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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Talbott says that Maret is aware of the complaints from public school advocates, and so last year agreed to let Hardy use the turf field from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. “on most Wednesdays.”"

Wowie. How isolated and tone deaf can that woman be? It's laughable.

Maret let’s Stoddert soccer use their home field on the weekends.

I don’t know whether there is a right to extend this agreement or not. But before piling on Maret (and we have no connection to the school at all), Remember that Muray parents and the school ponied up substantial money to renovate Jeleff field. This was at a time when DCPS couldn’t buy toilet paper for the schools, DPR couldn’t cut the grass, and Marion Barry didn’t do much more than blow a crack pipe .

This has nothing to do with Marion Barry. DPR and Maret made the deal in 2009, when DC coffees were already flush with cash in spite of the Financial Crisis.

This was a corrupt deal from Day 1, and has Jack Evans’s slimy fingers all over it. This was how he got his kid into Maret - the cost of admission.

Further, it’s completely insane that there is no public tender process for the land. That alone conflicts with DC contracting rules.

Said with authority but not an ounce of proof. Just innuendo and ‘feelings’, not facts. This entire thread has been an exercise in mob-mentality and misinformation.

DP: Which information is incorrect? If there were transparency and defensible logic, there would be no innuendo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why are the angry mobs assuming that Hardy is entitled to unfettered access to a DPR facility? Last time I checked DPR was separate from DCPS.

You are late to this thread and have read neither the petition nor previous posts.

Hardy is not asking for unfettered access. Hardy is one of a number of parties interested in sharing the resource. One of those parties is the Boys and Girls Club after school program.

If you want to play, you have to keep up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The original agreement from ten years ago is here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ycNlJMWbHeYHXEp05bI--O3JMLhAflAT/view?usp=sharing

No mention of an extension. If it in fact exists it must have been added later.

Thank you for sharing this. Very helpful. So three properties were purchased together in 2010 for $20 million. I've seen mention in this thread of the Maret property being purchased for a specific amount but didn't see that in the announcement or the agreement.

Maret does seem to have an extension/renewal in the original agreement. It says if the easement is extended or renewed the use agreement is automatically extended or renewed. Is a copy of the easement available?

There's no right to an extension in the agreement. In the McKenna article he quotes Talbot as saying they have a right to an extension. Then she refused to send him a copy of the agreement.

That ‘agreement’ posted isn’t the entire agreement.

No, it is mentioned that there is an easement as well. Do you know of further provisions or documents also not posted? Would you like to share?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Talbott says that Maret is aware of the complaints from public school advocates, and so last year agreed to let Hardy use the turf field from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. “on most Wednesdays.”"

Wowie. How isolated and tone deaf can that woman be? It's laughable.

Maret let’s Stoddert soccer use their home field on the weekends.

I don’t know whether there is a right to extend this agreement or not. But before piling on Maret (and we have no connection to the school at all), Remember that Muray parents and the school ponied up substantial money to renovate Jeleff field. This was at a time when DCPS couldn’t buy toilet paper for the schools, DPR couldn’t cut the grass, and Marion Barry didn’t do much more than blow a crack pipe .

Remember, instead, that Maret and DPR made a deal, into which both Maret and DPR put something of value (recall that DC bought the land!)

That deal is expiring. No party is owed anything.

Except that there is an agreement to extend the deal. Just because this very one-sided thread and one-sided Deadspin article keep trading in innuendo and false information that everyone seems so gleeful to absorb, doesn’t mean there isn’t more information to consider.

What information? Share, please.

[Anonymous]

Complaining about a total lack of transparency from our public servants is “trading in innuendo and false information”? Even Orwell wouldn’t dare to write this crap . . .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are the angry mobs assuming that Hardy is entitled to unfettered access to a DPR facility? Last time I checked DPR was separate from DCPS.

DC law says DPR has to give priority to DCPS and public charter schools.

+1 And the Georgetowner article from July said that 10 schools plus the Boys and Girls Club had requested access once the Maret deal ended. But...the forces of corruption of DC are too strong.

[Anonymous]

Can't the mayor undo this deal?

[Anonymous]

Still wondering why the WaPo has written about this? Seems like an important story that is just being ignored.

[Anonymous]

WaPo can’t and won’t ignore it if Hardy students - and their parents and community members - do a mass sit-in of the Jelleff field during the times Maret has it reserved. I doubt they’d also ignore physical protests by Hardy students - and their parents and community members - outside Maret. Sometimes one needs to organize hard for too-shelf media coverage. Venting on obscure forums doesn’t really qualify as doing much at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:WaPo can’t and won’t ignore it if Hardy students - and their parents and community members - do a mass sit-in of the Jelleff field during the times Maret has it reserved. I doubt they’d also ignore physical protests by Hardy students - and their parents and community members - outside Maret. Sometimes one needs to organize hard for too-shelf media coverage. Venting on obscure forums doesn’t really qualify as doing much at all.

Agree. Direct action seems to be the logical next step and best approach.

Time to organize, folks.

[Anonymous]

WaPo - and the rest of the world outside DCUM - continues to ignore the mayor’s ongoing attempts to give away for another 20 years an in-demand DCPS building to a very wealthy private school. This is as much if not more newsworthy since it comes directly from the mayor - and thus can’t be fobbed off on incompetent bureaucrats - and directly affects the educational quality offered by over-subscribed public schools. As much as I like WaPo’s domestic and international coverage, it’s no substitute for a proper local paper. Things might be better if the Baltimore Sun covered DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

When DPR signed a “Use Easement and Maintenance Agreement” with the Maret School in 2009, the school was granted full access to the field during high demand hours in exchange for renovating the space — including the attached pool and field. Though Maret students only use the field 17 percent of the time during those peak hours, according to Maret’s Director of Communications Linda Johnson, during a community meeting in May, eleven schools or community partners have expressed interest in access to the field.

“Exclusive rights was not part of the agreement,” said Johnson, noting that DPR is the permitting agency, not Maret. She also highlighted that it was the school’s understanding that if the contract is extended that they will renovate the turf field. Johnson continued, “we are really committed to continue working with the community.”

So Maret renovated the space ten years ago in exchange for using it and now has gotten an extension on its use in exchange for another renovation and paying a rental fee?

Considering that Maret was the only entity that could effectively use the fields for those 10 years (and the subsequent 10 years) it's hard to say that they renovated "in exchange for using it." The renovations benefit Maret alone. If they wanted to benefit the broader public, they'd add lights for use after dark.

What on earth are you talking about? I have been to numerous Stoddert games at Jelleff.

I's my understanding that the arrangement is only for 2-3 or so hours each school day. So 10-15 hours a week. That's hardly the "exclusive use" people keep talking about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:WaPo can’t and won’t ignore it if Hardy students - and their parents and community members - do a mass sit-in of the Jelleff field during the times Maret has it reserved. I doubt they’d also ignore physical protests by Hardy students - and their parents and community members - outside Maret. Sometimes one needs to organize hard for too-shelf media coverage. Venting on obscure forums doesn’t really qualify as doing much at all.

Anything outside Maret will have little impact. Maret does not care.

More media exposure might help. Protests at the mayor’s office and at Council meetings, maybe. One problem is the people most adversely affected are those who may not be able to organize or attend such actions.

It kills me that the city prioritizes Maret students over the kids at Jelleff. Who needs that field more after school?

[Anonymous]

Deadspin wrote on it. And has gotten some Councilmembers comments (see Silverman on Twitter this am). https://deadspin.com/the-legendary-public-rec-center-in-a-private-schools-po-1837648863

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Still wondering why the WaPo has written about this? Seems like an important story that is just being ignored.

WaPo article is being written now...