Testimony Delivered 12/9/05
to DC Council Committee on Education, Libraries and Recreation
Kathy Patterson, Chair

Testimony of Dean Nielsen and Lisa Schamess
Parents, Phoebe Hearst Elementary School
delivered by Lisa Schamess
At D.C. City Council Public Oversight Hearing on Department of Parks and Recreation
Re: Overdue Redevelopment of the Hearst Recreation Center Playground December 8, 2005, 2:00pmTurkey Thicket Recreation Center10th and Michigan Ave., NEWashington, DC 20017

Councilwoman Patterson and Members of the Oversight Committee, thank you for giving us the opportunity to present testimony on the progress of the redevelopment of Hearst Recreation Center’s playground in Ward 3. My name is Lisa Schamess, and I am the co-chair of Phoebe Hearst Elementary School PTA. I would like this testimony to be made part of the official record of this hearing.

We come to you today on behalf of a potential win-win project for the Department of Recreation and the city’s children: The final phase of the Hearst Recreation Center playground renovation, adjacent to Hearst Elementary School.

This project has everything DPR needs right now to demonstrate a seachange at the agency in terms of its efficiency and citizen relations:

• It’s small. It’s not even a full project, only the second and final phase of a project that was initially promised to be completed in Spring 2003.
• It’s beautiful. The grounds of the Hearst Recreation Center are a green gem in the heart of a residential area, and the approved plan by Lee & Associates, Landscape Architects, is a beautiful plan that responds to the concerns of bother community residents and families whose children attend Hearst Elementary School.
• It’s public. The community has been closely involved in reviewing plans, completing surveys, and attending meetings about this project.
• It’s practically paid for—practically. Last summer we were told that one-half of the original $1 million budget for rebuilding and re-equipping the tot lot and older-children’s lot was gone because of cost overruns during Phase I of the project—overruns for work and undoing of work that in some cases, as Martha Black of the Hearst Recreation Council will explain, not only was not requested by the community but was specifically requested not to be done.
• It’s overdue. Almost three years overdue.
• It’s crucial to the school and vital to the community.
  
  Background
  Let me take a moment to say a word about Hearst Elementary, our role in the community, and the crucial synergy we share with our neighboring Recreation Center and Playground, run for many years by the capable and compassionate Adrian O’Neal. Our school has room for 180 children and currently has a solid enrollment of165 children between pre-K and third grade. Within our student body, some 70 percent of families are out-of-bounds and represent a rich cross-section of the city’s wards, ethnicities, and incomes. The attractiveness of the school is in part due to the enticing grounds and the promise of a new playground where the current substandard one is. Once the playground is in fact renovated, we expect that more and more parents from the elementary school’s home district will enroll their children, reflecting their confidence in the school and their involvement in the community.
  
  At Hearst, we have no cafeteria. We have no gymnasium. We actually have no dedicated library, just half of a room that is admirably managed by Elizabeth Vandivier. What we do have is dedicated teachers and parents, led by a principal, Bernarda Tally, who has called Hearst “A Jewel of a School.”
  
  The playground on DPR grounds adjacent to us is crucial. But it has been substandard for many years, both in terms of its equipment and in terms of a backlog of maintenance and landscaping. The 2002 hurricane took its toll: several long-dead trees collapsed and crushed the antiquated toddler swings on the north side of the lot. Thankfully, no one was hurt.
  
  Over the past three years, each new group of Hearst School parents has been told by the PTA to expect DPR to execute the planned renovation -- the school and communities' top priority -- but in the end there has been nothing but inaction and disappointment with reasons not fully explained. Barbara Beelar and Martha Black, longtime leaders on the Hearst Recreation Council, will present additional detail about delays, cost overruns, and the general ill will associated with this project—which should have been a “win win” for the community and DPR.
  
  This past summer, we received notice from DPR that due to cost overruns during Phase I of the project, funding for the playground would be slashed by 50 percent. We were asked at that point to rank our priorities for the playground.
  
  Our priorities have not changed. We—the school, the community, and the children—want the plan by Lee and Associates that DPR and the community have thoroughly reviewed and vetted, the comprehensive design that DPR has already paid for, to be fully funded.
  
  We want a new playground, the one we were promised, and we want it to break ground this spring.
  

What Next?
There are signs that the Department is preparing to move again—we are scheduled to meet with DPR this week. However, we have had many meetings with many DPR representatives over the years. That is why we are here today: To make sure that this time, this meeting produces results.

The PTA circulated a petition in November that has been signed by some 300 adults (parents, school staff, and community members). A separate version signed by the people who matter most—our pupils—is circulating now. We are asking the DPR for "immediate action in implementing with full funding the [already agreed upon plan] to renovate the Center playground for ages 0 to 12."

We ask the oversight committee to acknowledge this determined, unwavering community voice and preference, and to exert its influence in turning this dream and promise into a reality.

Playground Update

Mad props to everyone who took the time to sign the Hearst Playground petition. The petition requests full funding for Phase II of the playground renovation, which would provide two separate age-appropriate playlots and extra amenities in keeping with the wishes of parents and community members. We have gathered more than 200 signatures to date and may be approaching 300 soon.

There has been lots of personnel change at DPR, but finally the agency has made progress on engineering evaluations for Phase II. A meeting is tentatively set for Wednesday, December 14 at 7 pm in the "Little House" (the recreation center) on the grounds of the playground. DPR will meet with the Working Group to go over the plan's progress and hopefully to resolve obstacles to completion.

If you wish to attend or observe, contact Lisa Schamess at lisaschamess@yahoo.com or Dean Nielsen at dnielsen@worldbank.org.

Scholastic Book Fair
at Hearst next week!!

Get a start on your holiday
shopping by visiting the 
book fair and picking up
great gifts for your kids,
friends and family.  The
Scholastic Book Fair has 
something for everyone--from
the latest picture books 
to books about crafting, cooking,
and how to fix stuff. 

Your kids will be visiting the book fair next week and 
making a wish list of books that they would love to add
to their bookshelves.  Teachers and the school librarian 
will also be making wish lists (and checking them twice!) 
of books that would make a great addition to their classroom
and school libraries. 

Come by early and often. Browse by yourselves or with your family.
Next week, Hearst’s Big Room will be better than Borders for family
fun and conversation.  Ms. Vandivier will be around most of the
time to make recommendations for you and your children. 

Proceeds from the fair will be used to purchase new books and other
library materials.

Check it out!

Scholastic Book Fair:
Monday through Friday December 5-9
8 a.m. to 9:15 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.