WaPo looks at Shepherd Elementry problems

In the third installment of its "School Pictures" series documenting the state of DC's public schools the Post takes a look at Shepherd Elementary and the sorry state of its windows.

Budgeting, cost management and scheduling have been inefficient at best, Borris and others say, forcing students and the adults who try to teach them to work in often miserable conditions.

In teacher Steven King's sixth-grade class at Shepherd, plexiglass is bolted into the rotting wooden frames of some windows and can't be opened. Teacher Timothy Leonard's fifth-grade classroom has windows nailed shut so they don't fall in.

In the library, in the main office and in other rooms, rusted security bars nailed on some of the windows block the view -- and can't be removed in the event someone needs to climb out a window in an emergency. They don't help much with security, however, because other windows don't have them, said newly installed Principal Daniel Robinson.

"It's ridiculous," said Robinson, who has instituted reforms to improve student learning. "When I first came here, it felt like a jail."

The article points out yet another example of waste and mismanagement within the DCPS system. While local contractors estimate the cost of replacing Shepherd's windows at roughly $350K the city has estimated the cost at $1.5 million. Whether this is due to malfeasance or a simple lack of estimating / capital planning its an example of why DC continues to waste taxpayers' money. Fenty, Janey, et al can continue to wring their hands and express outrage about the situation, but until they clean house and hire honest, competent people nothing is going to change.