The Price of Neglect

$2 Billion Mission

The Army Corps was not the first outside group summoned when the deterioration of the District's schools reached crisis proportions in the 1990s. Faced with problems including fire code violations that threatened to force the closure of many schools, then-Superintendent Franklin L. Smith hired a private company, ServiceMaster, to manage school maintenance.

But when a financial control board created by Congress took over the city's schools in 1996, its members fired Smith. And his successor, retired Army Lt. Gen. Julius W. Becton Jr., in turn fired ServiceMaster, which auditors said was overpaid by about $6 million.

School maintenance workers resumed responsibility for the buildings in 1997. That fall, court-ordered roof repairs delayed the opening of schools for three weeks. Dozens of schools needed boiler repairs, in some cases forcing officials to bus children to makeshift classrooms in other buildings.

Becton resigned the next year but on his way out hired the Army Corps to do school repairs. Corps personnel fanned out through the schools beginning in 1998 and found widespread problems, including boilers at more than 60 schools that they rated as poor or unsatisfactory. The mission quickly expanded to a $2 billion plan to rebuild every D.C. public school.

The Corps work included hiring contractors to rebuild 12 schools and replace heating systems at 43 others. "We basically just gutted the whole heating plant, wall to wall, floor to ceiling," said Dan Oswald, a Corps engineer who helped manage the work.

Still, heating problems persisted at some older schools because of aging pipes and failing radiators in classrooms. And in most cases, the capital budget had no money for additional repairs.

"That was the biggest complaint from principals: 'We saw you there working for two or three months, we got a new heating plant, why is this classroom too cold?' " Oswald said.

The Corps's role ended last year after the agency had spent nearly $700 million and drawn criticism for cost overruns and delays.

All along, school maintenance workers had been responsible for the upkeep of the new equipment. But school officials did not ramp up spending to protect their new investments. In fact, the system lost maintenance staff members when Arlene Ackerman, who replaced Becton in 1998, began assigning the workers by school enrollment, which was falling, instead of square footage, recalled William Lockridge, a member of the now-defunct D.C. Board of Education. Under the law that put Fenty in charge of the system, Lockridge and other school board members now serve in a much-diminished role on the State Board of Education, which helps formulate school policy but has little to do with operations.

In 2000, Lockridge said, Ackerman tried to restore maintenance workers but was overruled by a board of trustees that oversaw the schools during the city's financial crisis. "The board didn't take her recommendation because of budget constraints," Lockridge said. He added that Ackerman's successor, Paul Vance, cut the administrative budget, which further reduced the maintenance staff.

Woodhead, the former facilities chief, said she asked Vance for an additional $40 million for preventive maintenance. But then-Mayor Anthony A. Williams rejected the request, she said. "All the levels of government failed to have the will to solve the problem," she said.

Gregory M. McCarthy, who served as Williams's chief of staff, said he could not recall whether such a request was made. Still, he said, Williams tried to fully fund the school system's budget and became impatient when school leaders came back for more money.