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

[Anonymous]

Remember your poli sci? Diffuse but broad interest always loses to narrow but strong interest. This is how Maret wins.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Remember your poli sci? Diffuse but broad interest always loses to narrow but strong interest. This is how Maret wins.

Mancur Olson of UMD!

[Anonymous]

$$$ Sadly, that's how interests like Maret win.

[Anonymous]

Has anyone gotten a response from the mayor?

[Anonymous]

DPR does this over and over again. Wilson HS barely gets to use the Wilson pool as it is constantly rented out to higher paying teams. Also Wilson is short on field space. Same issue at Banneker. The mayor cannot keep avoiding this issue

[Anonymous]

Anyone who cares about this issue should call and email the mayor and their council person.

There is a huge amount of frustration with the politics which led to this deal. Someone --- ANC, Hardy or Wilson -- needs to step up and lead!

[Anonymous]

I can understand why some might be frustrated by then jellef/maret issue, but DC should have invested in turf fields some time ago such as at the Hearst field, next to the lab school and at Duke Ellington. Neighbors of these areas object because they want their dog park or don’t want parking issues. The fact that DC did not do so makes the jelled filed issue more acute. Seems easy to want to reclaim the jellef field now that a private entity has fixed it up and maintained it for ten years but no effort has been made by Hardy parents or other dcps groups to get these other fields done.

[Anonymous]

I hate to say this but the amount that Maret put into this field is chump change to DC. $2.5 million or whatever is not a trade for effective ownership for the entire time my children will be in school. They fix contractor mistakes with greater scope than this all over the place. I mean, what disrespect to Hardy. What lesson is this? That money and access count more than public accommodations for our kids, and not those who can make their own luck? That's my takeaway.

[Anonymous]

Did anyone attend tonight's ANC meeting in Georgetown and can report back?

[Anonymous]

It’s almost certainly still going. The agenda for the ANC2 meeting was ridiculous. Would have loved to attend, but didn’t want to be there until 1am.

[Anonymous]

The Georgetowner reports on the Maret contract.

https://georgetowner.com/articles/2019/09/03/jelleff-contract-concluded-still-contentious/

A nine-year extension to a 10-year agreement between the District Department of Parks and Recreation and Maret School for maintenance and some exclusive usage of the playing field at the Jelleff Recreation Center, located at 3265 S St. NW, was concluded on July 30 with few changes. The original 2009 agreement was up for renewal this year.

Maret, a private, co-ed K-12 school with about 650 students, will continue to finance repairs and maintenance of the playing field and fences surrounding the property at an estimated cost of $750,000. In addition, Maret, located at 3000 Cathedral Ave. NW, will contribute $250,000 to refurbish the Jelleff Center, adding to the $7 million already dedicated to the project by the city.

In exchange, the school will continue to have exclusive use of the playing field on school weekdays between 3:30 and 5:30 p.m. in the fall and spring. A separate agreement made last year with Hardy Middle School to use the field every Wednesday between 4 and 5:30 p.m. will also be continued, according to Maret officials.

But all these arrangements have become increasingly contentious.

Since January, parents of Georgetown public school students — particularly those whose children attend Hardy, across Wisconsin Avenue from the field — and community leaders have demanded that the contract process be transparent and that a deal allowing for expanded use by community and school sports teams and players be considered. But that didn’t happen, according to Elizabeth Miller, the Georgetown advisory neighborhood commission member for the Jelleff area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hate to say this but the amount that Maret put into this field is chump change to DC. $2.5 million or whatever is not a trade for effective ownership for the entire time my children will be in school. They fix contractor mistakes with greater scope than this all over the place. I mean, what disrespect to Hardy. What lesson is this? That money and access count more than public accommodations for our kids, and not those who can make their own luck? That's my takeaway.

DC paid $15 million for the field. It has allocated $7 million to renovate the Jelleff rec center. Maret's contribution is definitely chump change. If they auctioned off the property, I bet DPR could have found a better bid than Maret's. But Jack Evans kids went to Maret, so....we can thank the DC Council for the original deal and Bowser for not caring enough to change the status quo of grifter politics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyone who cares about this issue should call and email the mayor and their council person.

There is a huge amount of frustration with the politics which led to this deal. Someone --- ANC, Hardy or Wilson -- needs to step up and lead!

In all fairness, Hardy parents and the ANC have been flagging this issue all year. (see the Georgetowner article from July which noted that the community was against the renewal of the Maret deal and wanted a transparent process). But...DC politics and $ won out over good policy.

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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How are we going to stop Hardy from taking it over?

Hardy is one party asking to share the space.

But you know that.

I think you are forgetting the children in the aftercare at Jelleff Rec Center. IMO they have an even greater need for and claim to the space.

+1 Hardy is not the only public school which asked to use Jelleff, and yes, the aftercare kids would love to play on a field rather than concrete occasionally.

For the past decade, the roughly 100 kids at the Boys and Girls Club’s after-school program have largely been unable to use the field. Except when Maret students aren’t practicing, the kids are confined indoors. By 6 p.m. in the spring and fall, when the field becomes available for public use, most of the kids have already been picked up and gone home, Stowers says. In the summer and winter, when Maret doesn’t have exclusive access, it’s often either too hot or too cold for the kids to play outside (“I don’t think our camp went out at all this summer because it’s just too hot,” he says.)

Kids on the BGC sports teams are generally unable to use the field to practice, Stowers says. They have to practice indoors in the gym or on fields further away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a parent of a Hardy 6th grader, but a resident of Ward 3. I just sent Mary Cheh an e-mail about this, and she responded very quickly:

"I’m looking into how we can rescind this deal and if not how we can get better use for Hardy and the community.
Thanks for your note
Mary"

The way I interpret this is by reading in between the lines.
She is looking into it, not working on it
If not: she is telling you what the outcome is, as it has been already descended

Politicians are corrupt