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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"why not let Maret and Hardy negotiate a solution...?" Because we have already seen the results of that kind of deal and it was a disaster.

+1. Maret “kindly” lets hardy use the field for an hour on occasional Wednesdays. Maret can not be trusted to be a good civic actor and it never should have had its 2nd decade of exclusive rights guaranteed without proper public consultation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"why not let Maret and Hardy negotiate a solution...?" Because we have already seen the results of that kind of deal and it was a disaster.

+1. Maret “kindly” lets hardy use the field for an hour on occasional Wednesdays. Maret can not be trusted to be a good civic actor and it never should have had its 2nd decade of exclusive rights guaranteed without proper public consultation.

Plus this isn’t an issue for hardy alone. 10 DcPS schools and community organizations requested afterschool access to Jelleff. Maret isn’t going to allow them access.

[Anonymous]

Wait, so Maret wants Hardy to pay millions of dollars to build a field so that they get access to a field for 10 years in exchange for paying for needed maintenance? Bottom line- DC taxpayers don't want to subsidize a private school. This deal is bad for everybody except Maret and Jack Evans. Maybe the Mayor as well because she hasn't come out against this deal. I assume she must be benefit ting from it as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wait, so Maret wants Hardy to pay millions of dollars to build a field so that they get access to a field for 10 years in exchange for paying for needed maintenance? Bottom line- DC taxpayers don't want to subsidize a private school. This deal is bad for everybody except Maret and Jack Evans. Maybe the Mayor as well because she hasn't come out against this deal. I assume she must be benefit ting from it as well.

Bowser said in a meeting with the ANC that she will be reviewing the deal for possibility of reversal. So it ain't over yet. The only person who is publicly supporting it is Jack Evans, and he has just about as many investigations into his crooked dealings as Donald Trump.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait, so Maret wants Hardy to pay millions of dollars to build a field so that they get access to a field for 10 years in exchange for paying for needed maintenance? Bottom line- DC taxpayers don't want to subsidize a private school. This deal is bad for everybody except Maret and Jack Evans. Maybe the Mayor as well because she hasn't come out against this deal. I assume she must be benefit ting from it as well.

Bowser said in a meeting with the ANC that she will be reviewing the deal for possibility of reversal. So it ain't over yet. The only person who is publicly supporting it is Jack Evans, and he has just about as many investigations into his crooked dealings as Donald Trump.

Did she? I don’t recall reading that in Kishan’s account of the meeting.

[Anonymous]

Just re-read the letter and saw that she did indeed commit to asking them to look at it again. No timeline though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just re-read the letter and saw that she did indeed commit to asking them to look at it again. No timeline though.

Yup. No guarantees, and maybe she just said it to appease the ANC folk. But there's already been a ton of bad press, and if they get a lot of pushback from the community (emails to [e-mail]) that would be helpful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hopefully there is no such other arrangement in the city.

There definitely are. Why can't Hardy use Guy Mason? I think Georgetown U has their hooks in there. I think AU has some deal with city-owned property at the park on Massachusetts Avenue. Ellington, UDC -- there's probably more.

If I were a councilmember I would be asking for an accounting of all of these deals, what the terms are, who the parties are, and when they expire.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hopefully there is no such other arrangement in the city.

There definitely are. Why can't Hardy use Guy Mason? I think Georgetown U has their hooks in there. I think AU has some deal with city-owned property at the park on Massachusetts Avenue. Ellington, UDC -- there's probably more.

If I were a councilmember I would be asking for an accounting of all of these deals, what the terms are, who the parties are, and when they expire.

Agreed-this woman wrote a good accounting of all the deals that are not in the public interest, but Jelleff is the one we have a chance to influence now.
https://thedcline.org/2019/09/12/jonetta-rose-barras-the-dc-councils-fall-fight/

After learning that the Department of Parks and Recreation had renewed its multi-year lease with the private Maret School — giving it priority use of the playing field at Jelleff Recreation Center over public institutions like Hardy Middle School — Silverman asked DC Attorney General Karl Racine to review the agreement. She said that even if the agreement can’t be rescinded, she is hoping for a way to renegotiate the terms to allow for increased use by DC residents.

“Our obligation is to provide a good quality of life for our residents,” she continued, adding that this should include access to the city’s parks and recreation centers.

Focusing solely on Maret obfuscates the larger policy problem, however. In the late 1990s, struggling to stay afloat financially, the government used third-party organizations to help it maintain its infrastructure and meet program service needs. The practice continued even as the District’s financial condition improved. These agreements resulted in organizations gaining priority use over that of taxpayers. For example, Georgetown University’s softball team claims Guy Mason athletic field as its home turf. I was excoriated years ago when I raised questions about three baseball organizations — Home Run Baseball Camp, Headfirst, and Northwest Washington Little League — that critics said acted as a sort of sports mafia, using Friendship Park fields as their private preserve, with the city government reaping little financial benefit; it was only when the two founders of Headfirst began fighting over profits of its multi-million dollar operation that District residents learned just how lucrative those businesses had been. And Silverman acknowledged that Howard University has an agreement that gives it extensive control of the Banneker Recreation Center tennis courts.

“The DPR should disclose all deals, the terms of the contracts, when they are expiring, if there are extensions and [give] the community full transparency about this,” said Silverman. “We should be looking for a more global solution.”

[Anonymous]

If you look at the private school side, you can see that those folks are starting to ask questions too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you look at the private school side, you can see that those folks are starting to ask questions too.

I'd imagine they're wondering why Maret gets this sweetheart deal and they don't.

[Anonymous]

You never know who is posting, but it is better than you might think.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hopefully there is no such other arrangement in the city. Hearst Park is being renovated and hopefully will be available to all when completed.

100% DPR facility. I actually hope Hearst School, particularly the aftercare, has a little priority there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:School without Walls could also really benefit from using Jelleff. They have no fields of their own and have to trek over to RFK for soccer. Next year the city is going to demolish RFK so what will happen then?

Maybe you haven't been there, but there are a bevy of glorious turn fields under DPR control in a former RFP parking lot. Walls is not using the stadium turf, and the demolition will have no impact.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hopefully there is no such other arrangement in the city. Hearst Park is being renovated and hopefully will be available to all when completed.

100% DPR facility. I actually hope Hearst School, particularly the aftercare, has a little priority there.

Under DPR rules only DCIAA sports qualify for priority.