by Cuneyt Dil
Correspondent, Current Newspapers
The sounds of water faucets running and toilets flushing stop echoing through the empty hallway walls of Wilson High School, and Mary Cheh emerges from the bathroom. The Ward 3 D.C. Council member tells an aide: “Every toilet seat is loose.” He writes it down. One of the faucets doesn’t work, she adds, and he writes.
It’s a regular part of Cheh’s annual school readiness tour: making sure the bathrooms are in good shape. For the next hour, a phalanx of staffers and Ward 4 Council member Brandon Todd – many of his constituents also attend the popular Tenleytown school – walk the halls, inspecting water fountains and bathrooms, taking note of wear and tear and probing school officials on whether they’re ready for opening day.
. @marycheh is joined by @CMBrandonTodd at @Wilsonhsdcps school readiness tour! Great connections for wards 3 & 4! pic.twitter.com/r50wdndpPq
— Cheh Press (@ChehPress) August 14, 2015
“I’m here to check in and be your advocate,” Cheh tells Wilson’s new principal, Kimberly Martin.
Every year for the past nine, before the first day of school, Cheh has toured each public school in Ward 3. She rounded out her tour of all 11 this year last Friday [August 14th], visiting Wilson, the recently modernized Janney Elementary, Deal Middle and the soon-to-be modernized Murch Elementary.
. @marycheh discusses enrollment with @murchschool principal and student parent during the last leg of today's tour pic.twitter.com/RXd7CPu73G
— Cheh Press (@ChehPress) August 14, 2015
Walking through schools, she keeps her staffer Anthony Cassillo close to his notepad, having him jot down problems she finds – everything from bathroom fixes to cracks in walls.
But with most schools modernized or slated for renovation, she admits there’s not as much to complain about.
“I’m joyful, though, that I find so little these days,” said Cheh. “[There is] no comparison to nine years ago,” she said. “The schools were crumbling. I can’t even describe it to you – it was demoralizing. Compared to that it’s almost fun now.”
@marycheh is "blown away" by the beautiful modernization at @dcpublicschools Hearst Elementary! pic.twitter.com/S0N5LXinuT
— Cheh Press (@ChehPress) August 11, 2015
But some issues do remain. Wilson officials told Cheh a part of their security system needs fixes. Department of General Services spokesperson Darrell Pressley said the agency has been aware of the issue and is “working diligently” to fix it before school opens [this week].
The most serious issue, Cheh said, was at Eaton Elementary, where she found crumbling steps at the entrance for students and debris from a “collapsing” ceiling in a stairwell. At Janney, Cheh took issue with construction contractors, after finding floor cracks.
Across the ward, the problems Cheh has found include bathroom sink and faucet fixes, corridors that need more lighting, broken window blinds, cracks in walls, indoor trees at Wilson outgrowing their pots and puddles forming on the Murch playground. Her office will send the requests over to the General Services Department. Some requests, though, might get a slow walk, according to Cheh, who says there’s been a recent trend at the agency to
be “less responsive and take a longer period of time” to finish work orders.
That said, Cheh says principals used to tell her about requests going uncompleted for years – now, she said, complaints are about fixes taking months rather than years.
And gone are the days when Cheh says she would find “disasters” on her tours: schools with not enough chairs and books for classes, gaps in staffing, and major structural problems such as roof leaks.
Republished, with permission, from the August 19th issue of the Northwest Current. Download the newspaper here. You’ll also find a profile of Wilson High’s new principal, Kimberly Martin.