Anacostia High School Walk Out

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hope they get a ton of publicity. This is ridiculous.

+1000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I see no stories about this. How did you hear?

Twitter.

https://twitter.com/PerryStein?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

And https://twitter.com/AndrewGiambrone/status/981575733561692160

[Anonymous]

Another LEED building with maintenance issues. I'm shocked, SHOCKED.

When our school was up for renovation, the ANC warned us that he last school in the Ward to be renovated had a lot of maintenance issues. The LEED certified equipment is all very integrated, so if one system goes down, the rest do too. Public buildings go for the cheapest equipment that meets the standard, and it is often of poor quality.

My building at work is also LEED: noise , toilets that don't flush, integrated ventilation that means a chemical spill in the garage rendered all 12 floors uninhabitable for a week.

[Anonymous]

How does this happen in a city as wealthy and liberal as DC?

This is shameful.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks. They have a point IMO.

Who is responsible for maintenance, DGS or DCPS? I'm not even sure.

DC DGS.

The judgment call to open school when the water wasn’t working and tell people to walk three blocks to use the bathroom probably wasn’t DGS, though, right? The maintenance issues are obviously a problem, but the decision to open school under those conditions seems like an additional problem. I feel for those teachers and students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another LEED building with maintenance issues. I'm shocked, SHOCKED.

When our school was up for renovation, the ANC warned us that he last school in the Ward to be renovated had a lot of maintenance issues. The LEED certified equipment is all very integrated, so if one system goes down, the rest do too. Public buildings go for the cheapest equipment that meets the standard, and it is often of poor quality.

My building at work is also LEED: noise , toilets that don't flush, integrated ventilation that means a chemical spill in the garage rendered all 12 floors uninhabitable for a week.

That's interesting! LEED certification equates with quality and integrity, or so DGS and many city admins
would have us believe. I'd also like to see DGS publicly explain this mess!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another LEED building with maintenance issues. I'm shocked, SHOCKED.

When our school was up for renovation, the ANC warned us that he last school in the Ward to be renovated had a lot of maintenance issues. The LEED certified equipment is all very integrated, so if one system goes down, the rest do too. Public buildings go for the cheapest equipment that meets the standard, and it is often of poor quality.

My building at work is also LEED: noise , toilets that don't flush, integrated ventilation that means a chemical spill in the garage rendered all 12 floors uninhabitable for a week.

That's interesting! LEED certification equates with quality and integrity, or so DGS and many city admins
would have us believe. I'd also like to see DGS publicly explain this mess!

LEED certification only means that all the products and materials in the building, and the overall design, are 'green' products.

But if DGS/DCPS choose the lowest end 'green' products and materials available, it will not last.

I think the issue is not with LEED but rather with DGS.

[Anonymous]

The contractors the city is using are jacking up their prices above market and at the same time using below-grade materials. It's a terrible racket that's gone on for a very long time. And don't even get me started on the commercial market that DCRA oversees...

[Anonymous]

I am impressed with Dr. Alexander. She went immediately to the school after hearing of the walk-out. I haven't seen any other Chancellor act so quickly to confront a problem. I hope she continues down this road.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another LEED building with maintenance issues. I'm shocked, SHOCKED.

When our school was up for renovation, the ANC warned us that he last school in the Ward to be renovated had a lot of maintenance issues. The LEED certified equipment is all very integrated, so if one system goes down, the rest do too. Public buildings go for the cheapest equipment that meets the standard, and it is often of poor quality.

My building at work is also LEED: noise , toilets that don't flush, integrated ventilation that means a chemical spill in the garage rendered all 12 floors uninhabitable for a week.

That's interesting! LEED certification equates with quality and integrity, or so DGS and many city admins
would have us believe. I'd also like to see DGS publicly explain this mess!

LEED certification only means that all the products and materials in the building, and the overall design, are 'green' products.

But if DGS/DCPS choose the lowest end 'green' products and materials available, it will not last.

I think the issue is not with LEED but rather with DGS.

The school may have a lot of "green" products, whatever that means. But their
energy profile is underwhelming, uses more gas and electric than average for
DCPS.

[jsteele]

No surprise here, I guess. The the contract for renovating the bathrooms that were non-functional this morning went to a Fenty crony:

https://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/news/loose-lips/blog/13133572/how-many-managers-are-needed-to-install-bathroom-stalls

Here's where things get tricky with the bathroom stalls. Instead of contracting directly with the Pennsylvania-based supplier of the school's "toilet partitions and compartments," Forrester and Department of General Services records show the $100,000 contract for that work instead went to another general contractor: Blue Skye Construction.

Blue Skye is a well-known local construction company that was very successful at landing city contracts when former Mayor Adrian Fenty was in office. In 2010, the city paid Blue Skye and a joint venture partner nearly $20 million directly for construction work. In 2009, Blue Skye and Donatelli Development were awarded the rights to development of the land next to the Minnesota Avenue Metro station. Blue Skye's president, Scottie Irving, was close to Fenty and cut an ad for his 2010 reelection campaign.

[Anonymous]

Why is a building so recently renovated having these issues?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why is a building so recently renovated having these issues?

Yeah this is crazy. The outside of the building is beautiful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Staff was told this morning if they need a bathroom to go to middle school 3 blocks away.

That's just crazy.

This reminds me of the bathroom scene from Hidden Figures.

[Anonymous]

I'm not impressed with her at all. This would not happen at the school that my child attends, so why should it happen to these kids and staff members. They knew the night before that the building was without working water, however they still let school open on time as if everything was okay.

This is crazy. I am glad that the students and staff members walked out.