Billions Needed To Fix Schools

A study of the District's schools determined that it needs $2 billion worth of work to upgrade buildings, which the D.C. Council approved in 2006. Former superintendent Clifford B. Janey that year introduced a 1,000-page master facility plan outlining the work that would be done over a 10- to 15-year period.

But when Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) took over the system in June, he established the Office of Public Education Facilities Modernization to oversee renovations and maintenance. Director Allen Y. Lew is devising his own master facility plan, which is expected to be released in September.

Sean Gallagher, assistant director of the department of facilities management for Montgomery schools, said the county had a repair backlog of roughly $430 million.

Anne Arundel County schools are facing a 10-year, $1.5 billion school maintenance backlog, and Charles County estimated this year that necessary capital improvement projects at aging schools would cost $726 million between fiscal 2009 and 2013.

Fairfax County's capital improvement program for schools includes repairs worth $1.85 billion, but Kevin Sneed, the school system's director of design and construction, said that only includes fixes to 50 or 60 of the county's roughly 190 schools.

"I know that by the time I retire I will not be able to help a lot of the schools because of money," Sneed said with a trace of sadness. "I'm sure they're feeling the same way in Prince George's County. It's hard."

Staff writers Michael Alison Chandler, Maria Glod, Megan Greenwell, V. Dion Haynes and William Wan contributed to this report.