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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Isn’t there room on Hardy’s campus for a full-sized field? If DPR and DCPS are so flush with cash, then how about altering Hardy’s campus as well for a useful, larger field space, opening up a Jelleff for more time for the BGC and renovating Ellington field with lights and parking and artificial turf for expanded usefulness?

Check out the satellite images on Google Maps of Hardy and Jelleff across the street. There is not sufficient space at Hardy.

Then at the very least, redoing Ellington should also be a top priority with turf, parking, and lights. That would benefit even more DCPS kids and prevent BGC from not having field space at Jelleff in the afternoons. I hope Putta is is working with the neighbors of Ellington Field to better realize much needed athletic fields for the tax-paying citizens of DC. How did DCPS transfer Ellington to DPR this summer? Who had discussions about that? Has Putta reached out to neighbors to make sure they are ok with a woefully underused Ellington field becoming a vibrant playing field for DC youth?

There’s no reason why DPR can’t keep Jelleff as a public park rather than handing it to Maret for a song and also discuss the future of Ellington.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Isn’t there room on Hardy’s campus for a full-sized field? If DPR and DCPS are so flush with cash, then how about altering Hardy’s campus as well for a useful, larger field space, opening up a Jelleff for more time for the BGC and renovating Ellington field with lights and parking and artificial turf for expanded usefulness?

Check out the satellite images on Google Maps of Hardy and Jelleff across the street. There is not sufficient space at Hardy.

Then at the very least, redoing Ellington should also be a top priority with turf, parking, and lights. That would benefit even more DCPS kids and prevent BGC from not having field space at Jelleff in the afternoons. I hope Putta is is working with the neighbors of Ellington Field to better realize much needed athletic fields for the tax-paying citizens of DC. How did DCPS transfer Ellington to DPR this summer? Who had discussions about that? Has Putta reached out to neighbors to make sure they are ok with a woefully underused Ellington field becoming a vibrant playing field for DC youth?

This post strikes me as an intentional attempt to deflect the discussion here.

Yes, Ellington field should have remained with DCPS and should be available for use by Hardy and other public schools. But, that's irrelevant to Maret's displacement of poorer, minority kids through a non-transparent, potentially corrupt deal that was rammed through despite the objections of the community.

[Anonymous]

Why isn';t there a sit in/protest organized as one of the PPs suggested? My kids aren';t even impacted, but I would go!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why isn';t there a sit in/protest organized as one of the PPs suggested? My kids aren';t even impacted, but I would go!

You don’t even need a sit in. Just a few local kids holding “keep public parks public” sign would go a long way to shaming the Maret parents and kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Amazing that Arthur Mola, the Bancroft Elementary School principal, wrote a letter in his capacity as principal of Bancroft making a big statement to defend Maret (he discloses that his kid attends Maret a few paragraphs in).
https://www.maret.org/athletics/jelleff

Bancroft isn't not even that close to Jelleff (it's like a 20 minute drive in traffic), and they're not one of the 10 schools/community organizations who had been petitioning to use the field, as far as I know.

The Bancroft guy didn't defend the details of the Maret detail or the contracting process as much as he tried to make Maret look less evil by noting their work with underprivileged schools (even as they crowd kids from those schools out from using public fields).

Evil?! You are really out of your mind. You’re talking about the sports teams of a middle school! The “Bancroft guy” was talking about Maret’s very real and very long commitment to the underserved kids in the city.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Amazing that Arthur Mola, the Bancroft Elementary School principal, wrote a letter in his capacity as principal of Bancroft making a big statement to defend Maret (he discloses that his kid attends Maret a few paragraphs in).
https://www.maret.org/athletics/jelleff

Bancroft isn't not even that close to Jelleff (it's like a 20 minute drive in traffic), and they're not one of the 10 schools/community organizations who had been petitioning to use the field, as far as I know.

The Bancroft guy didn't defend the details of the Maret detail or the contracting process as much as he tried to make Maret look less evil by noting their work with underprivileged schools (even as they crowd kids from those schools out from using public fields).

Evil?! You are really out of your mind. You’re talking about the sports teams of a middle school! The “Bancroft guy” was talking about Maret’s very real and very long commitment to the underserved kids in the city when it’s convenient.

[b]FTFY[\b].

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Amazing that Arthur Mola, the Bancroft Elementary School principal, wrote a letter in his capacity as principal of Bancroft making a big statement to defend Maret (he discloses that his kid attends Maret a few paragraphs in).
https://www.maret.org/athletics/jelleff

Bancroft isn't not even that close to Jelleff (it's like a 20 minute drive in traffic), and they're not one of the 10 schools/community organizations who had been petitioning to use the field, as far as I know.

The Bancroft guy didn't defend the details of the Maret detail or the contracting process as much as he tried to make Maret look less evil by noting their work with underprivileged schools (even as they crowd kids from those schools out from using public fields).

Evil?! You are really out of your mind. You’re talking about the sports teams of a middle school! The “Bancroft guy” was talking about Maret’s very real and very long commitment to the underserved kids in the city when it’s convenient.

[b]FTFY[\b].

+1 million. Maret could have shown its civic responsibility by making its bid transparent and engaging in a process with stakeholders. But no, they decline to share the details of their contract and prefer to take exclusivity of a public park when there are public school students and boys and girls club aftercare kids who need it more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Evil?! You are really out of your mind. You’re talking about the sports teams of a middle school! The “Bancroft guy” was talking about Maret’s very real and very long commitment to the underserved kids in the city.

Well, I'm sure Maret lets in a few token poor kids to make themselves feel better.

If they're committed to underserved kids in the city, they might want to look at the kids at the BGC after-care who don't get access to the Jelleff fields so that Maret lacrosse bros can get their field time. Or the kids traveling across the city to go to Hardy, who don't have access to adequate athletic fields.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why isn';t there a sit in/protest organized as one of the PPs suggested? My kids aren';t even impacted, but I would go!

You don’t even need a sit in. Just a few local kids holding “keep public parks public” sign would go a long way to shaming the Maret parents and kids.

It would be great if they could picket at morning drop off!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Isn’t there room on Hardy’s campus for a full-sized field? If DPR and DCPS are so flush with cash, then how about altering Hardy’s campus as well for a useful, larger field space, opening up a Jelleff for more time for the BGC and renovating Ellington field with lights and parking and artificial turf for expanded usefulness?

Check out the satellite images on Google Maps of Hardy and Jelleff across the street. There is not sufficient space at Hardy.

Then at the very least, redoing Ellington should also be a top priority with turf, parking, and lights. That would benefit even more DCPS kids and prevent BGC from not having field space at Jelleff in the afternoons. I hope Putta is is working with the neighbors of Ellington Field to better realize much needed athletic fields for the tax-paying citizens of DC. How did DCPS transfer Ellington to DPR this summer? Who had discussions about that? Has Putta reached out to neighbors to make sure they are ok with a woefully underused Ellington field becoming a vibrant playing field for DC youth?

This post strikes me as an intentional attempt to deflect the discussion here.

Yes, Ellington field should have remained with DCPS and should be available for use by Hardy and other public schools. But, that's irrelevant to Maret's displacement of poorer, minority kids through a non-transparent, potentially corrupt deal that was rammed through despite the objections of the community.

Hear, hear. One of the problems in DC is that here are so many examples of inequity, secret dealing, lack of transparency that when we start talking about one it prompts people to bring up others...whether it's a natural reaction or a purposeful attempt to deflect and minimize (which I suspect here). But we can't let that take focus off of the issue at hand: Jelleff field.

[Anonymous]

Here are the private schools with their own private fields closer to Maret than Jelleff is to Maret. WIS, St. Albans, NCS, Sidwell. Slightly further away are Visitation and GDS. Hmm, seems upper NW is over run with private school fields. They don't pay taxes on those spaces do they? You could split hairs about these details, but look, it is really odd a private school and members of its league have to take a field from public school kids. Those schools already sit on a substantial portion of DC acreage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here are the private schools with their own private fields closer to Maret than Jelleff is to Maret. WIS, St. Albans, NCS, Sidwell. Slightly further away are Visitation and GDS. Hmm, seems upper NW is over run with private school fields. They don't pay taxes on those spaces do they? You could split hairs about these details, but look, it is really odd a private school and members of its league have to take a field from public school kids. Those schools already sit on a substantial portion of DC acreage.

I suspect Maret didn't want to negotiate for a field with those other schools because they would have had to enter into an arms-length transaction at market rates. It's better to deal with DC government, where your connections to crooked politicians can be leveraged for a sweetheart deal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here are the private schools with their own private fields closer to Maret than Jelleff is to Maret. WIS, St. Albans, NCS, Sidwell. Slightly further away are Visitation and GDS. Hmm, seems upper NW is over run with private school fields. They don't pay taxes on those spaces do they? You could split hairs about these details, but look, it is really odd a private school and members of its league have to take a field from public school kids. Those schools already sit on a substantial portion of DC acreage.

I suspect Maret didn't want to negotiate for a field with those other schools because they would have had to enter into an arms-length transaction at market rates. It's better to deal with DC government, where your connections to crooked politicians can be leveraged for a sweetheart deal.

Yup. Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for nearly free.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here are the private schools with their own private fields closer to Maret than Jelleff is to Maret. WIS, St. Albans, NCS, Sidwell. Slightly further away are Visitation and GDS. Hmm, seems upper NW is over run with private school fields. They don't pay taxes on those spaces do they? You could split hairs about these details, but look, it is really odd a private school and members of its league have to take a field from public school kids. Those schools already sit on a substantial portion of DC acreage.

I suspect Maret didn't want to negotiate for a field with those other schools because they would have had to enter into an arms-length transaction at market rates. It's better to deal with DC government, where your connections to crooked politicians can be leveraged for a sweetheart deal.

During the times that Maret could use the fields those schools are already using them for their own teams. Some private schools also use DPR fields even though they have their own. Many private schools have mandatory athletics, you can't put hundreds of kids on a single field.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here are the private schools with their own private fields closer to Maret than Jelleff is to Maret. WIS, St. Albans, NCS, Sidwell. Slightly further away are Visitation and GDS. Hmm, seems upper NW is over run with private school fields. They don't pay taxes on those spaces do they? You could split hairs about these details, but look, it is really odd a private school and members of its league have to take a field from public school kids. Those schools already sit on a substantial portion of DC acreage.

I suspect Maret didn't want to negotiate for a field with those other schools because they would have had to enter into an arms-length transaction at market rates. It's better to deal with DC government, where your connections to crooked politicians can be leveraged for a sweetheart deal.

During the times that Maret could use the fields those schools are already using them for their own teams. Some private schools also use DPR fields even though they have their own. Many private schools have mandatory athletics, you can't put hundreds of kids on a single field.

Boo.hoo.

So the public school kids get no athletics.