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

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[quote=Anonymous]DPR is so shady. And people need to call Jack Evans and scream.  This article said ten schools and the boys and girls club asked for access to Jelleff.  But Maret just isn't capable of giving up its backroom sweetheart deal.

https://georgetowner.com/articles/2019/07/03/anc-meeting-heats-up-over-jelleff/
[quote]“Is it a done deal?” Murphy demanded. “Did you even try to reach out to tell the ANC about it? Have funds been transferred? Have any plans been made for the field that will impact all the neighbors around it?”

“It is an administrative change,” said Ross. “It has been agreed to but not yet signed.”

“With no input from the ANC?” asked Murphy again.

“Yes,” answered Ross. “It’s just administrative. No changes. No plans are made — yet.”

“I am extremely, profoundly concerned,” Murphy responded. “The very reason why the ANCs were formed is to make its views and recommendations on just such matters known to city agencies and taken seriously.”

Ross dutifully apologized for the ANC’s having been left out, but commissioners Joe Gibbins, Elizabeth Miller and Kishan Putta — who lives just a block away from the field and uses the park daily — continued to ask, why the rush?

When Ross didn’t respond, Murphy said angrily: “We know why. It’s because of Jelleff.” That opened the Pandora’s Box.

The playing fields at the Jelleff Recreation Center at 3265 S St. NW are controlled by DPR. It is half a block from Wisconsin Ave and Hardy Middle School, which has petitioned for more use of Jelleff’s fields on weekdays. But the manicured fields were built in 2009 and maintained for the past 10 years under an exclusive prime-time-use contract with the private K-12 Maret School, located at 3000 Cathedral Ave. That contract is up for renewal for another 10 years at the end of this year.

“The ANC voted not to extend the contract between the private Maret School and the city on Jelleff field and asks [DPR] to stop negotiating behind closed doors and make public their proposal process,” Commissioner Miller wrote DPR Director Delano Hunter on July 3.

In a proposition passed unanimously at its July 1 meeting, the ANC demanded that DPR “make public the criteria that will drive their decision-making and to have a transparent proposal process that allows more than one school at the table. [b]To date, ten schools and the Boys and Girls Club have expressed interest in access to the Jelleff field during the most in-demand hours.  Now with late word that the Duke Ellington field may be part of the negotiations regarding Jelleff … without a single word to our ANC or any public input — the confusion has reached CODE RED.”[/b]

Georgetown’s Council member Jack Evans also was drawn into the fray. His administrative aide, Ruth Werner, demurred when asked if she knew of the memo transferring administrative jurisdiction from DPS to DPR.[/quote][/quote]

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