THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, July 19, 1994 TAG: 9407190361
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY VANEE VINES, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: Long : 101 lines
Superintendent Richard D. Trumble has abandoned for now his controversial plan to hire an outside company to run some of the city's schools.
With little School Board support for the idea, Trumble said he would not proceed in vain.
The superintendent said he still liked the concept of letting private school-management companies run some public schools. But he questioned whether the handful of such companies now in business could live up to their promises.
On Monday, the board - anxious to focus Trumble's efforts on other, more pressing matters - announced that privatization plans had been put on hold indefinitely.
Board Chairman J. Thomas Benn III emphasized that Trumble and the board reached the decision together. And the idea, Benn said, will not be killed outright.
While officials have shelved plans to turn over an entire school to private managers, for example, they may hire a private company to offer an alternative program for troubled students, as Virginia Beach and Norfolk have done. Trumble also is interested in hiring the highly touted Sylvan Learning Center to tutor students who read poorly.
``My hope all the time is to be constantly looking for programs that have some promise of working and being effective for our kids,'' Trumble said Sunday, the last day of the board's weekend retreat in Williamsburg.
Referring to privatization efforts in other school districts, he said, ``Obviously, over the past year, we have not seen the kind of results we had hoped for.''
Last month, after a yearlong search, a selection committee led by the superintendent rejected plans from four companies interested in running five city schools. Trumble then said a new search
would start from scratch.
But now those plans have been put on hold, the statement said, because they ``detract from other important ongoing efforts . . .'' - most notably the transition to ``community'' elementary schools beginning in September 1995.
During the weekend retreat, the board narrowed Trumble's focus to other key issues, such as raising academic standards; implementing improvement plans from grass-roots ``action teams''; providing more staff development; and perhaps reducing the central office staff.
Board members, however, said they still wanted to explore the concept of privatization to keep teachers and administrators on their toes.
The administration also will study some cost-cutting measures proposed by the companies, Trumble said.
``What they needed to do from the start was look at ways to tap into the expertise we already have and then incorporate into our system any of the privatization ideas that could make a difference,'' said Carlton M. Carrington, president of the United Civic League of Cavalier Manor.
School-management companies, including Education Alternatives Inc.and the New York City-based Edison Project, promised to equip five targeted schools with computers and make them safer places to learn with better-trained teachers - all the while trimming overhead and cutting red tape.
Privatization split the board, especially as community opposition mounted and a series of setbacks plagued Education Alternatives Inc. of Minneapolis.
EAI, probably the most experienced school-management company, runs 13 public schools in Baltimore and Miami Beach. At EAI's flagship school in Miami Beach, students who had been there since the company took over performed at about the same levels as similar students in traditional elementary schools. And the company misrepresented test results from some of its schools in Baltimore.
From the beginning, the road to privatization in Portsmouth was generally a lonely one for a superintendent with a reputation for going against the grain.
Trumble announced last fall that he wanted to experiment with privatization to see whether a different management approach could boost academic achievement for the same amount of money.
But he failed to win over teachers, parents and influential education and civic groups.
The administration's plan, which aimed to close the achievement gap between white and black students, also generated anger and confusion among some of the people Trumble said would benefit from it.
He increasingly was criticized during the school year for taking on too many controversial plans at once and for appearing to lack a sense of direction. Board members also began to feel the heat.
``Finally,'' Trumble said Sunday, ``one has to realize that you can't carry this thing alone.''
At the end, only one board member, business owner Louise G. ``Sis'' Walden, said the idea still had her full support because of the lure of private dollars for capital improvements and other up-front investments.
Board member Lawrence W. I'Anson Jr. said, ``This just seems to be a bad time'' to consider privatization.
Kathy Mondak, president-elect of the James Hurst Elementary PTA, cited the report about EAI's Miami Beach school.
``Later on down the road, like in four or five years, we may find that the concept really can work and may work in our schools,'' she said. ``But I think it's best to take a wait-and-see attitude.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Schools chief Richard D. Trumble said there is little School Board
support for private management.
by CNB