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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s ironic that white folk in this town carry on about Marion Barry when Ward 2 keeps sending a sleazebucket like Jack Evans to the council. Barry May have smoked crack rocks, but he took care of his constituents. This fool Evans gives his people’s stuff away to people who do him favors.

Pls. Barry had his good points but his antics dragged the city down in the end.

But another good try at derailing this thread with another distraction. I hear 1600 PA Ave has openings at the moment. You should apply; you’d fit right in.

Oh, I see your point. This issue has nothing to do with Jack Evans and his thieving ways, right? And Jack Evans has nothing to do with the folk who elected him and those in the council who protect him, right? How’s the view from two feet above the ground? Derail . . . You were never on track, buddy / buddy-ess.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"The clubhouse is budgeted to get an upgrade of $7 million in the FY2020 budget. I do not think this funding is sufficient to bring the facility to where it needs to be and what the residents want. I have met with the Mayor and she has agreed to build a brand-new clubhouse. I will work with her to identify the funding in next year’s budget."

Wow, that's news! That a big quid for the quo.

the kids still need outdoor space! the 100 aftercare kids need to be able to play outdoors after being in school all day. Sports teams of nearby public schools need places to practice. Evans is a disgrace.

Go to the Duke Ellington school field. This is not a DCPS property. If DCPS wants to use the property, they need to step up with money. I am sure they will give DCPS the same deal.

I assume you're talking about Jelleff, which is a DPR field? First, under DC law DPR is supposed to give priority to public and charter schools over all private users. Second, it's not like DPR and DCPS are different countries, they are agencies of the same city government, reporting to the same deputy mayor. It shouldn't be hard for them to work together on common goals.

Third, DCPS is not asking for exclusive use of the field for one school every day afternoon during fall and spring sports seasons.

Perhaps Maret needs to have a closed door meeting about DE?

So how do you justify a law like that? The British School and Maret use the Jelleff and have a large proportion of students who live in DC. Their parents pay DC taxes that are used for DPR facilities and for DCPS. Why should DCPS have priority use of a public park? Seems like that law should be challenged in court.

It is interesting that are you advocating the merger DPR and DCPS. I wonder how many people would be in favor of that?

How do you justify a law like that? The city has an obligation to provide free public education to its youth. Doing so requires facilities. Those facilities are often used only part of the time. If another city agency already owns appropriate facilities, and isn't using them at that particular time, allowing DCPS or public charter schools to use them saves taxpayers money.

This is the public school forum, I don't think you'll find much sympathy for the notion that private schools should be subsidized by the public. That idea was fashionable in much of the South in the years immediately following Brown v. Board of Education but has largely fallen out of favor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pls. Barry had his good points but his antics dragged the city down in the end.

But another good try at derailing this thread with another distraction. I hear 1600 PA Ave has openings at the moment. You should apply; you’d fit right in.

Huh? You don’t think it’s a tad ironic that, in view of all the racist explanations bandied about for this city’s past and present failings in municipal governance, that an old white dude representing the city’s richest - and whitest - neighborhoods is now deep in a corruption scandal that could well take the reputation of an elite private school down with it? And somehow pointing this out makes one akin to Trump’s staffers? What did you say about distraction?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pls. Barry had his good points but his antics dragged the city down in the end.

But another good try at derailing this thread with another distraction. I hear 1600 PA Ave has openings at the moment. You should apply; you’d fit right in.

Huh? You don’t think it’s a tad ironic that, in view of all the racist explanations bandied about for this city’s past and present failings in municipal governance, that an old white dude representing the city’s richest - and whitest - neighborhoods is now deep in a corruption scandal that could well take the reputation of an elite private school down with it? And somehow pointing this out makes one akin to Trump’s staffers? What did you say about distraction?[/quote

No, you trying to divide the opponents of this ridiculous deal by making it about race rather than fairness for the city’s kids is a distraction. I agree Jack Evans should be investigated on this deal. Do you think the mayor has protected her constituents?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The DCline article - and the beautiful analysis of the very ugly field situation on page 56 - underscores that this issue is much bigger than Jelleff and probably bigger than DPR. You have GU at Mason, Maret at Hardy, Howard at Banneker, far too many baseball fields, and also the mayor trying to use “emergency” powers to give away vital DCPS buildings to a wealthy and connected private school. All of these issues have not each themselves pissed enough people off for the mayor and others to care about, but if we roll them together, the equation starts to become more encouraging.

The long-term view: in 1968, the height of the baby boom, the city had 148,000 DCPS students. Enrollment dropped every single year for 40 years and hit bottom in 2008 at less than half of that. The city had way too many school buildings and rec centers for the youth population, for decades. It didn't know what to do with those properties, it literally had trouble giving them away. For years they were happy to turn them over to anyone who could find a use for them. It's only in the past ten years that the youth population has started rebounding, and all of those deals are proving incredibly hard to unwind.

The short-term view: DPR permitting is a mess. They have over 100 fields and rec centers to allocate. They don't have the resources or the vision to do any sort of thoughtful allocation. The most they can do is just day "everyone gets what they got last year" and even that is a struggle. From DPR's perspective, if Maret goes then they have to figure out who gets Jelleff, which means weighing competing claims from Jelleff B&GC, Hardy, Walls, and perhaps others. Status quo is less work for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The DCline article - and the beautiful analysis of the very ugly field situation on page 56 - underscores that this issue is much bigger than Jelleff and probably bigger than DPR. You have GU at Mason, Maret at Hardy, Howard at Banneker, far too many baseball fields, and also the mayor trying to use “emergency” powers to give away vital DCPS buildings to a wealthy and connected private school. All of these issues have not each themselves pissed enough people off for the mayor and others to care about, but if we roll them together, the equation starts to become more encouraging.

The long-term view: in 1968, the height of the baby boom, the city had 148,000 DCPS students. Enrollment dropped every single year for 40 years and hit bottom in 2008 at less than half of that. The city had way too many school buildings and rec centers for the youth population, for decades. It didn't know what to do with those properties, it literally had trouble giving them away. For years they were happy to turn them over to anyone who could find a use for them. It's only in the past ten years that the youth population has started rebounding, and all of those deals are proving incredibly hard to unwind.

The short-term view: DPR permitting is a mess. They have over 100 fields and rec centers to allocate. They don't have the resources or the vision to do any sort of thoughtful allocation. The most they can do is just day "everyone gets what they got last year" and even that is a struggle. From DPR's perspective, if Maret goes then they have to figure out who gets Jelleff, which means weighing competing claims from Jelleff B&GC, Hardy, Walls, and perhaps others. Status quo is less work for them.

Great observations. Definitely it seems that “less work” is part of it.

And the long-term view makes sense. But one question: Why did DC spend $20 million on a new property at the bottom of the decline, especially when it couldn’t afford a fraction of that amount to renovate it to working condition (per Jack Evans)?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^ NWLL doesn’t make money. It’s not private like Headfirst or HimeRun.

The “non-profit” entity may not make money, but it’s management do.

No kidding- Maret's head makes $500k/year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"The clubhouse is budgeted to get an upgrade of $7 million in the FY2020 budget. I do not think this funding is sufficient to bring the facility to where it needs to be and what the residents want. I have met with the Mayor and she has agreed to build a brand-new clubhouse. I will work with her to identify the funding in next year’s budget."

Wow, that's news! That a big quid for the quo.

the kids still need outdoor space! the 100 aftercare kids need to be able to play outdoors after being in school all day. Sports teams of nearby public schools need places to practice. Evans is a disgrace.

Go to the Duke Ellington school field. This is not a DCPS property. If DCPS wants to use the property, they need to step up with money. I am sure they will give DCPS the same deal.

I assume you're talking about Jelleff, which is a DPR field? First, under DC law DPR is supposed to give priority to public and charter schools over all private users. Second, it's not like DPR and DCPS are different countries, they are agencies of the same city government, reporting to the same deputy mayor. It shouldn't be hard for them to work together on common goals.

Third, DCPS is not asking for exclusive use of the field for one school every day afternoon during fall and spring sports seasons.

Perhaps Maret needs to have a closed door meeting about DE?

So how do you justify a law like that? The British School and Maret use the Jelleff and have a large proportion of students who live in DC. Their parents pay DC taxes that are used for DPR facilities and for DCPS. Why should DCPS have priority use of a public park? Seems like that law should be challenged in court.

It is interesting that are you advocating the merger DPR and DCPS. I wonder how many people would be in favor of that?

Huh? DPR and DCPS are already merged — they are divisions of the same entity, under the same city budget and executive management.

DC needs to provide adequate facilities for its public schools. Whichever agency manages the facilities is an operational detail. DC also needs to provide recreation facilities for its citizens — but the actual citizens, not private institutions that pay no tax!

To the extent that DC has facilities available for school use at prime school-use times (weekday afternoons), priority use of those facilities should go to fulfilling DC’s obligations to the schools it runs. Students at private schools have opted out of the public system and DC has no obligation to provide facilities for their school activities.

It’s really pretty simple, and your arguments, PP, are tortured.

This is a deeply naive view about how governments and bureaucracies operate - particularly the part about the "same city budget." What nonsense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Okay, Jack.

- Back in 2008, why didn’t Maret just buy the property? If there were not other parties interested [in what you characterize as DC’s $20 million favor for BGC], why didn’t DC bargain down on the price such that it had $1-2 million left over for improvements?

- Why do you mention Bob Stowers? Are you trying to bully him by saying he should be grateful to you for his job?

- Why don’t you show us the contract with the automatic extension clause?

- What year was your son admitted to Maret?

This letter is all of “Make Jelleff Public”’s christmases at once. With all the detail he provides, Jack makes clear that he was intimately involved in both the original agreement and its extension. Even putting aside the fact that his son attends/ed Maret, his history of ethical challenges only strengthens the appearance of malfeasance. Maret is digging a deep PR hole trying to defend this sham.

Absolutely right. When will Maret leadership recognize this as something that's not going to go away and they're going to get pulled under by the Jack Evans sinking ship? They need to show leadership and ethical behavior by either offering to cancel the deal or make a big public show of sharing the field during afterschool hours in a meaningful way...not this crap about an hour on "most" Wednesdays (they weren't sharing it on Wednesday 9/4). Give the Jelleff aftercare program standing rights to half of the enormous field from 3:30 to 4:30 every school day. You can still play a soccer game on the other half. Tell Hardy soccer teams that they can use the field for an hour 3 days a week, or let them host a weekly game there. something MEANINGFUL...not token.

This.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The DCline article - and the beautiful analysis of the very ugly field situation on page 56 - underscores that this issue is much bigger than Jelleff and probably bigger than DPR. You have GU at Mason, Maret at Hardy, Howard at Banneker, far too many baseball fields, and also the mayor trying to use “emergency” powers to give away vital DCPS buildings to a wealthy and connected private school. All of these issues have not each themselves pissed enough people off for the mayor and others to care about, but if we roll them together, the equation starts to become more encouraging.

The long-term view: in 1968, the height of the baby boom, the city had 148,000 DCPS students. Enrollment dropped every single year for 40 years and hit bottom in 2008 at less than half of that. The city had way too many school buildings and rec centers for the youth population, for decades. It didn't know what to do with those properties, it literally had trouble giving them away. For years they were happy to turn them over to anyone who could find a use for them. It's only in the past ten years that the youth population has started rebounding, and all of those deals are proving incredibly hard to unwind.

The short-term view: DPR permitting is a mess. They have over 100 fields and rec centers to allocate. They don't have the resources or the vision to do any sort of thoughtful allocation. The most they can do is just day "everyone gets what they got last year" and even that is a struggle. From DPR's perspective, if Maret goes then they have to figure out who gets Jelleff, which means weighing competing claims from Jelleff B&GC, Hardy, Walls, and perhaps others. Status quo is less work for them.

Great observations. Definitely it seems that “less work” is part of it.

And the long-term view makes sense. But one question: Why did DC spend $20 million on a new property at the bottom of the decline, especially when it couldn’t afford a fraction of that amount to renovate it to working condition (per Jack Evans)?

The Boys and Girls Club needed to be bailed out. They had dozens of locations throughout the city and provided badly-needed daycare to tens of thousands of kids. They had suffered from the same demographic collapse as the rest of the city, they had too many buildings and not enough revenue and were on the brink of bankruptcy. The city bought the properties to provide an immediate cash infusion to the clubs, and let them continue to run the centers as DPR contractors. So Bob Stowers is still running Jelleff, as he has for 40 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

This is a deeply naive view about how governments and bureaucracies operate - particularly the part about the "same city budget." What nonsense.

This whole episode has shown that what we learned in civics class -- that governments work for the people -- is naive, governments work for the moneyed interests, the rest of us best step aside.

[Anonymous]

Heard from our ANC rep that Trayon White has agreed to a hearing. So yeah, this isn’t going away. Our ANC is asking local residents to come testify.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Heard from our ANC rep that Trayon White has agreed to a hearing. So yeah, this isn’t going away. Our ANC is asking local residents to come testify.

Will he be controlling the weather for the hearing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"The clubhouse is budgeted to get an upgrade of $7 million in the FY2020 budget. I do not think this funding is sufficient to bring the facility to where it needs to be and what the residents want. I have met with the Mayor and she has agreed to build a brand-new clubhouse. I will work with her to identify the funding in next year’s budget."

Wow, that's news! That a big quid for the quo.

the kids still need outdoor space! the 100 aftercare kids need to be able to play outdoors after being in school all day. Sports teams of nearby public schools need places to practice. Evans is a disgrace.

Go to the Duke Ellington school field. This is not a DCPS property. If DCPS wants to use the property, they need to step up with money. I am sure they will give DCPS the same deal.

I assume you're talking about Jelleff, which is a DPR field? First, under DC law DPR is supposed to give priority to public and charter schools over all private users. Second, it's not like DPR and DCPS are different countries, they are agencies of the same city government, reporting to the same deputy mayor. It shouldn't be hard for them to work together on common goals.

Third, DCPS is not asking for exclusive use of the field for one school every day afternoon during fall and spring sports seasons.

Perhaps Maret needs to have a closed door meeting about DE?

So how do you justify a law like that? The British School and Maret use the Jelleff and have a large proportion of students who live in DC. Their parents pay DC taxes that are used for DPR facilities and for DCPS. Why should DCPS have priority use of a public park? Seems like that law should be challenged in court.

It is interesting that are you advocating the merger DPR and DCPS. I wonder how many people would be in favor of that?

How do you justify a law like that? The city has an obligation to provide free public education to its youth. Doing so requires facilities. Those facilities are often used only part of the time. If another city agency already owns appropriate facilities, and isn't using them at that particular time, allowing DCPS or public charter schools to use them saves taxpayers money.

This is the public school forum, I don't think you'll find much sympathy for the notion that private schools should be subsidized by the public. That idea was fashionable in much of the South in the years immediately following Brown v. Board of Education but has largely fallen out of favor.

So by your logic the city libraries can be used as classroom space for DCPS or charter schools?
The large point is DPR has a different mission vs DCPS.

Mission
The mission of the Department of Parks and Recreation is to enhance the quality of life and wellness of DC residents and visitors by providing equal access to affordable and quality recreational services, by organizing programs, activities and events, and by building and maintaining safe and beautiful open spaces and recreational amenities.

Budget $47 million. https://cfo.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/ocfo/publication/attachments/FY%202018%20Current%20Services%20Funding%20Level%20Budget.pdf

The mission of DC Public Schools is to ensure that every DCPS school provides a world-class education that prepares ALL of our students, regardless of background or circumstance, for success in college, career, and life.

Budget DCPS 771 million
DCPS charters 738 million
https://cfo.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/ocfo/publication/attachments/FY%202018%20Current%20Services%20Funding%20Level%20Budget.pdf

You can not exclude tax paying citizen from a public park because you see a park and wanted for your kids school use. The schools have enough money to buy or enter into an agreement for more facilities. They do not see it as a priority.

Many elderly, single people, people with children who are of different age vs your kids and or people with children in private school will want to use the park they paid taxes to have. Just like Maret should not have exclusive use of DPR facilities, DCPS should not be allowed to do the same. DCPS could have bought the property when it was for sale and did not to buy it. You are no different from Maret ....well at least they will pay and improve the park unlike you who just wants to steal it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"The clubhouse is budgeted to get an upgrade of $7 million in the FY2020 budget. I do not think this funding is sufficient to bring the facility to where it needs to be and what the residents want. I have met with the Mayor and she has agreed to build a brand-new clubhouse. I will work with her to identify the funding in next year’s budget."

Wow, that's news! That a big quid for the quo.

the kids still need outdoor space! the 100 aftercare kids need to be able to play outdoors after being in school all day. Sports teams of nearby public schools need places to practice. Evans is a disgrace.

Go to the Duke Ellington school field. This is not a DCPS property. If DCPS wants to use the property, they need to step up with money. I am sure they will give DCPS the same deal.

I assume you're talking about Jelleff, which is a DPR field? First, under DC law DPR is supposed to give priority to public and charter schools over all private users. Second, it's not like DPR and DCPS are different countries, they are agencies of the same city government, reporting to the same deputy mayor. It shouldn't be hard for them to work together on common goals.

Third, DCPS is not asking for exclusive use of the field for one school every day afternoon during fall and spring sports seasons.

Perhaps Maret needs to have a closed door meeting about DE?

So how do you justify a law like that? The British School and Maret use the Jelleff and have a large proportion of students who live in DC. Their parents pay DC taxes that are used for DPR facilities and for DCPS. Why should DCPS have priority use of a public park? Seems like that law should be challenged in court.

It is interesting that are you advocating the merger DPR and DCPS. I wonder how many people would be in favor of that?

How do you justify a law like that? The city has an obligation to provide free public education to its youth. Doing so requires facilities. Those facilities are often used only part of the time. If another city agency already owns appropriate facilities, and isn't using them at that particular time, allowing DCPS or public charter schools to use them saves taxpayers money.

This is the public school forum, I don't think you'll find much sympathy for the notion that private schools should be subsidized by the public. That idea was fashionable in much of the South in the years immediately following Brown v. Board of Education but has largely fallen out of favor.

So by your logic the city libraries can be used as classroom space for DCPS or charter schools?
The large point is DPR has a different mission vs DCPS.

Mission
The mission of the Department of Parks and Recreation is to enhance the quality of life and wellness of DC residents and visitors by providing equal access to affordable and quality recreational services, by organizing programs, activities and events, and by building and maintaining safe and beautiful open spaces and recreational amenities.

Budget $47 million. https://cfo.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/ocfo/publication/attachments/FY%202018%20Current%20Services%20Funding%20Level%20Budget.pdf

The mission of DC Public Schools is to ensure that every DCPS school provides a world-class education that prepares ALL of our students, regardless of background or circumstance, for success in college, career, and life.

Budget DCPS 771 million
DCPS charters 738 million
https://cfo.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/ocfo/publication/attachments/FY%202018%20Current%20Services%20Funding%20Level%20Budget.pdf

You can not exclude tax paying citizen from a public park because you see a park and wanted for your kids school use. The schools have enough money to buy or enter into an agreement for more facilities. They do not see it as a priority.

Many elderly, single people, people with children who are of different age vs your kids and or people with children in private school will want to use the park they paid taxes to have. Just like Maret should not have exclusive use of DPR facilities, DCPS should not be allowed to do the same. DCPS could have bought the property when it was for sale and did not to buy it. You are no different from Maret ....well at least they will pay and improve the park unlike you who just wants to steal it.

You are arguing against a straw man. No one has said DCPS should have exclusive access to DPR facilities like Maret has.