On the Field, Dunbar Finds Victory; In the Locker Room, Rust and Neglect

Decrepit Facilities Belie Teams' Talent

The secondhand equipment in the Dunbar weight room is rusty, and the benches are ripped. "It's an embarrassment," one football player said. (By Kevin Clark -- The Washington Post)

Arrelious Benn, a senior on the Dunbar Senior High School football team, is living every student athlete's dream: The all-Met wide receiver is so good that he is a prime reason his team was chosen to be featured on national television next month.

But he and other athletes worry that the school in the District's Shaw neighborhood will become a national disgrace should the telecast highlight conditions that athletes confront daily: The running track that encircles the football field has been condemned because of potholes. The carpet in the locker room is tattered and the showers moldy. The secondhand equipment in the weight room is rusty; the floor tiles are cracked and the benches so ripped that nearly as much foam padding as black vinyl cover is showing.

"It's an embarrassment," said Benn, 17, who last year caught 17 touchdown passes that helped the Crimson Tide win its third consecutive D.C. public school championship. "You see other high schools in Atlanta and other parts of the country, and their locker rooms look like a college."

A week after Superintendent Clifford B. Janey released a $2.3 billion, 15-year plan to upgrade school buildings and academics, a group including student athletes and parent activists is fighting to ensure that sports programs get their share of the funding.

The group has flooded his office with complaints about the conditions and demanded $350 million for citywide athletic facility repairs now -- not years in the future. Janey said every track, football field, baseball field and other sports facility would be upgraded as part of his master plan to modernize all schools. "Our kids deserve access to high-quality sports and athletic facilities," Janey said in an interview.

Renovations at Dunbar are slated to begin in 2011, when all the current students will be gone.

"I'd like to see the changes made as soon as possible -- not a month from now, not a year from now," said Linda Bussey, whose 17-year-old son, Nathan, is a Dunbar quarterback. She, along with other parents, coaches, community activists and students are scheduled to meet with Janey on Tuesday.

"The students have been waiting long enough," Bussey said.

Many other public schools across the city are in the same shape or worse. The deficiencies were caused by a complicated set of factors that have yet to be addressed: repeatedly shifting athletic department funds to the academic side to fill revenue gaps that resulted from declining enrollment systemwide; ignoring routine maintenance until small problems escalated into large, expensive ones; and hiring contractors who did shoddy work.

Dunbar, established in 1870 as the first college preparatory school for blacks in the nation, has a rich tradition of high scholastic and athletic achievement. But in recent years, the school, like most others in the system, has failed to meet academic targets. It is housed in a sprawling, relatively new 29-year-old building that, like most other schools in the system, is in desperate need of repair.

Ask the athletes what needs the most immediate attention and they'll point to the locker rooms -- several toilets don't work; soap, paper towels and toilet paper are often missing; and the showers spew mostly cold water. During the late 1990s, Superintendent Arlene Ackerman began deploying custodians and maintenance staff based on a school's enrollment instead of size -- a move that substantially reduced the number of workers assigned to care for buildings.

"Our bathroom smells like urine," said Reginald Ellis, 16, a junior who plays defensive tackle. Like most players, he wears a jersey that is several years old. "You see water mold."