WHYY
By
A student walks through the halls of Cardozo High School on March 12, 2020. Cardozo had problems like asbestos and lead pipes before being renovated in 2011. (Rachel Wisniewski for WHYY)
Christopher Moses encountered dire conditions at Washington, D.C.’s Calvin Coolidge High School when he entered as a freshman in 2016.
Damaged floors, 70-year-old boilers, no central air conditioning, dangerously obsolete wiring, and a leaky, crumbling roof.
“Everything was just torn down,” Moses recalled. “We weren’t allowed to go on the fourth floor. And then the lockers, we couldn’t use them because they were messed up, destroyed. It was rats and all that, so it was really bad. Cockroaches. It was bad.”
By Hannah Strong
hstrong@postandcourier.com
The ultimate decision will be made by the Board of Education and could come up on the agenda for a vote as early as April, but the Facilities Committee will have to request a quote for the project.
âOur next plan of action would be to bring this item up again for discussion at a Facility Committee meeting in April 2021 to discuss the RFQ (request for quote) and funding allocations,â said Lisa Bourcier, HCS spokesperson. âFrom there an RFQ could be issued within the next few months and funding would come out of next yearâs budget for the Facility Condition Assessment of our 60 campuses.â