was available in June-early enough to finish the projects. The newspapers also report that we’re paying 2-3 times the going rate per square foot. There’s strong suspicion that we’re also replacing some roofs that merely needed to be repaired.

Our big mistake was asking the military to take on this mission. We should have relied on experts. I’m thinking of circus folks, of course. They get the tent (read roof) up in time and can if they’re late, heck, they can entertain the kids as well. Forget day care. It’s not too late to send in the clowns. Oh, I forgot (with apologies to Sondheim), they’re already here.

A sidebar. Ed Stephenson at DCPS apparently didn’t request the roof money quickly enough from the Chief Financial Officer’s office rep. Laura Triggs. Both Ed and Laura worked together on District Finances at the Control Board and at GAO under John Hill. Don’t be surprised to see a GAO team come in and tell the old GAO team how they screwed up. Been there and gotten bit.

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Scratching and Patting

It’s my great pleasure to announce that dc.story has entered into a cooperative agreement with WTOP-Newsradio 1500 AM and (&) 94.3 FM. The agreement? We scratch their back and they pat our stomach. In other words, don’t look for radical changes in dc.story. But all of you news hounds will now be tied into the only all news broadcast station in town. Which means more of your community reports might find their way onto the airways.

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In this issue of dc.story, General Becton becomes the Cat on the Hot Tin Roof, Martians lay down the law at Hechingers, more conventional agitation, and the latest on bulk trash.

Cheers
Jeffrey Itell

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Also free! dc.movie: Free movie passes, short movie reviews, and movie discussion. Send an email message to story@intr.net to subscribe.

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Have You Seen This Man?
Carl Bergman cbergman@radix.net

He’s out of Texas, has a great education reputation, crewcut, believes everything is a management problem and doesn’t listen to anyone but himself. Ross Perot? Nah. General Becton. Sure, they’re not likely to be mistaken for each other, but they attach public policy in the same way: from 10,000 feet. Perot sounds great for the first twenty minutes, but then it you realize that it’s superficial and maybe dangerous. The General has been pretty much the same. He was going to organize the schools into shape. It hasn’t happened, but he’s not changed method or direction. Now, he’s thrown thousands of families lives out of synch, but he holds steadfastly to plan. DC’s kids didn’t need another egocentric amateur.

DC schools are closed because of roof repairs, right? Actually, most have no fire code or roof problems, but General Becton’s keeping everything closed so they can all be in synch when they open. This may not be the full story. More than one teacher’s told me that the system has other start up problems. Some of the 700 new teachers have no contracts. The system’s scheduled orientation sessions, only to cancel them on the day they were to begin. The vaunted new curriculum is not in place. Are these a result of the fire code, roof, judge syndrome, or are they Becton’s reason for adamantly keeping all schools closed? What do you know?

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School Follies — Part 6,221
Ted Gest 76710.2450@compuserve.com

Larry Seftor is right on when he suggests that Judge Kaye Christian’s threat to fine school officials for not fixing roofs on time is a joke. Shifting "fine" money from the school account to the general treasury (or wherever fines go) is hardly an effective penalty. The big problem now is what happens if, as seems inevitable, some schools still can’t open on 9/22. The school system’s ridiculous "all or nothing" policy either will mean that schools won’t open indefinitely, or that somehow it’s OK to open the system with 10 or fewer schools (maybe) unoccupiable when it wasn’t OK to open on schedule 9/2 with about 30 still in repair. Gen. Becton and his repair chief (memorialized with the inspired City Paper headline "Fiddler on the Roof") have yet to offer a rationale or explanation for just about any aspect of this sorry affair. You asked what kids are doing? I have an 11th grade son who called twice to the Chevy Chase Community Center to offer FREE help in the day care program (partly for his own community service requirement.) You guessed it—no response!

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Activities for DCPS students
Mary Filardo t21stcsf@erols.com

A group of Deal 9th grade parents got together and hired two Deal teachers, one English, one Math who are teaching a group of 16 8th graders from 9-12 for two weeks. They are meeting at Jelleff Boys and Girls Club in Georgetown. The cost is $150 per child, as the teachers are paid and materials and snack are provided, as well as some scholarship help.

Another group of Oyster parents have hired a sixth grade Oyster teacher and they meet at the Chevy Chase Center for three hours a day. Another group of Deal parents, of 7th graders are meeting at the Nations Bank Offices at 15th and NY Ave., NW, I think. They hired two teachers and also meet from 9-12. My 15 year old...he’s sleeping late, playing guitar, reading and making me worry.

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Kids Today
Steven Fuchs, D.D.S. drjjmoon@pop.erols.com

In response to your inquiry about what D.C.students are doing. My daughter entering her senior year at Wilson H.S. is spending the time visiting colleges. The question of course, is will she be able to apply if this goes on much longer, which I think it will. My son entering 10th grade is watching a lot of Orioles games. Both kids are bored. I think parents will riot if school is postponed again. This is the first time in 25 years that I regret living in D.C.

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I Have Given Up Hope
Ross Eisenbrey BCsomson@intr.net

I made my first call to realtors in Garrett Park, Maryland today. It is finally clear even to me (a knee-jerk, ideological supporter of public schooling) that General Becton, the trustees, and the control board will not have accomplished any meaningful change in DCPS by the time my fifth grader is in high school, let alone this year or next. I love my daughter too much to continue to entrust her education to the corrupt, bumbling, and dishonest crew that General Becton has assembled to "lead" the school system. If DCPS’s academic performance declines as rapidly and dramatically as its facilities and its on-time performance, the children will be at serious risk.

On the other hand, the staff of both Murch Elementary and Deal Junior High have shown signs that they, at least, have not forgotten the children they are supposed to be educating. Murch has organized impromptu classes and assigned homework; Deal assigned summer reading and has sent its students a postcard expressing how much the staff misses the kids and longs to begin teaching again. My kids, happily, were eager to do the work — they devoured it.

I hope the judge reads today’s Post and comes to understand that Generals Becton and Williams have lied to her about the cause of the system’s failure to make timely roof repairs, that money was available to them in June and that the repairs should have begun a month earlier than they did. For once, I’d like to see someone pay for lying under oath, dodging responsibility and shifting blame to others. I’d like to see General Williams held in contempt — I think that would be a valuable, educational lesson for the District’s children.

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If You Can’t Stand The Heat, Why Just Change The Rules
Larry Seftor Larry_Seftor@compuserve.com

D.C. school chief Julius Becton has shown what he is made of. Because the heat on getting schools open has been rising, he has decided to try for some relief by getting the rules changed. Becton lobbied Congress to get the D.C. fire code (!) altered to allow students in the schools while dangerous roof work is being done.

What message does this send our D.C. school students? Instead of avoiding problems before they occur or solving problems when they arise, their D.C. school chief teaches that you just ask for the rules to be changed.

I have learned in my career that some people solve problems and some people make excuses. Becton is an excuse maker.

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New Wine In Old Bottles?
Steph "They looked just like ordinary people, amazing" Faul steph@intr.net

Is it my imagination, or has the staff at Hechinger’s become frighteningly helpful? I went in there on Sunday to buy new parts for my aqueously powered domestic personal human waste disposal unit, and purchased something that said "Fits most toilets" on it. This turned out to be plumbing manufacturer code for "Does not fit *your* toilet." So when I took it back a young man in the plumbing department literally tore open several packages to find the part I needed. As I walked around the store it seemed as if when I stood in one place for more than 30 seconds someone would come up and ask if I wanted help. My first reaction was hostility — I mean, it’s *Hechinger’s* — but now I’m scared. A change this big this fast can only mean the new management has replaced the normal employees with space aliens.

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Convention Rebuttal
Leslie Miles ANC 2F05 Lesliemiles@aol.com

I am amazed to see that Beth Solomon still has energy left to claim that the residents of the area around the proposed Convention Center at Mount Vernon Square are either bought off or opposed to the development. How many times does she have to be told that the residents overwhelmingly support the Center, not because one little community organization (one that does a lot more good than Ms Solomon ever did while she was a one-term ANC Commissioner) got some equipment from WCCA? The surrounding ANCs, the community organizations, the business organizations, the homeowners, the renters, people of all races and income levels, have all supported this project for years. We know that it will provide economic revitalization on a long-vacant parcel that has been a haven for drug-dealing, prostitution and other crimes. That hole in our neighborhood has stymied development for 20 years, and if we don’t build the Center on it, nothing will happen there in my lifetime.

I represent ANC 2F05 and am the former president of the Blagden Alley Association. I deeply resent the suggestion that I or my neighbors have been bribed by Marion Barry to support this project. I believe that I have the intelligence to assess the relative merits of the plan and form my own views, and my neighbors do too. Only Beth Solomon and Leroy Thorpe, the ANC 2C Commissioner who was removed from the WCCA Advisory Board after making one too many racist remarks, oppose this project.

Beth and Leroy are not above disrupting religious events or telling deliberate lies to sway people to their iconoclastic view that the Center will "destroy" Shaw, a neighborhood that desperately needs this development. I am not surprised that they are so isolated in their opposition. I am only surprised that Jeffrey Itell put her remarks in so prominent a position at the top of our email.

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MetroBus Stripes
Evan Roth rothe@washpost.com As usual: I don’t speak for my employer and my employer doesn’t speak for me.

Have you all noticed the new stripes on some of the Metro buses: red/white/red with the two red stripes criss-crossing in the front. And there’s a wide blue stripe at the base of the bus.

How boring! Hardly an improvement over the red, white and blue-with-an-arrow-in-front design that has graced the buses for years. If Metro was going to change the color scheme, couldn’t it come up with something more imaginative? How how much do you suppose was spent on coming up with the new scheme?

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Bulk Trash Pick Up
Charles A. Diago Forest Hills Lbrcdiago@aol.com

The Forest Hills Citizens Association Neighborhood Notes reported in its August 1997 newsletter that the District has resumed its bulk trash pick up. Call the D.C. Department of Public Works 202.727.4600 to find out the date when collection crews will be in your area and make an appointment.

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Barry and CVS
John Whiteside whiteside@mindspring.com

Reading Joan Eisenstadt’s complaint that Marion Barry had someone go pick up a prescription for him… ignoring for a moment the qualities of the mayor in question, does anyone really think waiting in line at CVS is a good use of a mayor’s time?

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dc.events

Footlights—A Modern Drama Discussion Group

Join us to discuss plays from the modern western theater! At our next meeting we will discuss Lillian Hellman’s 1st play, "The Children’s Hour." Based on a true story, "The Children’s Hour" concerns the devastating effects of a child’s malicious charge of a lesbian relationship between 2 of her teachers. The play shocked & fascinated Broadway in 1934 & has lost none of its power. We will meet on Wednesday September 17 for dinner at 6:30; our discussion begins at 7:30, both at Luna Books, 1633 P St., NW, in DC, just 3 blocks east of Dupont Circle. Attendance is free but we do ask for a $2 donation. For reservations or further information send e-mail to dsobelso@capaccess.org or call (202) 484-8303.

David Sobelsohn dsobelso@capaccess.org

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Zoo Lecture

25 September 1997 7:30 p.m. Education Building National Zoo

Enter at Connecticut Ave. Park in Lot A Free, but please RSVP by calling (202) 673-4801 or e-mailing nzpem053@sivm.si.edu

In commemoration of Hispanic Heritage Month, Francisco Dallmeier, director of the Smithsonian’s Measuring and Assessment of Biodiversity program, will present "Guarding Nature’s Crown Jewels: Assessing and Monitoring Biological Richness in Tropical and Temperate Rainforests." He will explain why collecting and analyzing data is critical to understanding fragile forest ecosystems and predicting what the future holds for them.

Margie Gibson NZPEM053@SIVM.SI.EDU

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Kibitzing by Jeffrey Itell Copyright © 1997 All rights reserved


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