Sports at Walls (WaPo article)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This has been one of my big disappointments with Walls. We knew there wasn't much of a Walls campus, but it is crazy that the swim team commutes to Dunbar for practice everyday when GW has a pool. J-R is pulling up the ladder on having Walls students row on their crew team because of changes in how regattas are defining schools and school districts. So that opportunity is going away. Having a place for graduation is nice, but the sports stuff affects kids day-in and day-out.

Why would GW let Walls use their pool?

Because it has a relationship with the the school? Because it is common for universities to let high schools use their pool?


In smaller cities, local govts are much more aggressive with requiring the universities in town to actually do stuff for the local community.

This isn't a small town. Maybe DC should actually build facilities for their schools. Other towns manage to do it with far lower taxes than DC

So what?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This has been one of my big disappointments with Walls. We knew there wasn't much of a Walls campus, but it is crazy that the swim team commutes to Dunbar for practice everyday when GW has a pool. J-R is pulling up the ladder on having Walls students row on their crew team because of changes in how regattas are defining schools and school districts. So that opportunity is going away. Having a place for graduation is nice, but the sports stuff affects kids day-in and day-out.

Why would GW let Walls use their pool?

Because it has a relationship with the the school? Because it is common for universities to let high schools use their pool?


In smaller cities, local govts are much more aggressive with requiring the universities in town to actually do stuff for the local community.

This isn't a small town. Maybe DC should actually build facilities for their schools. Other towns manage to do it with far lower taxes than DC

So what?

Build pools, fields, and courts if you want kids to play.

[Anonymous]

Why would GW let Walls use their pool?

Because it has a relationship with the the school? Because it is common for universities to let high schools use their pool?


In smaller cities, local govts are much more aggressive with requiring the universities in town to actually do stuff for the local community.

This isn't a small town. Maybe DC should actually build facilities for their schools. Other towns manage to do it with far lower taxes than DC

How about because GW was required by law 20 years ago to provide more on-campus housing so it struck a public-private partnership deal with SWW/DCPS to use the only open space on SWW campus to build a new dorm. This was in exchange for helping to renovate SWW and provide shared access to GW facilities. My guess is this agreement was vague/in good faith and GW never fully held up its end of the bargain.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can't believe there's no mention of Jelleff in this story. It's walkable from Walls.

That's a great question! I know Jelleff has a relationship with the Boys and Girls Club. That may have something to do with access for the SWW students

I don't understand...Jelleff is 2 miles from Walls (Banneker is 2.8 miles)...sure, it's technically walkable, but I don't think anyone considers 2 miles to be "walkable".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can't believe there's no mention of Jelleff in this story. It's walkable from Walls.

That's a great question! I know Jelleff has a relationship with the Boys and Girls Club. That may have something to do with access for the SWW students

I don't understand...Jelleff is 2 miles from Walls (Banneker is 2.8 miles)...sure, it's technically walkable, but I don't think anyone considers 2 miles to be "walkable".

I’m guessing it is fairly easy to get to by bus. But it doesn’t even matter because Jelleff gives Maret premier access for $$$ and Walls cannot compete

[Anonymous]

Doesn’t Duke Ellington have a field that Georgetown uses? I seem to recall Walls couldn’t use it because parks and rec gave Georgetown preference

[Anonymous]

DC is all about equity unless a private school needs field space

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can't believe there's no mention of Jelleff in this story. It's walkable from Walls.

Check a map. Jelleff is a 40 minute walk from Walls. Think about carrying your backpack and your bag filled
with your baseball stuff, up hill for 40 minutes in order just to get to practice.

[Anonymous]

I'm pretty sure the article was just about SWW's good baseball team. I hope it results in more access for the kids OR just terminate the one sided agreement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm pretty sure the article was just about SWW's good baseball team. I hope it results in more access for the kids OR just terminate the one sided agreement.

The baseball team was featured. However, the article discusses the lack of on campus sports facilities at Walls for all sports.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Good question. Wasn’t the school supposed to be a partnership between DCPS and GW?

Also, DCPS does not help the school at all with figuring out playing space.
DC parks and recs gives the school zero priority in reserving field space. Instead they prefer to lease field space to private schools who can pay more money. The Walls PTA has to give money to lease field space as DCPS does not include any money in the Walls budget to deal with this issue.

1. So this is GW's fault?
2. GW doesn't have athletic fields on its own campus; do you want them to build some for Walls?

[Anonymous]

Walls relationship with GW is totally dependent on the GW president. Sometimes the president loves the relationship and fosters it. During Covid GW was really strict and it lead to Walls having less access. Currently GW lets Walls use its gym all day for PE, Lisner for graduation and assemblies, classrooms for AP exams and has the ECP program.

[Anonymous]

PP again and I also think Walls hasn’t been great about ensuring their kids behave when on GW campus. As a result some of the goodwill GW had for walls needs to be rebuilt.

[Anonymous]

Why no rooftop fields around here?

[Anonymous]

And not one person acknowledging that these are the types of issues you will have when you build a charter school system like this. All these kids can go to their publics and play baseball. Nobody is forcing them to go to "Walls" (I think it's hilarious that the School Without Walls actually uses Walls--the thing they are without, as their nickname).