The Washington Post - 21.10.2019

worked out.

Ferebee said in an interview

he does not expect the analysis,

which will launch in the coming

weeks, to result in a complete

overhaul of the evaluation sys-

tem, known as IMPACT.

“We want teachers to be confi-

dent in their performance man-

agement system,” Ferebee said. “I

want to get a better understand-

ing of how we can continue to

enhance the instrument to meas-

ure progress and help with the

development of teachers.”

The evaluation system —

which was one of the first in the

nation to tie teacher job security

and paychecks to class perform-

ance — has been central to the

District’s high-profile education

efforts over the past decade. It’s

one of the more controversial

legacies of Michelle Rhee, who

gained national recognition as

the District’s public schools

chancellor from 2007 to 2010.

In 2009, Rhee enacted the

evaluation system unilaterally,

without engaging the teachers

union in negotiations. The im-

SEE IMPACT ON B3

BY PERRY STEIN

D.C. Public Schools Chancellor

Lewis D. Ferebee is vowing to

rigorously examine the contro-

versial teacher evaluation sys-

tem he inherited — a move the

teachers union hopes is the first

step in redesigning a protocol

that it argues unfairly punishes

teachers.

The parameters of the two-

year analysis have not been final-

ized, but Ferebee said the scope

would be wide, examining how

teachers feel about the system

and what the results have been.

Representatives from the teach-

ers union and school system will

help guide the analysis, and

officials intend to enlist educa-

tion experts from a local univer-

sity to help lead the review,

although details are still being

KLMNO

METRO

MONDAY, OCTOBER 21 , 2019. WASHINGTONPOST.COM/REGIONAL EZ SU B

EDUCATION

A groundbreaking study’s

update finds sexual assault

and harassment remain

pervasive on campuses. B2

VIRGINIA

A Fairfax police officer

responding to a call struck

and killed a pedestrian in

the Falls Church area. B5

OBITUARIES

Thomas J. D’Alesandro III,

a brother of Nancy Pelosi,

led Baltimore as mayor

54 ° 63 ° 68 ° 63 ° during the 1968 riots. B6

8 a.m. Noon 4 p.m. 8 p.m.

High today at

approx. 3 p.m.

69

°

Precip: 5%

Wind: NE

4-8 mph

BY ROBERT MCCARTNEY

AND SCOTT CLEMENT

More Maryland residents fa-

vor than oppose statehood for

the District, a Washington Post-

University of Maryland poll

finds, in contrast with national

surveys showing that most

Americans are against making

the city the 51st state.

The survey also shows that

Marylanders widely oppose mak-

ing the District a new county in

Maryland, a proposal often of-

fered as an alternative to state-

hood.

Support for D.C. statehood is

sharply partisan in Maryland,

with about 6 in 10 Democrats

favoring the idea compared with

just over 3 in 10 Republicans.

That might reflect the prospect

that the deep-blue District

would, as a state, almost certain-

ly elect two new Democrats to the

Senate.

However, the poll suggests

Marylanders of all political views

are more supportive of D.C. state-

hood than in the country overall.

A narrow 51 percent majority of

state residents favor making the

District a separate state, com-

pared with 40 percent who are

opposed.

By contrast, a June Gallup poll

found that 29 percent of Ameri-

cans overall support D.C. state-

hood, compared with 64 percent

opposed.

The Maryland results ap-

peared to support the view of

some statehood advocates that

people who are most familiar

with the District — such as those

who live next door — are more

supportive of statehood.

Residents of Maryland’s D.C.

suburbs favor statehood by

64 percent to 28 percent. Support

is lower in Baltimore City and its

suburbs, where the margin is

49 percent in favor and 43 per-

cent opposed. Support falls to

42 percent in other parts of the

state.

Supporters said in response to

follow-up questions that they

SEE POLL ON B5

In Md.,

support

for D.C.

as state

POLL FINDS SPLIT

WITH U.S. SENTIMENT

But Marylanders don’t

want to add it as a county

BY ANTONIO OLIVO

front royal, va. — The Vir-

ginia developer at the center of a

massive, still-unfolding embez-

zlement scandal is seeking

$13.5 million in damages from

what he says are false claims

against him in a lawsuit filed by

the Warren County Economic De-

velopment Authority.

Truc “Curt” Tran — whose plan

to build a data center on a former

Superfund site 70 miles west of

the District allegedly launched

the $21 million scheme that led to

multiple criminal indictments —

says in a new court filing that he

was an unwitting participant in

the proceedings.

Authorities allege that the

scheme was orchestrated by Jen-

nifer McDonald, the authority’s

former director.

Tran has not been charged with

a crime, but he is accused in the

authority’s civil lawsuit of lying

about his ability to finance the

now-abandoned $40 million data

center project and of fraudulently

obtaining a $10 million loan from

the authority with McDonald’s

help.

In a counterclaim filed this

month, Tran argues that the nega-

tive publicity surrounding the au-

thority’s allegations — heightened

by ongoing state and federal crim-

inal investigations — ruined his

chances of finding investors for

the data center and irreparably

damaged his reputation and that

of his Fairfax County-based gov-

ernment-contracting business.

“The Warren EDA’s actions and

Ms. McDonald’s deceitful conduct

on behalf of the Warren EDA has

unjustifiably caused tremendous

harm to Mr. Tran’s reputation and

unwarranted public humiliation

and embarrassment,” Tran’s attor-

neys wrote.

Neither Tran, who lives in

Great Falls and is seeking to be

completely removed as a defen-

dant in the lawsuit, nor his attor-

neys responded to messages seek-

ing comment.

McDonald — who says she is

innocent of the 28 state counts of

embezzlement, money launder-

ing and obtaining money through

false pretenses that she faces in

the state criminal case — did not

SEE LAWSUIT ON B4

Developer

denies

any role in

Va. scandal

In counterclaim, he says

lawsuit in embezzlement

scheme hurt reputation

BY LYNH BUI

Mamadou Bailo Bah had been

preparing to take over the family

business.

After his father sent him to

earn degrees in Morocco and Ma-

laysia, Bah landed in the United

States less than two years ago to

learn English, with plans of re-

turning to his native Guinea.

“Bailo was my hope,” his father,

Amadou Sara Bah, said in a phone

call from Guinea. “He was my

succession.... He was my every-

thing.”

The elder Bah’s dreams of leav-

ing his import-export business to

his son vanished on Oct. 11, when

the 22-year-old was fatally shot

outside his apartment in Adelphi.

Mamadou Bailo Bah had come

home from his job as a food deliv-

ery driver that evening when he

was attacked in the parking lot

outside his apartment, according

to friends and Prince George’s

County police.

More than a week later, investi-

gators are urging the public to

come forward with information

that could help close the case. At

this point, investigators can’t fig-

ure out who would want to hurt

Bah or why, police said.

“It looks like a completely ran-

dom incident,” said Tony King,

acting captain of the homicide

and robbery unit for the county

police. “Right now we’re explor-

ing every motive in this incident.”

Officers who were called to a

shooting about 7:25 p.m. Oct. 11

found Bah with gunshot wounds

in a parking lot in the 1800 block

of Metzerott Road, where he was

pronounced dead, police said.

When Abdoulaye Bah heard

that his friend had been shot, he

rushed to the scene.

“I was surprised,” said Abdou-

laye Bah, a childhood friend who

has the same last name. “He does

not have a lot of friends here. He

does not have enemies. I was in

SEE SEARCH ON B4

D.C. teacher evaluations

under the microscope

Schools chief to examine

effects of polarizing

IMPACT system

‘Why him?’: Killing of

Guinean man a mystery

Friends, family mourn

Md. resident who was

visiting to learn English

BY PETER JAMISON

Late last year, D.C. Mayor

Muriel E. Bowser (D) announced

a new program to combat an

epidemic of fatal opioid overdos-

es burning through the nation’s

capital.

Modeled on successful pro-

grams across the country, the

initiative aimed to reach drug

users where they can regularly

be found: in hospital emergency

rooms. Teams of outreach work-

ers and doctors would offer a

medication that diminishes opi-

oid cravings, followed by speedy

referrals to long-term treatment

centers.

Bowser announced the Dis-

trict’s emergency room bu-

prenorphine program in Decem-

ber as part of a battery of new

strategies to reduce drug deaths.

The number of fatal opioid over-

doses in Washington more than

tripled between 2014 and 2017,

causing the city’s worst public-

health crisis since the arrival of

AIDS.

Many of those victims have

been older African American

men who have used heroin for

decades but were dying from

street drugs laced with the pow-

erful synthetic opioid fentanyl.

The federally funded program,

SEE PROGRAM ON B4

For overdose program,

an underwhelming start

Six months in, a District initiative to help opioid users has gotten few into treatment

SALWAN GEORGES/THE WASHINGTON POST

Richard Davis was employed as an addiction counselor at Howard University Hospital from April through July. He

and others say the District’s new program to connect opioid users with treatment is not well run.

ANDRÉ CHUNG FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

Renee Howell displays her supply of

naloxone, an antidote for opioid overdoses.

The District has dramatically expanded its

distribution of naloxone this year.

JOHN KELLY/THE WASHINGTON POST

A trick of the light

The Architect Hotel at the southeast corner of 15th and L streets NW

is bathed in pink morning light Saturday, reflected from a building

across the street at 1441 L St. NW. John Kelly’s Washington, B3