Dear School Without Walls Families,

We are reaching out to ask you to join the Duke Ellington Athletic Field Community Meeting:

• When: Wednesday, January 15, 6:30-8:00pm
• Where: Georgetown Neighborhood Library (3260 R St., NW)
• Who: Deputy Mayor for Education (DME), DC Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR), DC Public Schools (DCPS)

SWWHS athletic teams have had a long-standing issue with securing stable use of fields.

The Mayor has directed the Deputy Mayor for Education (DME) to transfer ownership and management of Duke Ellington Field from DC Public Schools to DC Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR). (See letter describing public comment period through February 12, 2020).

DPR and the DME have verbally communicated this transfer will include priority use by Duke Ellington, SWWHS, and Hardy MS, but have not released any draft user agreement confirming this.

Parents representing various field and court sports (field hockey, soccer, baseball, track, basketball) met on January 3, 2020.  We agreed that while this proposal creates a window of opportunity for SWWHS athletic teams to secure long-term priority use of fields for some sports, it does not resolve the broader field and court needs for SWWHS' 22sports teams.

A key concern is that SWWHS is being used to justify the transfer of a DCPS asset to DPR, in spite of the fact that it does not fully meet our needs.

In short, while there are pros and cons to the proposed transfer, we would like to take this opportunity to ask for DME and DPR support in a broader plan for how best to ensure the following for our students:

• Safe, metro-accessible fields and courts (as a citywide school, we accept that kids will travel);
• Long-term access to field and court space;
• predictable, consistent practice space 5 days/week;
• Space that makes sense for each team (what works for soccer may not work for field hockey, that’s ok, so long as each team has consistency);  

Parents Kira Alvarez, Mic Burns, and Danilo Pelletiere are kindly championing this effort. 

If you are able to join the community meeting on January 15 and would like talking points and further context, please contact Kira Alvarez.

Thank you for your support of SWWHS student athletes.

Sandra Moscoso

President

SWWHSA