Anonymous wrote:I'm a parent of a Hardy 6th grader, but a resident of Ward 3. I just sent Mary Cheh an e-mail about this, and she responded very quickly:

"I’m looking into how we can rescind this deal and if not how we can get better use for Hardy and the community.
Thanks for your note
Mary"

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How are we going to stop Hardy from taking it over?

Hardy is one party asking to share the space.

But you know that.

I think you are forgetting the children in the aftercare at Jelleff Rec Center. IMO they have an even greater need for and claim to the space.

For the past decade, the roughly 100 kids at the Boys and Girls Club’s after-school program have largely been unable to use the field. Except when Maret students aren’t practicing, the kids are confined indoors. By 6 p.m. in the spring and fall, when the field becomes available for public use, most of the kids have already been picked up and gone home, Stowers says. In the summer and winter, when Maret doesn’t have exclusive access, it’s often either too hot or too cold for the kids to play outside (“I don’t think our camp went out at all this summer because it’s just too hot,” he says.)

Kids on the BGC sports teams are generally unable to use the field to practice, Stowers says. They have to practice indoors in the gym or on fields further away.

Anonymous wrote:Anyone who cares about this issue should call and email the mayor and their council person.

There is a huge amount of frustration with the politics which led to this deal. Someone --- ANC, Hardy or Wilson -- needs to step up and lead!

Anonymous wrote:I hate to say this but the amount that Maret put into this field is chump change to DC. $2.5 million or whatever is not a trade for effective ownership for the entire time my children will be in school. They fix contractor mistakes with greater scope than this all over the place. I mean, what disrespect to Hardy. What lesson is this? That money and access count more than public accommodations for our kids, and not those who can make their own luck? That's my takeaway.

A nine-year extension to a 10-year agreement between the District Department of Parks and Recreation and Maret School for maintenance and some exclusive usage of the playing field at the Jelleff Recreation Center, located at 3265 S St. NW, was concluded on July 30 with few changes. The original 2009 agreement was up for renewal this year.

Maret, a private, co-ed K-12 school with about 650 students, will continue to finance repairs and maintenance of the playing field and fences surrounding the property at an estimated cost of $750,000. In addition, Maret, located at 3000 Cathedral Ave. NW, will contribute $250,000 to refurbish the Jelleff Center, adding to the $7 million already dedicated to the project by the city.

In exchange, the school will continue to have exclusive use of the playing field on school weekdays between 3:30 and 5:30 p.m. in the fall and spring. A separate agreement made last year with Hardy Middle School to use the field every Wednesday between 4 and 5:30 p.m. will also be continued, according to Maret officials.

But all these arrangements have become increasingly contentious.

Since January, parents of Georgetown public school students — particularly those whose children attend Hardy, across Wisconsin Avenue from the field — and community leaders have demanded that the contract process be transparent and that a deal allowing for expanded use by community and school sports teams and players be considered. But that didn’t happen, according to Elizabeth Miller, the Georgetown advisory neighborhood commission member for the Jelleff area.

Anonymous wrote:Remember your poli sci? Diffuse but broad interest always loses to narrow but strong interest. This is how Maret wins.