DCPS students shafted again - sign petition to keep Jelleff field public

[Anonymous]

This contact is clearly against DC law. If his bothers you, and it should no matter if you are a DC taxpayer (property paid for by your tax dollars is being mismanaged) or a Maret parent (what are you teaching your kids about sharing and equity?) or a DCPS parent (even if not nearby your local field could get sold off and rented to a private school for less than you would pay for a 1-bedroom in almost any area of DC) then please:

Tweet @maretschool
Call or email Mayor Bowser
call or email your councilperson
Tweet @DCDPR

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This contact is clearly against DC law. If his bothers you, and it should no matter if you are a DC taxpayer (property paid for by your tax dollars is being mismanaged) or a Maret parent (what are you teaching your kids about sharing and equity?) or a DCPS parent (even if not nearby your local field could get sold off and rented to a private school for less than you would pay for a 1-bedroom in almost any area of DC) then please:

Tweet @maretschool
Call or email Mayor Bowser
call or email your councilperson
Tweet @DCDPR

+1 And sign this petition, which has reached 500 signatures and counting.

https://www.change.org/p/mayor-bowser-private-schools-should-not-have-exclusive-rights-to-public-fields-makejelleffpublic

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This city has had large budget surpluses for basically the past decade.

Why the f#ck are we relying on outside private groups to maintain our parks? Why can’t DPR and DGS just do their goddamn jobs? Hell, hire a contractor to maintain the properties. But it’s utter BS that this city spent close to $10m to acquire Jelleff just to turn around and give it to a private school for a 10 year lease.

I can’t wait until Jack Evans gets booted. What a slime ball.

+ 1 DC has the money to maintain this park. But Jack Evan's son went to Maret. He may not get re-elected due to the corruption scandal, but DC residents will be stuck with this crappy Maret deal for another decade (and DC residents complained about it back in 2010 as well). Has the Maret community responded at all? One would think this all looks very bad for them.

https://wjla.com/news/local/d-c-council-dcps-not-favored-council-members-61835

In a list compiled by the Washington Examiner, council members have shown that they, like most upper-middle class parents in the District, know it's best to avoid the DCPS.

Jack Evans wins the award for spending the most money to keep his kids far, far away from the school district ranked in the bottom of the nation: his two daughters attend National Cathedral School, while his son will graduate from St. Patrick's Episcopal Day School to Maret School next year. His stepson is a student at Gonzaga High School. The latter is the least expensive, with a yearly tuition of over $16,000 (no word on whether his twins get a discount at National, or if Evans shoulders the burden of $33,000 for each of his twin daughters).

[Anonymous]

Plenty of press on this ten years ago but none now https://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/news/city-desk/blog/13060613/did-posh-maret-school-get-a-sweetheart-deal-from-d-c

[Anonymous]

This is so disgusting at many levels of corrupt DC officials.

I live in Fairfax County and I think there are rules in Fairfax County that schools have first shot at using Fairfax County public park at no charge. For example, I live near Lewinsville Park in Mclean and every spring, Mclean HS has the first use of the tennis court there from 3:30pm to 6:30pm for practice. I can not use the courts even if I want to pay for them. Because boys and girls tennis season start in the spring, there are not enough tennis courts to go around. Mclean has five tennis courts but the school needs six additional tennis courts to accommodate both boys and girls tennis. The school has the "first" right to use Fairfax County Public Park tennis courts. Everyone else, including local residents, have to wait. That's the way it suppose to be.

When Langley HS was under renovation from 2013-2016, it had the priority use of Lewinsville tennis court over local residents. That's the way it is supposed to be.

I just can't wrap my head around decisions made by DC public and recreation officials. That's right. They are corrupted. They need to be in jail.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The local media seems to be ignoring this issue, but it seems odd that there aren't any socially conscious Maret students or parents who recognize the absurdity of this untransparent deal. But I guess they don't care, because there was a more limited outcry from neighborhood residents 10 years ago when the deal 10 years ago was also called a sweetheart deal, and Maret pushed the deal through anyway.

https://georgetownmetropolitan.com/2010/01/21/city-turns-over-jelleff-fields-to-maret/

So ten years ago, Maret spent $2.5m + the cost of lights + the pool. Now they're spending an undisclosed amount to improve and maintain the field for ten more years.

The $2.5 million included the lights and pool.

I asked DPR staff about the deal at a public meeting. What they say is they feel that since Maret put in so much ten years ago they should get another ten years. No recognition that Maret agreed to the deal ten years ago, no sense of holding them to their deal, no looking out for the public interest, completely unbusinesslike.

wtaf??!!

[Anonymous]

Please sign the petition to keep Jelleff field public

https://www.change.org/p/mayor-bowser-private-scho...ublic-fields-makejelleffpublic

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Please sign the petition to keep Jelleff field public

https://www.change.org/p/mayor-bowser-private-scho...ublic-fields-makejelleffpublic

Link doesn’t work? Try
https://www.change.org/p/mayor-bowser-private-schools-should-not-have-exclusive-rights-to-public-fields-makejelleffpublic?recruiter=1000133193&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=sms&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_abi&utm_term=share_petition&recruited_by_id=80a548f0-c78e-11e9-be24-7db67d90b55a&share_bandit_exp=abi-17484774-en-US&share_bandit_var=v0

[Anonymous]

Pretty amazing that DPR had the chutzpah to push through a backroom deal when community opposition was so strong. And that Maret doesn’t give a f that public school students have to travel one hour to play at a “home” games because they can’t share.

https://georgetowner.com/articles/2019/05/20/burning-questions-about-jelleff-center-plans/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pretty amazing that DPR had the chutzpah to push through a backroom deal when community opposition was so strong. And that Maret doesn’t give a f that public school students have to travel one hour to play at a “home” games because they can’t share.

https://georgetowner.com/articles/2019/05/20/burning-questions-about-jelleff-center-plans/

It is disgusting what Maret did and shame on corrupt DC officials for pushing a backroom deal like this. Maret parents should be ashamed of this, a bunch of hyprocrites. Do as I say not as I do. When Maret plays Potomac on Oct 11th at Potomac, I'll tell Maret's parents exactly what I think of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pretty amazing that DPR had the chutzpah to push through a backroom deal when community opposition was so strong. And that Maret doesn’t give a f that public school students have to travel one hour to play at a “home” games because they can’t share.

https://georgetowner.com/articles/2019/05/20/burning-questions-about-jelleff-center-plans/

It is disgusting what Maret did and shame on corrupt DC officials for pushing a backroom deal like this. Maret parents should be ashamed of this, a bunch of hyprocrites. Do as I say not as I do. When Maret plays Potomac on Oct 11th at Potomac, I'll tell Maret's parents exactly what I think of them.

Here's a recent Maret Magazine on how the school supports support social responsibility. But it neglects to add that it doesn't support social responsibility if it affects their bottom line.
https://issuu.com/maretschool/docs/maret1516_mag_ar_web_feature/5

[Anonymous]

DPR is so shady. And people need to call Jack Evans and scream. This article said ten schools and the boys and girls club asked for access to Jelleff. But Maret just isn't capable of giving up its backroom sweetheart deal.

https://georgetowner.com/articles/2019/07/03/anc-meeting-heats-up-over-jelleff/

“Is it a done deal?” Murphy demanded. “Did you even try to reach out to tell the ANC about it? Have funds been transferred? Have any plans been made for the field that will impact all the neighbors around it?”

“It is an administrative change,” said Ross. “It has been agreed to but not yet signed.”

“With no input from the ANC?” asked Murphy again.

“Yes,” answered Ross. “It’s just administrative. No changes. No plans are made — yet.”

“I am extremely, profoundly concerned,” Murphy responded. “The very reason why the ANCs were formed is to make its views and recommendations on just such matters known to city agencies and taken seriously.”

Ross dutifully apologized for the ANC’s having been left out, but commissioners Joe Gibbins, Elizabeth Miller and Kishan Putta — who lives just a block away from the field and uses the park daily — continued to ask, why the rush?

When Ross didn’t respond, Murphy said angrily: “We know why. It’s because of Jelleff.” That opened the Pandora’s Box.

The playing fields at the Jelleff Recreation Center at 3265 S St. NW are controlled by DPR. It is half a block from Wisconsin Ave and Hardy Middle School, which has petitioned for more use of Jelleff’s fields on weekdays. But the manicured fields were built in 2009 and maintained for the past 10 years under an exclusive prime-time-use contract with the private K-12 Maret School, located at 3000 Cathedral Ave. That contract is up for renewal for another 10 years at the end of this year.

“The ANC voted not to extend the contract between the private Maret School and the city on Jelleff field and asks [DPR] to stop negotiating behind closed doors and make public their proposal process,” Commissioner Miller wrote DPR Director Delano Hunter on July 3.

In a proposition passed unanimously at its July 1 meeting, the ANC demanded that DPR “make public the criteria that will drive their decision-making and to have a transparent proposal process that allows more than one school at the table. To date, ten schools and the Boys and Girls Club have expressed interest in access to the Jelleff field during the most in-demand hours. Now with late word that the Duke Ellington field may be part of the negotiations regarding Jelleff … without a single word to our ANC or any public input — the confusion has reached CODE RED.”

Georgetown’s Council member Jack Evans also was drawn into the fray. His administrative aide, Ruth Werner, demurred when asked if she knew of the memo transferring administrative jurisdiction from DPS to DPR.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pretty amazing that DPR had the chutzpah to push through a backroom deal when community opposition was so strong. And that Maret doesn’t give a f that public school students have to travel one hour to play at a “home” games because they can’t share.

https://georgetowner.com/articles/2019/05/20/burning-questions-about-jelleff-center-plans/

It is disgusting what Maret did and shame on corrupt DC officials for pushing a backroom deal like this. Maret parents should be ashamed of this, a bunch of hyprocrites. Do as I say not as I do. When Maret plays Potomac on Oct 11th at Potomac, I'll tell Maret's parents exactly what I think of them.

Here's a recent Maret Magazine on how the school supports support social responsibility. But it neglects to add that it doesn't support social responsibility if it affects their bottom line.
https://issuu.com/maretschool/docs/maret1516_mag_ar_web_feature/5

It would be interesting to hear what Maret parents think of all this (if anything). But Jeff locked the thread on the private school forum, so they're shielded from the vitriol that's being said here.
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/824787.page

[Anonymous]

Where's the local media on this? The Washington Post has plenty of time to cover a tiff over a Chevy Chase dog park because it involves rich people, but none to cover an actual issue of government contracting that affects thousands of kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pretty amazing that DPR had the chutzpah to push through a backroom deal when community opposition was so strong. And that Maret doesn’t give a f that public school students have to travel one hour to play at a “home” games because they can’t share.

https://georgetowner.com/articles/2019/05/20/burning-questions-about-jelleff-center-plans/

Sure I can hear the outrage now ....DCPS spent 2.5 million for upgrades to an athletic field that is not part of DCPS.