Janeese Lewis George tours several wards on education

Throughout September, Ward 4 D.C. council member and Democratic mayoral nominee Janeese Lewis George has conducted listening sessions in the District’s easternmost parts, where Washingtonians of various races and income levels are demanding a better quality of public education within walking distance of their homes.    

Ruth LaToison Ifill, a mother of high schoolers who lives in Ward 7’s Fort DuPont, says there’s no time for the next D.C. mayor to waste in actualizing that vision, especially for Ward 7 residents who’ve long demanded a neighborhood dual-language public middle school.    

“There is one part of me that definitely believes that we need to sit down and have large, in-depth conversations about what it takes to improve our middle schools,” LaToison Ifill told The Informer, “but I think the other thing that you have to consider is there are leaders in other cities who have said, ‘Hey, this is what I expect for my administration to do, and this is the timeline that I’m giving you to get it done.” 

On Sept. 3, LaToison Ifill served as an organizer for the Ward 7 leg of Lewis George’s citywide listening tour at East Washington Heights Baptist Church in Southeast. That evening, she took to the pulpit and implored participants in what was one of the most well-attended sessions thus far to make their concerns known.

They would later do so during breakout sessions focusing on education, transportation, health care, public safety, and employment. In the education space, participants of all ages made their concerns known about special education, chronic absenteeism, curriculum and workforce development, expanding the presence of D.C. government agencies, and preventing displacement of marginalized residents amid RFK Stadium’s completion. 

Though she took note of what she called Lewis George’s fervor for change, LaToison Ifill stressed the need for concrete steps and accountability measures to ensure that residents see significant improvements in their children’s educational choices.  

“[Democratic candidate Lewis George] has made many of her expectations pretty clear,” LaToison Ifill said. “People know that she’s coming for improving schools, improving affordability, improving our grocery store situation, so I think that they know that the demand is going to come. For the schools, we need a timeline.” 

A Word from Current, Future, and Prospective Elected Officials

Lewis George’s tour, themed “Building the People’s Government,” will culminate in the development of five areas of focus after Nov. 3, when she’s anticipated to win the general election in a majority-Democratic city. Her travels across the city, and her team’s dissemination of a survey, are taking place in the countdown to the electoral contest where Lewis George is facing independent mayoral candidate Dr. Rhonda Hamilton and D.C. Statehood Green Party candidate Robert L. Gross. 

By Sept. 11, Lewis George had also conducted listening sessions at: Union Temple Baptist Church in Ward 8; All Souls Church Unitarian in Ward 1; Peoples Congregational United Church of Christ in Ward 4; and Union Wesley AME Zion Church in Ward 5. With more than half of the tour stops under her belt, she identified interagency communication as a key impediment to quality, equitable education.

Mayoral control of schools, Lewis George said, serves as a vital tool in getting all education and child welfare-related agencies on the same page to tackle special education, career and technical education, chronic absenteeism, and out-of-schooltime programming. 

“We have to use it for the benefit that it was, which was for better coordination, ensuring that we’re using our funding to its best ability,” Lewis George told The Informer. “What I heard a lot is a question of structures within education and how we should structure that for real accountability and real measurable outcomes. That’s something that our team is going to be considering as far as how we organize agencies and under which mayors we organize certain agencies.” 

On the night of Sept. 8, Lewis George spoke to the residents of her home ward who filled the pews at Peoples Congregational United Church of Christ. Those at the Ward 4 church who participated in the education breakout session later recounted instances where they saw confusion among agencies about how to address school-level issues. 

Lewis George said the feedback received that evening built upon what she gathered on the campaign trail. 

“It’s clear in this city that after-school programming, before-school programming, those types of things that those of us who grew up in this city are benefiting from, was key to [addressing] chronic absenteeism,” Lewis George told The Informer. “That’s the key to also supporting literacy efforts and math efforts, and just getting more kids active and back in school.” 

If elected in the general election, Lewis George will work in a different posture with her soon-to-be former D.C. Council colleagues, including D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson, who secured his re-election earlier this year when he ran in the Democratic primary unopposed. 

The veteran legislator recently affirmed what he called his collegial relationship with Lewis George, identifying as key points of collaboration: child care subsidy pay equity, literacy, teacher retention, and maintenance of a per-pupil funding that suffered a reduction in the financial plan. 

“I’m looking forward to collaborating with the new mayor and working on a range of issues,” Mendelson told The Informer during a Sept. 20 press briefing, later saying that he’s willing to work through any conflicts that may arise. “I expect that will happen.. You can’t put two people in a room without disagreeing. The question is will we be able to work with those disagreements, [and my answer is] we can.” 

D.C. Councilmember Zachary Park (D-Ward 5), a speaker at the Ward 5 “Building a People’s Government” tour stop, expressed enthusiasm about Lewis George’s priorities and long-term education goals.

“I was encouraged during her campaign that she shared an urgency around truancy. That is something that I don’t think our government has prioritized enough,” Parker told The Informer. “I was also encouraged to hear her talk about the need for [the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE)] to have more independence. That could take many different forms, but I think it is unique that the presumptive mayor would be talking about that.” 

Earlier this year, amid a contentious Democratic mayoral primary and vicious debate about youth curfews, Parker endorsed Lewis George over his Ward 5 D.C. Council predecessor Kenyan McDuffie, who had more of a punitive approach toward curfew breakers. Months later, Parker touts teacher classroom support as an education issue of significance for Lewis George, who he called a friend of organized labor. 

He also continues to have his eye on D.C. Department of Rehabilitation Services (DYRS), an agency he oversees as chair of the council’s Committee on Youth Affairs. 

“Right now we don’t have a system of rehabilitation. It is a system of secure detention,” Parker told The Informer. “With a new mayor, hopefully we can double down on rehabilitation so that so many of our young people are not using DYRS as a revolving door.” 

As Ward 5 D.C. State Board of Education (SBOE) Representative Robert Henderson prepares to step down, Ward 5 parent and education advocate Dr. Lynn Jennings is running to be his successor. Despite what some consider SBOE’s peripheral role in day-to-day management of District public schools, Jennings called the body a suitable platform to organize Ward 5 parents around educational equity issues. 

“Really thinking about how we make sure that the resources are getting to the schools that need them and paying attention to that and being very intentional,” Jennings told The Informer. “We have a lot of schools here. They’re doing well [but it’s about] pretty much making sure we have neighborhood schools [where] folks can stay [in Ward 5] from elementary all the way to high school. We feel like they really have a real choice in terms of a neighborhood school here.” 

Jennings, a mother of two middle schoolers and former local school advisory team member with experience as parent-teacher organization president at John Burroughs Elementary School, reflected on her struggles to whet her children’s appetite for athletics and other extracurricular activities at schools within walking distance of their home. 

On the evening of Sept. 10, she attended Lewis George’s Ward 5 listening tour stop adamant about, as she explained, connecting with the community and figuring out how best to support the Democratic mayoral nominee if they are both elected in November.  

If elected to SBOE, Jennings’ priorities include: reducing chronic absenteeism by 50%, scrutiny of education spending, protecting students and schools from ICE and National Guard troops, and better inclusion of Ward 5 parents in decisions about curriculum and after-school programming. She cites her experience as a college professor and public policy professional as icing on the cake for a role that requires grassroots connections. 

“It’s really about how do you build the relationships and figure out what we are trying to achieve,” Jennings told The Informer. “How do we make sure it’s done across all schools?” 

For now, Jennings has her sights on SBOE as a tool to leverage power and organize parents. Even so, she hasn’t abandoned the possibility of asking the future mayor for more. 

“I’m very much in support of accountability systems because I think that is a civil rights tool,” Jennings said. “I understand why [mayoral control of schools] happened 20-something years ago, but it probably needs to be looked at again and revisited, but that’s not something I believe in right now.”

Adult Community Members Rally for Youth Engagement and Equity

For some Ward 8 residents like Jackie Carter, a Lewis George administration could build upon the gains that she and other marginalized out-of-school time providers made in their engagement with the Office of Out-of-School Time Programming in the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education. 

“Before that team came into office, grassroots nonprofits were either not being funded or being underfunded,” Carter, executive director of Children’s Legacy Theatre, said on the Sept. 9 edition of WPFW 89.3’s The AllEyesOnDC Show. “I really appreciate and I really respect [that] they brought the grassroots nonprofits to the table. They created a pathway for executive directors to be commissioners and be on these committees that [were] informing them of what the need is at the grassroots level.” 

Since its inception, Children’s Legacy Theatre has provided arts programming for youth living and attending school in Wards 7 and 8. During the latter part of the 2025-2026 school year, the youth of Children’s Legacy Theatre, in collaboration with The Healicist Hip-Hop Mama Princess Best and Nana Malaya Rucker-Oparabea, conducted a hip-hop theater adaptation of Christie Agatha’s “Ankhnaton” at Bard High School Early College DC. 

Other recent offerings, as recounted by Carter and Children’s Legacy Theatre’s Brittany Sistare on The AllEyesOnDC Show, include a feature in Wali Jamal Abdullah’s “Fannie Lou Hamer….Until I’m Free” at the Kennedy Center.  Children’s Legacy Theatre also allowed young people to showcase their creativity and practice script writing in the runup to a 10-minute play festival that took place in August. 

Such works, Carter said, can be accentuated with a stable space for Children’s Legacy Theatre and other grassroots youth-oriented organizations in need of real estate. 

“We need a beautiful place up on that St. Elizabeths campus, one of those amazing buildings up there where the young people can have access to create,” Carter said on The AllEyesOnDC Show. “We need a special place for our young people and the organizations that serve them…because that’s one of the things that we’re all struggling with right now as gentrification is coming through.” 

Not only could young people produce art that beautifies their communities once rooted in these spaces, Carter said, but they can also thrive without worrying about doling out money or intruding on activities meant for older revelers enjoying the District’s nightlife. 

“In the discussion about curfews,…there’s talk about third spaces…where young people can congregate for free,” Carter said. “It seems that over the last decade or so, it’s become increasingly harder for young people to go to spaces where they can be free and be around there for free. It seems like everywhere they can go in D.C., you need money to either patronize or to go in or to enjoy the amenities.” 

Miles away, in Ward 4, community members are expressing similar anxiety about school overcrowding. In the longtime race for quality education that has students and families scrambling across town, some advocates, like Cathy Reilly, said they want to ensure that Ward 4 families can easily access schools within walking distance of their homes. 

“E.L. Haynes has put a request in to expand by 400 students right here in this immediate area, elementary, so they’d be up to 800 elementary,” said Reilly, executive director of Senior High Alliance for Parents, Principals, and Educators, also known as SHAPPE. “That would squeeze both the D.C. public schools and charter schools right here.” 

The pending growth in E.L. Haynes Public Charter School’s student population follows the launch of what’s now known as John Thompson, Jr. High School in the more affluent Ward 3, which has attracted students from east of the Anacostia River. In the fight to improve all District public schools, Reilly called school equity an all-hands-on-deck fight done in collaboration primarily with the Ward 4 Education Alliance and Coalition for DC Schools & Communities, the latter of which is an entity that includes member organizations from across the District on a similar mission.

“We have plenty of capacity and we’re thriving, but if we keep opening and expanding, it will hurt everybody, especially as…the birth rate is predicted to go down,” Reilly told The Informer. “As we lose more of our immigrant population, we want to make sure we’re stable. We have all these good neighborhood schools here, and we keep supporting the feeder parents.” 

After attending Lewis George’s listening session at All Souls Church Unitarian, Emma Kelly said she’s even more enthralled with the Democratic mayoral nominee. “I’m just really excited to have a mayor in the city that is really focused on the issues of the people and really focused on working families and helping our children,” Kelly said. 

Kelly, a Mt. Pleasant resident and mother of two, said she entered All Souls Church Unitarian on Sept. 2 anxious about the future of early childhood education. Her younger child, a Pre-K4 student, currently attends a community-based organization funded by the Pre-K Enhancement and Expansion Program (PKEEP), an element of the District’s universal pre-school program administered by OSSE. 

As the dust settles from a budget battle that wrapped up earlier this year, Kelly said she looks forward to seeing Lewis George prioritize PKEEP, early child care subsidies and the childcare educator pay equity fund, all of which support the District’s early childcare ecosystem. 

“The only way you can make it even slightly affordable for these child care centers is to have a PKEEP program, so they’re able to effectively subsidize younger age children that require higher ratios and are more expensive with the older kids,” Kelly told The Informer. “The child care subsidy programs that allow them to have a consistent predictable source of income, and then the pay equity program allows them to attract high quality teachers [because if] we don’t have any teachers, we don’t have any child care centers.” 

Earlier this month, DC Action released a report about what’s been described about an early childcare center waitlist that hasn’t diminished despite a bevy of open seats and an infusion of $40 million for a fiscal year that’s soon ending. Amid demands for answers from D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, and despite Bowser’s warnings about a fiscal cliff, Kelly said Lewis George could balance fiscal responsibility and sensitivity to parents’ needs. 

“The District is obviously headed for a lot of economic headwinds, and I know Councilmember Lewis George has a lot of priorities on her plate,” Kelly told The Informer, “but it’s really encouraging to me that she’s always been a big supporter of early childhood education and education in general, so I’m pretty confident that she’s going to fund these programs.” 

In Ward 5’s Riggs Park neighborhood, Edgar Sheppard said he wants to see more public and public charter schools much like his alma mater,  the public charter school formerly known as Armstrong High School. That’s where Sheppard told The Informer he learned the vocation of bricklaying before pursuing his undergraduate and graduate studies. 

“We need vocational schools so they can learn a trade,” Sheppard told The Informer as he sat in the pews at Union Wesley AME Zion Church on Sept. 10. “University of the District of Columbia has a lot going on, but they need options for the kids because not everybody’s college material. Give them something, not just for the summer, all year round.” 

Sheppard, a retired army sergeant, has lived in the District since the 1970s after spending a significant portion of his childhood traveling back and forth between his home state of Virginia and the nation’s capital. Even with its offering of career and technical education pathways, Sheppard said more can be done for youth, especially young men who are idle and eager to make money by any means. 

“It’s just the way that people prioritize things,” he said about District education officials. “I won’t say that they weren’t thinking about it. I’m sure somebody has brought it up, but that wasn’t a priority at that time.”