District of Columbia: D.C. Public Schools’ Modernization Program Faces Major Challenges

This testimony statement from David E. Cooper, Director, Acquisition and Sourcing Management, outlines efforts to evaluate the District of Columbia’s plans to modernize and renovate its public schools. He notes that, “In the past few years, the school system, with the assistance of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (the Corps), has made considerable progress in fixing roofs, replacing windows, repairing bathrooms, and addressing maintenance projects that had been neglected for years. Now that many of the emergency repairs have been completed, the school system is turning its attention to the more complex task of modernizing— either through renovation or through new construction—virtually every public school in the District of Columbia.” The testimony addresses the challenges the school system faces in this formidable task, including:

• increases in the cost of modernizing the schools,
• delays in completing the schools,
• quality inspection problems, and
• concerns about managing asbestos hazards.