Athletics Find a Booster In Janey
$10 Million Planned To Update Facilities

By V. Dion Haynes
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, October 16, 2006

D.C. School Superintendent Clifford B. Janey is launching a campaign to upgrade decrepit and outdated athletic facilities, proposing to begin spending $10 million at five senior high schools next year where student-athletes have long complained about unusable showers and toilets, old uniforms, and sub-par fields and courts, officials said.

Janey is expected to announce the proposal at a meeting today with student-athletes and coaches at Dunbar Senior High School in Shaw, where for the past three weeks crews have been painting, removing tattered carpeting, fixing plumbing, sanitizing locker rooms, spraying for pests and installing doors in restroom stalls.

The schools in Janey's renovation proposal are Dunbar; Ballou in Southeast Washington; and Coolidge, Roosevelt and Wilson, all in Northwest. The proposal represents a dramatic change of direction for Janey, who had been focusing on improving academics and was not planning to upgrade athletic facilities before scheduled building renovations in several years.

Janey shifted gears after a Washington Post report detailed rundown conditions in Dunbar's athletic program: 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. He also faced pressure from parents and student-athletes, who bombarded his office with phone calls complaining about the conditions, and a church civic organization that demanded immediate repairs.

"You couldn't recognize it if you took before and after pictures," said Arrelious Benn, 18, an All-Met wide receiver who last year caught 17 touchdown passes to help Dunbar's Crimson Tide win its third consecutive D.C. public schools championship. "It's just crazy."

His mother, Denise Benn, said: "For the first time, he came home from practice and had showered. That was awesome!"

Much of Dunbar's repair work will be completed this week, in time for a scheduled home game Friday against Coolidge that will be nationally televised on ESPNU, an ESPN network, said Francisco Millet, a regional superintendent who oversees Dunbar.

"When company comes over, you put on your best clothes and you put your best foot forward," Millet said. "We know we're going to be featured on national television, and we want to be presented well."

Janey "was surprised when he saw the conditions of Dunbar," he added. "He made a point to get things right with Dunbar and other schools."

But as is often the case in the D.C. school system, even the positive is tinged with disappointment. Athletic trainers, who are required to be at every football game to give players medical attention, walked off their jobs Friday, complaining that they had not received overtime pay. The trainers say they have not received 30 percent of their salaries, representing work for evening and weekend games, since the start of the school year.

Some games last week were abruptly postponed. The trainers said they also would refuse to work this week's games, which would include Dunbar's matchup with Coolidge, if the dispute is not resolved. Craig Jefferies, Dunbar's football coach, has expressed concern about the possibility of having the ESPNU game postponed, but he also said the trainers have his full support. A spokesperson for the school district did not return calls seeking comment on the pay dispute.

"Now we've got to fight the school system on another problem," said Linda Bussey, an organizer of the sports-facilities campaign and the mother of Dunbar quarterback Nathan Bussey. "I don't mind going to bat for [the trainers] because they should be paid."

Under the $10 million proposal, which would have to be approved by the Board of Education and the D.C. Council, the system would make major repairs to the five high schools, including renovating stadiums, replacing bleachers and refurbishing swimming pools and basketball courts, officials said.

In addition, Millet said, work at Dunbar would include installing a new scoreboard in the gym, new stadium lights and a baseball batting cage; repairing the public address system in the stadium and gym; and purchasing a tractor mower for the field.

"We need more emphasis on extracurricular activities to keep the youths off the streets and to make them proud to be D.C. public school students," said the Rev. Lionel Edmonds, president of the Washington Interfaith Network, the organization that spearheaded the facilities campaign. "We will put our political pressure -- 50 churches with 75,000 members -- behind this issue."

After weeks of negotiating with officials of the church alliance, Janey has tentatively agreed to $600,000 in emergency repairs at Dunbar, addressing nearly every concern raised by the organization.

According to Millet, Janey has arranged to have police patrol the school at night to stop homeless people from entering the school grounds through holes in a chain-link fence and defecating on the field. He agreed to eventually install wrought-iron fencing around the campus. He also agreed to purchase uniforms and equipment for most of the school's teams, hire an additional custodian and try to have the condemned running track fixed by spring.

Janey gave approval to repairing the boys' weight room, which contained rusty secondhand equipment and benches with ripped vinyl covers. "It was the filthiest room I've seen in any D.C. public school," Millet said.

Meanwhile, Dunbar students are getting ready to celebrate their national exposure: ESPN Zone in Northwest will honor the Dunbar and Coolidge teams Thursday.

The recognition, Arrelious Benn said, "means a lot to us."