WASHINGTON — The future for students and teachers at Savoy Elementary School in Southeast D.C. is unclear following Friday’s announcement that the school will be closed indefinitely because of a bedbug and vermin infestation problem.
D.C. Public Schools said students will not have class Monday and Tuesday, and have yet to determine where students will go for classes after that. Officials must take into consideration that many families depend on school-provided food for their children’s lunches.
They plan on making an announcement by 3 p.m. Sunday.
As for classes, it’s not clear whether students will need to be directed to other schools or if there is existing space to accommodate the children.
“There are swing spaces that D.C. Public Schools have used over the years for schools that are being modernized,” Elizabeth Davis, president of the Washington Teachers’ Union, told WTOP. “Now, whether or not there is such a space available in D.C., either where kids could be bussed, I have no idea if that is the case.”
A D.C. Public Schools spokeswoman said in a statement, “During the cleaning and the subsequent inspection, the Savoy community will temporarily relocate” and that it will be “where students should plan to attend school for the next several weeks as we prepare a school building that is conducive to teaching and learning.”
Savoy Elementary School will undergo a thorough cleaning to combat the infestation of bedbugs, mice and rats that has overtaken the school over the past few months.
“When I contacted the building representative there, I learned that they have actually been contacting DCPS and DGS since November, which I found hard to believe that this problem has been going on for four months and we are just getting results,” Davis said.
“Although D.C. (Department of General Services) and DCPS talked about at length (Thursday) night the things that they had done, I found it hard to believe that they would allow the kids to continue to report to that building each day, knowing what they knew,” she said.
Since November, the school has had pest control services provided by the Department of General Services, with “a mass trapping … conducted over the holiday weekend,” according to a Facebook post by the school on Jan. 16.
The school system said that along with the cleaning, “We will also replace all soft materials in the building, including rugs, cots, blankets, and pillows.”
It will then undergo what the spokeswoman called “a rigorous safety and health inspection.” If and when the building passes, students and teachers will be allowed back in.
Although it has taken months to fully address this infestation, Davis has been pleased with the prompt response by the new chancellor of D.C. Public Schools, Antwan Wilson, who only took over the job Wednesday.
“I was pleased to see that he made a decision very quickly,” Davis said. “Decisions are made too slowly, especially in cases where kids who may not have the powerful advocacy that some kids, more affluent kids have. I was glad to see that he made a decision to, number one, get them out of that facility.”
The union leader argued that where this school is located has played a role in why the building was not shut down months ago.
“I have observed during my years of teaching in D.C. a disparity in how children are treated and handled based on their ZIP codes, based on their socioeconomic levels, their class, their race,” Davis said. “Unfortunately — and we would love to believe that is not the case, but that’s the case.”
The school system told families who may be concerned about their children’s health because of their time in the school that they should contact their general doctor.
