Mr. CABELL. I will not pursue that further. Mr. Fauntroy, you will have until the next bell rings and then we will assure you the first spot on the next hearing and we won't put you quite so far down the line. Mr. FAUNTROY. Thank you so much Mr. Cabell. Dr. Scott, I just want to first of all congratulate you for having the courage to take what Mr. Ballou said is perhaps one of the most difficult assignments as school superintendent in the country. I want to commend you for your ten month tenure and for your presentation here today because I think you have made very clear the unique nature of our school system in the District of Columbia and you have parricularly demonstrated for us admirably and adequately the fact that we are not putting into our special services needs the kinds of resources that the children of these schools require. And I was particularly impressed with your analysis of the fact that we do not have available to us the kinds of resources that states make available to cities in addition to the kinds of resources that the federal government makes available to those same cities. We have to include many items in our budget that do not appear in the budget of other schools systems and I am particularly thankful to you for the clear, concise manner in which you have outlined and defined the need to at least documenting our problems among the educable retarded on the one hand and secondly, you have demonstrated the inadequacy of what is proposed here to deal with the problems of those educable retarded. SCHOOL POPULATION I just have three questions that I would like you to address. The first has to do with the school population which has come up several times today and I wonder what your assessement of the reason for the drop in school population given what you have already said to us in terms of the quality of education you are able to provide children in the schools and given the dropout rate which is attributable to the failure to deliver services for the educable retarded and those with special services needs. Dr. SCOTT. Well, Congressman Fauntroy, I thank you. In terms of the projections and why the rate is reduced in terms of the number of students, there doesn't appear to be an overwhelming decrease of the District school population. I have sort of consistently maintained a posture that the schools really are the lifeline of this District for those who live here and sometimes it is a very difficult thing to sell that concept because we all talk about the value of education and yet there is this I guess you call it the stigma associated with the large urban school systems. The District is not unique in this. I don't know what the percentage of the population is of people who come here for the first time because of employment with the Federal government. As the Washington Post indicated, this is perhaps the one city in America with the most educated population. Twenty-five percent of the population, of the parents of these children, have graduated from college. But we find that the school system isn't evidently able to project the image that makes some of these families want to live here though it is close to employment. Because of this families, Black as well as White, are sort of retreating from the public schools of the District and I sort of facetiously state that there appears to be a condition here that everyone is waiting for the next GS raise(The following tabulation was filed for the record:) NON-EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES IN CERTAIN PUBLIC SCHOOLS Morgan Elementary School Multi-Service Center Public Health Clinic Community Arts and Crafts Community/Recreation Gymnasium Indoor Swimming Pool Shaw Junior High School Public Health Clinic Police/Community Relations Community Roving Leader Community Meeting Room Eighth and Yuma Employment Service Indoor Swimming Pool Community/Recreation Gymnasium Wrestling Room Teen Center with Snack Bar Community Industrial Arts Community Home Economics Laboratory Adult Classroom 53rd and Benning (Payne Cemetery Site) Public Health Clinic Multi-Service Center Day Care Space (small) Mr. CABELL. I am sorry but we will have to break this one off. I would like to announce this session of the hearings will return at ten o'clock on Friday. We will have Federal City College which has already been scheduled. Mr. Townsend, last week Mr. Abernethy asked for a list of those District employees who resided outside of the District, do you know if that has been prepared? Mr. TOWNSEND. No, I don't but I can check. Mr. CABELL. I will appreciate it. So with that announcement this session will resume Friday, June 18th, at ten o'clock. (Subsequently, the following statement in response to inquiries of the Committee was received for the record :) STATEMENT ON SCHOOLS' ABILITY TO GET JOB CLASSIFICATION ACTIONS1 1. TEACHERS SALARY SCHEDULE Prior to the D. C. Reorganization Plan 3 of 1967, the Board of Education and the Board of Commissioners shared classification responsibility and final authority was vested with the Board of Commissioners. Both Boards delegated their responsibility and/or authority to their respective Personnel Officers. This provided for effective and efficient administration and expeditious action and decisions by harmonious working relations between the skilled specialists staffs 1 Source: D.C. Public Schools. Division of Budget and Executive Management, July 1971. of both Personnel Officers. Under the provisions of the D. C. Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1967, authority for the classification of positions was vested in the D. C. Council. This change added an additional step to the classification process since the D. C. Personnel Officer must forward his recommendations to the D. C. Council. At the present time, eight positions are awaiting D. C. Council action. Recommendation: That the Teachers Salary Act be amended to delegate to the Mayor-Commissioner and the Board of Education, the authority and responsibility for classification actions and to encourage them to redelegate their authority to the D. C. Personnel Officer and the School Administration (Superintendent and Associate Superintendent Personnel) respectively. 2. GENERAL SCHEDULE a. Under the authority delegated by Civil Service Commission to the D. C. Government, the D. C. Personnel Officer has the authority for final classification action on all positions up to and including grade GS-15. He has retained the authority for grades GS-14 and 15 and has delegated to the school system authority for grades GS-1 thru GS-13. In addition, he has retained the authority to approve proposed Expert and Consultant positions established on a per diem basis. These restrictions do not present a major problem; however, they are time consuming and delay the classification process. Recommendations: To the delegate to the D. C. Public Schools the authority to act on classification actions in grades GS-14 and 15 (except for positions within their Division of Personnel) and to approve Expert and Consultant positions on a per diem basis not to exceed GS-15 step 10. b. The authority to approve classification actions for supergrade positions is retained by the Civil Service Commission, subject to quotas established by the U. S. Congress. However, since we have not been granted a quota by the U.S. Congress, we are not authorized to submit proposed supergrade classification actions. Recommendations: (1) To submit our supergrade requirements to the U. S. Congress through the Mayor-Commissioner for their review and appropriate action. (2) To permit the Civil Service Commission to retain supergrade classification authority. 3. WAGE SCHEDULE Sufficient authority has been delegated by the D. C. Personnel Officer to satisfy our present requirements. Recommendations: None at this time. (Whereupon, at 12:14 p.m., the Committee adjourned.) REVENUE PROPOSALS FRIDAY, JUNE 18, 1971 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE ON BUSINESS, COMMERCE AND FISCAL AFFAIRS OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, Washington, D.C. The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:10 a.m. in room 1310, Longworth House Office Building, the Honorable Earle Cabell presiding. Present: Representatives Cabell (presiding), McMillan, Mikva, Link, Nelsen, Gude, and Delegate Fauntroy. Also present: James T. Clark, Clerk; Hayden S. Garber, Counsel; Patrick Kelly, Assistant Counsel; Leonard Ö. Hilder, Legislative Assistant; Paul Y. Little, Consultant; Whitney Turley, Staff Member; and John Hogan, Minority Clerk. Mr. CABELL. The hearing will come too order. We will continue with some of the questions on fiscal administration as well as educational administration. May I ask, what are the duties of the Associate Superintendent for Administrative Services? STATEMENT OF DR. HUGH SCOTT, SUPERINTENDENT OF D.C. SCHOOLS-Resumed Dr. SCOTT. Mr. Chairman, I will read you the job description. Mr. CABELL. Give me just a summary of the primary functions and obligations. ASSOCIATE SUPERINTENDENT Dr. SCOTT. The Associate Superintendent for Administrative Services coordinates the responsibilities of the business functions of the D.C. Schools in terms of accounting, handling the buildings and grounds, contracts, matters related to what we consider administrative functions that are non-instructional, give non-instructional support to the system and to local school units. Mr. CABELL. Who is the Associate Superintendent? Dr. SCOTT. Mr. John Koontz. Mr. CABELL. What is his background, his educational background? Dr. SCOTT. Mr. Koontz was in the position prior to my arrival, but I assume what I do know of his background, he was a secondary teacher at one time and secondary_principal, and at one time Assistant Superintendent for Secondary Education. |