Nearly two decades after leaving what was then Fletcher-Johnson Education Campus, Dr. George H. Rutherford maintains contact with several of his former students.
“I saw a couple of them a couple weeks ago,” Rutherford told The Informer as he spoke about a late January party at Restaurant 55 in Hyattsville, Maryland, that a group of Fletcher-Johnson alumni organized in his honor.
For Rutherford, such overtures from former students are the norm. And, as he notes, the feeling is mutual.
“They were the best. I don’t care what anyone says,” Rutherford said. “I talk to them constantly. They come over to see me. They call me all the time. Staying in touch, making sure I’m straight.”
Rutherford became principal of Fletcher-Johnson Middle School in 1978, just more than a year into its existence. By the time he assumed the helm, he had accumulated more than a decade of experience as a teacher and assistant principal. His 20-year tenure would be marked with numerous wins, including frequent visits and guest lectures by D.C. Mayor Marion Barry, and even a class trip to London, fully funded with the support of then-Ward 7 D.C. Councilmember H.R. Crawford.
“They were our young ambassadors,” Rutherford said about the dozen young people he accompanied across the pond in the early 1990s. “It was their intent on trying to get the students to see Queen Elizabeth, because she had just been … in our neighborhood to look at some houses that were being built.”
In its heyday, Fletcher-Johnson Middle School had a student population of more than 1,000. Located along Benning Road in the Marshall Heights community, it attracted young people from all corners of the Marshall Heights community, including those from Benning Terrace (Simple City) and the former public housing community of Eastgate Gardens.
Within five years of his tenure, Rutherford became a darling of the student body, but not without struggle. He said students cut his car tires, filled his gas tank with sugar, and even busted his car windows on numerous occasions.
“They didn’t like to change,” he told The Informer. “I was bringing about a change, bringing about some structure to Fletcher-Johnson.”
Over time however, students at the school came to embrace Rutherford’s leadership style, which, according to alumni, included sending tardy students home and walking into open-air illegal drug markets in search of those who left school grounds.
“I didn’t even have to lock my car,” he told The Informer. “Those students that I had…were some of the greatest students in Washington, D.C., but they need a good support system.”
As murders continued to ravage the Marshall Heights community, Rutherford made sure that support came in the form of after-school activities and weekend enrichment for students and parents.
“As I always told folks, we at Fletcher Johnson were in competition with that drug group out there,” Rutherford said. “That’s the reason we kept Fletcher-Johnson open until 11 o’clock at night. We had a program on Saturdays for the parents. That was done on our own.”
Rutherford moved on from Fletcher-Johnson Middle School in 1998, taking on a job in Baltimore, and again in the District at what was Ideal Academy Public Charter School. In 2008, a decade after his departure, Fletcher-Johnson closed its doors in response to declining enrollment.
“It hurt me to my heart,” Rutherford recounted. “When they got rid of Eastgate, enrollment dropped down. When I left, it was still about 1,200 or 1,300. Then it dropped down to about 400. I don’t know what happened after that.”
In the era of mayoral control, teacher accountability measures strengthened via IMPACT evaluations while public charter schools expanded across the District, and particularly east of the Anacostia River. As teachers and administrators continue to command the highest salaries in the region, public and public charter schools command an equal share of the District’s public school population.
In February, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser announced a 2.55% increase — nearly $50 million — in per-pupil funding in her Fiscal Year 2027 budget proposal. Other aspects of the upcoming budget include: a stability fund intended to maintain the class sizes mandated in the latest Washington Teachers’ Union contract; a $8.1 million allocation toward after-school program for elementary and middle-schoolers; $700,000 for dual enrollment courses; and $600,000 to improve literacy and promote responsible AI use in District schools.
Rutherford, who acknowledges the advancements made since his days in the school building, remains adamant that the adult-student relationship will remain the cornerstone of any successful academic program.
“Don’t just go to work from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. five days a week and let it go,” Rutherford exclaimed. “Schools need to be open. Principals need to get out and see the community, know the community, be able to talk to the parents, not just at a parent-teacher conference, not just when the students are being suspended or something.”
Old Memories Forge an Ongoing Battle for Neighborhood Amenities
In 2011, three years after Fletcher-Johnson’s closure, and its subsequent use for public charter schools and swing space for H.D. Woodson High School, the District government permanently shuttered the site. A decade later, the Bowser administration awarded the site to Gragg Cardona, along with the Carding Group, Foundation Housing, H2 Design Build and the Marshall Heights Community Development Organization.
What followed soon after was the establishment of the Fletcher-Johnson Task Force, of which Ebbon Allen, a Fletcher-Johnson alumnus, was a member.
For years, Allen joined other task force members — including Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Keith Hasan-Towery and Malissa Freese — in articulating a vision where this development site, the fourth largest property owned by the District, would include housing, retail, an urgent care facility, and even an institution for adult education.
“We wanted to make sure that the community in Marshall Heights and the greater Ward 7 would be able to get those amenities, and not just have a freestanding health center,” said Allen, a 1993 graduate of Fletcher-Johnson Education Campus. “We felt like on this side of Marshall Heights, no one has really anywhere to go. We’re talking about quality grocery stores.”
As Allen’s family continues their trek to Northern Virginia and Hyattsville, Maryland for groceries, Allen counts among those who anticipate long-term economic benefits to developing the Fletcher-Johnnson site, located near KIPP DC Benning Campus and south of Benning Road Metro Station.
“We understood that if you have an oasis like this, property values will go up,” he told The Informer.
During the latter part of last year, Allen and more than a dozen Fletcher-Johnson alumni conducted a ceremony marking the demolition of Fletcher-Johnson Education Campus. Others who joined the small group on the morning of Sept. 4 were: Ward 7 D.C. Councilmember Wendell Felder (D) and Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners Natasha Dupee (7E04) and Gail Perkins (7E03).
For Allen, the event marked the end of an era. He’s since mulled plans for the installment of a plaque honoring Rutherford and the untold number of Fletcher-Johnson students who never made it to adulthood.
“Hundreds of us have so many memories of that building,” Allen told The Informer. “Somebody’s going to have something different, and many of us are going to have the same thing about how Dr. Rutherford paved the way, protected us, educated us, empowered us. It’s an unforgettable type of school building and environment that was created, especially on the side of Southeast Washington, D.C.”
Amid the gun violence that claimed and would eventually claim several young lives, including that of his older brother, Allen found solace in basketball. He said the team at Fletcher-Johnson Education Campus provided a sense of stability that’s long since inspired his work with young people.
“That helped me stay focused and stay out of trouble,” Allen told The Informer. “I felt like there was always love, even in the type of environment such as this, such as these areas and these streets and corners of Marshall Heights. I just wanted to be able to come back and leave a blueprint.”
The Fletcher-Johnson development is projected to be completed by early 2037, with infrastructural work expected to begin later this year.
As of February, demolition of the 12,000-square-foot structure formerly known as Fletcher-Johnson Education Campus has been halfway completed, according to the Office of Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development. Amid the delayed launch of the Universal Health Services-backed emergency room, Allen has been contacting local officials, demanding updates and insisting that the development reaches the finish line.
“My vision and focus is to make sure that the community in Marshall Heights and the greater Ward 7 would be able to get those amenities,” Allen said. “We felt like on this side of Marshall Heights, no one has really anywhere to go. We’re talking about quality grocery stores.”
Allen said he has more than enough reason — one of which is right down the street — to be anxious about the Fletcher-Johnson development timeline.
“If you look at BenCo [Shopping Center], nothing has been done,” Allen said. “They’ve been doing so much research on so much of the crime, the gun violence, the ballistics as far as shootings. How do we change that narrative and how do we address it? None of us want Band-Aids.”
A Couple of Fletcher-Johnson Alumni Look Back at an Era
The event recently held in Rutherford’s honor at Restaurant 55 followed instances when Fletcher-Johnson alumni celebrated him at Eastgate Day and other community events.
For several hours on the night of Jan. 31, guests sporting the school colors of burgundy and gray reminisced on the good times and grooved to the sounds of Fletcher-Johnson alumnus Ali The GR8. As Fletcher-Johnson alumna Saronda Streeter-Robinson said, traversing through “snowcrete” for the celebration proved well worth it.
“Any chance we usually get, we try to honor him,” said Streeter-Robinson, a 1988 Fletcher-Johnson graduate who coordinated the celebration with William Ragland. “It’s just something we put together real quick. We know he’s aging, so we honor him in every way possible.”
Long before Streeter-Robinson entered Fletcher-Johnson as a kindergartener, her large family had a strong rapport with Rutherford. While at Kelly Miller Middle School, Rutherford worked with Streeter-Robinson’s older siblings. By the late 1970s, he would embark on a similar journey with another crop of Streeter children, which included Streeter-Robinson.
As Streeter-Robinson recalled, Rutherford laid down the law with a student body that, from the school’s inception, had already forced another principal to resign.
“He was our Mr. Clark,” Streeter-Robinson said in reference to the no-nonsense New Jersey principal that inspired the 1989 film “Lean on Me.” “This man stood courageously amongst the criminals and the criminals respected him. Sometimes the alternative kids had guns in the school, and when he heard about it, he’d go look for that person. He was fearless.”
Robinson-Streeter said that, at times, saving members of the student body became an all-hands-on-deck effort.
“He was finding solutions and fixing things,” Streeter-Robinson said about Rutherford. “Like if you didn’t have clothes, the secretaries in the office were taking the kids shopping. They were getting furniture in people’s houses, dropping off food. He not just delegated, he was actually on foot doing it himself.”
During her nine years at Fletcher-Johnson, Streeter-Robinson encountered a hodge-podge of students, some of whom she said were deemed at-risk and relegated to that building after unsuccessful academic experiences elsewhere.
“A lot of talent,” Streeter-Robinson told The Informer, “but a very difficult population because there were a lot of emotionally disconnected children in the schools. A lot of behavior issues because of the environment. You had to have somebody in there that was strong enough to deal with these types of children.”
Despite the issues that students faced at home and on the streets, Streeter-Robinson said that Rutherford ensured that Fletcher-Johnson fostered an environment where students felt they could achieve anything. In making her point, she recounted how staff members, including her fashion design instructor, provided specialized instruction and facilitated extracurricular activities.
“They teach you how to sew, create patterns and measure. When we made our garments, we actually modeled them,” Streeter-Robinson said. “I know a couple of students that really took that to heart after we graduated and they were actually making clothes for people on a professional level later on.”
Fletcher-Johnson Education Campus, named after veteran D.C. Public Schools educator Evelyn B. Fletcher and orthopedist-teacher-civic leader Dr. Philip T. Johnson, counted among several District schools that embraced the “open classroom” model. In addition to academics, students enjoyed a bevy of extracurriculars, including basketball, cheerleading, and marching band. Other amenities included a computer lab, woodshop class, art room and a dining area.
As 1992 graduate Takia Shire recounted, Fletcher-Johnson Education Campus also brought locally and nationally renowned talent to perform at school programs.
“I remember Johnny Gill coming to our school,” Shire told The Informer. “I still think about those times. We had the Side-by-Side Band. Different singers and different artists would come up to the school to perform. We used to always say that we wish that the school went up to high school because of the memories that we all have had.”
Shire, a Ward 7 resident and member of Parents Amplifying Voices in Education (PAVE), attended Fletcher-Johnson Education Campus between seventh and ninth grades. She counts among her most precious memories attending fashion shows. She also heralds Rutherford as a guiding light, and someone who always kept her best interests at heart.
“I went to Anacostia because Dr. Rutherford saw potential in me and my best friend to participate in the Public Service Academy,” Shire said. “He called us his babies. He sent a lot of his students [to high schools] for different programs at the time.”
These days, Shire represents PAVE in her engagement with education officials about budgetary matters. Though she’s content with her children’s academic experience, she expressed a desire for school leaders to take their relationships with the school community to the next level.
Rutherford is a model of that fervor, Shire said.
“He didn’t have no problem knocking on your door to understand why you didn’t come to school,” Shire told The Informer. “He was that principal helping families and giving them support. A few kids were getting killed or locked up. He was that figure helping them get what they needed, making sure they graduated.”
In an age where technological advancements are further isolating youth from adults, Streeter-Robinson said that she would like to see more school administrators channel Rutherford’s energy.
“These principals now, they don’t walk out to the neighborhoods to go knock on the doors and look for their children,” Streeter-Robinson said. “It was different back then. You didn’t have social media, you didn’t have a cell phone. You got word of mouth [about] 30 of your kids are standing up there on the corner. This man is going out to these dangerous neighborhoods to go find his kids.”