Board Members Present: Corey Jennings (President), Wynn Engle-Pratt (Vice President), Michele Baskin (Secretary), Matt Williams
Staff member – Jennifer McKenzie, Amanda Rothschild
Total Attendees
~ 24 (Jones + 2 staff), ~ 6 on Zoom
Start: 7:05
End: 8:45
Zoom Recording; Passcode: 5=hf5DYh
Votes: NA
Agenda
- Greenmount School Presentation – link when available
- Background of school
- Founded in 1993 as a co-op school by 6 families in a one room, student centered environment on Greenmount Ave. Moved into Wyman Park Rec Center in 1997.
- Currently enroll 105 students in K-8 with one class per grade, and continue to be an independent co-op model school.
- School Philosophy statement from their website
- Current Location at 501 W. 30th Street
- Current structure is old recreational center and surrounding land that is leased from Baltimore City Parks & Rec department. In 2011 the modular classroom buildings were added to accommodate school growth. In 2019 the lease was amended to include the “upper field” area above the Wyman Park ball fields and behind the Potts and Callahan buildings and parking lot.
- The lease is due for renewal again and the school will have to take on more of the maintenance going forward. The current modular classrooms are beyond their usable life, do not have appropriate restroom facilities and do not align with current needs of school population. Ongoing conversations will include the possibility of purchasing the building and land from the city.
- Proposal to February 5th GRIA Land Use Meeting – link pic when available
- Build new fabricated classroom buildings on upper field to house 6 rooms which would include bathrooms, and would also have fenced in outdoor space area (all behind the Potts and Callahan fencing). This design would essentially fence in all available land in the lease, including all the way to the Potts and Callahan fence line.
- Updated Proposal incorporating feedback from LUC Meeting – link pic when available
- The new fabricated classroom buildings would be rotated and shifted away from the fencing which would allow access through the upper field area from the neighbors.
- Q&A:
- Corey – Commentary: Community was never informed about the lease to begin with so this feels frustrating that even as recently as 2019 there was no discussion about acquiring the upper field area; fundamentally this removes public community space and places it into private hands; has also been frustrating that there was no engagement from the school around the shade sail project and cleanups for the community’s playground that the school utilizes.
- Audience Q – Kudos to the updated design, are these still modular buildings or hard construction? A – There will need to be some digging for plumbing and utilities, but these will still by fabricated buildings, a step above the current modular rooms. These are very similar to the childcare facility buildings at Hopkins, with a constructed ground foundation not with a more permanent poured foundation. The existing hard buildings are constructed on softer fill so going up and adding floors to the existing structures is not an option.
- Audience Q – What is the proposed timeline? A – This will be guided by the renewal of the lease which ends June 30th and is included in those conversations. It took an extra year and a half to sign the last lease, so likely the earliest this could happen would be construction in summer of 2026 to start that school year. Nothing will occur until new lease is signed.
- Audience Q – With the loss of green space, would you be open to allowing community access to more of the proposed space since you also use the public playground and triangle park next to it. A – It’s not really much more space than where we are currently situated.
- Wynn follow up to above Q – But the scale of the fence is new, and extra, newly fenced space would now be lost to the community. A – We are not trying to grow the school, the overall footprint is about the same and some of the newly fenced space is for stormwater management. As a place with children, it would be irresponsible to not provide fencing for security.
- Audience Q – Could we negotiate around the stormwater drainage space if it is not usable space by the kids, to keep that unfenced for community egress? A – It can be brought up with the engineering firm to see what would be possible based on their assessment and designs.
- Barbara Commentary – There are multiple issues: the building proposal and situation itself, but also the relationships here or lack of. This presents a real opportunity to build connection with the neighborhood.
- Matt Q – Is the fencing necessary because of zoning? But really this is a public vs private issue because public land is being taken for private use. A – The fencing if for student safety, but no city regulation technically requires it.
- Audience Q – Why is it that we can share the space north that includes the triangle park and playground without fencing, but there is less openness to sharing the area south of the school on the upper field? A – Children are escorted to and from the north spaces as part of daily and class routines, but they would freely travel between the buildings on the south, so the concern is a lack of supervision for safety. Students need to access the main building for other functions like office, nurse, and parent pickups.
- Corey proposes an MOU or some sort of a process that involves the community and strengthens the connection between the communtiy and the facilities and space at the school.
- Audience Q – Can the space be opened up to community usage after hours? A – Yes, absolutely, it already is for basketball and other sports through organizations that utilize the space.
- Wynn Commentary – Summing up, there is no real issue with the revised modular configuration, but if there are ways to reduce the amount of land that is being fenced off while maintaining safety, that is our request.
- Background of school
- Shade Sail Updates for the 30th Street Playground
- In the next week or two, dependent on weather and contractor availability, construction will begin on installing the shade sail footers and posts; park will be semi-closed during that construction period; shade sail and construction funded by a grant provided by Central Baltimore Partnership; GRIA will communicate when dates are more firm
- Remfest Announcement – https://www.remfest.org/
- This year’s festival date if Saturday May 10th 2025, from 12 to 9 pm. Same footprint as prior years with 28th and 27th St closed from Huntingdon to Howard, Remington Ave closed 27th to 29th. Highlighting vendors and local food and bringing back the family stage area in the R House parking areas. We will need volunteers in advance and day of so please look out for sign ups soon. Last year’s merchandise inventory is being sold at Mount Royal currently. Measured an economic impact of $250k last year across neighborhood businesses and vendors.
- From Lindsay from Charmer’s Club – Voicing a concern about the up front $15 application fee in addition to the vendor fee for vendors as it is not counted towards the vendor fee. It is exclusionary and unnecessary and becomes a barrier for a lot of folks to even apply. The Artscape fee is $10 and is one of the only markets that still has one. Matt seconds and suggests just rolling the fee into the vendor fee once selected. Corey says that over 40 vendors have already signed up and it would be unfair to change the process at this point.
- Dumpster Days
- The City has changed it’s process and is only booking dumpster days for half the year at a time with new restrictions and requirements. As a result, we have nothing on the books with our next opportunity to book dates in June. We will probably only host 2 dumpster days this year, but are working with DPW on getting Bill Cunningham increased access to assist with alley clean ups this year.
- March Tree Planting
- March 8th, 3000 block of Guilford Ave; close out of one phase of the grant funded planting
- Sign up if interested – https://forms.gle/e5UashtDeLAY7a466
- Audience Q – Why no trees on the 2600 blocks of Huntingdon, Miles, and Hampden? A – Those blocks are more narrow with a reduced space between the street and the stoop stairs, and it will be a struggle with the ADA requirements for sidewalk access if tree wells are cut into the sidewalks on these blocks. Future grants can look at some creative possibilities utilizing planters and street bumpouts.
- Grant Updates – Newly applied for grants
- JHU Innovation Grant
- Focus on Kromer Hall – to fund community food pantry and kickstart the process of providing building updates to make more of the space usable across all seasons to a wider range of community members
- Applied, unsure of acceptance
- Urban Trees 2025 – new Chesapeake Bay Trust grant
- Would fund 325 street trees throughout Abell, Barclay, and Old Goucher
- Mid-Atlantic Env Justice Fund
- Would fund a GRIA Program Director and drafting professional concepts to re-design the Southwest corner of Wyman Park Dell (the slip lane) at 29th and Wyman Park Drive. If successful, would then need to go after additional funding to pay for the construction costs to execute the design.
- JHU Innovation Grant
Community Announcements
- Next Community Cleanup is Saturday March 15th, meet at CGA at 10 am
- Barbara at Church of the Guardian Angel – Thrift shop, runs 1st & 2nd Sat of the month, 10am – 2 pm, bring donations during open hours, also seeking volunteers; Food Pantry, every Wednesday from 9 am – 10 am
- Volunteer call out for flyer volunteers! Please reach out to Jen at volunteers@griaonline.org to take a flyering route next month!
- SB0788 : Bill to allow Baltimore City to issue addition liquor licenses for businesses that meet certain requirements, requires an MOU with GRIA if it passes; Sponsored by Mary Washington – Daryl Thorpe is her Community and Legislative Director (mary.washington@senate.state.md.us)
- Baltimore Police Department – Crime statistics last month in comparison to last year: 1 robbery, 3 larcenies (all car tags), 1 aggravated assault (road rage) [that’s it]
- States Attorney’s Office (Gary Crum, GCrum@stattorney.org) – Strategic Plan and update for this year is on website
- Quentin Vennie – Macha Cafe pop-up in the old JBGB space Equitea
- Councilmember Jones: BGE – hearing is Thurs on rate increase, March 20th zoning bill opportunity to put in language to bar the overhead wires for the BGE project at the Lower Remington substation (see January minutes)