Striving to Attain Grace Amid School Dilapidation

Showcase D.C. Facility Must Take Its Place in Line for Repairs

Until major repairs to their studios are made, Chiesa Mason, center, and fellow students at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts practice in the front lobby and in other hallways. Warped floors, hazardous lights and plumbing issues plague the Georgetown school. (Photos By Carol Guzy -- The Washington Post)

At the Duke Ellington School of the Arts, a prestigious public high school in Georgetown, dance students with their sights on professional careers practice in the hallways because their water-damaged studios are dangerous.

"It's been a nightmare," said Charles Augins, chairman of the school's dance department.

The situation at Duke Ellington is indicative of the challenges D.C. school officials face as they address the problems of aging and deteriorating facilities.

The large, white school building at 3500 R St. NW has a stately look, in keeping with its historic neighborhood, but it also has all the internal troubles expected of a former hospital built in the 1890s.

The roof leaks and patch-up jobs over the years no longer prevent water from staining the walls and threatening the musical instruments, Principal Rory Pullens said. Advanced Placement chemistry had to be dropped because there was no running water in the chemistry lab. The photo lab, likewise, is unusable. The showers have not worked for 12 years, and toilets often overflow because of the ancient plumbing.

Although many problems have been facts of life at Duke Ellington for years, what the dance department has been through lately represents a new level of disrepair: First, one of the studios had to close in April, after long-standing moisture problems warped the dance floor. Then a week ago, the second dance studio had to close. Workers who pulled up the first dance floor found extensive plumbing problems underneath, meaning dance floors in both studios would need to be replaced.

The 77 dance students might have used the school gym for their classes and rehearsals in a pinch, but that, too, is off-limits. In late September, one of the old lighting fixtures suddenly crashed to the floor from the high ceiling, and several other fixtures were found to be hazardously loose. Until the lights are replaced, the principal said, physical education classes are being held outside.

Pullens fears the myriad problems are affecting the education of a group of students who are especially motivated at a time in their lives when "every day counts" in their quest to be professional dancers. He said he has not received word of how long the most urgent repairs might take, but he thinks it could be next semester before the dance studios reopen.

"It's been a challenge," said Pullens, who came to Duke Ellington in December from the Denver School of the Arts.

"All students obviously deserve to have appropriate facilities in which to be educated, but Duke Ellington is a school that is successful," he said. "This is a school that graduates 99 percent of its students on time, and 95 percent go on to higher education in arts or traditional colleges or universities. These are students who achieve."

Students at Duke Ellington, which was co-founded by Peggy Cooper Cafritz, the current school board president, and opened in 1974, are a source of pride in a school system often criticized for its shortcomings. Its 475 students, drawn from all eight D.C. wards and the suburbs, follow a curriculum that is half college-preparatory work and half art, including voice, theater and dance. They show their commitment, Pullens said, by attending classes each day until 5 p.m., two hours beyond the norm. Fifty of the students live in Maryland and Virginia and pay tuition of $8,500 a year to the D.C. school system, he said.

Duke Ellington counts comedian Dave Chappelle and opera singer Denyce Graves as alumni, and many of its dance students have found work professionally with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and other groups. Although the school recently received a $15,000 grant from the Grammy Foundation for a recording studio, the equipment cannot be installed until studio repairs are made, Pullens said.