Schools extend security pact

D.C. public schools yesterday agreed to continue employing private security guards in city schools during the next month — an arrangement a spokesman for D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams called “somewhere between a joke and a charade.”

Under the agreement, school system officials will pay Watkins Security of D.C. Inc. $941,574 to post about 300 security officers and supervisors in the schools for four weeks.

In the meantime, school officials said, they will “assess the alternatives” before deciding whether to retain Watkins Security, hire another contractor or turn over security to the Metropolitan Police Department.

Watkins Security is under scrutiny by the D.C. Office of the Inspector General over background checks and training of security guards.

“Our sense is that the security system we have at the schools doesn’t work. It’s somewhere between a joke and a charade,” said Tony Bullock, a spokesman for Mr. Williams. “The kids laugh at it.”

School security concerns in the District peaked after the shooting death of a student inside Ballou Senior High School in Southeast in February and a string of fires at Eastern High School in Northeast last month.

The school system agreed to hire Watkins Security in the summer on a three-year, $45.6 million contract, but the status of the contract remains uncertain because school officials had not sought D.C. Council approval as required by city law.

The law mandates that the council approve all contracts worth more than $1 million, but school contracting records obtained yesterday indicate that since the summer, the District has paid Watkins Security $12.4 million through seven short-term “letter contracts.”

The three most recent contract extensions are worth more than $6 million, records show.

The school system’s security came under scrutiny after the Feb. 2 shooting death of Ballou student James Richardson, 17. Thomas Boykin, 18, who reportedly used a gun smuggled past security guards, is being held without bail on charges related to the death.

Since the shooting, the principals at Wilson High School and Cardozo High School have told the D.C. Council that poorly performing security guards are not fired, but recycled through reassignments to other schools.

“There is a need for a serious re-examination of the security in the schools,” Mr. Bullock said. “I think we’re going to see the council and the mayor in some way, perhaps with legislative authority, intervene and address the security issue at the schools.”

D.C. Council member Adrian Fenty, Ward 4 Democrat, said school officials continue to break the law by employing the company.

“Decisions are continuing to be made that don’t make any sense,” Mr. Fenty said yesterday.

He said he is upset that school officials never sent the contract to the council for approval.

“This contract is turning into a major waste of resources,” Mr. Fenty said.

“Whatever we do will be within the laws and regulations of the city and the school district and in the best interests of the children,” said Clifford Cox, acting director of management for the schools.

“If they can do something in the next 25 days to fix this contract, then why haven’t they done anything in the past two months? They’ve known about this problem for a long time,” Mr. Fenty said.

Mr. Bullock also criticized the school system’s failure to send the contract to the council. “That contract is clearly illegal, putting the contractor and the District in a bad place,” he said.

“There is no legitimate basis for the payment to the contractor. … Where is the administration in terms of checking just basic requirements of a major purchase? We’re not talking about a $12,000 cleaning contract here.”

Richard Hamilton, president of Watkins Security and a former Metropolitan Police Department detective, said Monday that he expected the company to remain employed for the next three years. But Mr. Cox declined to say whether the school system would renew the contract.

“I’d say we’re looking at our options,” he said. “I don’t know what that [plan] will be, but it will be in place so we have no lapse in security for our students.

“There is a lot of discussion going on about the contract in the mayor’s office, at council and in the police department. But the bottom line is that we’re making a move right now to solve an immediate problem.”