Students at Burroughs Education Campus in Ward 5. Photo by Andy Le/DCPS.

When Michelle Rhee surveyed the D.C. public school system just before opening day in 2007, the new chancellor and now national education reformer hesitantly promised that most of the 146 schools under her control would have the requisite text books for students. That such an elemental component of the educational system was left to question was a symbol of how far D.C. public schools had fallen.

As the city’s 123 public schools open their doors today to 46,000 students, whether or not they’ll have books is less a question than it was before. Rhee and her successor, Chancellor Kaya Henderson, have smoothed out the system’s opening day jitters, forcing the school’s bureaucracy to more effectively plan throughout the year for the day that students arrive.

Today Henderson jumped between eight schools, introducing herself to students, parents, teachers, and administrators and making sure that the day her staff has been planning for since even before DCPS schools closed for summer wasn’t derailed by preventable glitches. (Other officials from Mayor Vince Gray to Ward 6 Councilmember Tommy Wells similarly made the rounds.)

Henderson eating lunch with students at Burroughs. Photo by Andy Le/DCPS.

Starting at the Oyster-Adams school’s Adams campus on 19th Street in Adams Morgan and working her way across the city, Henderson said that she saw a school system that wasn’t only ready to let children in, but also begin instruction. She said that teachers were given prepared curricula ahead of time, and touted the central office’s ability to respond more quickly to problems as they arise. Each school has a central office “ambassador,” she said, and anything from substitute teachers to supplies are kept at the ready if needed.

Henderson told us that keeping opening day problem-free was a matter of planning and coordination—nothing to scoff at in bureaucracy that can still grapple with both. In the lead-up to opening day, she told us, DCPS staff meet regularly to discuss the logistical issues ranging from books to facilities, ramping up to daily meetings in the closing two weeks before principals across the city throw open their school’s doors.

Challenges of course remain, she admitted, saying that some schools may end up with more students than expected and that modernized schools may be undergoing final touches up until the day students arrive.

Still, Henderson is steering a ship that has become smaller and more nimble, and will likely continue on that path in the next year. With many schools remaining under-enrolled, Henderson told us that by December or January she’d like to decide which schools are slated for closure; those with fewer than 300 students could be consolidated with other schools. And as Henderson must certainly realize, closing a school is rarely easy.

She has also been criticized for removing librarians from 58 schools, but Henderson spokeswoman Melissa Salmanowitz told us that the decision was made for the same reason that some schools may eventually be closed: there simply aren’t enough students in some buildings to justify the use of resources. (A petition to save the school librarians has collected close to 2,500 signatures.)

While opening day proceeded largely without incident, is Henderson’s work done? Hardly, she said. She plans on more visits during the week—and those won’t be announced.

Editor’s Note: There’s nothing worse than that feeling of dread that you get when you realize that your recorder didn’t record that interview with the important person. That happened to me as I spoke to Henderson today, so this post was drawn from written notes.