Late-notice Wednesday closings annoy parents of DCPS students Most earthquake-rattled schools in the District and Prince George’s County are expected to open on Thursday, following systemwide closings on Wednesday.
In D.C., School Without Walls Senior High School in Foggy Bottom sustained too much structural damage to open on Thursday, and likely will remain closed on Friday and possibly into next week, Mayor Vincent Gray said.
An exterior wall broke at Bancroft Elementary School in Mount Pleasant, but city officials expected it to be repaired Wednesday night. All other schools were set to open, although engineers were still inspecting schools Wednesday night. A “buckling floor” at Columbia Heights Education Campus alarmed inspecting engineers, but it turned out to be just a bum floor.
Prince George’s County Public Schools officials said most of their campuses would open on Thursday. At least 37 schools received some damage.
County officials warned parents that all schools would be closed on Tuesday evening. But in the District, parents were fuming that D.C. Public Schools waited until dawn on Wednesday to announce that all 125 schools were closed — instead of just three, as they originally said — when the earthquake had rocked the city 20 hours before.
Parents who were notified just hours before school started Wednesday were not pleased.
“To delay this long, and then we find out without time to make alternate arrangements for child care — we’re scrambling,” said Tim Krepp, a Brent Elementary parent who ended up watching his two kids, plus four others for working friends. “Most people were annoyed by the handling of the problem.”
Some of his friends showed up at the school, unaware, he said.
Angela Lauria, a Janney Elementary parent, said her friends griped about finding child care with just hours of notice. She wondered if the eleventh-hour cancellation was a decision of politics, rather than safety.
“[Former Schools Chancellor] Michelle Rhee and [former Mayor] Adrian Fenty kept the schools open — they didn’t care if there was 20 inches of snow,” Lauria said. “In the election, people said we want a slower, more bureaucratic pace. … The beginning of the school year is such an important time to set the tone, and we’re saying, kids can go to school when it’s convenient.”
Krepp also said Gray’s explanation — that he didn’t have enough information on damage to shut all the schools Tuesday night — struck him as political.
“I find this indicative of the mayor’s governing style: somewhat dithering, indecisive, a study-and-act kind of mayor,” he said. “But we can’t put our lives on hold for another day.”
City Administrator Allen Lew said teams needed the extra time to thoroughly inspect all schools after 13 of 55 initially inspected campuses showed damage.
“This was all in the dark. … When you look at these buildings in the daytime, you might actually see different things. We erred on [the side of] safety,” Lew said.
