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Tommy Blog School and Community Partnership at JO Wilson
Tommy Blog School and Community Partnership at JO Wilson | School and Community Partnership at JO Wilson |
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| Written by Ram Uppuluri | |
| Tuesday, 14 August 2007 | |
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I recently attended a community meeting with Tommy at the J.O. Wilson Elementary School, where a group of neighbors, convened by their ANC Commissioner, Anne Phelps, is laying plans to reclaim the school grounds from the open drinking, drug dealing and prostitution that occurs there on an almost nightly basis. J.O. Wilson is a lovely school on the inside. During the year, the children wear uniforms of navy blue pants and white shirts. The school’s principal, Mrs. Warley, emphasizes values of respect and community. The school has a beautiful new library. The students do well in all areas academically, and consistently win awards in French competitions, of all things! But outside the school, it’s another story. Holes are cut in the fence. Graffiti is spray-painted on the walls. The school’s custodian, Mr. Fuller, told the group of concerned citizens that he gets to school early every day to clean up drug paraphernalia, used condoms and worse things from the school grounds before the children arrive. What is the community’s plan for taking the grounds back? The neighbors propose a “School and Community Partnership”, to rebuild the playground, the basketball court, the softball field, add a soccer field, plant a community garden, and develop a water park for the children to play and for the community to enjoy. They propose raising the money – an estimated $600,000 – from private developers, citing $3.84 billion in private investment planned within six blocks of the school. All they ask is for the cooperation of the school itself, which Mrs. Warley was happy to provide, from the school system, which officials present said would be more difficult but not impossible, from the police department, from Councilmember Wells, and from the DC government in general. That is the shared commitment that it will take to strengthen our schools as centers of community, to make them safe and healthy learning environments for children, to provide positive options for the young people you see just standing around the neighborhood with apparently nothing to do, and to reclaim our public school grounds from the lost souls who think nothing of defiling them. |
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