A cheery morning to you all, D.C.; it may still hover in the low 30’s today, but it’ll be nice and sunny outside your window, making your daydreams of warm afternoons that much easier. That heater you have blasting probably helps, and that’s a lot more than some D.C. area schoolchildren can say. Four schools remain closed entirely while many others struggle to heat more than just a few classrooms with dilapidated systems. WTOP reports today that Superintendent Clifford Janey will spend $900,000 on a “blitz” to fix the problem in 40 schools around the city. In the meantime, enjoy your extended snow day, kiddies.

That’s Not The Only Drama: We updated you yesterday on the battle over control of the D.C. Public School systems, and last night things got even more heated. The Post reports today that the City Council, in the debate over Mayor Fenty’s plan to take over control of the schools, got a little bit of a smackdown from residents. Shouts about Fenty’s lack of educational background and his inability to solve more dire problems, like the city’s murder rate, spilled out into the hallway at the meeting. Some attacks got personal – even mentioning Marion Barry’s drug use – and the residents were quickly chastised by a Council who seems ready, at this point, to vote for the Mayor’s plan.

Local Airports Going Strong: We suppose this might be a little bit of good news and bad news. Reagan National and BWI both saw a record number of passengers in 2006, finally bouncing firmly back from the drop after September 11, 2001. What does this mean for us? Agonizing lines at the check-in, for sure, but maybe we can get a little competition up in here and see some more of this.

Briefly Noted: D.C. dominates architecture poll … Little Debbies in area a little too high in iron … Officials hit brakes on speedy growth (which we’ve discussed before) … Anti-gay groups take another stab at sex ed in Maryland.

This Day in DCist: Last year we prepared a Valentine’s dinner to go, while in 2005 we pondered mysterious signs.

Photo by krylonultraflat.

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