Over the past few months an investigation by the Washington Post has provided an ample supply of the most heartbreaking and infuriating anecdotes as evidence of the dysfunction of the District of Columbia’s public school system.

But those media reports “are just the tip of the iceberg,” one of the insiders says.

Allen Lew, who was recently appointed director of school construction by D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty, used the terms “hopeless” and “deplorable” to describe the state of the department he took over last summer, but he says even those words can’t sum up the magnitude of the situation. “You just can’t imagine how bad the school system is,” he told attendees at a school design symposium at the University of Maryland this weekend.

It was so bad that repairs were backlogged for years, a third of the schools didn’t have working boilers, contractors weren’t paid on time or at all, and even though many school buildings were way under capacity and needed major repairs, the suggestion of closings could end a career.

How to fix such a mess?

Lew’s first priority was to ensure each school had a working heating system by Oct. 15, 2007—accomplished after two temporary boilers were quickly borrowed from Kentucky. Longer term, while Fenty and School Chancellor Michelle Rhee are moving forward with a controversial consolidation plan and curriculum reforms, Lew wants to build relationships with other agencies that could have a stake in the school system. Lew says his plan is centered on making a school building—a new or nicely renovated structure with a working boiler—an integral part of the community.

Lew seems like a very smart and honest guy, and his credentials as a developer and public servant in D.C. are impressive. Listening to him speak gives hope that in time, this can be fixed. But we all know it will take years of dedicated, relentless, and fearless leadership to make significant progress. Let’s hope he can do it.

Joetta Sack-Min, Associate Editor