Trailers on the Wilson School Playfield

My presentation is occasioned by our receipt of a note from Dr. Smith to the School Board indicating the need to maintain trailers at Wilson for another couple of years for childcare programs.

We welcome use of Wilson, but goodness we've been burdened by loss of that playfield for a long long time.

Anyway, can we talk about impact? Perhaps it might be possible to restore some of the field by minimizing the footprint of the trailers. Even an undersized field would be used. Neighbors tell me that it's not all that unusual to see kids playing soccer or even football on the basketball court which is the one existing runaround space left at Wilson.

Here's one possible way to free up a little playspace. Four, maybe five of the trailers could fit on the parking lot on the west side of the Wilson field. It would require some planning to live without that parking lot. Maybe it would require dedicated use of on-street parking on Quinn and 18th. Maybe it might be necessary to rent some commercial space. But it might be doable. Also, some of the other needed trailers might-could be moved to other peripheral areas.

Minimizing negative community impacts should be worth discussing. We ask that the School Board direct their staff to consider that possibility. We would be delighted to help out.

Mark Antell
Chair, North Rosslyn Civic Association