Superintendent Agrees To Emergency Repairs Of Facilities at Dunbar

Representatives From High School Said They Got Cold Shoulder From Head Office

Athletes such as Arrelious Benn must contend with the broken men's shower room at Dunbar high school in Shaw. (By Michel Du Cille -- The Washington Post)

Superintendent Clifford B. Janey has agreed to make emergency repairs to broken toilets and showers and address other "human dignity" conditions at Dunbar Senior High School in Shaw, District school officials said yesterday.

For months, student athletes, coaches, parents and community activists say they have been complaining about deplorable conditions in the sports facilities at the school, with little response from the central office.

But at a private meeting with the group late Tuesday, Janey said he was outraged by the conditions at the school and will take swift action to correct the problems, said Peter G. Parham, Janey's chief of staff. The decision follows a Washington Post report Saturday that detailed decrepit conditions in Dunbar's athletic facilities: a condemned running track, rusty weight-training equipment and moldy showers, as well as a lack of toilet paper, soap and dispensers for feminine hygiene products.

This month, Janey released a $2.3 billion, 15-year master facilities plan outlining a timetable for renovating 120 schools and closing 19. Under the plan, which has not been approved by the Board of Education, senior high schools would be renovated in 2011.

Coaches who attended the meeting said Janey had decided to move the high schools up in the master plan, but Parham said yesterday that his comments were misinterpreted and that he intends to stick to the current schedule.

The track and other infrastructure problems probably will have to wait until the building renovations, Parham said, but Janey sent a facilities department team to prepare a plan to sanitize the locker room, install doors on toilet stalls and address other hygiene-related problems immediately.

Parham said Janey said, "Let's give them the human dignity things -- the decent things -- so they'll know we're giving them an environment to succeed in." Parham said the superintendent wants the facilities "better for our kids and they deserve better."

Parham said Janey told the group he would figure out a way to get more custodians and maintenance workers to the building.

Dunbar coaches said the athletic facilities had fallen into disrepair after the school system reduced the number of custodians and maintenance workers to five from 17. About six years ago, the school system, under a previous administration, began deploying custodians and maintenance workers on the basis of a school's enrollment instead of size, a policy that resulted in a massive staff cut.

Janey told members of the group he would give them a date for the repairs at a meeting next week.

"He's expediting everything," said Marvin Parker, who coaches the girls' track team. "He apologized for things getting this bad. . . . I'm optimistic and hopeful."