Today people all over the city are wearing red to show that Richmonders care about the quality of public education.
Today people all over the city are wearing red to show that Richmonders care about the quality of public education.
According to Chris Lombardi, fifth grade teacher at Mary Munford Elementary School, there are two major issues that need more awareness in regards to RPS.
The first being the quality of the school buildings, saying that a lack of maintenance and repairs has and continues to affect a student’s desire and ability to learn.
“Students are having to wear winter coats and gloves in the classrooms as well as having to deal with sweltering heat in the summer,” Lombardi said. ”That’s not going to make them excited to learn and make it hard for them to pay attention.”
There have been reports of rats, falling ceiling tiles and mold from inside of Richmond’s schools.
“A child’s job is to go to school and I don’t know how you can expect them to be productive in such environments,” Lombardi said.
Fox Elementary First Graders wear red to support RPS
You can see photos of these decaying educational environments in a Style Weekly story here. Though the photos were published over two years ago, Lombardi said the quality of these buildings have not improved much.
The conditions also affect employees of the schools, which this year has a decade high 13% attrition rate. Meaning that 13 out of every 100 employees in the public school system are either getting jobs in other school systems or quitting their careers in education all together.
“When you are looking for a prospective job the things you care about are working enviroment and salary,” Lombardi said. “RPS has enacted a pay compression where someone with 0 years of experience is making the same amount as someone with 9 years under their belt.”
It is going to take more than students and teachers speaking out about these issues, Lombardi believes, the cause needs more voices to join in to get changes made.
“We need more people to show support for our public schools,” Lombardi said. “So many believe that others will fight the good fight for them but we need more voices speaking out. If you care you need to be involved.”
This is the first year that Richmond has a had a ‘wear red for education’ day, and as you can see by the Support Richmond Public Schools Facebook page people have been coming out to show their support.
If you could not wear red today there are other ways to aid the push to fix RPS, there will be a rally in front of city hall on April 11 at 5pm. Following the rally, there will be a group of people going to the second floor of town hall to address concerns at a city council meeting. You can also check the Support RPS Facebook page for updates and sign this petition to show your support.
