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Dozens of D.C. high school students held a sidewalk demonstration yesterday to protest the closing of their school because of a leak in a little-used room and to express frustration with the crowded, makeshift classrooms they are being bused to at the University of the District of Columbia.

"We want Bell! We want Bell!" the students from Bell Multicultural Senior High School shouted outside the aging red brick building in Columbia Heights, which was abruptly evacuated by Superior Court Judge Kaye K. Christian on Thursday afternoon.

Christian, ruling in a parent group's 1994 lawsuit over school safety, closed Bell and two other schools last week because of leaks. On Monday, she threatened to expand her oversight to the school system's entire $2 billion, long-range repair and modernization plan.

The next phase of that work probably will be funded by a $42 million, congressionally mandated payment that was formally announced yesterday. The payment consists of proceeds from the privatization of the Student Loan Marketing Association.

Long-term funding, however, remains uncertain. Yesterday, D.C. Council member Kevin P. Chavous (D-Ward 7) introduced a bill that would create a school construction authority to raise money and oversee maintenance, rehabilitation and building projects.

Under the legislation, the authority would receive 50 percent of the D.C. lottery's profits and would be able to issue bonds. The authority -- which would assume much of the school system's current power over building repairs -- would have seven members appointed by city officials and residents.

Chavous, chairman of the council committee that oversees public schools, said his bill is similar to one proposed two years ago but never acted upon. He promised a hearing this month and said he hoped his legislation would move quickly "so we don't have to play this game of roulette in terms of where we're going to get money for our school facilities."

Charles E. Williams, chief operating officer and director of facilities for the D.C. schools, was first to head New York City's school construction authority when it was created six years ago. Although Williams said Chavous had not discussed the proposal with him, he said it "may have some merit."

No matter where repair money comes from, Williams said, construction currently must be cleared by Christian. That constraint, school Chief Executive Julius W. Becton Jr. said, could prevent the school system from spending the money it already has.

The issue was painted in stark terms yesterday on the sidewalk outside Bell. Students said teachers had no class materials because they had to evacuate quickly and expected to be in temporary quarters only one day. Lunch at UDC has been baloney or cheese sandwiches three days in a row, the youngsters said.

"We are suffering. We're not learning anything," said Daniel Tyson, 17, a senior and protest organizer. "This is between high officials. They're playing some political game . . . and it's hurting us."

Tyson said students would rally outside Bell -- which school officials say has been fixed -- each day until it is inspected by the fire department and cleared to reopen by the court. Yesterday, a fire inspector was scheduled to arrive at the school at 4 p.m., a school official said. He arrived about 6 p.m. and inspected the school last night, Tyson said.

He said he was told by Bell Principal Maria Tukeva that the school did not pass the inspection because of "minor" infractions. Those violations will have to be corrected before the school is inspected again. "We were hoping to come back to school [today], but it won't be," Tyson said.

While building maintenance problems continue, the system also is having trouble with payroll operations. School Chief Financial Officer Edward H. Stephenson Jr. said yesterday that more than 200 teachers did not receive regular paychecks last week because of paperwork errors and backlogs.

The school system ended up issuing manually written checks, equal to about 80 percent of the teachers' salary, to 221 teachers -- a practice that was discontinued last spring but temporarily reinstated, Stephenson said, to deal with the backlog.

At least a handful of teachers did not get paychecks at all, because their principals had not filed time sheets for them or because other paperwork was not in order.

"This has got to stop. You can't not pay people," said one newly hired teacher, who did not receive a check. "I wouldn't want to leave D.C. public schools. But I have to be paid, and I have to be respected."

Staff writer Vanessa Williams contributed to this report.

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