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Board president expresses 'disgust' with school system
(Published May 3, 2004)

By KATHRYN SINZINGER
Staff Writer

Saying she is "disgusted with the school system," D.C. Board of Education President Peggy Cooper Cafritz has pledged to work with community groups that want to make their own immediate repairs to long-neglected school buildings.

"I would totally support you, and I think there are enough votes on the Board of Education to support you likewise," Cafritz told a group of about 100 city residents, who gathered April 28 at Shepherd Elementary School to demand that the school system’s years of unfulfilled promises be turned into actual repairs.

One resident at the meeting read from a letter that he said was written in 1997, promising that windows which had been a problem for at least seven years at the time would be replaced. Those windows, still not replaced, were among major complaints at the meeting.

One teacher described an entire window frame being blown into a classroom during a storm in recent years, as well as nailed-shut windows and unpainted window frames left to rot. One parent complained about flaking lead-based paint on windows near the school’s cafeteria line.

School officials estimate the window replacements will cost about $1.4 million, but the work isn’t scheduled to happen at the Northwest Washington school for another three years due to budgetary restrictions.

Cafritz began the meeting by describing needed facility repairs at the system’s more than 150 schools as "a huge problem with no easy answers" that she attributed to years of neglect by city officials before control of the buildings was returned to the school system in 1991. She grew visibly agitated and increasingly blunt as residents complained about receiving "excuses" rather than "answers

"We’re like a drug addict who refuses to go for treatment … until they hit bottom and there’s nothing to do but go for treatment," she said.

Cafritz described the school system’s facilities department as being "under ever-changing leadership" that has resulted in "a series of screw ups," including shoddy workmanship and substantial overcharges. She said she has lost confidence in the system’s ability to upgrade schools in a timely manner.

"We need to empty out much of 825," Cafritz said, referring to school headquarters at 825 North Capitol St. NE. "We have some competent people in the school system now, but they’re few and far between. We have to understand that the school system is not a jobs program … the school system is a service provider and the clients are the parents and the children. We have to stop acting like it’s the businesses and the politicians."

The meeting was called by Councilman Adrian Fenty, D-Ward 4, in response to complaints from his constituents that school officials seemed to be unresponsive to efforts by parents and other community residents to improve conditions at Shepherd Elementary, located in one of the District’s more affluent neighborhoods.

In addition to Cafritz, other school officials in attendance included new Interim Superintendent Robert Rice, Assistant Superintendent William Wilhoyte, Chief of Facilities Greg Williams and District II school board member Dwight Singleton.

Singleton became the target of some criticism when he got up to speak.

"We need you to step up and be part of this process. … We have not seen you at the meetings," one parent lectured Singleton, who is the neighborhood’s elected school board representative. "You’ve been missing in action."

When Singleton asked to respond, several members of the audience responded negatively. "Point well taken," Singleton said.