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Not In My Schoolyard

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A recent “pairing” proposal to help integrate two Richmond city schools has run into a backlash that, in some eyes, harks back to the bad old days of Massive Resistance.

The Richmond Public School System’s solution to improve diversity has frustrated some residents to the point that they are threatening to leave the district. And some see the situation as a direct call back to the city’s mid-20th century struggles to integrate, which eventually led to the Supreme Court.

It all began when RPS employed the services of Cropper GIS, a company that works on demographic and facility planning for K-12 school systems, in order to alleviate overcrowding due to projections of a 6.6 percent increase in overall RPS enrollment within the next 10 years. The Richmond City School Board also hoped to place more students into new school buildings, and to increase student body diversity.

Cropper GIS proposed two possible solutions to take effect during the 2020-2021 school year, which would impact around 10 percent of students currently enrolled in RPS schools. One would move around 1200 students to different schools, mostly in the East End, with the goal of putting more students into George Mason Elementary, which will open in fall 2020.

The other option would impact less than half the number of students, and would involve the pairing of four elementary schools. Fairfield Court Elementary and Woodville Elementary would be paired, as would William Fox Elementary and John B. Cary Elementary.

“Pairing” is a process that involves combining student bodies, then putting fewer grades into each school within the pair. In the case of Fox and Cary, their respective school districts would be combined, with all students from the combined district attending Fox for kindergarten through second grade, and Cary for third through fifth grade.

When the pairing of Fox and Cary was announced, several parents within the Fox district spoke up in opposition to it, and that opposition has created tension throughout the Richmond public school community.

Both Cropper GIS and RPS were open about the fact that the pairing plan was introduced in order to improve the diversity of both schools. At the moment, students enrolled at Fox are 60 percent white, while Cary’s enrollment is 83 percent black. If the proposal goes into effect, these divergent numbers would stabilize, with Cary having a population of 52 percent black and 42 percent white, and Fox having a population of 44 percent black and 47 percent white.

Richmond Public Schools Superintendent Jason Kamras (Photo via rvaschools.net)

Richmond Schools Superintendent Jason Kamras expressed support for the proposals to diversify the school systems. “Anywhere we have an opportunity to create a more diverse, more integrated school environments is a great thing, and I want to work with [parents] to figure that out,” Kamras said in an interview with the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

However, several parents with children currently enrolled at William Fox Elementary have expressed their apprehension at the pairing on the Richmond Public Schools feedback form; responses to this form were obtained by the Richmond Times-Dispatch through a FOIA request.

“My youngest daughter would enter Kindergarten the same year that her older sister would be bussed over to Cary Elementary,” said one parent. “Our girls would never go to elementary school together and I would have two children at two different elementary schools.”

Other parents voice their concern regarding the developmental impact that switching schools halfway through elementary school would have on their children.

“Developmentally, this is a delicate time for children and they need the stability of their friends and resources they have come to be comfortable with,” said a parent from William Fox Elementary. Of course, friends who are in the same grade would be changing schools at the same time.

Several parents from Fox also claimed that they moved to the district specifically so their children could attend William Fox Elementary. They claimed that if the pairing of Fox and Cary went into effect they would either move out of the city, or enroll their children in private schools. 

“If option 2 is passed I know that I, along with many other neighbors, would carefully weigh the decision of whether to send my children to private school or to move out of the district for a better elementary school option for our family,” said a Fox parent. 

William Fox Elementary (Photo via rvaschools.net)

This is not the first time Fox and Cary have been at the center of an integration debacle. In 2013, the school district voted to move students from Clark Springs Elementary, a majority-black school, into the Cary district. Then, students from the majority white section of the Cary district were transferred to Fox. This reshuffling in 2013 increased the racial polarity of the schools.

That decision actually resulted in a lawsuit by Kimberly Johnson, who was then the parent of an RPS student. The lawsuit alleged that the 2013 redistricting was discriminatory, but it was ultimately dismissed due to the fact that Johnson had moved to Henrico County and no longer had a child attending RPS schools.

Witnessing the response to the pairing proposal, Kamras commented on Twitter about the ways those responses mirrored things white parents had said about public schools during Virginia’s attempts to integrate 50 years earlier.

“Re Fox-Cary pairing: The loudest feedback sounds eerily like Massive Resistance 2.0,” Kamras tweeted on July 17. “BUT I’ve also received a lot of feedback from families of all backgrounds who welcome the idea. In fact, I believe they’re the majority. I encourage them to share their perspective publicly.”

Kamras’s reference to Massive Resistance referred to an organized campaign in response to the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board Of Education decision, which desegregated public schools throughout the country. Begun by Senator Harry Byrd of Virginia, the Massive Resistance campaign lasted nearly two decades, and saw some public school districts close for as many as five years in an effort to block white and black students from attending the same schools.

The threats of parents to move out of the city is reminiscent of the late 60s and early 70s, when Massive Resistance had been ended by a 1968 Supreme Court decision and Richmond Public Schools began a court-ordered citywide busing program in order to integrate student populations within different schools.

This decision brought about strong opposition from white families. Ultimately, in the 1973 Bradley v. Board Of Education decision, the Supreme Court ruled that inter-district busing had to be limited to one school district, meaning that students who lived in surrounding counties could not be bused into Richmond, or vice versa. This decision spurred an increase in “white flight” to the surrounding counties and to more expensive private schools, leading to de facto segregation in which black students in the Richmond metropolitan area made up the vast majority of students at city schools, while white students were the majority in private schools and the surrounding counties.

However, almost 50 years later, these trends have swung the other way — between 2005 and 2013, Richmond’s white population increased by 30 percent, according to StatChat. At this point, Richmond’s white population is growing at a faster rate than the city’s black population — and gentrification is at the root of this growth.

Massive Resistance protesters in Norfolk (via Virginia Museum Of History and Culture)

Kamras’s tweet struck a chord with many Richmond residence witnessing the tensions over the school systems proposal.

“We love Fox, but more importantly we love RPS,” one resident tweeted in response to Kamras’s tweet. “Any change will involve growing pains, but also a great opportunity for growth. We support rezoning that makes ALL RPS schools more equitable.” 

Some residents with students attending Fox recognized the weight of what the school board is trying to achieve, and voiced their support.

“Currently zoned in Fox with a toddler. We support all efforts that dismantle segregation, exclusion of Black families, and entrenched privilege for white families,” a supporter of the pairing proposal tweeted. 

The proposal has also sparked the interest of residents outside of Fox and Cary, who are calling for similar changes in their neighborhood.

“I’m a Northside parent affected by rezoning,” tweeted a parent. “My neighbors would love to see a plan similar to Fox/Cary pairing in our district that could unite our 3 elem. schools & promote path to middle & HS. We’re concerned current plans don’t go far enough to create integration & equity.”

In an effort to increase dialogue around the controversial pairing proposal, RPS held a public meeting at Fox Elementary last Thursday. Around 75 people came to offer feedback on the subject. According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, one Fox Elementary parent expressed concerns about RPS’s ability to create diversity within the city’s student bodies.

“Most people in this community are committed to the ideal of diversity,” said the parent. “I think there’s concern about how capable the School Board is and [Richmond Public Schools] is in actually implementing that in a thoughtful way.”

Richmond School Board member Scott Barlow told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that the board could vote on the plan as early as November, though that would ultimately depend on feedback they receive from the public. Another public meeting on the subject will take place at Fox Elementary on Tuesday, August 13 at 530 PM.

Additional reporting by Marilyn Drew Necci. Top Photo via rvaschools.net.

Richmond Public Schools Adds LGBTQ-Affirming Language to Student Code of Responsible Ethics

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RPS and Side By Side worked together in order to make school a more inclusive place for Richmond’s LGBTQ students.

At last Monday’s meeting of the School Board for Richmond Public Schools, the school district presented the first draft of a revision to the school system’s Student Code of Responsible Ethics (SCORE). And one of the most important changes presented as part of that draft was a passage specifically intended to give LGBTQ RPS students a boost.

In his May 21 newsletter, RPS Superintendent Jason Kamras acknowledged the help of Side By Side, the youth-focused LGBTQ advocacy organization, in drafting the SCORE’s new language. “I want to thank Side by Side for their partnership on the SCORE revision,” he wrote. “It’s been invaluable.”

Kamras referred to the LGBTQ-related passages added to the SCORE as “language specifically designed to affirm and embrace our LGBTQ+ students.” He specifically quoted an addition to the policy’s statement about dress code: “Administration and enforcement of the dress code will be consistent across the student body, regardless of actual or perceived gender identity or sexual orientation, gender expression, race, ethnicity, and body size and/or type.”

During the school board meeting, Side By Side Executive Director Ted Lewis spoke about the need for the policy to also contain a chosen-name policy and an inclusive bathroom policy, in order to “ensure all our RPS students are affirmed in their identity,” according to a facebook status posted by Side By Side on Tuesday. “We are grateful for the support of Superintendent Kamras on making these needed changes to school policy,” Side By Side stated in the post.

In his newsletter, Kamras stated that the chosen-name policy would be added to the current revision of RPS’s SCORE, and said that the inclusive bathroom policy was something the administration would “work on developing policies for… over the course of the 2019-20 school year.”

“The very least we can do when our students come to us every day is ensure they feel welcomed and loved for who they are,” Kamras stated. “I am committed to ensuring that RPS is a national leader on this front.”

Superintendent Kamras Urges Trust, As Some Richmonders Express Skepticism

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Last week, Richmond Public Schools Superintendent Jason Kamras met with community members for an open discussion on plans to improve Richmond Public Schools.

Kamras called the discussion a “Trust Town Hall,” announcing the event in an April 13 op-ed for the Richmond Times Dispatch. In the op-ed, Kamras wrote that the main issue he heard Richmonders express with RPS’s request for greater funding was that they didn’t trust the school system to use the funds effectively.

“I want to hear every one of your concerns, discuss what we might be able to do to address them, and attempt to earn your trust,” Kamras wrote of the Trust Town Hall event.

However, despite Kamras’s pitch, come the 23rd, the invitation didn’t fill the seats in the Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School auditorium. The community turned out in small numbers, with only about 30 people attending the event.

“I honestly don’t even know what it is,” said one Richmond Public Schools teacher when asked what he thought of Kamras holding a “Trust Town Hall.”

Though Kamras welcomed disagreement and discussion with charisma and approachability, audience members didn’t shy from the hard-hitting questions. The first question asked of Kamras was about graduation rates in the cities schools. Data from the Department of Education shows that, between 2017 and 2018, Richmond had a decrease in graduation rates.

Paying teachers well to keep them working in the system, creating the best curriculums that interest and engage students, all while preparing them for real life, and providing support systems for students who face challenges in their school and home lives were just some of the methods Kamras said the school system could use to increase graduation rates.

The RTD column and “Trust Town Hall” discussion resulted in part from Kamras’ support of Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney’s budget proposal.

“I believe in him and what he’s trying to do for the city,” Kamras said of the mayor. “And I don’t say that lightly.”

Stoney’s proposed budget would fund Richmond Public Schools’ budget for the upcoming fiscal year with an increase in the city’s property tax rate, from $1.20 per $100 of assessed value to $1.29, along with a cigarette tax of 50 cents per pack sold in the city. While the mayor’s budget is unlikely to be approved as proposed, it now seems likely that City Council will fully fund the budget amount requested by the School Board.

Many attendees wanted to discuss how the budget would be funded.

“I feel like it’s easy for you to say ‘Let’s raise taxes’ when you make $250 thousand a year,” one Richmond resident said to Kamras.

Last year, Richmond’s meal tax was raised to help fund school improvements.

“Clearly the tax last year — the meals tax — didn’t solve the problems,” said the same resident.

A few times during the discussion, Kamras directed the crowd to open the strategic-plan booklets that had been handed out. The Dreams4RPS strategic plan lays out the top 10 goals for the school system over the next five years. Among them were some of the main topics for Tuesday’s discussion, including graduation, teacher retention, and funding. The list also includes achieving 100% accreditation and aiming towards equity. The goals can be found listed in full on the RPS website.

One attendee’s concern was based in a lack of measurable goals.

“If I presented this to my boss today, I’d get fired,” said a resident. “I’d get fired because there’s no form of measurement within this plan.”

Kamras said a lot of the work to be done is in creating baseline data over the next few years.

“We don’t currently have some measurement of satisfaction,” Kamras said.

For that particular goal, teachers, students, and families will receive surveys in the coming years to help determine a baseline for satisfaction. Kamras also stressed that, for all ten of the main goals, which were approved unanimously by the school board, it’s going to be a long-term process.

“We didn’t get where we are in a few years,” Kamras said. “We’re not going to 100% climb out of it in a few years.”

Photo via Church Hill People’s News

Upbeat Superintendent Offers Plan to Improve Richmond Schools

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Richmond Public Schools Superintendent Jason Kamras delivered an optimistic message in his first State of the Schools address — even though the district has the worst graduation rate in Virginia and more than half of its schools lack accreditation.

“I wasn’t sure where to begin tonight because it’s been such a quiet year at RPS,” Kamras said Tuesday, laughing as a picture of a nearly two-foot-tall stack of newspapers showed on the stage’s screen. “How many times did we grace the front page? Well … there you go,” Kamras told more than 200 people in the auditorium of Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School.  

Jokes aside, Kamras celebrated the steps RPS has taken in the last year to improve several issues plaguing the district. These efforts included renovating bathrooms in deteriorating buildings, working to correct student transcripts, improving chronic student absenteeism (down 2 percent from last school year), engaging in advocacy measures and increasing teachers’ salaries by 2 percent.  

“Perhaps most powerful of all, we renamed J.E.B. Stuart Elementary to Barack Obama Elementary,” Kamras said. “School names are just symbols, but symbols matter, especially when it comes to Richmond’s history, and present, on race.”

Richmond Public Schools Superintendent Jason Kamras

Despite the progress made, Kamras said the district still has work to do. Fewer than half of RPS schools are accredited, and Kamras said the city’s graduation rate is the lowest in Virginia.

“There is absolutely nothing broken about our students … We [the adults] are on the hook for those statistics, not them,” Kamras said.

Dreams 4 RPS is the five-year strategic plan born from 170 community meetings and input from over 3,000 participants. “This isn’t my plan. It’s not the board’s plan … It’s our plan because it reflects the hopes and dreams of everyone in the RPS family,” Kamras said.

Dreams 4 RPS  features five priority areas: teaching and learning, staff, school culture, family and community, and infrastructure. Each priority is divided into action steps, 40 total,  that outline specific goals like hiring more male teachers of color and introducing hands-on and engaging curriculum.

“We can’t expect greatness from our students if we don’t ask greatness of them, and we’re going to raise the bar and ask greatness of our students a whole lot more in the coming years,” Kamras said.

The plan also explains the need for increased trauma-informed care. Kamras said 20 RPS students were shot and six were killed in the past 12 months. “Most teachers were never trained to help young people deal with those kinds of tragedies,” Kamras said. He said providing that kind of training is necessary for both student and staff support.

The fully implemented plan will cost $150 million over the next five years, which covers training programs, building improvements, school resources, salaries and more. Kamras said though RPS can and should act more wisely with finances, “We must continue to advocate for more.”

In December, RPS organized the March for More, and last month, the district participated in another march called Red for Ed. Kamras said continued pressure on the General Assembly is necessary to increase school funding.

With a strategic plan in place and problems to solve, Kamras is upbeat as he looks to the future.

“If I were to sum up the state of our schools in one word, I would say we are ‘rising,’” he said.  “We are rising together, and nothing can stop us.”

Post-Accreditation, Former and Current Teachers Assess the City’s State of Education

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Richmond’s public schools are deep into the 2018-2019 semester, with midterm exams on the horizon for some, and the long shadow cast by the condition of the city’s education hanging over all.

That condition, detailed in a report released on September 27 by the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE), revealed that less than half of Richmond Public Schools (RPS) met the state education standards required to be awarded accreditation. Additional data released by VDOE also showed RPS had statewide lows in on-time graduation rates and attendance, and statewide highs in dropout and absentee rates at a middle school and high school level. The sole omission was George Washington Carver Elementary, who became embroiled in a cheating scandal earlier this year.

For Gladys Wilder, a retired teacher with 30 years of experience in RPS primary, correctional, exceptional and special education that includes establishing an annual “book tasting” event at Swansboro Elementary, the effort to meet state standards is still fresh in mind.

“It was a struggle to get there. But Swansboro broke out because of leadership,” Wilder said. “I mean local leadership, in-school leadership, principals and assistant principals. It was a whole school effort.”

“No child, no human learns the same way. There’s no box where you can put every child and this is it. Our philosophy, and I’m sure the philosophy now, is every child can learn, every child can achieve. You just have to meet that child where it is.”

RPS Superintendent Jason Kamras seems to share some of Wilder’s beliefs.  In a statement published following the report’s release, Kamras was adamant that any cause for the data’s findings didn’t come from the learning ability of RPS’s students, instead serving as “a reflection of our failure to provide them with the education they deserve.”

My administration is committed to changing this – once and for all – for every young person in RPS, Kamras said.

Wilder, for her part, stressed the importance of not placing guilt for educational failures on individual error, including parents and educators, something she felt may been implied in the wording of Kamras’ response.

“To me, is that like placing the blame on those who are in the trenches, the teachers? I will not do that,” Wilder said, instead drawing attention to the curriculums teachers are expected to abide by — and may occasionally have to veer away from to ensure all students learn what they need.

True to her skillset, Wilder referenced Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem The Charge of the Light Brigade in describing this situation RPS teachers are placed in.

“There’s blame all over,” Wilder said.

The state requirements for accreditation, recently updated in 2017, include increases in academic performance and decreases in failures in advancement, with special focus for high schools on absenteeism, graduation and dropout rates, in addition to the Standards of Learning (SOL) pass rates that were the sole criteria for accreditation in the past.

The continued presence of SOLs, and the challenges they bring to education, was a point of concern for both Wilder and Sharonda Ragland, an instructor in Virginia Union University’s Department of Mathematics.

“We need to stop teaching to the test,” Wilder said. “If you just teach to the test, and if the words in the test are not what you’re teaching, the kids are going to fail. Teach the child.”

Joining the conversation, Ragland adds, “And they don’t learn at the same rates, but they’re expected to take a standardized test that all of them may not be prepared for.”

Just because it works for one doesn’t mean it’s going to work for all. You’ve got to see what works for your school.

The topic of preparation for students is one Ragland is familiar with, serving last year in a math and science summer program designed to act as a “stepping stone” to college-level coursework for high school students, complete with college credit, improved study habits and early connections with other students. Virginia Union is also home to the Upward Bound program, offering graduating high school students in the RPS system a brief but direct experience at college-level courses and residential life.

Referring to her experience in the summer program, Ragland said, “The ones that have come in through that bridge seem to retain better versus the ones just coming from high school to college without any preparation. It makes a difference.”

The question of how RPS moves forward following this report is one with a number of answers. Tinkhani Ushe White, Ed.D., whose experience stretches from RPS teacher to principal in the Henrico County Public School system to School Improvement Specialist with Chesterfield Public Schools, suggests a path forward may lie in greater cooperation between state authorities, school divisions and the schools themselves. However, White acknowledges the difficulty this method may have with solving “issues outside the school’s control,” like absenteeism or poverty.

“The big thing there is for schools divisions and states to work hand in hand with their schools to try to figure out the issues that are preventing schools from reaching those minimum benchmarks, and then working to supply those needs and close those gaps,” White said.

Gary Broderick, an advocate for Richmond education and School Board candidate in Richmond’s 7th District, had his own ideas in his diagnosis of what he described as a “moral crisis for our city” in a statement to RVA Mag. Broderick wrote that fair funding and compensation should serve as parts of creating an ”atmosphere of support that makes long term investment in RPS a sustainable choice for teachers.”

Gary Broderick, School Board Candidate. Photo by Gary Broderick

“The path forward is clear,” Broderick wrote. “We must exert the political courage to demand corporations pay their fair share of taxes, so that we can staff our schools properly and wholly counteract the racist and systemic defunding of our schools.”

Some measure of Broderick’s recommendation may be coming to RPS, as Richmond City Council prepares for an uphill battle in requesting greater state support for public education as part of the city’s legislative package during the upcoming General Assembly session.

RPS Fails to Supply Schools With Toilet Paper and Other Essentials

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Nearly 50 Richmond Public Schools are struggling to keep basic supplies stocked, such as toilet paper, paper towels, and soap, during the last two weeks of school, according to local parents.

Last Friday, World of Mirth posted to their Facebook page a call to action for anyone who wished to donate supplies to a long list of public schools across the state. The post was both in response to an online public sign-up sheet posted on Sign Up Genius by Cindy Anderson, as well as complaints from World of Mirth owner Thea Brown’s son.

My son is a 9th grader at [Thomas Jefferson High School] and he said he doesn’t use the bathroom because there is maybe one roll of toilet paper in a bathroom if you are lucky, and absolutely no soap,” Brown said. “When he got to high school, he thought maybe they just didn’t have hand soap in high school.

World of Mirth also started an Amazon wish list for anyone who wishes to ship supplies either to a school or to the store, from which they will make deliveries. Schools listed as options for donation on Sign Up Genius include Chimborazo Elementary School, Lucille Brown Middle School, and John Marshall High School, as well as 54 other public schools and public educational centers. Brown spent eight hours this morning delivering supplies to schools after dozens of volunteers donated supplies.

“I just got back from delivering to 10 different schools and I had a head custodian hug me with tears in his eyes because he had just gotten back from Wal-mart spending his own money to buy toilet paper for the kids [at Reid Elementary],” Brown said. “They were incredibly grateful. We walked into one school and they yelled, ‘Toilet paper! We’ve been waiting for you all morning!’”

According to Anderson, only five schools out of 54 on the list contacted her asking to be taken off the list, as they were well-stocked and did not want to take supplies away from other schools who may need it. Anderson is a member of the Parent-Teacher Association at Albert Hill High School, where her son attends the 8th grade.

“We don’t need folks to donate,” Jason Kamras, superintendent of Richmond Public Schools, said in a Tweet delivered on Saturday. “A couple of schools had issues on Friday. That’s unacceptable and I’ve made that abundantly clear to the RPS team. But I guarantee that every school will have supplies on Monday morning.”

Kamras then asked if anyone knew their school was out of supplies, they could message him directly on the issue. When contacted about the issue, Kamras’ media office replied that there was a delay in a supply order, but the issue has been resolved as of today. According to Anderson, 40 orders of toilet paper were backordered due to a lack of funding.

“As of right now, I have not heard anything about whether the schools have received anything from administration,” Anderson said. “What I do know is I just got a text from one of the people out delivering and every school has been very appreciative and said they were a ‘blessing in disguise.’ I just know that it’s not two schools, it was all but five [out of 54].”

Anderson began the donation list after seeing Facebook posts from local teachers on the Support Richmond Public Schools page who claimed their schools had no toilet paper, soap, and had to borrow paper towels from a neighboring school. The teacher also said children were using their pants to wipe their hands after using the restrooms.

“I cringe thinking about teenage girls in middle school and high school dealing with their periods every month,” Brown said. “We have to show to our kids and prove to them that we believe in them and that they are important, and that we are investing in their future.”

Parents continue to report complaints from their children that this is an ongoing issue, not an isolated instance. Betsy Milburn, mother of four, said her children complain every year about the lack of supplies, the disrepair of the bathrooms, as well as her daughter’s reluctance to use school bathrooms. 

“I find it frustrating when the school system tweets out that it’s only a couple schools who need supplies, and then a parent calls every school and it’s only a couple of schools who don’t need supplies,” Milburn said. “I think that RPS can do better and should do better. When the basics work, then the big things can be tackled. We can’t tackle anything big until we can do the simple things.”

The School Board is set to discuss the budget Monday night, which will include money for toiletries.