ReportWire

Tag: capital improvement program

  • Anacostia High School closed after sewage spill floods boiler room, kitchen – WTOP News

    Anacostia High School students were dismissed early at noon on Monday due to a sewage spill that flooded the school over the weekend.

    Anacostia High School students were dismissed early at noon on Monday due to a sewage spill that flooded the school over the weekend.

    In a letter sent home to families on Monday, Principal Kenneth Walker wrote that while work was underway for DC Water’s Capital Improvement Program in the area, a water and sewage backup occurred, pumping raw sewage into the school and at least 10 nearby homes on Fairlawn Avenue SE.

    A spokesperson from DC Water told WTOP in an email that the incident occurred on Sunday “due to a pump malfunction during work on the Anacostia Main Interceptor.”

    “We deeply regret the inconvenience this has caused and are providing temporary housing for affected residents while the cleanup is completed,” they said. “Additional steps are being taken to investigate and address the cause of the pump failure and prevent future issues.”

    Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Tom Donohue said in a video on Facebook that at one point there was over six feet of raw sewage inside one of the school’s elevator shafts. He pointed out that the basement of the school flooded, as well as its cafeteria and kitchen.

    “This will be sanitized and cleaned. All the stuff that had touched boxes or anything that could have seeped the spores of the sewage will be thrown away. It’s a lot of work to do,” Donohue said.

    In the background of the video, Walker can be heard saying that students were to be evacuated and would receive their phones and eat lunch outside.

    The school was cleared to remain open on Monday with the kitchen and cafeteria out of service, but school leaders made the decision to dismiss students early due to “lingering odors in the building.”

    The school’s day care and after school services and activities were also canceled and closed. The school remained closed on Tuesday.

    At a community meeting on Tuesday night, Donohue confirmed to WTOP that Anacostia High families received word that students will return to classes but at nearby Kramer Middle School at 8:15 a.m.

    “This will be a significant shift in our learning environment, so we have worked alongside Kramer’s school leader, Principal (Katreena) Shelby, to plan and ensure a successful day for all our scholars,” Principal Walker wrote in an email Tuesday night.

    SERVPRO services were contracted to clean, disinfect and dry out the impacted areas of the high school. Walker added that contractors from the Department of General Services and officials from DC Water are using air scrubbers and dehumidifiers to “remove excess moisture … and mitigate odors in the building.”

    Once the cleaning and sanitization is complete, they will conduct air quality tests, Walker wrote.

    “We remain eager to return to our building as soon as we receive the all-clear to do so,” he said.

    Alan Salas, a project manager and civil engineer with DC Water, also spoke at the Tuesday night meeting, sharing information about the Fairlawn project. He said the pump failure is still under investigation.

    “That’s part of our planning, to make sure that nothing like this occurs. But it seems that we still don’t know what the issue was,” he said. “For some reason, those pumps didn’t turn on.”

    Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.

    © 2025 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

    Ciara Wells

    Source link

  • In a reversal vote, Loudoun Co. school board will allow charter schools to ask for funding to cover facility upgrades – WTOP News

    Charter schools in Loudoun County will be able to keep asking for funding for infrastructure improvements, as part of an updated policy the school board approved.

    Charter schools in Loudoun County, Virginia, will be able to keep asking for funding for classroom upgrades and other infrastructure improvements as part of an updated policy the school board approved last week.

    The policy pertains to the establishment of charter schools. As part of an amendment to the proposed policy, charter schools are eligible to ask for funding for infrastructure needs, and those needs could be included in the Capital Improvement Program if the school board deems it necessary.

    The Capital Improvement Program is the school division’s long-term plan for acquiring property and renovating and maintaining existing public school facilities. The proposed update passed, 7-2.

    The approved policy update put an end to community fears that Loudoun County’s two charter schools would be ineligible for funding to improve their campuses. The original proposal said charter school facilities wouldn’t be included in the Capital Improvement Program for current or future improvements.

    “It is a positive step, but I also feel like we’re still going to have continuing conversations on how much funding we can get,” parent Robert Carey said. “Can we really improve the school? How much funds will we be able to receive? That will be a work in progress, but at least it’s a very, very good, positive first step.”

    Joe Luppino-Esposito, vice president of Hillsboro Charter Academy’s board of directors, said the newly approved policy takes out the “worst part,” which he described as the section restricting funding for charter schools. Their campus, he said, doesn’t have a music room or a teacher’s lounge, and it has a small lab that doubles as the lunch room.

    The campus includes what he calls the “art cottage,” a portable trailer that was supposed to be temporary, “but it’s been there since at least 1996. These are all the type of things that would really not stand anywhere else in the district, except for the fact that it’s been the charter school,” Luppino-Esposito said.

    As part of the approved amendment, introduced by Loudoun County School Board member Lauren Shernoff, the school board will defer to current charter agreements for existing charter schools.

    At the Sept. 30 meeting, Chief Operations Officer Kevin Lewis told the board allowing charter schools to be considered for capital improvements could be costly, suggesting expansion plans could leave the district responsible for spending millions on enhancements for existing infrastructure in addition to new spaces.

    The school board last reviewed its policy for establishing charter schools in 2020.

    The new updates, Carey said, allow for capital improvements that are “critical for us to be able to operate and continue to operate in a safe environment for these students.”

    Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.

    © 2025 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

    Scott Gelman

    Source link