News Articles, 1995-1997
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Classroom chairs still were piled upside down last week, and the halls still were filled with unpacked boxes. But in a sense, the new year already had begun at two District schools, where Superintendent Franklin L. Smith moved to end months of turmoil and division by replacing the principals.

Although classes in the District don't begin until tomorrow, Enrique Watson, the new interim principal at Lincoln Multicultural Middle School, beamed as he stood in the front office amid a friendly bustle of returning teachers and visiting parents. On one phone, he took a congratulatory call from a colleague; on another, he left an urgent message requesting personnel forms.

"You can only turn a school around from within. My priority is to create a culture where teachers feel like they have a stake in the school, and where students yearn to come rather than to leave," said Watson, who has been Lincoln's vice principal for nine years and hopes to win his new job permanently. "I have been in these trenches for so long. Now that I have been placed on the front line, I want to learn from others' mistakes and move on."

Watson, 40, was tapped to replace Erasmo Garza, who had been brought in a year ago to help the school of about 560 Latino, African American and Asian students on 16th Street NW. Garza tried to make several changes, but he encountered strong resistance from many staff members, who complained repeatedly to school authorities that he was autocratic and disorganized. By last spring, the school was rife with tension and resentment.

At Woodridge Elementary school, a Montessori-method school of about 300 students in a quiet Northeast Washington neighborhood, a similar year-long dispute between the principal and an alliance of teachers and parents ended last month when Smith appointed Clara W. Canty as acting principal, replacing Gloria Dickerson, who had run Woodridge since last fall.

Canty, a former assistant principal at the Capitol Hill Cluster school, said through a school spokeswoman that she was impressed with Woodridge's staff and excited about her new job. As they unpacked toys and arranged chairs, parents and teachers expressed enthusiasm about the new year.

"Last year was very difficult, and the superintendent received many, many letters about problems here," said John Feeley, who teaches 3- to 6-year-olds. "Now he has made the right decision . . . and we can get moving right away."

Spokeswoman Beverly Lofton said both personnel changes were made after "routine assessments" of the schools. "If you see a situation where a principal is not being supported by staff and parents, you may have to make changes," she said. "You don't want to make these decisions in a rash manner, but you want to make them before the children come back."

Smith's own job may be in jeopardy at the hands of the city's financial control board, in part because fire code violations will prevent six schools from opening on time. His critics also say he has not made many of the tough personnel changes necessary to turn the school system around. But most parents at Lincoln and Woodridge are pleased with the changes he made at those schools.

At Lincoln, Garza had inherited a school in a drug-plagued urban area. The school was required to accept youths from shelters or juvenile court, as well as a regular quotient of energetic adolescents from ethnically diverse backgrounds. He appeared to relish the challenge and enjoy working with teenagers, roaming the halls to chat, as well as to keep order.

"I did my best, and the kids were great. If I had been given the three years I was promised, I could have accomplished something, but people expect you to walk in and perform miracles," Garza said yesterday at Woodrow Wilson Senior High School in Northwest Washington, where he is an assistant principal. "Watson is a good man and I wish him well, but if he doesn't get the support he needs, he'll wind up like me."

Despite his enthusiasm, Garza never got along with Lincoln's staff members, and their grievances multiplied as the months passed. They went to Smith, the school board and finally the control board, saying that Garza was too dictatorial with them and too lenient with students, made chaotic curriculum changes and used staff budget cutbacks to get rid of dissidents.

"Those teachers used to call me every night. They said there was no master schedule, no discipline, no report cards," said school board member Wilma R. Harvey (Ward 1). "I visited that school time after time. I saw the graffiti and the anger. . . . If Mr. Garza was finally moved, it was because of those teachers and their persistence."

Last week, Lincoln's teachers took a two-day, federally funded retreat in Harpers Ferry, W.Va., that had been planned by Garza but was led by Watson. When they returned, critics and defenders of Garza alike said they respected Watson and were eager to work with him.

"I'm not sure we feel stable yet, though the retreat helped," teacher Denise Bump said. "Garza made a lot of changes quickly, and people didn't like it, but maybe they were needed to get the ball rolling. Watson has a tough role to follow, but we all support him, and at least we know who we are dealing with."

Woodridge, by contrast, is a successful experimental school sought out by parents because its Montessori-based program stresses individual choice and development for children. They were deeply involved in its operation and forged close relationships with many staff members.

School officials said Dickerson, who could not be reached for comment, was on leave and did not have a new assignment yet. Parents, teachers and neighborhood activists say she alienated many in the school community by trying to keep rigid controls on an informal, cooperatively run program.

Dickerson's defenders, including some education officials and school board members, say she simply didn't mesh with Woodridge after years in more traditional elementary school settings.

"I guess the shoe didn't fit," said board member Angie K. Corley (Ward 5). "Some people didn't like her management style, but I didn't see anything wrong with it. She was an excellent person in previous schools, but sometimes there is not a good mix. Now the superintendent has made his decision, so I hope we can have some harmony and some healing, and move forward."

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