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Op-Ed: Let’s Show Confidence In Mr. Kamras!

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Former Education Compact member Amy Wentz respond’s to last week’s editorial by Willie Hilliard, offering reasons why she believes Richmond Public Schools should renew Superintendent Jason Kamras’s contract for four years.

Well, well, well. Here we are again, Richmond Public Schools stakeholders: emotional, anxious, and exercising our thumbs in yet another high stakes debate. We are already stressed about the national political climate, the pandemic, injustice, and just ensuring our families are stable, but now we are adding to the long list of heated disagreements before this, like rezoning, facilities planning, toilet paper, meals tax, school closure/consolidation, and ultimately what is or isn’t best for students. What can I say? We are passionate about schools, sometimes to our own detriment.

First, I want to express that these are my thoughts. My thoughts are not more important or to be held at a higher regard than any others and it’s perfectly OK to disagree with me or counter with information of your own. Either way, the decision around Jason Kamras’ contract is now up to our new School Board, so don’t let it give you heart palpitations. Take a deep breath. Inhale. Exhale. OK. Now you can continue reading.

I’m going to make this easy, with just a rebuttal to the Op-Ed RPS Alumnus/Parent, Education Compact Member and Community Advocate Willie Hilliard submitted the other day in RVA Mag. Why? Because I share all of these titles with him and it’s important that fellow stakeholders can learn from different perspectives and viewpoints. (We have something else in common, but who really wants to bring that up again? Lol) I graduated from Huguenot High School in the late 90’s. My oldest graduated from RPS in 2016, and my youngest is a first Grader at JL Francis.  

Speaking to Willie’s assertion that “Mr. Kamras has brought a top-down approach to our community, caring more about corporate interests than including all of Richmond’s students, families, and teachers in the future of their schools.” Mr. Kamras has had a solid track record of using an extremely collaborative approach to his leadership. From my view, we have never seen the amount of grassroots partnerships, black led organizations, listening sessions, engagement opportunities and ways to give input and be heard that we have had these past three years. This is not something that should be reduced to unimportant. Consideration and compassion speak to culture, and that overwhelmingly matters to parents.

Willie says, “RPS students do benefit from stability during a pandemic, and therefore, Mr. Kamras’s contract should be renewed for two years. However, we should expect more of our public servants than using a pandemic to leverage for more, especially as Richmonders have, for the past three years, used our public dollars to pay him over five times the median Richmond salary.” Students benefit from stability in general. Not just during a pandemic. A two-year contract does not provide that. Anecdotally, the urban districts that are generally lifted up as some of the strongest examples of continuous improvement over the past 20 or 30 years had superintendents with nearly decade-long tenures, such as Carl Cohn in Long Beach, CA, or Thomas Payzant in Boston. Regarding salaries, I remember when Kim Gray was running for Mayor, she had a similar grievance, and Politico did a fact check. Also, here is some information on Mr. Kamras’s predecessor’s salary. And it’s important to note with the raises RPS has enacted since then, his predecessor would be making $254,209, more than Mr. Kamras, who has not taken any of these raises, makes now. To present additional context, in surrounding counties, Chesterfield County’s Superintendent Salary makes $217,726; Henrico County’s Superintendent makes $221,000.

“Mr. Kamras initially pushed for school reopening, but brave RPS families and teachers organized and spoke in no uncertain terms that reopening schools was not acceptable. It was the power of the people that forced Jason Kamras to acknowledge that a majority of his schools would be empty and unstaffed if he pushed to reopen schools,” says Willie. This isn’t even a reach; it’s totally false. He LED the NATION in quickly announcing that schools should and would close. Mr. Kamras closed schools before even the Governor made the decision to do so and was the first to extend the closure to go all the way through spring break. He has also been concerned about very high-need students and initially advocated for providing them with some in-person instruction in the fall, but ultimately recommended to the School Board that RPS open the 2020-21 school year virtually. Lastly, Mr. Kamras recommended that RPS remain virtual for the second semester while other districts have been opening and closing, causing incredible instability for families. Shout out to the power of the people, but when you can’t even give credit when it’s due, that’s a problem.

From Willie’s perspective: “But instead of bringing the community together, Jason Kamras has caused division and conflict, making decisions behind closed doors and bringing many highly-paid C-suite officers from Washington, DC. Even more divisive is his demand to receive a four-year contract or he will leave.” What evidence is there that Kamras has “caused division and conflict”? On the contrary, he seems to be working incredibly hard to bring the RPS community together. OK, he brought with him three colleagues. Fair, but isn’t that a sign of an effective leader? That people would want to uproot and move to work with someone? Also, these members of the Leadership team aren’t from DC: Sandra Lee, Chief Talent Officer; Shadae Harris, Chief Engagement Officer; Tracy Epp, Chief Academic Officer; and soon to be: Alana Agosto Gonzalez, Chief Operating Officer.

Willie asserts, “The only path to lasting school improvement is real partnership — not a series of backroom deals led by corporate interests that seek to reduce the public’s voice in our schools.” I actually agree and believe there has been real partnership. What backroom deals, Willie? Your associates list none in the reference document.

Another part reads, “In districts across the country, we have seen that divisive turnaround strategies can temporarily boost test scores while sowing the seeds of division. When superintendents move on to their next job, they leave communities with less ownership of their schools and no sustainable, shared, lasting commitment — the commitment that research shows leads to the deep change that our students and teachers deserve. And at this point, due to the pandemic and the cancellations of SOLs, we lack even the barest of abilities to judge the Superintendent’s performance while he fights for a four-year contract.” I feel like this is actually an argument against your write up. He’s showing us he wants a sustainable and lasting commitment. Also, is it not contradictory to hold up SOLs as support for this argument? Let’s all fight to cancel SOLs but then use it as leverage against our Superintendent’s contract?

“Black and Latinx communities are the most likely to have change done to them instead of with them. More than 80 percent of the students in Richmond’s public schools are not white. We reject approaches that are not led with the people most impacted, especially when we see alarming evidence of declining graduation rates in certain RPS cohorts.” OK, Willie, here is our Graduation Data from VDOE. A few points to note: Class of 2018 (Mr. Kamras arrived in February of that year): 75.4 percent. Class of 2019, the year in which Kamras ended unethical practices that were artificially inflating rates, was 70.7 percent. Class of 2020 is 71.6 percent, and we are moving back UP ethically. Do we want to see greater numbers? Absolutely. Give him a chance!

Willie says, “Time and time again, Jason Kamras has managed our public schools from behind closed doors. Instead of building strong public support for education through transparency and shared responsibility, the Kamras administration has made decisions in secret in violation of open meeting laws, hidden information that should be publicly available, and even restricted people’s ability to openly criticize the district.” Speaking to the resource linked, Mr. Kamras is on record not wanting to put the names of the cut employees out in public, as he thought doing so would be disrespectful. The democratically elected School Board voted to proceed without sharing the names. This was not a unilateral action by Mr. Kamras. I mean, Richmond will openly criticize any and everything. We aren’t a shy bunch at all, so I’m not sure I follow on that part. In transparency, I did not agree with the removal of these positions, but wanted to speak on the “secret meeting” referenced.

“The Kamras administration fought against reporting teacher retention data as part of the Dreams4RPS Strategic plan,” Willie says. I’ve seen this stated before, but it’s just not true. The Administration asked UVA to calculate teacher retention using agreed-upon common definitions and statistical analysis so that there is uniformity across all years of reporting. To read the administrations 87-page summary of how each goal is calculated, click here. UVA produces this data, in a partnership with the state, with about a year lag. The Administration did not fight against reporting the data, they just did not have it yet from UVA. And when they did get it, they reported it, and teacher retention was flat year over year.  I’ll add that I agree that teacher retention needs added attention. I’ll also add that teacher and staff satisfaction was up 5 percent year over year. Also,the 2018 Promise and Equity Audit was never funded by the Board, so that’s not on him. Let’s give this a push in this year’s budget cycle.

“Kamras is working for corporations and his personal networks, not our kids.” OK, many of our RPS teachers got their start with Teach for America. Is this something that has to negatively follow them for the rest of their careers? Here’s a list of non-evil people who are associated with TFA that went on to do good things. On his two years with the Broad Academy: This is a widely respected program and it’s unfair to associate some of its graduates to Mr. Kamras. If anything, he’s worked in the opposite direction in his time in Richmond. On Great Minds: The democratically elected School Board approved the contract with Great Minds for a math curriculum that is the most widely used in the United States. As far as Navy Hill: The only time Mr. Kamras did or said anything related to Navy Hill was acknowledging, alongside School Board Chair (at the time) Dawn Page, the Mayor’s commitment to give half of all revenues to schools. Should he have stayed out of it? I can agree on that. But is that working for corporations? Nah.

“Jason Kamras’s ties to corporations mean he won’t stand up to demand that they contribute to funding our schools through a higher corporate tax rate. The residents of Richmond should not be asked to bear the cost of schools alone when the corporate tax rate hasn’t been raised for 40 years, but Jason Kamras will not fight for fair funding.” We all know the Superintendent of schools has no control over our corporate tax rate. As the kids say, bruhhh! There are endless examples of Mr. Kamras fighting for our school district. Here, here, here, here, and here. In fact, he has supported every single tax increase proposed by the state and city for increased school funding.

“Kamras has not supported teachers or effective instruction, and we all know that the most important factor in a child’s education is the quality of their teachers.” In this section, Willie mentions the chosen curriculum, but it’s important to note that both were approved by the School Board, are highly respected, and were selected by a panel of RPS teachers. If the majority of teachers don’t agree with the decisions the panel made, let’s address that, but to imply that the collective decision means he’s unsupportive is unsubstantiated. As far as the “failed practices of Washington DC,” an independent study by UVA found that Kamras’s work in DCPS led to increases in teacher quality and student achievement. Assessing these practices is fair, but regardless how we feel about it, Mr. Kamras has not instituted any such program in Richmond.

I don’t want this to go to a fifth page, so I’ll get to the bottom line. We say that we want systemic and structural change, but to do so, we must understand and commit to doing this work for the long haul. Mr. Kamras came on board in February of 2018. That’s only one complete instructional year to assess before the pandemic hit and we were forced into a virtual environment. This is how we sound: “FIX OUR SCHOOLS! But you can’t adjust the curriculum, you can’t adjust teacher schedules, you can’t hire your own staff, you can’t adjust the calendar.” The way we fix schools is to be honest in our assessments. If you can’t even give credit where it’s due and have to inflate the facts to make your points, it’s a disservice to students. Let’s identify what we are getting wrong, and work with our school board to put the right measures in place to hold our Superintendent accountable. We can’t just continue to throw the whole thing away every few years.

Kamras has worked tirelessly to elevate our voices:

  • held over 170 community meetings for the strategic plan
  • launched five Advisory Councils: Students, Teachers, Families, Principals, and School Reopening
  • launched RPS en Vivo weekly livestream for Spanish-speaking families
  • launched RPS en Espanol Facebook page for Spanish-speaking families
  • launched RPS Live! weekly livestream for English-speaking families
  • appears weekly on the Gary Flowers show
  • appears weekly on Radio Poder with Oscar Contreras
  • appears weekly on Miss Clovia
  • has conducted hundreds of school visits, living room meetings, and community walks
  • answers every email from everyone – no matter who you are

I have to take into account the good with the bad:

  • tackling the Carver scandal that existed well before he arrived
  • tackling the transcript and graduation scandal that existed well before he arrived
  • tackling rezoning
  • creating a strategic plan with the community that was unanimously approved by the School Board – and actually implementing it
  • partnering with the Mayor and Council to increase RPS funding significantly
  • establishing a much better relationship with the VDOE
  • hiring many new principals with a focus on instructional leadership.

Every superintendent knows that anything less than a full contract is a vote of no confidence from a School Board. When Superintendent Cashwell had two full years left on her contract (Mr. Kamras has a few months), Henrico pre-emptively extended her contract two more years, in effect giving her a six-year contract. Why did they do so? As the RTD reported: “’We wanted to show our confidence in her,’ School Board Chairman Roscoe Cooper said after Thursday’s meeting. ‘We had the authority to do it, so we did it.’” Let’s show confidence in Mr. Kamras with a four-year contract, then work with our school board to ensure we add accountability measures towards our challenges.

Note: Op-Eds are contributions from guest writers and do not reflect RVA Mag editorial policy.

Top Photo via RVASchools.net

Op-Ed: RPS Students Deserve Better Than Jason Kamras

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City Council candidate and Mayor’s Education Compact member Willie Hilliard says Richmond’s School Board should offer a two-year contract for continuity amidst the pandemic, but should not commit to the four-year contract Superintendent Jason Kamras wants.

RPS students deserve an excellent education, and building a welcoming, rigorous public school system involves all of us. But superintendent Jason Kamras has brought a top-down approach to our community, caring more about corporate interests than including all of Richmond’s students, families and teachers in the future of their schools. RPS students do benefit from stability during a pandemic, and therefore, Mr. Kamras’s contract should be renewed for two years. However, we should expect more of our public servants than using a pandemic to leverage for more, especially as Richmonders have, for the past three years, used our public dollars to pay him over five times the median Richmond salary. 

Mr. Kamras initially pushed for school reopening, but brave RPS families and teachers organized and spoke in no uncertain terms that reopening schools was not acceptable. It was the power of the people that forced Jason Kamras to acknowledge that a majority of his schools would be empty and unstaffed if he pushed to reopen schools.

We can give him credit for listening. We can give him credit for working hard. However, ultimately we need to pursue the course of action best for RPS students and honor the school board that was just democratically elected by Richmond. That school board came to power as an expression of community will, and they should not tie their own hands by signing a four-year deal. 

The dreams of our students, not to mention our economy and our democracy, are built on a foundation of strong public schools. Now more than ever, we need to engage our entire community to put the needs of Richmond’s students first. But instead of bringing the community together, Jason Kamras has caused division and conflict, making decisions behind closed doors and bringing many highly-paid C-suite officers from Washington, DC. Even more divisive is his demand to receive a four-year contract or he will leave. 

Richmond Public Schools need change. By so many measures we can see that our children deserve better, but we know that a top-down, closed-door change won’t work. The people of Richmond are proud of their community, their teachers, their families and their young people. We want to be fully engaged in envisioning a new future. The only path to lasting school improvement is real partnership — not a series of backroom deals led by corporate interests that seek to reduce the public’s voice in our schools. In districts across the country, we have seen that divisive turnaround strategies can temporarily boost test scores while sowing the seeds of division. When superintendents move on to their next job, they leave communities with less ownership of their schools and no sustainable, shared, lasting commitment — the commitment that research shows leads to the deep change that our students and teachers deserve. And at this point, due to the pandemic and the cancellations of SOLs, we lack even the barest of abilities to judge the Superintendent’s performance while he fights for a four-year contract. 

Black and Latinx communities are the most likely to have change done to them instead of with them. More than 80 percent of the students in Richmond’s public schools are not white. We reject approaches that are not led with the people most impacted, especially when we see alarming evidence of declining graduation rates in certain RPS cohorts. Every parent in Richmond wants a quality education for their child. And a great education is only possible if we create a long-term, shared vision for the Richmond Public Schools. We have to be sure that we are listening to all of the RPS communities and not simply the loudest or the most active on social media. 

Our children can’t afford to wait. Their future is now. We call on the School Board to renew the Superintendent’s contract for two years. We call for the Richmond Public Schools to be guided by the collective expertise of our educators, students and families. 

Jason Kamras has not been transparent or accountable to the public about the management of our schools. 

Time and time again, Jason Kamras has managed our public schools from behind closed doors. Instead of building strong public support for education through transparency and shared responsibility, the Kamras administration has made decisions in secret in violation of open meeting laws, hidden information that should be publicly available, and even restricted people’s ability to openly criticize the district. The Kamras administration fought against reporting teacher retention data as part of the Dreams4RPS Strategic plan; has consistently failed to make school board documents public; and has failed to complete the 2018 Promise of Equity Audit, a much-needed examination of the district’s racial inequalities. Advocates including the Virginia Coalition for Open Government have spoken out about the blatant disregard for the law and transparency by the Kamras administration. 

Transparency is a core element of good government and effective public school districts. Parents and teachers cannot build trust with an administration that refuses to manage public schools with the help and cooperation of the public. Leaders who are committed to transparency and accountability don’t hide information from the public; effective public leaders have nothing to hide. 

To be clear, the job of the Superintendent is to execute and administer the governance of our schools fairly and democratically: it is not to be a communications or PR manager for the district. Jason Kamras’ daily newsletter, his social media presence, his discussion of social and political issues, and 30 minute math lessons during the spring are very effective at creating a sense of unity, connectedness, and progress in the district. But a fully effective Superintendent should be judged by how they made the least connected members of the RPS family feel. 

Kamras is working for corporations and his personal networks, not our kids. 

He got his start in education with Teach for America, and worked under Michelle Rhee in Washington D.C., both part of a national movement to undermine the role of teachers in favor of increasing corporate presence in schools. He trained at the Broad Academy from 2015 to 2016.

The Broad Academy is a leadership training program of the Broad Center, whose “graduates” have been associated “with corporate management techniques to consolidate power, weaken teachers’ job protections, cut parents out of decision making, and introduce unproven reform measures.” 

In Richmond Kamras has granted lucrative contracts to the Great Minds, an organization whose founder and CEO is linked to the right-wing American Enterprise Institute. He has hired associates from D.C. and charter networks for leadership positions in the Richmond Public Schools, giving them all significant raises. He’s also shown that he’s prepared to support the corporate interests over the public interest, backing the failed Navy Hill Coliseum deal proposed by Thomas F. Farrell, CEO of Dominion Energy, a lead advocate for hiring Kamras. Jason Kamras has consistently put the interests of corporations and his personal rolodex ahead of the children of Richmond. 

We want everyone to support our public schools, including our local business community — but corporations and personal associates shouldn’t have a seat at the table when teachers and parents are left out. When corporations and the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes then we have full public coffers, and all of us can democratically decide how to allocate funding – that’s the way to ensure students and families aren’t left behind. We can’t turn our schools over to interests driven by profit and efficiency, not equity. The values of all of the people of Richmond should drive the leadership of our schools, not corporate interests.

Jason Kamras’s ties to corporations mean he won’t stand up to demand that they contribute to funding our schools through a higher corporate tax rate. The residents of Richmond should not be asked to bear the cost of schools alone when the corporate tax rate hasn’t been raised for 40 years, but Jason Kamras will not fight for fair funding. 

Kamras has not supported teachers or effective instruction, and we all know that the most important factor in a child’s education is the quality of their teachers. 

Jason Kamras has brought the failed practices of Washington DC to Richmond, emphasizing standardization and testing over the development of a high quality, professional teaching community. Across the nation, in places where administrators blame teachers for the heavy burdens placed on schools by poverty, districts have turned to more rules and regulations over what and how teachers teach — all driven toward increasing scores on standardized tests, not building a healthy and vibrant school community. The Kamras administration has favored a “scripted” approach to curriculum, relying on rote scripts delivered by teachers with little room for creativity. These programs are often referred to as “teacher proof” and do not attract high quality, committed teachers to classrooms. Many talented teachers, faced with scripted curricula, choose to leave for another district that will treat them as professionals.

Research has clearly shown the power of excellent teachers in every classroom. Is Jason Kamras helping Richmond recruit and retain excellent teachers? Is Jason Kamras making Richmond a place where the most committed and talented teachers want to work? If one looks at his leadership, from his failed effort to implement a teacher comprehensive performance-measurement system in Washington, DC to his failing to provide contemporaneous teacher retention data, we should be worried that RPS is losing its long-serving, high-quality teachers, especially in light of the demands of them by the pandemic. 

Kamras has not built a shared agenda for our public schools. Our children deserve a uniter, not a divider. 

The families of Richmond are the people most invested in our children, their education and their future. Our families hold the highest expectations for their children, they pay the taxes that support the district, and they are the people, rooted here for generations, who make our community strong. 

We know, across the nation, that most superintendents stay in urban districts for less than 5 years. It is essential that all of Richmond’s families have a voice in choosing the leadership of their children’s schools because they will be the people advocating for their child from the time they set foot in a classroom for the first time to the day they cross a graduation stage. Superintendents and politicians will come and go, but we know that deep change takes time. Without a strong partnership, long-term change just isn’t possible. 

Black and Latinx communities in Richmond are disproportionately enrolled in our public schools and disproportionately underrepresented in the governance or leadership of the district. We don’t need paternalistic ideas of reform from Washington, DC. We need true collaboration to surface the best possible ideas from around the world and bring them to our classrooms. 

Jason Kamras has opposed the right of teachers to organize and advocate for better schools. Jason Kamras has fought public access to information. In the two years he has led the Richomnd public schools, Jason Kamras has not brought the community together to push for excellence. His hollow proclamations about equity and justice are not backed up by support for public access, teacher excellence, or elevating the voices of the black and brown families who the Richmond Public Schools seek to serve. 

Jason Kamras has been ineffective in bringing our community together to make the urgent, substantive change that our children deserve. 

We cannot wait four more years. Our children deserve an excellent education now, in spite of the burdens of this pandemic.

We can’t allow Jason Kamras to limit our community’s future with closed-door deals, corporate influence, and nepotism. There is a logic to maintaining continuity of leadership during a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic, but allowing a four-year renewal will allow the Superintendent’s lack of transparency and failure to build coalitions to continue harmfully for far too long. Our children deserve a leader who will bring the community together over the long term, and lead with transparency to build a shared vision of public education that honors the voices of our community, demands excellence, and puts racial justice at the center of transformation. 

For too long Black and Latinx communities in Richmond have been left behind. The racist defunding of the school system leaves it unable to deliver on the promise of opportunity. For equity and justice to move beyond lip service, the parents, teachers, and students of Richmond must be included in guiding the system that seeks to serve them. The demand of a four-year contract or nothing is very disturbing. It doesn’t say that he’s truly committed to this school system by using a take it or leave it approach. We’re not saying NO to Kamras, we’re saying two years is more than sufficient enough to prove that you’re worthy of further lucrative commitments from a cash-strapped school division.

Note: Op-Eds are contributions from guest writers and do not reflect RVA Mag editorial policy.

Top Photo: G.W. Carver Elementary School in Richmond. Photo by Noah Daboul. Research by Kath Connolly, Nat Hardy, Gary Broderick, Quinton Robbins.

Turning The Tide For Southside

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BLK RVA founder Amy Wentz hopes to challenge Reva Trammell’s multi-decade hold on Richmond’s 8th District and bring a new energy to Southside Richmond.

Richmond City Councilwoman Reva Trammell has been in office for a very long time — having presided over Richmond’s 8th district since 1998. Though it appears the residents of the 8th district love Councilwoman Trammell, not much has changed over her 22 years of representing the city’s geographically largest voting district — and arguably its most neglected.

When Councilwoman Trammell first took office in 1998, the district in Richmond’s Southside had no grocery stores. Today the number of grocery stores in the district remains the same, with the exception of a few small storefronts along Route 1 and Broad Rock Boulevard. 

Being a food desert is just one of the many problems that needs to be addressed in the district, and Amy Wentz, who is running to unseat Trammell, intends to bring those problems to light so that the 8th district can get on pace with the rest of the city.

Wentz was born and raised in Richmond’s Southside. After graduating from Huguenot High School on Forest Hill Avenue, she joined the military, spending two years in Afghanistan before returning to Richmond. Wentz has lived in the 8th district for the past 11 years. She first became involved with local government after attending a meeting and seeing that complacency had set in with her representative, who wasn’t even taking questions from residents. The lack of communication between City Hall and the 8th district, and the obvious lack of attention given to the Southside of Richmond in general, is what prompted Wentz to run for city council.

“Being from Southside and seeing the neglect and seeing the way that our area has gone down over the years has been an eyesore. It has been hard and painful to watch,” Wentz said. “And although I’ve been able to do a lot of community work and community service to help in certain areas, I really felt like it was time for me to transition my community service into public service.”

Wentz is the creator of BLK RVA and co-founded Virginia Black Restaurant Experience, two tourism platforms that highlight Black culture in the Richmond area. Through those organizations, she’s worked to make clear to the outside world that Richmond is about more than the Civil War.

“For a long time we’ve had this Capital of the Confederacy cloud over us, where we feel like we have to highlight the Confederate history as a means towards tourism here in the city,” Wentz said. “We want to tell the whole story of Richmond’s history, and make sure that tourists know that there is Black culture that is thriving here. We want to highlight and uplift that.”

Richmond’s Public Schools are known for their lack of quality, and having gone to school in the Southside, Wentz knows how quality of public schools is connected to wealth inequality.

“Unfortunately, all the schools in the 8th district are what we call Title 1 schools, and that means the majority of students come from families that are experiencing poverty,” Wentz said. “That in itself is a tough pill to swallow.” In addition to improving the schools the 8th district’s kids attend, Wentz wants to improve access to adult education programs for the Southside’s residents. Right now, all of the programs the city offers are located North of the James River.

As the representative for the 8th district, Wentz wants to restore the line of communication between the residents and the local government.

“The communication strategy in the 8th district as it stands now is nonexistent,” Wentz said. “We’re the only district that does not receive newsletters or any sort of communication from our district representatives.” Wentz believes the lack of communication and inability for the residents of the 8th district to provide feedback or ask questions is directly responsible for the complacency and lack of accountability that has plagued the district’s representatives in City Hall.

The 8th district still faces many of the challenges they’ve been dealing with for decades. The district leads the city in evictions and health disparity. It’s at the bottom of the municipal infrastructure budget as well as access to GRTC, despite being the city’s largest district. According to Wentz, Councilwoman Trammell is good at providing “band-aid” fixes for some of the problems her constituents are facing, such as giving gift cards and rides around the city. But she feels that it will take institutional change to reverse all the damage that has been done to the 8th district over the years. 

“I want to usher in policy that could really affect our quality of life, so that we’re not leaning on those things as much as we have been in the past,” Wentz said. “We’re operating with a sense of integrity on our campaign, doing things the right way, and so it gets tough to try to compete with the types of practices that have been in place for 18 years.”

All photos via Amy Wentz/Facebook

Richmond Public Schools’ Chosen Name Practice to Take Effect This Fall

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As part of Richmond Public Schools’ effort to make schools a more inclusive space for the LGBTQ community, starting this fall, it will have an option for students to display their chosen name on virtual platforms.

Richmond Public Schools has introduced the option for transgender and non-binary students to display their chosen name on online platforms for the upcoming virtual school year.

Students who need to change their name on virtual platforms, such as Google Classroom, should contact RPS Chief of Staff Michelle Hudacsko, according to Superintendent Jason Kamras’ Aug. 20 newsletter. While this option does not currently exist due to official policy, Kamras said RPS is working on making it official.

With the assistance of Side By Side, a local advocacy organization dedicated to LGBTQ youth, RPS has been making important changes to its policies over the past year in order to be more inclusive toward LGBTQ students and staff. According to Side By Side, the implementation of a chosen name practice is an important component of that effort.

“It’s such a little thing to be able to consistently use the name [a student goes by],” said Ted Lewis, executive director of Side by Side, “but it goes a long way to the mental health of transgender youth.”

Not only has the organization been working with the school district to update their policies and students’ code of conduct, Lewis said Side by Side has been providing training for counselors and teachers as well as resources such as support groups and mental counseling for RPS staff, students, and their families.

Kamras said RPS revised the Student Code of Responsible Ethics (SCORE) to remove gender-specific guidelines, has removed gender-based color graduation gowns, and is looking to revise bathroom policy to “promote equity.”

“Our motto at RPS is to teach with love, lead with love, and serve with love,” said Kamras. “It’s really hard to live that if we’re not making sure that all of our students and staff feel welcomed or love for who they are.”

RPS Superintendent Jason Kamras. (Photo via rvaschools.net)

According to a University of Texas study, there is a 65 percent decrease in suicide attempt among trans youths who are able to use their chosen names at school in addition to home, work, and with friends; there is also a 71 percent reduction in depression symptoms.

RPS’ example of trans inclusivity may help influence other local school districts to do the same. Lewis said that families in surrounding counties have sent RPS’ practice to their school districts as an example for LGBTQ-inclusive policies.

RPS is not the only institution in the area to offer such service or policies. The Henrico School Board had recently adopted new non-discriminatory policies that extend nondiscrimination to programs, services, and activities on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. Virginia Commonwealth University has a program called “Call Me By My Name,” which allows students and employees to update the name, pronoun, and gender identity they associate with on various platforms. The University of Richmond has similar non-discriminatory policies towards their trans students and employees.

Currently, the Virginia Department of Education is developing model policies in regards to treatment of trans students in public schools, ranging from bullying and dress codes to students’ privacy and records maintenance. School boards are required to adopt these guidelines by the 2021-2022 school year. 

While Kamras does not know what the model policies will entail, he said it will support and “give further credibility” to RPS’ inclusivity efforts.

Side by Side also has been involved in conversation with RPS in regards to law enforcement and school resource officers in schools. The organization sent out a letter to the school district calling for the removal of School Resource Officers (SROs) from all Richmond Public Schools, citing that LGBTQ students are more likely to be mistreated by law enforcement.

“This mistreatment and harassment by law enforcement combined with increased surveillance in school leads to more LGBTQ+ youth being incarcerated,” the letter stated.

Superintendent Kamras announced in a “Civic Voice Town Hall” meeting with students in July that he;s recommending to the school board the removal of SROs from schools and reallocating funding for mental health counseling. Kamras said the RPS is still in the review phase, and the school board will consider the hearing testimonies and data to make a decision on removing SROs this fall.

RPS plans to carry their chosen name practice to in-person learning once schools physically reopen, with a similar approach.

“We’ve created a mechanism for students to share their chosen names,” Kamras said, “so we can carry that forward now, once we do return in person.”

Top Photo via rvaschools.net

Past and Future: A Q&A With Richmond Mayor Candidate Justin Griffin

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Richmond business attorney and activist Justin Griffin is running for mayor of Richmond. RVA Mag spoke to him about his goals and policies ahead of November’s election.

Justin Griffin is a small business attorney who originally hails from Nashville, but has fallen in love with Richmond in the years since he moved here. He owns his own law firm, but he first drew public attention with nocoliseum.com, a website he created in objection to Mayor Levar Stoney’s high-profile plan to revitalize the Richmond Coliseum and the surrounding Navy Hill area. After months of actively campaigning against the plan formulated by the mayor and a coalition of private businesses led by Dominion Energy CEO Tom Farrell, Griffin and other activists obtained a victory when City Council voted against the plan in January.

A month later, Griffin announced that he was exploring a run for mayor of Richmond, and officially threw his hat in the ring on April 6. While he claims not to be a politician, and that he doesn’t want a career in politics, he is passionate about improving Richmond schools, putting more funding into city services, and creating a government that is responsive, helpful, and cares about its citizens. We sat down with Griffin to learn more about his ideas and policies ahead of the election.

RVA Mag: How did you start practicing law? What drew you to being a business attorney?

Justin Griffin: My undergraduate degree is in accounting. In accounting, there’s a huge aspect of “what is legal compliance,” with a very specific law set, like tax laws. You take people’s practices and apply them to those laws, audit them, and make sure they’re complying with the law. As I was getting into that, I realized there’s a much larger world of law out there, and I felt that I would much rather help businesses holistically instead of being pigeonholed into just doing the accounting side of things. 

That’s what drew me to law school, and what brought me here to the University of Richmond. What particularly drew me to working with small businesses [was my] first summer internship with the Virginia Department of Business Assistance. [All summer, I talked to] small business owners, asking them what they needed, what we could do to help them — whether it be funding, laws, or whatever else. [Almost] every one of their answers was “Regulatory compliance,” and “What can you do to help me comply with regulations?” 

Small business owners wear 20 different hats. You have to worry about payroll, marketing, making sure the machines are working, etc. They all said, “Legal stuff is very important, but it doesn’t necessarily make me money, and it’s so far down the list that it doesn’t get worked on. So what can you do?”

That’s when I realized these big corporations and companies all have millions of dollars, that they pay attorneys six-figures-plus to sit around and answer all of their questions. It’s the little guys — the small business owners — that don’t have that equivalent. So that’s what I decided to do. I wanted to help them. I opened my own practice so I could treat them the way they should be treated, and to be more like a partner than a lawyer. 

RVA Mag: As a business attorney, how do you feel about the stores on Broad Street and throughout Richmond closing their doors and boarding up because of protests, looting, and even Covid-19? Do you worry about them? 

JG: I do. I very much worry about them, because I talk to them every day. Those are who my clients are; I’ve worked with over 500 businesses across Virginia. Many of them are right here in the Richmond region and Richmond City. Over the last three-plus months, it’s been a fight for them with constant worries and questions. With small businesses, there’s not usually huge reserves, so they’re just getting through every day. 

I started my own practice, so I’m a small business owner myself. When you’re a small business owner, you put your whole life into doing this… it’s your livelihood, it’s your family’s livelihood. It’s really tough when you can’t open your doors, because you work hard to not only provide for your family, but to also provide for your employees’ families. For them, it wasn’t their fault. I walk up and down Broad Street — my office is downtown — and seeing the boarded-up windows is heartbreaking, because for these people, it’s their lives. Especially on Broad Street. Many of them are black-owned businesses, so it really hurts. I think we’re in a tough spot right now [when they can’t] open, and many of them might not reopen. We’ve got to address that. 

Going forward as someone running for mayor, I think it’s going to be important that we have somebody who is knowledgeable about business and economics and helping our small businesses get back on their feet.

Photo via Justin Griffin/Facebook

RVA Mag: Why did you decide to run for mayor? What was the final straw that really made you say, “This is what I have to do”? 

JG: As you probably know, I was heavily involved in opposing the Navy Hill plan. That was the final straw for me to speak up and do something. As a small business attorney, I deal with the city government a lot. I deal with the county governments [across the state], too, trying to get licenses, permits, zoning, and that kind of thing. I see on a daily basis how our city government is failing small business owners, which in turn fails our people, because small businesses hire people from the community. They pay taxes, which get funneled into the general fund, which can then be poured into our people; whether it be for schools or supporting neighborhoods.

If you have a thriving small business community, it creates what I like to call an “anti-fragile” economy. You have people who really care about the community, are plugged into the community, and come from the community doing that. Seeing the frustrations and dealing with the city all the time — and as a resident as well — one of the things I always bring up is that it took me six months to get a trash can. 

Basic services are always frustrating as a city resident, and for me those are frustrating, but the thing that really drives me and bothers me the most is our school system. With only a 70 percent graduation rate, dropping from 80 percent four years ago, it is something that has always driven me to get involved. Then when Navy Hill came, it was just another example of misplaced priorities. Being a numbers guy — with the accounting degree and business background — looking at the projections and seeing how ridiculous and unrealistic they were, I couldn’t just sit on the sideline and watch our city walk into another big shiny disaster. It was time for us to refocus our priorities on schools and neighborhoods, instead of chasing another get-rich-quick scheme.

That fight was the final straw for me. I went through that process… 18 months of constant analysis, providing information to the city council and speaking at meetings, fighting to get that thing prevented. It seemed that there would be no change in the status quo. That’s what ultimately drew me to throw my hat into the ring, because if I care, I want to see our priorities reshaped and the mismanagement taken care of.  

RVA Mag: The Navy Hill proposal has become a bit of a past memory for Richmonders, as much larger events have overshadowed it lately. However, that area still remains an issue. How do you think you can move forward with it, and create an effective and fair solution for the area? 

JG: I think whenever we’re doing anything in the city… we should always ask the question, “What is our goal with this project?” In Richmond, whenever we do things, we don’t really have a plan. It’s just, “Alright! We’re going to do this!” 

We should define our goals, and then decide if it’s the most efficient way of accomplishing them. Finally, if the answer is yes, we have to consider if it will take away from things that are higher priorities, if it will be neutral, or if it will actually help those priorities. For Navy Hill particularly, I think the procedure [for these projects] should be to put it out there. Ask everyone for their ideas. I have a particular idea that I would like to see there, but that’s just one. Maybe somebody else could come up with something better. Maybe one of these developers has a plan that’s great for the area, great for the city, and benefits our people. 

That should be why we do anything — to benefit the people of Richmond, and make Richmond the best we can. Put it out there as an unrestricted request for proposal. Say, “Hey, we have this plot of land. What can you do with it?” Whether it’s one parcel or all of them, [with] an arena or no arena, bring it! 

My idea for Navy Hill is that [I’d like to create] a recreation park, similar to Williamsburg, so we can tell the stories.. There’s a lot of stories in Richmond that are never told, like Shockoe Bottom and the slave trade. It’s ignored by our elected officials. In Navy Hill in particular, you can tell two stories: one is the true story of what it was like to be an urban slave, because there’s a misconception that the only slaves were on plantations, and that’s not true. In Navy Hill and Jackson Ward, there [were many] black Richmonders who were successful despite being treated as second-class citizens by their government. [Another] story: how an interstate and an arena was dropped right in the middle of that neighborhood to break it up. I’d love to see the history told there, but that’s just my idea. 

RVA Mag: On the note of slavery, Monument Ave has been controversial for Richmonders for many years now, and has come to the forefront right now with Black Lives Matter and police brutality protests. How do you personally feel about the monuments themselves? What do you think should be done with them? What do you think would be the best use for the green spaces? 

JG: For years, I’ve had a very particular plan for Monument Ave. There’s no denying now that as it stands, Monument Ave glorifies Confederate generals. That should not stay. My idea is to make the entire street an open-air museum and build a timeline. In the green space — those big, beautiful medians — start at the beginning with stone plaques in the ground. Not necessarily signs sticking up, but in the ground so you can walk, look down, and read about what was going on [in that] year. 

It goes back to making Richmond a place that tells stories; particularly stories that aren’t often told, but should be. You could start before Europeans came, focusing on the tribes in the Richmond area, like Chief Powhatan. As you walk and come across prominent people from the area, you could see a life-size statue in the median with the inscription on the ground… There’s a lot of people who are important. For example, James Armistead Lafayette, who was a slave in the Richmond area during the Revolutionary War, served as a spy, and gave intelligence to the Colonial Army. He ultimately earned his freedom. You could go through time. The first black mayor of Richmond, Henry Marsh, would be there. John Mitchell, Jr. should be there. At the end, two new large monuments: one to Oliver Hill for his role in Brown vs. Board of Education, and then a final monument to Douglas Wilder. 

Focusing on these stories changes the entire street from glorifying Confederate generals to telling our story as a people. [Richmond grew from] the capital of the Confederacy, who fought to keep people enslaved, to electing the grandson of a slave as the first black governor in the country. To me, that’s a story that’s educational — a story that’s inspirational. [It can] show that no matter how bad things seem, no matter how stacked the deck seems, no matter how racist we seem as a people, things can change. They can change in a short period of time. We’ve made a lot of progress with keeping the march forward down Monument Ave. We continue to grow as a people, and we continue to learn from these stories, until we ultimately get to where we want to be. 

Stonewall Jackson monument comes down. Photo by Courtney Edwards

RVA Mag: You seem to have a big passion for history. 

JG: I do! That’s something I love about Richmond. It has all kinds of history, a history of all peoples. When you’re a city, you have to steer into the things that nobody else has. You carve out a niche, just like in business.. We should be the center of learning black history in America. We have Revolutionary War history, Civil War history, the Jim Crow era, Oliver Hill fighting against the segregation of schools — there’s so much there. 

You have [the history], and you also have a river that has the only Class 4 rapids in an urban area in the country, that we don’t take full advantage of. There’s some other unique things in Richmond from a business perspective I think we could carve out a niche for. We have a thriving creative arts community. The Brandcenter at VCU is the top post-grad marketing program in the country. We have The Martin Agency here, [who does] the Geico commercials. With history, there are stories to be told that should be told, but doing those things can also bring in a lot of tax revenue we can pour back into our people and neighborhoods —  to help uplift people and right some of the wrongs in our system. 

RVA Mag: Speaking of Richmond’s communities; compared to my own hometown of Norfolk, it seems that Richmond’s COVID-19 numbers are a lot higher. However, the community and people of Richmond have pulled together and helped their neighbors with everything from testing to toilet paper. How do you see Richmond moving past this and creating a healthier future? 

JG: That’s one of the things I really love about Richmond. The people who live here are amazing. They’re always willing to reach out a hand and help other people when they’re down. If you want to get plugged in doing generally anything here, there’s an organization or group of people that have an initiative to help in any way. Coming together as a people is how I think we’re going to get through this. Richmonders love to support small businesses, so [as we] continue to reopen in a safe and gradual manner — we’re going to have to come together as a community. The people of Richmond will have to step up, because right now, the city government isn’t stepping up. That’s evident of everything in Richmond. 

What I’ve said as I’ve been running is that I love Richmond, I love the people, and that’s why I chose to live here. But our city government does not match how great our people are. It’s failing us in generally every way. [Here’s how] I picture Richmond… if you’ve ever seen athletes training, they’ll sometimes run with a parachute on their back to build up the muscles to make them faster. Richmond is like one of those athletes; our people are doing amazing things and putting Richmond on the map while there’s a parachute on our back. But we’re still beating other cities somehow. If we took that parachute off, there’s so much potential here that we could keep running, at a much faster pace, forward. I think that’s how we’re going to get through this. Hopefully after this next election, we’ll be able to start reshaping our city government to match our people. 

RVA Mag: RPS Graduation rates are disproportionate, and have been almost dwarfed by surrounding towns. How do you think you can work with RPS to boost these numbers?

JG: I think that has to be the absolute top priority of the next mayor. When you have a graduation rate of only 70 percent, that’s a crisis. That means 30 percent of our young people are not graduating high school, and in our modern society, they have virtually no chance of thriving. When you look at our school system, it’s 86 percent people of color… So when we talk about Black Lives Matter — if they matter, then we have to fix our schools. 

My number one priority will be working with the school system, and working with the superintendent to get whatever they need to help our kids thrive. I have several ideas for that: I think we need to focus on things like Literacy First. There’s many people in Richmond who still struggle to read and write, and that’s completely unacceptable. Especially in the modern age, when you have an entire world of knowledge at your fingertips. If you have strong reading skills and comprehension skills, you can figure anything and everything out — for example, I built my own campaign website because I was able to figure it out. If we can put that into our people, they can have a better chance of thriving in our modern economy. 

RVA Mag: Another Richmond Public Schools question for you — de facto segregation does exist in RPS, and while there have been attempts to diversify or integrate schools, many of them have faced backlash. Do you have any plans to not only create a diverse school district, but one that is fair, in which all schools, regardless of student body, can receive the funding they need?

JG: When we look at our school system, I want to [create one where] it won’t matter which school you’re in, you’ll receive a quality education. You shouldn’t have to shuffle kids around town, beg to get kids into one certain elementary school, for your child to receive a quality education. That’s insane to me. If we need funding, that’s going to be my job.

As a numbers guy — as someone with an accounting degree — I am going to pore through every department budget, and we will root out all of the waste and every inefficiency. We need that money for our priorities, such as our children. Getting them the resources they need is what you can do as the mayor. Right now, we have a lot of waste… so [I want to] make sure we have programs in place, a first-rate curriculum, a school system that is invested in high expectations for our children so we can prepare them to succeed and build wealth. Whatever it takes. That’s what I’m willing to do. 

RVA Mag: The Richmond Police Department has faced criticism lately for their ongoing brutality and use of non-lethal crowd control weapons. The recent lawsuit from the ACLU has definitely amped this up, as has the vast media coverage. Would you do anything to change the RPD?

JG: Even before the murder of George Floyd, I was developing ideas for reforming the ways we do policing here in Richmond. As an attorney, I do legal business work, but also have lots of legal discussions. My wife works in the court systems, and she used to work as a public defender and a criminal defense attorney. Having conversations about the way policing is done in Richmond is something I’ve been doing for years, albeit not publicly, because I’ve never been a politician before. When you look at our policing, there is a lot of room for reform there.

The things people are asking for — like increased funding for mental health workers and social workers, and supplementing the incomes of our public defenders — are things I absolutely agree with. Right now, the city provides a supplement to the Commonwealth Attorney’s office for prosecutors, but not for public defenders. I think that needs to be fair. If we are talking about equity, then I feel both sides of the legal argument should have the same type of funding.

[Looking] at social workers, there was an article recently about when Mayor Stoney was first elected. He visited the social workers’ office in Richmond. They told him all of the problems they had, the funds they needed for different things. He told them, “No problem, I’ll take care of it.” Later the direct quote from them was, “Nothing happened, nothing changed.” We know where the problems are. We just need a mayor who is interested, and is willing to make the changes.

Specifically with the police, we’ve defunded all these departments like social work, and asked the police to fill in the gaps. Not everything needs an officer with a gun responding to it. If we manage our budget and put money into our priorities, like social work, then there’s less need for police response to these issues. 

There was a program called the Second Responders Program. It was cut, but it assigned social workers to each police precinct. When calls went out, they would respond with the officers to certain situations, like domestic violence calls. Their job would be to go in and work with the victims, get them plugged in to the resources they may need, look out for the best interests of the children, or to start counseling right there on the spot. That would allow social workers to do their best job — and it would allow police to do what they are designed and trained for; to prevent violent crime and to solve crimes. Let’s leave the police to do what they’re designed for and good at, and let’s fund these other programs that wrap around services to serve our people. 

Richmond police take aim at Robert E. Lee monument protesters. Photo by Domico Phillips.

RVA Mag: How do you feel about the way Stoney has handled the situation with the RPD?

JG: He’s handled it the way he’s handled every other problem we’ve had in this city. He’s approached it with no plan, and he’s failed because of it. It seems that every day, there’s a different agenda coming from the mayor’s office. Some days, he wants to crack down on the protesters, and some days he wants to pull the police back and do nothing. It doesn’t make any sense. That’s a recipe for bad things happening, like when the tear gas was shot at the peaceful protesters at the Lee monument in the beginning of June. You’re putting tired police officers out there with no plan and no direction, and creating a recipe for bad things to happen. I think he’s handled it poorly, but I think that’s kind of how he’s handled every problem we’ve had — whether it’s schools, paving roads, or even getting a trash can. Now the problems are much more serious, and Richmond’s paying dearly for it. 

RVA Mag: Finally, given the current political climate in the city, why should Richmonders elect a white man? 

JG: In this race, I’m the one who cares and the one who has a plan. The way I look at it, there is a division between the political class and the people of Richmond. For me — not being a politician, not being someone who’s ever run for office before — I’m just like everyone else in this city. [We’re] fed up with the misplaced priorities, the mismanagement, and the failures of our city government. Why should we elect more people from the political class? It’s just shuffling the same players around to different chairs, and expecting things to change. We need someone who is coming in from the outside, who is only interested in this because he wants to go in and manage the city, solve problems, and serve our people. 

It’s not about me. It’s not about a political career for me. I have a career. I have my own business, and I enjoy doing what I do. But when I see our city government failing its people in serious ways, I feel that I need to step up to do something. That’s what I’m going to pour my heart and soul into; helping our people, providing better services for our people, and providing better schools for our kids. That’s what I’m here for. To represent the people and their interests, instead of the political class. 

Top photo via Justin Griffin/Facebook. Marilyn Drew Necci and Caley Sturgill contributed to this article.

Urgent Progressive Change: Speaking With Richmond Mayoral Candidate Alexsis Rodgers

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RVA Magazine sits down with Alexsis Rodgers, a community activist and mayoral candidate for the City of Richmond, to learn more about her policies. 

On June 6, Alexsis Rodgers formally announced her candidacy for Richmond mayor. Rodgers, a VCU graduate, is currently the Virginia state director for Care in Action: the policy and advocacy home for two million women domestic workers. Rodgers is also the former president of the Virginia Young Democrats. Rodgers’ campaign is running on the slogan “Policies Not Apologies.”

Among the policies and reform she’s passionate about are voting rights, economic security, college affordability, and quality health care. Some of her accomplishments include playing a key role in achieving Medicaid expansion, and growing birth control access during her time at Planned Parenthood here in Richmond. 

We sat down with Rodgers to learn more about her policies ahead of the election. 

RVA Magazine: I’ve seen and read that you’ve been in leadership positions such as the president of Virginia Young Democrats, and now you’re the Virginia State Director for Care in Action. Why do you want to run for mayor? Why now?

Alexsis Rodgers: Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve seen more clearly than ever that the community wants urgent, progressive change. A lot of the demands that we’re hearing from the community are policy demands that they’ve been setting forward for years — whether that be police accountability, a civilian review board with authority to subpoena, or the Marcus Alert. What I’ve seen from our Mayor’s Office is a resistance to listen and be responsive to calls from the community, and this isn’t the first time we’ve seen this dismissal… When you look back at the Navy Hill fight, the Education Compact, and development projects all throughout the city, we’ve seen the Mayor center the interests of corporate elites and special interests more so than people. I think now more than ever, we need someone who’s in touch; who has worked with community activism leaders to fight for progressive change, but who also understands policy and its process. I think I’m that candidate. 

RVA Mag: What do you think is the best solution for the city’s ongoing problems with education, especially for students who are economically disadvantaged and/or from marginalized backgrounds?

AR: Number one: right now, in the middle of this public health crisis, we’re seeing the importance of education and the importance of child care. For too many of Richmond’s families, access to affordable child care, early childhood education, and the right to go to a good quality school has not been a reality. I think we have to start by centering the right values, and the right people, in the process. We’re never going to get the results we want when it comes to educational equity if we don’t start centering the folks that are the most impacted. If we don’t start by engaging and listening to our teachers, faculty, and support staff. If we’re not truly listening to parents. We haven’t seen any true community engagement through this Mayor’s Administration. That’s something we’re going to need to address if we want to fully fund RPS, if we want to get police out of our school systems, and make sure that schools are a safe place for our kids to learn and grow. 

RVA Mag: How do you feel about the issues that have come up in the past year or two regarding de facto segregation of school districts within the city?

AR: There’s a systemic issue when it comes to racial and educational inequity here in Richmond, and right now we’re having a very public conversation about monuments and what they mean to black and brown folks. But we’re not [paying] enough attention right now to the systemic issues of racial injustice and education inequity. I think it has to start by, again, making sure we’re centering the right folks in these conversations. We haven’t always done that. We can’t ignore do-gooders in our community that want to support because they have access to corporate funds for our schools. They’re great community partners who have been helping to support our teachers and staff, but we need to make sure that we’re always putting students first. We know that Navy Hill was not a project that was going to put working-class folks first, and we’ve got to stop putting those corporate elites first when it comes to our policymaking. 

RVA Mag: The process of figuring out what to do with the Richmond Coliseum and its surrounding area, Navy Hill, has been a huge issue in the city over the past few years. How do you think you can most effectively move this discussion forward, and find a solution for the area that works for all Richmonders? 

AR: I think the project was doomed from the start, because it seemed to me that the process was rigged. It started with corporate special interest, and the plan was created, but it was rolled out under the guidelines of “wanting community feedback and input” — when really, they knew what they wanted the plan to be. It was not real engagement and real incorporation of community feedback. As Mayor, my commitment is that I’m not going to start with those special interests in mind first. I want to put the people first, and make sure there is real input from Richmond residents — that their voices are actually heard as we’re developing the city. It’s really important that we’re able to build and grow Richmond — make sure we open up new revenues for the city, so we can fully fund our schools and address housing and healthcare issues. But if we don’t center the right values as we work to secure economic development, we’re never going to do right by Richmond residents. 

RVA Mag: What are your views on what should be done on Monument Ave? 

AR: I think it’s really clear that Richmonders want these monuments down. I told a story when I first launched my campaign about when I was at school at Hanover High School: at track practice while we were practicing, a truck pulled up with a huge confederate flag in the back and started circling the parking lot. My coach went out and told that driver to go home. He knew the message that truck was trying to send to our team, he knew it was wrong, and he went out and called for that person to go.

Right now, what we’re seeing over the last several years, folks have asked for these monuments to be removed. They’ve asked for them to be put in museums, but for them to be put out of our public spaces. For too long, the Mayor has said, “Well we can’t,” or “I’m not sure,” or “We need to have a process.” We had a commission that made recommendations that didn’t go anywhere, and it’s only when this very visible unrest is happening in our city that he’s coming around to the right decision. It shouldn’t require us to put our literal bodies on the line, out here protesting for our rights in the middle of a pandemic, to be heard by our elected officials. We should be able to be valued and seen whether we’re protesting, speaking at a city council meeting, or writing a letter to a City Council member or our Mayor. All of those tactics should be heard and valued. We shouldn’t have to put our lives on the line as part of it. I sit out there marching with everybody else, asking for justice, asking for policy solutions… but also to say these racist symbols should be out of our public spaces, and it’s past time for that to happen. 

Photo via Alexsis Rodgers/Facebook

RVA Mag: What would you like to see done with the street once they’re removed?

AR: When we’re talking about public spaces and putting up monuments to individuals, that should take real community input. That should also honor folks whose history has been forgotten or erased. You know, Richmond is a creative city. We have a lot of artists. We have a lot of historians and researchers. Given the authority and the resources, we can have some real community engagement around [questions like], “What should we name our streets that are formally named after confederate generals?” “What should we put in place of these historically confederate monuments?” I don’t think the city residents haven’t been given that agency. I would love to see us move in that direction — where we’re having thoughtful conversations about race, using this moment where folks are becoming politically aware to move the city forward, and what should be in these public spaces that honor the right values and right cause. 

RVA Mag: Richmond’s eviction numbers saw somewhat of a decline after the city’s high rate of evictions became national news a couple of years ago, but the city has a long way to go before we’re completely past this issue. How do you foresee the city moving forward in a manner that is helpful to those struggling financially, both where evictions are concerned and in the changing face of public housing in Richmond?

AR: For too many people, especially during this public health crisis, they’ve been juggling whether they can put their health at risk and go to work, or put their job and livelihood at risk by staying home. There have been a lot of great activists out there calling for canceling rent, calling for freezing evictions, and [they’ve been] met with a lot of silence from our elected leadership. That’s not okay. It, again, shows how out-of-touch and out-of-alignment the current administration is from the real needs of the community. There were [homeless] folks at the beginning of the pandemic who were sheltering in place at Camp Cathy, and the city came and removed those folks’ homes. Now, I appreciate any effort to help make sure these folks are in a safe and supportive environment — especially during a public health crisis, where they can maintain social distancing and good hygiene — but the city came in and cleared out those folks’ properties. It was just garbage in the streets. I think that shows a lack of understanding of both dignity and their agency as human beings, and that’s not something I want to see our city do ever again. 

When we talk about affordable housing and making sure that folks are able to make ends meet, there’s a lot of layers to that. There’s making sure people have access to a good job, there’s a lot of emphasis on having transit options that connect people to jobs and work, healthcare access to make sure that where you’re going to work, you’re safe, and childcare so you can go to work and not worry about your family. There are a lot of efforts, a lot of smart folks working on housing policies. But it always has to start with centering people’s dignity, and their humanity, the value that every person should be able to live safely, and giving respect to folks. Maybe they are renters, and there are candidates in the race that don’t think renters should have as much of a say when it comes to their government, and that’s not right. Regardless of where you live or who you are, I want to be your Mayor, and I want to represent you in our government. 

RVA Mag: You’ve had a longtime involvement with Virginia League For Planned Parenthood, so are you at all concerned that abortion will become a wedge issue in your campaign? 

AR: I have always been fighting for healthcare access. In this race, I’m going to be a vocal champion for abortion rights. For me, I know that people that are pregnant need access to the full range of reproductive healthcare services — and that means access to good maternal care, birth control. That means access to abortion. Not every person wants to be pregnant, and not every person is able to carry their pregnancy to term. It’s important to me that we continue to champion those rights for those in Richmond. I was really excited to help Planned Parenthood begin their efforts to expand and open up new health centers in Church Hill. That’s going to be huge for this community, which has been historically underserved when it comes to healthcare access. I think that Planned Parenthood and access to reproductive healthcare here in the city is really important, and is actually going to be a way that we unite the city around certain issues — and certainly around expanding access to healthcare. 

RVA Mag: Finally, regarding gentrification in Richmond, what is your stance on this issue? 

AR: When I moved to the city, I moved to an apartment right near Lamplighter on Addison. My next-door neighbor was an older black woman who had lived there for, you know, forever. In the last couple years, she passed away, and her son wanted to tend to the house. He was really struggling. He had grown up in that house, and he didn’t want to leave the house “speechless” and give it over to renters, because this is the community he grew up in. He also didn’t feel like he had the resources to properly take care of it. Long story short, that house was flipped and sold for half a million dollars, and younger, white folks moved into it. It was a picture right in my eyes, here in Randolph, that is a historically-black community. There are a lot of roots there for black folks, and over and over we’re seeing black residents getting pushed out because of gentrification here in the city. I think it’s important for us to look at how we can make sure that families — specifically black families — can build and maintain wealth in their families. We can proceed to support black ownership when it comes to homes, but also black businesses, and generally making sure that our community of color is made strong. As you probably know, Hull Street used to be basically the Black Wall Street, and making sure that we’re continuing to support communities of color is going to be really important for me.

Interview by Carley Welch; top photo via Alexsis Rodgers/Facebook