Budget and agency performance oversight deliberations in the John A. Wilson Building are taking place at a time when students, family and education officials feel uncertain about their future.
As Ward 7 residents collaborate with their newly installed council member to secure much-needed education-related resources, residents in neighboring Ward 8, for the time being, won’t have the support of a ward-level council member who can act similarly on their behalf. That’s why, as the D.C. Council and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) navigate threats to federal funding and persistent questions about budget priorities, residents living in some of D.C.’s most underresourced communities continue to demand the council’s attention.
“We know that we have been historically marginalized, more than any other ward. It’s incumbent that these people who have come to our ward numerous times and ask for our votes engage us in a way they haven’t done,” Dr. Jacque Patterson, Ward 8 resident and at-large representative on D.C. State Board of Education, said on the night of Feb. 4 during a special virtual meeting conducted by the Ward 8 Democrats.
This meeting came together hours after the D.C. Council voted to expel then-Ward 8 D.C. Councilmember Trayon White from his seat. Last summer, federal agents arrested White for his alleged role in a scheme to secure violence interruption grants for Life Deeds, a nonprofit that, according to court documents, was once found in violation of regulations related to a contractor’s obligation to employee conduct background checks.
Ward 8 residents who coalesced around White over the last few weeks cited his right to due process, as well as his general election victory and what they called the precarious timing of the expulsion. Though Patterson expressed no qualms with the outcome, he implored each at-large council member to elevate Ward 8 residents’ voices in budget discussions.
“We need to make sure they’re holding listening sessions about our priorities,” Patterson told community members on Feb. 4. “By the time we’re done with this special election, whoever wins it won’t take office until the first vote on the budget. They won’t be a representative to weigh in.”
At-Large Council Members Get Face Time in the Great Ward 8
On Feb. 6, two days after Trayon White’s expulsion from the council, At large D.C. Councilmembers Kenyan McDuffie (I) and Christina Henderson (I) visited CareFirst Arena in Southeast, where Bowser revealed a decade-long partnership between CareFirst and Events DC that will yield millions of dollars into preventative healthcare, not far from where Cedar Hill Regional Medical Center is scheduled to open in April.
In his remarks before an audience that included Ward 8 advisory neighborhood commissioners, McDuffie, chair of the council’s Committee on Business and Economic Development, iterated his love for Ward 8.
“As a strong advocate for Ward 8, I’m committed to ensuring that our community receives the support it needs to thrive right here,” McDuffie said on Feb. 6. “Today is a testament to that. I’m looking forward to the positive impact it will have on residents of the District, but in particular those living right here.”
At least one other at-large council member — Robert White (D) — has been making the rounds in Ward 8.
On Feb. 10, At-large Councilmember White connected with residents at a meeting hosted by the Washington Highlands Civic Association. As White, chair of the council’s Committee on Housing, recounted in an Instagram post that evening, residents spoke about the overflow of trash and subpar living conditions.
Other visits on At large Councilmember White’s calendar include: a Ward 8 apartment walk-through on Feb. 13 and a Ward 8 town hall at RISE Demonstration Center on Feb. 25.
The Informer unsuccessfully attempted to gather comment from At-Large Councilmember White about the visits and his policy goals.
Ward 7 Community Members Organize Around Their Budget Priorities
For weeks, each council committee, except that formerly under the purview of Trayon White, has engaged agency and nonprofit leaders during budget and performance oversight hearings. As explained by someone familiar with the situation, the entity now known as the Ward 8 office will perform constituent services while in the midst of a phasing out process.
Meanwhile, Ward 7 D.C. Councilmember Wendell Felder (D) is settling into his council committee assignments as he engages agencies operating in the realms of health, economic development, human services, public works, and public safety.
For Ward 7 families who demand, among other things, an academically rigorous ward-based public middle school and guaranteed year-round youth employment, this budget season proves crucial in addressing the structural factors that create low academic outcomes.
“We think the fix is solely a schoolhouse issue, but it’s so much bigger than that,” said Dr. Marla Dean, chair of the Ward 7 Education Council. “That’s not to say that the schoolhouse doesn’t matter, but it can’t totally account for the outcomes we’re seeing.”
Over the next few weeks, Ward 7 Education Council will host what’s known as the “Getting to the Root” series in collaboration with Health Alliance Network and ElectEd DC. These events, scheduled to take place at The Strand Residences on Nannie Helen Burroughs Avenue in Northeast, allow community members to listen to subject-matter experts and explore the state of education in Ward 7 as they discuss holistic solutions.
The first event, scheduled for Feb.19, includes a screening of “Diminished Returns: The Black Racial Wealth Gap in D.C.” and a panel discussion featuring executive producer Temi F. Bennett and Dr. Andre Perry of Brookings Metro as panelists.
Subsequent events, scheduled for March 26 and April 23, focus on reports by D.C. Action about race, poverty, and health as social determinants of a young person’s academic trajectory. Kim Perry, executive director of D.C. Action, and Erica Williams of D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute will delve into the report’s findings.
Dean told The Informer that Felder and D.C. State Board of Education Representative Eboni-Rose Thompson (Ward 7) are scheduled to answer Ward 7 residents’ questions about current legislative and budgetary developments. She also revealed plans to include parent-teacher association officials on panels and facilitate discussion about a policy proposal for guaranteed youth employment.
“We’re hoping to have some kind of conversation so people will be ready for the budget season and take information in conversations with representatives,” Dean told The Informer. “We have multiple perspectives [and] we’re not trying to be political or ideological.”
The Ongoing Work in the Local Education Space
While the latest National Association of Educational Progress (NAEP) results show improvement in math and reading among the District’s fourth and eighth graders, it also highlights a decline in reading proficiency among eighth graders and no significant changes in the realm of math.
The NAEP report also pointed out what experts and advocates describe as an ever-widening gap between students designated as high achieving and low achieving. In speaking about the NAEP results, State Superintendent Dr. Antoinette Mitchell hinted at areas of improvement that will command the attention of education officials at least for the next year.
Those areas, as outlined in a presentation conducted by the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) last month, include high-impact tutoring, the launch of the OSSE Apprenticeship in Teaching program and implementation of recommendations compiled by early literacy and math task forces.
“While we still have more work to do, it is exciting to see that our hard work and investments in improving math and reading proficiency have us back on a positive trajectory,” Mitchell said in a statement on Feb. 11. “Congratulations to all students who took the NAEP and proved education in D.C. is on the right track.
During budget season last year, officials in the District’s executive and legislative branches mulled over a response to an impending decimation of COVID-era funds that funded programs for students dealing with pandemic-related learning loss. Throughout much of the earlier part of 2025, parents and teachers lobbied council members for equitable support of District schools, all while Bowser and D.C. Public Schools’ central office disregarded the Schools First in Budgeting Act, which, among other provisions, mandates that school funding stays above what each school received in the previous year.
This year, D.C. residents weathering the storm of President Donald J. Trump’s controversial executive orders have expressed concern about what would become of the federal funds — and the federal government agency — that’s been crucial for District families seeking guidance and accountability for schools that fall short in providing students, especially those with special needs, with equal access to education.
For Ward 7 parent Erika Harrell, such times call for increased support for District students, especially those grappling with the results of multigenerational divestment. “Based on where we are in the climate, there might be some cuts [but] we can’t afford to cut in any area, particularly because we’re not only dealing with historic deficits, but we’re looking at the impact of the pandemic and we’re starting to understand how to get out of that,” Harrell told The Informer.
In her capacity as executive director of ElectEd DC, an entity committed to organizing communities around policy change, Harrell and Ward 7 parent/ElectED organizing manager Letisha Vinson continue to forge bonds with more than two dozen Ward 7 and 8 parents, community leaders, and stakeholders. She told The Informer that, within a matter of months, they will be equipped with the knowledge about education policy that will enable them to execute a long-term organizing strategy that helps them direct resources east of the Anacostia River.
Though ElectED is in the midst of that endeavor, Harrell said the organization’s collaboration with Ward 7 Education Council and Health Alliance Network primes residents to think holistically about how to produce healthy, academically strong youth.
“We know that education isn’t just about whether kids are reading and doing math on grade level,” said Harrell, the mother of five, including a Ward 7 public school and charter school student. “But also about whether they’re getting adequate healthcare, do they feel safe around school, and [do they have] adequate housing. It helps with brain processing when they are in a space where they can thrive and lean into their full potential.”
A Ward 8 Resident Speaks: ‘He’s Still My Council Member’
On Feb. 4, the day the D.C. Council expelled Trayon White, Metropolitan Police Department reported a shooting on Congress Street in Southeast that took the life of 19-year-old Khamani Hicks.
Later that evening, at the virtual meeting the Ward 8 Democrats hosted, Ward 8 resident and Trayon White ally Regina Pixley spoke of other shootings that rocked her stomping grounds.
In her brief comments, a grief-stricken Pixley directed her energy toward the 12 council members who approved Trayon White’s expulsion.
“I got a message for the D.C. Council,” said Pixley, Ward 8 committeewoman for the D.C. Democratic Party, “who’s coming?”
Pixley counted among a bevy of speakers — including Patterson and Ward 8 State Board of Education Representative LaJoy Johnson-Law — who espoused solidarity and direct action, especially now that her Ward lacks formal council representation.
“The council member [Trayon White] was at two scenes today… and he’s still my council member,” Pixley said. “The day they made the decision to go forward [with the expulsion] three people lost their lives. Who’s coming to assist with the needs we have? That’s all I have to say.”