Reply to Faculty, student and family input on ethical issues DC privates

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This is not a defense of Maret or this deal, but there are very few 90' baseball diamonds (those large enough for middle and HS baseball) in DC. Jelleff enabled Maret to have a baseball field, and Maret was in the process of building a strong baseball program. Maret does have a field, but its a K-12 school, and that one field is not enough to support all girls and boys middle and high school sports, nor is it large enough for HS baseball. Having had kids in GDS, which has its own field issues, the other area privates are somewhat accommodating in granting access to field space, but they use their own fields pretty heavily. It sounds like the first deal was necessary for both sides to get somethng they really needed at that time, but the current deal seems less advantageous for the District.[/quote]

DPR has about 110 fields and about 70 them are baseball fields. Even though only about 15% of the kids who play sports on DPR fields play baseball or other diamond sports. DPR is way, way over-invested in baseball fields. It's a canard that there are few 90' baseball fields in DC. Just off the top of my head I can think of Fort Reno, St. Albans, Sidewll, St. Johns, GWU and AU west of the park. [/quote]

It's not a canard. There are many, many little league sized baseball fields, which is great, but very few baseball fields city wide for kids to play on once they turn thirteen years old and need the larger field. When you add up the private and public schools throughout the District plus the leagues, supply does not come close to meeting demand. The private school fields you mention are not open to the public and the ability to lease field time from Sidwell, St. Albans and St. Johns is very limited, if available at all, and all these schools have varsity and JV teams and in some cases middle school teams that use these fields.  Fort Reno is used by Wilson HS, and some of the area private leagues. Many of the other DC High Schools don't have their own fields, and those that do, like Banneker, use them or they get leased them out to other groups. The Nationals Youth baseball facility is used by Gonzaga and  some other schools.  The reality is that baseball fields are really big, and its easier to put in two multi-use fields that can be used for multiple sports. GDS is doing a major project and a baseball field was just not feasible because it would have meant sacrificing so much else. That's understandable, but it makes the logistics of fielding a baseball team very challenging. You can practice on a multi-use field, but you can't play games.[/quote]

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