
                         THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, June 12, 1994                    TAG: 9406100244 
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS                     PAGE: 20    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: VANEE STAUNTON, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: 940612                                 LENGTH: Medium

PRIVATE FIRMS VIE TO RUN 5 CITY SCHOOLS \

{LEAD} IT WAS SHOWTIME last week for for-profit, school-management companies seeking a contract to run five city schools - Brighton, Highland-Biltmore, James Hurst and John Tyler elementary schools and Cradock Middle School.

Courting Portsmouth are: Public Educational Services Inc. and Zeiders Enterprises Inc., both based in Woodbridge, Va.; the New York City-based Edison Project; and Education Alternatives Inc. (EAI) of Minneapolis.

{REST} Company representatives attended meetings last week and were grilled by a committee of parents, teachers and administrators reviewing their proposals.

Superintendent Richard D. Trumble wants the School Board to hire one of the companies to see whether student achievement would improve under a more innovative management approach.

The five schools have a combined annual budget of $16.3 million and serve about 3,200 students. The contract would cover three years, but the district could opt to extend it for two additional years. The companies, Trumble said, would receive no additional money.

All the companies emphasize that they would live or die by their performance. And they would be strictly accountable to the School Board in terms of performance and spending. Among the administration's expectations: closing the gap in achievement scores between black and white students, improving attendance for each school and bringing all the schools within the top third in the city.

The proposals range from one extending the school day and offering students more rigorous academic classes to one that would add a support team to each school.

The companies said they would cut costs by relying on economies of scale or leaner bureaucracies, or farming out work that could be done cheaper. Trumble repeatedly has said workers would not be fired under any privatization plan.

A review committee will recommend one of the management plans to the board later this month. A vote has not been scheduled, but the board is expected to vote by June 30. If a proposal is adopted, it probably wouldn't be implemented until 1995.

Generally speaking, the companies said they could get better classroom results by using the same dollars in a smarter way. At the same time, they emphasize their deep pockets, which could pay for up-front improvements.

The proposals themselves have not been released publicly. But across the bottom of this page is a look at key details that company officials disclosed last week.

{KEYWORDS} EDUCATION PRIVATIZATION

by CNB