Striving to Attain Grace Amid School Dilapidation

He added that because Duke Ellington is considered a showcase school, foreign visitors and others often tour the facilities, and sometimes he is embarrassed seeing the deterioration through their eyes. The conditions also are at odds with the image of Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington, the bandleader and composer who grew up in the District and was known for his grace and style.

"We are repairing them," D.C. schools spokeswoman Patricia Alford-Williams said of Duke Ellington's trouble spots, "but we have a master facilities plan to renovate all our schools, and there's an order in which we're going to get to each of the schools. We're obviously not going to get to them all at the same time." The plan calls for school renovations to be made over a 15-year period.

In the meantime, the disrepair is a heated topic of conversation at every parents' meeting.

"It's deplorable," said Barbara Wright, a retired D.C. teacher whose 15-year-old granddaughter, Jasmine Wright-Stevenson, is enrolled in the dance program. Wright said she was shocked to see one of the dance floors, before it was pulled up, "so buckled, it was almost shaped like an upside-down V."

Wright said that a history of piecemeal repairs has accomplished little. "Here you've got these wonderful teachers, and then this eyesore," she said.

Students say it has been hard dancing on the thin carpet of the lobby and hallways instead of on the springy dance floor, and working without the benefit of mirrors or barres.

Vernetta Jenkins, a 14-year-old freshman from Northwest, said she is learning and enjoying herself, but "even though we are moving forward, it feels like we're at a standstill."

Shaneace Virgil, a 16-year-old junior from District Heights, looks forward to the day she and the others can return to the dance studio.

"We're working at a deficit," she said. "It's a challenge, because we could seriously get hurt up here. People walking past us is a distraction. Every other department has a place that they can call their own. But every day's a surprise for us."