Who Left D.C.'s Schools to Decay?

I got more than I bargained for this week when I went to Shepherd Elementary School in upper Northwest Washington to moderate the Ward 4 Candidates Issues Forum sponsored by the Ward 4 Democrats and the Shepherd Park Citizens Association. After the forum, I sought the nearest restroom and was directed to the boys' bathroom adjacent to the school's auditorium.

The state of that bathroom quickly supplanted thoughts of the candidates forum.

Pieces of tile were missing from the floor at the bathroom's entrance. A much larger section of floor tiling, roughly four feet by two feet, was missing in front of the sinks. A plug of floor tile near the urinals was gone, too. Only one of the three sinks worked, and it lacked a soap dispenser.

Mind you, Shepherd, which has an enrollment of more than 300 students, is among the District's highest-performing elementary schools and is probably the premier grade school in Ward 4.

I spoke to Dwayne Toliver, president of the Ward 4 Democrats, about the conditions. The bathroom had a rank odor on the night of the forum, and Toliver said it has smelled even worse.

He observed that "accountability" is being tossed around a great deal in the debate over Mayor Adrian Fenty's plan to take over the public schools. A more appropriate word, he suggested, would be "culpability." I agree.

In the name of all that's decent, how did we let our schools get this way?

I returned unannounced to Shepherd the morning after the forum and met with Principal Dan Robinson and a parent, Herb Scott. The boys' bathroom, I was told, has been in its present state for more than a year. In a brief tour, I also saw peeling paint and broken plaster on hallway walls and a possible lead paint problem in the French classroom.

Don't blame Shepherd's principal, staff, teachers or parents. Collectively, they have tried their best to make the building hospitable for children. Work orders have been sent by the dozens to school administrators downtown -- an act that, unfortunately, is tantamount to spitting into the wind.

Shepherd's success can be found in the classroom. The school offers dual-language classes at all levels and a rigorous international baccalaureate primary-years program. Shepherd also has a celebrated music program in which 115 children -- half of the student body -- take violin, cello or viola lessons. With help from parents and the community, Robinson privately raised more than $30,000 to transform a decrepit school library into an attractive and functional resource.

The principal and parents, however, aren't building contractors. Still, they haven't given up.

During the visit, I learned that Frank S. Borris II, chairman of Shepherd PTA's buildings and grounds committee, recently prepared a report that includes photographs graphically depicting the school's poor conditions. A copy of Borris's report was given to new school board President Robert Bobb last week.