Part of the blame is attributable to the Congressman that has control of such stuff.
Who Left D.C.'s Schools to Decay?
By Colbert I. King
Saturday, March 3, 2007; A15
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.
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