WLC Budget Letter for DGS Hearing
/Washington Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs
April 19, 2024
Council of the District of Columbia
Committee on Facilities and Family Services
1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20004
Re: Committee on Facilities and Family Services: DGS Budget Hearing – School Facilities
Dear Chairwoman Lewis-George:
As the Council reviews and decides on the FY 2025 budget, the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs urges the Council to prioritize investing in DC’s young people. Although there have been many improvements to DC public school buildings over the years, the inequities in physical school conditions experienced by students of color and lower-income students have persisted. These poor school conditions disproportionately affect students of color and students living in poverty. Students in Wards 4, 5, 7, and 8 are more likely to experience crumbling school infrastructure and lengthy delays in any repairs. As schools are experiencing challenges with re-engaging students in school since the pandemic, and the community is experiencing an uptick in crime, the District must prioritize investment in students’ education and send a message to young people in DC that they are valued and worthy of our investment. The Council must commit to guaranteeing all DC students can attend school buildings throughout the city that are physically safe and welcoming environments for all students, school staff and the school communities that use these buildings.
The safety of DCPS school buildings depends on the Department of General Services’ (DGS) ability to make timely and effective repairs and ensure school buildings at least meet a minimum health and safety standard. The Office of the DC Auditor’s 2022 report revealed several systemic problems with DGS’s system, including a lack of a quality control system, incomplete documentation of work order costs, inconsistent photo documentation of supposed completed repairs, lack of a preventative maintenance system, and failure to complete work orders within the mandatory timeframe.[1] In January 2024, the DC State Board of Education (SBOE) released a report to assess the current school facility quality, efficiency, and equity across DC’s public schools.[2] The report emphasizes that “[t]here are no location, condition, design, utilization, operational or maintenance standards for public education buildings and grounds that apply to all the District of Columbia’s nearly 250 publicly-funded schools and 70 LEAs serving pre-k through adult education.”[3] This report identifies several systemic problems with DC’s current school facility landscape: 1) inconsistencies in facility information, 2) inequities in design, condition, utilization, and maintenance, and 3) limited district-wide standards.[4] The recently published 2023 Master Facilities Plan highlights several recommendations for improving the quality of school buildings like continuing to invest in modernizations, preventative maintenance, investing in capital funds for security systems, reducing work orders, evaluating and establishing performance criteria for contractors, and expanding facility condition assessments for public charter schools.[5] We refer you to our testimony at the Department of General Services Performance Oversight Hearing on February 26, 2024, for our full comments.
We urge the Council to take immediate steps to ensure the safety of our school buildings and allocate funds to implement the recommendations from the DC Auditor’s report, the SBOE report, and the 2023 Master Facilities Plan. DGS must work in partnership with DCPS and the other education agencies to create healthy and safe environments for students and staff.
Thank you for your attention to this important matter.
Sincerely,
Marja K. Plater
Senior Counsel
[1] D.C. Auditor’s Report, “Multiple Failures in DGS Management of Work Orders,” (November 28, 2022) available at https://dcauditor.org/report/dgs-management-work-orders/.
[2] DC State Board of Education, DC Healthy Schools Facilities Recommendations: Survey of Policies, Regulations and Standards, Related to School Facilities, (January 2024) available at https://sboe.dc.gov/publication/dc-healthy-school-facilities-recommendations.
[3] Id. at 4.
[4] Id. at 12-15.
[5] Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education, DC Public Education Master Facilities Plan 2023 (2023) at 6, available at https://dme.dc.gov/mfp2023.