Harry Jaffe
Person of the Year for ’08 ... Allen Lew
By: Harry Jaffe
Examiner Columnist
December 26, 2008
D.C. School Chancellor Michelle Rhee gets all the fawning features in the national press because of her willingness to blast the foundations of education dogma, but the person who has actually blasted the foundations of school buildings and done the most for students and teachers in the nation’s capital in 2008 is Allen Lew.
When Mayor Adrian Fenty begged Lew to take over his Office of Public Education Facilities Modernization two years ago, Lew already had managed construction of the city’s new convention center and the National’s baseball stadium. He took a quick tour.
“The schools looked like prisons,” he tells me. “There were gates and cages and bars everywhere. I asked one principal: ‘Why are there bars on the fourth-floor windows? Are you expecting Spider-Man?’”
Kids expecting to use the bathrooms in many schools faced busted toilets. Parents expecting their children to be warm in the winter worried about broken boilers. Teachers wanting cool rooms in the summer laughed.
Despite the challenges of pleasing parents and dealing with skeptical council members, Lew took the job. His reward was a list of 1,200 work orders going back decades.
What made him most proud? Replacing the athletic fields at all but one high school? Painting and buffing up every school last summer and opening schools on time? Repairing old heating systems? Renovating a half-dozen schools?
Fixing the toilets, stupid.
“I think we’ve turned the corner,” he says. “Broken bathrooms and water fountains are not the norm anymore.”
Before Lew and his crew took over, at the core of many depressed and downtrodden neighborhoods in D.C. was a rundown school. Take Sousa Middle School. Lew gutted a busted-up building that looked like a correctional facility and turned it into a warm and welcoming place to learn. It still sits amid public housing projects along Benning Road, but Sousa is now a pathway to college rather than a prep school for prison.
Lew and his staff of 50 have been working out of trailers in the shadow of RFK Stadium. His crew says he uses the “Attila The Hun School of Management.” They also say Lew, 58, survives with his sense of humor.
When Fenty appointed him to oversee building projects for the parks and recreation department — as well as the schools — Council Chair Vince Gray asked why. Lew responded: “The mayor said we weren’t busy enough.”
Lew and his staff expect to finish renovations in three schools this summer: H.D. Cook and Addison Elementary; and School Without Walls, a high school on the West End. Wilson High’s pool, dry for 12 years, should be up and running.
“We are pressing contractors to use the best green technologies and save money at the same time,” he says.
Word of Allen Lew’s success has reached the Barack Obama transition team, where his name has been mentioned as infrastructure czar.
“I’m happy with what I’m doing,” he says. “The day I’m not having fun, I’ll stop.”
Let’s keep him happy.
When Mayor Adrian Fenty begged Lew to take over his Office of Public Education Facilities Modernization two years ago, Lew already had managed construction of the city’s new convention center and the National’s baseball stadium. He took a quick tour.
“The schools looked like prisons,” he tells me. “There were gates and cages and bars everywhere. I asked one principal: ‘Why are there bars on the fourth-floor windows? Are you expecting Spider-Man?’”
Kids expecting to use the bathrooms in many schools faced busted toilets. Parents expecting their children to be warm in the winter worried about broken boilers. Teachers wanting cool rooms in the summer laughed.
Despite the challenges of pleasing parents and dealing with skeptical council members, Lew took the job. His reward was a list of 1,200 work orders going back decades.
What made him most proud? Replacing the athletic fields at all but one high school? Painting and buffing up every school last summer and opening schools on time? Repairing old heating systems? Renovating a half-dozen schools?
Fixing the toilets, stupid.
“I think we’ve turned the corner,” he says. “Broken bathrooms and water fountains are not the norm anymore.”
Before Lew and his crew took over, at the core of many depressed and downtrodden neighborhoods in D.C. was a rundown school. Take Sousa Middle School. Lew gutted a busted-up building that looked like a correctional facility and turned it into a warm and welcoming place to learn. It still sits amid public housing projects along Benning Road, but Sousa is now a pathway to college rather than a prep school for prison.
Lew and his staff of 50 have been working out of trailers in the shadow of RFK Stadium. His crew says he uses the “Attila The Hun School of Management.” They also say Lew, 58, survives with his sense of humor.
When Fenty appointed him to oversee building projects for the parks and recreation department — as well as the schools — Council Chair Vince Gray asked why. Lew responded: “The mayor said we weren’t busy enough.”
Lew and his staff expect to finish renovations in three schools this summer: H.D. Cook and Addison Elementary; and School Without Walls, a high school on the West End. Wilson High’s pool, dry for 12 years, should be up and running.
“We are pressing contractors to use the best green technologies and save money at the same time,” he says.
Word of Allen Lew’s success has reached the Barack Obama transition team, where his name has been mentioned as infrastructure czar.
“I’m happy with what I’m doing,” he says. “The day I’m not having fun, I’ll stop.”
Let’s keep him happy.
