Maret still hoarding resources

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Jelleff Field permitting is a DPR permitting issue. Not a Maret issue.

This is not correct--why do you keeping saying that...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m a parent at Maret. I don’t know the details of the agreement, but I do agree that the school should stop using Jellef (if that’s true).

Here’s some of the various news articles. I’m surprised you’re a parent at Maret and don’t know the history.

I can’t believe Maret is still hogging Jelleff after all these years of their shady backroom no bid deal. I thought they finally got tired of being a community pariah and stopped cheaping out and got a field.


https://deadspin.com/private-school-that-pocketed-public-rec-center-is-tired-1839260457/
https://deadspin.com/the-legendary-public-rec-center-in-a-private-schools-po-1837648863/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Jelleff Field permitting is a DPR permitting issue. Not a Maret issue.

This is not correct--why do you keeping saying that...

+1. You may be under the mistaken impression that the DC department of parks randomly issues permits to every private school in the DC area without them asking for it. Or you’re being deliberately obtuse because there’s never been a disagreement the decade long no bid contract was issued to Maret because Maret asked for it (and refused to backdown despite the bad press and community outcry.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I guess the issue is that there is a contract where Maret has the right to use it, and that contract still remains valid.

If a person has a rental agreement, they will continue have the right to decide who enters the apartment even thought they don’t live there. So I guess is a contractual issue.

Yes. Maret could end the contract.

Will Hardy reimburse Maret for the money spent on the field? My kid use that field all the time of club sports. It is the only field in NW that is maintained and has lights. Is Hardy going to maintain the property and keep it open in during non school hours and weekend? Will Hardy pay to get the field house renovated? That field has a lot more people using vs just Maret.

What will happen to the British School? They use the field a lot during the day. Why can’t Hardy just do a morning practice at the field if it is so important? Maret uses the field from 3:30 to 5:30. It is open the rest of the day.

Guess it is more fun to be outraged vs actually adjust a schedule and use the field?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I guess the issue is that there is a contract where Maret has the right to use it, and that contract still remains valid.

If a person has a rental agreement, they will continue have the right to decide who enters the apartment even thought they don’t live there. So I guess is a contractual issue.

Yes. Maret could end the contract.

Will Hardy reimburse Maret for the money spent on the field? My kid use that field all the time of club sports. It is the only field in NW that is maintained and has lights. Is Hardy going to maintain the property and keep it open in during non school hours and weekend? Will Hardy pay to get the field house renovated? That field has a lot more people using vs just Maret.

What will happen to the British School? They use the field a lot during the day. Why can’t Hardy just do a morning practice at the field if it is so important? Maret uses the field from 3:30 to 5:30. It is open the rest of the day.

Guess it is more fun to be outraged vs actually adjust a schedule and use the field?

The DC government--whether DPR or DCPS--should be responsible for paying for the maintenance, just like Guy Mason or Turtle Park or Jackson-Reed.

Maret's reimbursement for spending money was a decade of reserved usage. Oddly, though, that decade got extended for another decade.

Maret's BS line is "We only have the field for 0.02% of the year," as though having the field at 2am on a snowy Saturday night is useful to anyone.

Every school needs the same weekday, after school, Fall and Spring hours. (Gee, why doesn't Maret take the morning slot? They've got buses on-site, ready to drive kids.)

And to the "It's a DPR thing" person -- yes, if you want to reserve the field on Saturday or Sunday, that's a DPR permitting issue. But the weekday, after school hours are not available for permitting.

[Anonymous]

No one has given actual evidence that Maret is still using Jelleff much less denying its use to Hardy. Some anonymous rando claiming it is happening is not evidence. It's just more poop stirring from the DCUM Maret basher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No one has given actual evidence that Maret is still using Jelleff much less denying its use to Hardy. Some anonymous rando claiming it is happening is not evidence. It's just more poop stirring from the DCUM Maret basher.

What evidence do you want? Do you want to see Hardy softball's form asking for permission for each child to take the bus to Macomb or Palisades?

I don't know whether Maret is using it. But I 100% know that Hardy teams can't use it because Maret still lays claim.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No one has given actual evidence that Maret is still using Jelleff much less denying its use to Hardy. Some anonymous rando claiming it is happening is not evidence. It's just more poop stirring from the DCUM Maret basher.

Agree, someone please give actual evidence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one has given actual evidence that Maret is still using Jelleff much less denying its use to Hardy. Some anonymous rando claiming it is happening is not evidence. It's just more poop stirring from the DCUM Maret basher.

What evidence do you want? Do you want to see Hardy softball's form asking for permission for each child to take the bus to Macomb or Palisades?

I don't know whether Maret is using it. But I 100% know that Hardy teams can't use it because Maret still lays claim.

to be clear, bus is WMATA, not private bus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No one has given actual evidence that Maret is still using Jelleff much less denying its use to Hardy. Some anonymous rando claiming it is happening is not evidence. It's just more poop stirring from the DCUM Maret basher.

I know for sure that Hardy softball has been told that they can't use the field after school because of Maret. Do you believe Maret isn't using the field? If so, that's great and they should let Hardy use it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I guess the issue is that there is a contract where Maret has the right to use it, and that contract still remains valid.

If a person has a rental agreement, they will continue have the right to decide who enters the apartment even thought they don’t live there. So I guess is a contractual issue.

Yes. Maret could end the contract.

Will Hardy reimburse Maret for the money spent on the field? My kid use that field all the time of club sports. It is the only field in NW that is maintained and has lights. Is Hardy going to maintain the property and keep it open in during non school hours and weekend? Will Hardy pay to get the field house renovated? That field has a lot more people using vs just Maret.

What will happen to the British School? They use the field a lot during the day. Why can’t Hardy just do a morning practice at the field if it is so important? Maret uses the field from 3:30 to 5:30. It is open the rest of the day.

Guess it is more fun to be outraged vs actually adjust a schedule and use the field?

The DC government--whether DPR or DCPS--should be responsible for paying for the maintenance, just like Guy Mason or Turtle Park or Jackson-Reed.

Maret's reimbursement for spending money was a decade of reserved usage. Oddly, though, that decade got extended for another decade.

Maret's BS line is "We only have the field for 0.02% of the year," as though having the field at 2am on a snowy Saturday night is useful to anyone.

Every school needs the same weekday, after school, Fall and Spring hours. (Gee, why doesn't Maret take the morning slot? They've got buses on-site, ready to drive kids.)

And to the "It's a DPR thing" person -- yes, if you want to reserve the field on Saturday or Sunday, that's a DPR permitting issue. But the weekday, after school hours are not available for permitting.

+1 Maret can use some of the $55k/year it gets in tuition to get its own field and not hoard a public research that it acquired through a sketchy DC council deal that wasn't offered to any institution but Maret. DPR put in $28 million in its budget to renovate Jelleff. It does need the paltry few hundred thousand that Maret gave to get its exclusive access to peak afterschool practice hours, while kids in Jelleff aftercare and at Hardy middle school across the street are forced to play indoors at the rec center or at fields far away.

Private School That Pocketed Public Rec Center Is Tired Of Being Criticized By Non-Rich People
https://deadspin.com/private-school-that-pocketed-public-rec-center-is-tired-1839260457/
Jelleff neighbors and parents at the nearby public schools have spent the last several years watching and waiting for Maret’s 10-year deal to end so they could get more use out of the rec center. But Maret and the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation quietly made a back-door deal while schools were out that extended that sweetheart 2010 pact through 2029.

In August head of school Marjo Talbott told Deadspin that despite dubious contract language and protests, she never doubted the public field would remain under her control. “This is not a luxury. It was an expectation,” Talbott said of the no-bid extension. (Talbott comes from a very connected D.C. family: Her brother, Nelson Strobridge “Strobe” Talbott III, was deputy secretary of state in the Clinton administration.)


Connections seemed to be a big thing at Maret. Councilmember Jack Evans, D.C.’s longest-tenured elected official and a guy who is frequently hailed as the most corrupt politician in a city where corruption is as abundant as playing fields are scarce, was a leading force behind the 2010 deal relinquishing the government’s control over Jelleff; Evans’s son attended Maret.

[Anonymous]

So much drama at Maret not sure why

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one has given actual evidence that Maret is still using Jelleff much less denying its use to Hardy. Some anonymous rando claiming it is happening is not evidence. It's just more poop stirring from the DCUM Maret basher.

What evidence do you want? Do you want to see Hardy softball's form asking for permission for each child to take the bus to Macomb or Palisades?

I don't know whether Maret is using it. But I 100% know that Hardy teams can't use it because Maret still lays claim.

+1 The deal is in place til 2029. There are news stories about this. Not sure why Maret is trying to pretend they're not part of this sketchy deal. Clearly the financial benefit of not paying to develop their own athletic fields outweighs the reputational hit they have from benefiting from a corrupt city council deal made by a corrupt city council member who was forced to resign when it was clear he was going to be expelled (and whose son attended Maret).

[Anonymous]

Maret can use some of the $55k/year it gets in tuition to get its own field and not hoard a public resource that it acquired through a sketchy DC council deal that wasn't offered to any institution but Maret (thanks to a City council member having his son enrolled at Maret).

DPR has $28 million in its budget to renovate Jelleff. It does not need the paltry few hundred thousand that Maret gave to get a decade of exclusive access to peak afterschool practice hours, while kids in Jelleff aftercare and public school kids at Hardy Middle School across the street are forced to play indoors at the rec center or at fields far away from their school.

[Anonymous]

Maret constantly talks about equity but then does not walk the walk and instead takes resources away from the broader community. It is gross.