Heating Failures Close Four in D.C.
By V. Dion Haynes
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, February 8, 2007
D.C. School Superintendent Clifford B. Janey announced yesterday an emergency "blitz" at 40 schools, including four closed for lack of heat, to repair boilers that failed as temperatures plunged below freezing.
For the third day this week, school officials shuffled students out of cold classrooms and buildings to avoid losing instruction time. The repairs will cost $900,000, officials said.
The closings came on a day when most Washington area school districts chose to keep students at home after an overnight dusting of snow. D.C. students went to school two hours late.
The four D.C. schools closed yesterday -- Ludlow-Taylor Elementary and H.D. Woodson Senior High in Northeast Washington and Simon Elementary and Johnson Junior High in Southeast -- will remain shuttered today, and students will be sent to nearby schools, officials said.
At more than 35 other D.C. schools, as many as 12 rooms were closed off because of the cold. Officials shut off a number of rooms at both Jefferson Junior High in Southwest and Key Elementary in Northwest and one room each at Beers Elementary in Southeast and Backus Middle School in Northeast.
"It's good they were able to accommodate [the students] in a time of emergency," said Regina Mack, whose daughter attends Simon. "I wouldn't want my child sitting up in a cold classroom."
Janey is under scrutiny as Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) seeks legislative authority to take over the schools. The Board of Education, which opposes the move, is holding a public hearing tonight to discuss its alternative proposal aimed at improving the school system without a governance change.
At a news conference, Janey said the system is hiring contractors to fix the heating systems as soon as possible. When the repairs are completed, he said, the system will address aging air-conditioning systems to avoid a crisis in the warm days of May and June.
Two weeks ago, the school board approved another emergency "blitz" to repair restrooms at about 100 of the system's 140 schools. Janey attributed the situation to aging infrastructure that had been long neglected.
On a visit to some displaced students and teachers yesterday, Janey said the problems with school heating systems were caused by a "lingering cold air mass meeting up with repairs" that had been put off for years.
"My crystal ball said we'd have a major facilities issue," Janey said. "It wasn't a question of whether we'd have challenges, but when we'd get them."
D.C. Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) expressed outrage yesterday that heating problems at Bruce-Monroe Elementary School in Northwest had not been cleared up in five years.
"One section of the school is like Panama in August, and another section is like Finland," Graham said before leading reporters to a cold hallway in the building. If the Fenty proposal is approved, he added, "you'd get the boiler people out, and they would fix it."
Board of Education President Robert C. Bobb commended Janey for taking swift action to address heating problems in the schools. But he said school leaders need to get out of crisis management and to plan for such problems.
"You don't want to put yourself in a situation where you're scrambling at the last minute. You want to plan events you know will ultimately occur," Bobb said. "That's the mind-set I want the operations people to get into. That's what I want to help them with."
Yesterday, students were transported from Woodson to the former Evans school building in Northeast; from Ludlow-Taylor to Stuart-Hobson Middle School in Northeast and Moten Elementary in Southeast; from Johnson to Malcolm X and Turner elementary schools in Southeast; and from Simon to the P.R. Harris Educational Center in Southeast.
Slippery roads kept schools closed yesterday in many area jurisdictions. School was canceled in Fairfax and Loudoun counties in Virginia and in Anne Arundel, Charles, Calvert, Montgomery, Prince George's and St. Mary's counties in Maryland.
In Fairfax, six school employees drove through neighborhoods about 3 a.m. and found that many roads and sidewalks were slick. Just before 4 a.m., school officials asked county police to check with patrol officers, who reported that conditions remained slippery.
"I felt confident the buses could drive safely," said Dean Tistadt, head of facilities and transportation services for Fairfax schools. "What we're really worried about is the kids who drive themselves and the kids who walk to the bus stops or walk to school. We thought the neighborhoods were simply going to be too slippery and the sidewalks too icy."
In Prince George's, authorities made the decision to close at the last minute, right before 5 a.m. Spokesman John White said the decision might have taken longer because the superintendent, John E. Deasy, is a native of New England and not impressed by an inch of snow.
"Obviously, his inclination is to have school," White said.
The relentless cold has been disrupting more than the region's public school systems.
George Washington University had three leaks in or near buildings Tuesday, and a pipe broke yesterday in a university-owned townhouse in the 2000 block of G Street NW, sending water into the first floor and basement common areas.
Workers in the Loudoun County Government Center in Leesburg were evacuated yesterday morning after a sprinkler pipe burst in the entryway, partially flooding the lobby.
Meanwhile, in Potomac, power was restored yesterday to most of about 600 households that lost heat Tuesday when Washington Gas had a mechanical problem.
Staff writers Michael Allison Chandler, Maria Glod, Nelson Hernandez, Susan Kinzie, Miranda S. Spivack and William Wan contributed to this report.
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