Fenty Makes Another, More Recognizable, Choice

Mayor Adrian Fenty is not wasting any time in making staff choices for his top education posts. In his most recent move, Fenty has selected Allen Lew to head the school's $2.3 billion modernization program. Under the program, Lew would oversee both construction and renovation projects designed to bring the school's facilities up to par.

Fenty (D) has been courting Lew for weeks to take control of the effort to renovate the city's 141 public schools, many of which are plagued with leaky roofs, broken plumbing, cracked windows, and outdated labs and athletic facilities. City officials have said that repairs have been slowed by bureaucracy, with work orders getting lost in a maze of complicated paperwork, procurement rules and permit problems.

Lew would be charged with creating and managing the Office of Public Education Facilities Modernization. Although the mayor and the council would have ultimate oversight of the $2.3 billion capital budget, Lew and his staff would be responsible for spending the money, entering into contracts with construction firms and ensuring that the school system's Master Facilities Plan, created largely by Superintendent Clifford B. Janey, is carried out.

If picking Michelle Rhee as the Chancellor presents question marks in other city leaders, Lew is a known entity, having overseen the construction of the city's new convention center and the currently incomplete Washington Nationals baseball statdium.

In other news, apparently Adrian Fenty and I share some of the same thoughts about immediate impact moves designed to bolster support and clean up schools. The

school system also has embarked on a "blitz" repair program at 33 schools after several boilers broke down in the winter. And this week, Fenty met with more than 40 developers to launch a "buff and scrub" program in which the developers will be asked to contribute $10,000 apiece in labor costs to upgrade schools over the summer.

It is not the same clean up effort I would have implemented system wide, but it is a good start. With 40 developers spending $10,000 a piece, you have a $400,000 clean up effort, which probably needs to be more along the lines of a $4 million dollar effort, but it is a start.