Last week, Mayor Adrian Fenty and Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee released their revised school closure list, which spared six schools and added an additional four, a move that has caused most education watchers to declare any lingering controversy over the closures to be all but dead.

In his column in Sunday’s Post, Marc Fisher called out the “knee-jerk politicians” on the D.C. Council, notably Ward 8 Council member Marion Barry, for their sudden shift to praising the Mayor after the release of the revised list, a flip-flop so extreme that Rhee dubbed Barry’s behavior "fascinating." Fisher praised Rhee and Fenty for sticking to their guns, and went on to make the larger point that the school closings raised far less fuss than what had been suggested in the media, and that any controversy that did exist was led almost entirely by Barry and a handful of vigorous protesters, only a few of whom were actually parents of school children.

Parent and former schools reformer Marc Simon had a different take, writing in the Post that Rhee’s focus is all wrong: “Rhee seems focused on buildings and bureaucracy, not on strategies for improving teaching and learning. She has the wrong diagnosis, or she lacks the skills and experience. Either way, she hasn't put forward a plan that addresses what happens in the classrooms.” Ouch – harsh words from one former teacher to another, but Simon raises an interesting point. Council politics aside, maybe the closings would have gone down easier if there had been a more clearly defined rationale from the Chancellor as to the benefit for student achievement.

Fisher was back with more yesterday, offering some insight into what will become of the school campuses once closed. City law states that the buildings must be offered to charter schools first, and Fenty has said that while none of the sites will be sold, he isn’t opposed to developing some of them into condos, with emphasis on an “affordable housing component.”

It seems that while we’ve heard a lot about the closures from the perspectives of the D.C. Council, Mayor’s office, and parents, there hasn’t been much airtime for the reactions of the faculty and staff of the schools on the list. Linsey Mayhew, a teacher at Gage-Eckington Elementary School in Ward 1, said that if anything, the school’s pending closure seemed to bring a sense of relief, describing the faculty’s dissatisfaction at the way the school was run.

"People were unhappy to begin with," Mayhew explained, "and we know that it’s a good thing."

Mayhew said that a mentor would be working to help teachers find placement at different schools for next year, but is worried that knowledge of the school’s closing might affect student performance. “Recently, at our first Saturday School session, we had a ton of students, but at the last one, after the letters had gone home about the closure, only about half as many kids showed up.”

Photo by AlbinoFlea