The Washington Post - 09.11.2019

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SATURDAy, NOvEMbER 9 , 2019. WASHINGTONPOST.COM/REGIONAL ez re B

BY JUSTIN WM. MOYER

A large water transmission line

ruptured early Friday in north

Arlington, closing schools, caus-

ing a traffic headache and leaving

thousands without running water

on both sides of the Potomac Riv-

er.

Crews responded to the break

about 4 a.m. on Glebe Road near

Chain Bridge after residents re-

ported water outages and low wa-

ter pressure. service was restored

later in the morning, but more

than 100,000 customers in A rling-

ton and the District were advised

to boil water as a precaution until

tests show it is safe t o drink.

The Arlington Department of

environmental services issued

the boil-water advisory for about

half the county, suggesting that

residents boil w ater for t hree min-

utes before drinking. Across the

Potomac, D.C. Water officials said

customers in parts of upper

northwest Washington also

should boil w ater because o f a loss

of pressure tied to the Virginia

see water on B

Arlington

water main

break causes

boil advisory

BY PERRY STEIN

The graduation rate for the

District’s traditional public high

schools dropped 3.5 percentage

points in 2019 — the second con-

secutive decline since the system

faced scrutiny over whether stu-

dents properly earn their diplo-

mas.

The rate for high schools in the

traditional system slid to 65.1 per-

cent. In 2017, the school system

posted a record-high rate of

73 percent — a rate later cast into

doubt amid a graduation scandal

that jolted the city.

The office of the state superin-

tendent of education released the

graduation data Friday for the

traditional public and charter

school sectors. overall — ac-

counting for both sectors — the

2019 graduation rate was

68.2 percent, essentially un-

see graduatIon on B

Graduation

rate falls at

traditional

schools

CHArtEr SCHOOLS

SHOw IMPrOvEMENt

Overall rate for District

high schools holds steady

addition to the credit card debt,

he attempted to work out mort-

gage modification, but his credi-

tors did not agree to it. His Chap-

ter 13 petition was filed oct. 16 in

the U.s. Bankruptcy Court for the

eastern District of Virginia.

“This is the responsible way to

handle it,” s aid Dorsey, w ho won a

second term on the all-Democrat-

ic Arlington board Tuesday after

facing no primary opponent and

only nominal opposition in the

general election. “I’m following

... the process. I would certainly
love to be in a position to pay it
off. But I made a choice to do
public service, and that sacrifice
means my income dropped.”
The Metro board on Thursday
stripped Dorsey of the chairman-
ship of its finance committee
after learning he had waited
more than four months to dis-
close a $10,000 campaign contri-
bution from the transit agency’s
largest union. ethics rules re-
see dorsey on B

BY PATRICIA SULLIVAN

Arlington County Board Chair

Christian Dorsey, who was penal-

ized Thursday for failing to dis-

close a campaign contribution to

the Metro board in a timely man-

ner, filed for bankruptcy last

month after falling behind on his

mortgage and accruing tens of

thousands of dollars in credit

card debt.

Dorsey (D), 48, also serves as

northern Virginia’s representa-

tive on the Metro board. In a brief

interview late Thursday, he at-

tributed his personal financial

troubles to a drop in income since

he was elected to the five-member

Arlington board four years ago.

He said he chose to seek pro-

tection under federal bankruptcy

law because he was faced with

foreclosure on his family’s home

in the Columbia Forest neighbor-

hood in south Arlington.

Carrying first and second

mortgages and an auto loan, in

Arlington board chair filed for

bankruptcy before reelection

BY MARISSA J. LANG

As the District changes and

grows, pieces of what once was

are disappearing to make way for

what’s next.

entire city blocks razed for

new development. Apartment

buildings and businesses bought,

sold and flipped. What has been

lost along the way, said George-

town University professor Anan-

ya Chakravarti, is history.

Chakravarti, who moved from

egypt to the U street corridor in

northwest Washington four

years ago, said she was shocked

at what she found when she

arrived.

she was expecting Black

Broadway, a bustling strip of

black-owned businesses that had

defined the area in the first half

of the 20th century. It’s what she

had read about when researching

the area from abroad.

Instead, she found chain res-

taurants and shops — and only a

handful of black-owned busi-

nesses.

“ I was amazed — especially

because I work in Georgetown, a

historic neighborhood where ev-

erything is so preserved — that

what I saw on U street was this

unchecked erasure,” Chakravarti

said. “I started to think a lot

about this question of erasure

and how to archive the history

that is part of this community.”

Chakravarti convened a team

of students, community mem-

bers and experts to assemble a

digital collection of U street his-

tory that, she hopes, will make

the area’s rich past easier to

access and understand. she calls

it “community-based historical

preservation.”

By the spring, she said, her

team of Georgetown and Howard

University undergraduate stu-

dents hopes to have a mobile app

that visitors and residents can

use to access information while

see u street on B

Black U Street is dying away,

but a digital rebirth is coming

JoDee strIngHAm For tHe WAsHIngton Post

the junction of u and 14 th streets is at the heart of washington’s

historic u street corridor, where “Black Broadway” once existed.

BY PERRY STEIN

H

e could have used the cash prize to pay off some

of his $60,000 in student loans. or put it

toward a down payment on a home. And there

was the dream spring break vacation he hoped

to take with his husband to Hawaii.

But when Justin Lopez-Cardoze, 30, was named the

2020 D.C. Te acher of the Year, he knew exactly what he

would do with the money that came with the honor: give it

back to students.

The seventh-grade science teacher at C apital City Public

Charter school plans to use most of his $7,500 prize —

$5,000, to be precise — to help send a graduating senior

interested in science to college.

The rest will go to his mother, who is recovering from

heart surgery in north Carolina.

Lopez-Cardoze said his finances are stretched but that

each month he has enough to cover rent and student loan

payments with his teacher salary. At Capital City, which

serves students in prekindergarten through 12th grade,

the average teacher earned $52,230 in 2018, according to

city data.

“The moment I found out that I was nominated for the

award, I knew I wanted to use the cash reward as an

opportunity to start a scholarship,” Lopez-Cardoze said.

“That’s what motivated me to put my all into the

application.”

Lopez-Cardoze said an unexpected scholarship he

received his senior year of high school enabled him to

attend college, earn a master’s degree — and eventually

lead a science classroom at Capital City in Washington’s

see teacHer on B

From teacher, a lesson in giving

The 2020 D.C. Teacher of the Year is putting his $7,500 prize toward establishing a student science scholarship

PHotos by mIcHAel robInson cHAVez/tHe WAsHIngton Post

toP: Justin Lopez-cardoze, right, a seventh-grade science teacher at capital city Public

charter school, was named the 2020 d.c. teacher of the year. He is using his $7,500 prize

to establish a scholarship to help send a graduating senior interested in science to college.

aBoVe: Motivational signs are posted outside Lopez-cardoze’s classroom.

RELIGION

new research posits that

catholicism’s reshaping of

family structures plotted

the course of the West. B

VIRGINIA

goP lawmakers have

canceled a meeting to

review gun-control

legislation. B

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