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As Virginia Grapples With Gun Violence, School District Looks for Solutions

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At a town hall held by Richmond Public Schools, city officials came together with parents to discuss solutions to gun violence, which disproportionately affects black males in Virginia.

In Virginia, where the annual number of firearm-related deaths paces the national average, black males are disproportionately the victims of gun-related violence. The state’s capital, Richmond, had the highest rate of gun-related homicides in the commonwealth each year between 2013 and 2017. 

These stats aren’t lost on Richmond Public Schools, which recently hosted a gun violence prevention town hall.

RPS Superintendent Jason Kamras recalled when a student told him it had become normal to know someone who had been shot. 

“That’s an incredible statement, but that’s from the words of our students,” Kamras said. “It’s the reality.”

Earlier this year, at least seven people were wounded in shootings on a single Saturday in Richmond, within a week of back-to-back mass shootings in Dayton, Ohio and El Paso, Texas.

Statewide last year, there were 1,036 firearm-related deaths; of that total, 674 were suicides and 347 homicides, according to the Virginia Department of Health. Gun-related injuries accounted for 1,667 emergency room visits in 2018, the same data show.

In both categories, black males are the victims at much higher rates than females and white males.

The number of firearms used in homicides in Virginia increased overall in the 10-year period from 2008 to 2018.

Last year, 49 of Richmond’s 52 homicides involved a firearm. There were 202 aggravated assaults using firearms in 2018, a decrease from the 231 aggravated assaults using firearms in 2017.

Richmond leaders hope those numbers continue to decrease. The town hall Wednesday at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School focused on finding solutions and encouraged healing in a community beset by gun violence.

The crowd of about 100 included parents, students, city and state officials, educators, and activists. Nearly every person in the room raised a hand when asked who had been affected by gun violence.

Mayor Levar Stoney. Photo via Facebook

Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney told a personal story of his first encounter with a gun. He recalls as a child finding his uncle’s pistol on his father’s dresser and wondering why a weapon was necessary. He said the response to gun violence cannot be politically convenient. 

“I think we, collectively, we can design a future a whole lot better than the past we’ve been through,” Stoney said. “I want you to know I’m committed to that.”

Stoney introduced an ordinance to ban guns in city-owned buildings and public parks following the Virginia Beach mass shooting in May and the death of 9-year-old Markiya Dickson, who was shot in a Richmond park over Memorial Day weekend. City Council passed the ordinance in July, but the symbolic measure cannot be enforced under state law. 

Kamras also spoke on the impact of Dickson’s death and the emotional response he had seeing her casket at the funeral.

“I have no words,” Kamras said. “I can’t even imagine what that would be like if that was my son Ezra. It’s inconceivable, yet that is the reality for so many families.”

Gov. Ralph Northam called a special session of the General Assembly July 9 hoping to pass gun safety measures, but the session ended after just 90 minutes without voting on any proposed gun safety legislation.

Del. Jeff Bourne, D-Richmond, spoke of being frustrated by the political gridlock and a lack of legislative action. Bourne is running for reelection in the 71st District, against Libertarian Pete Wells.

Earlier this year, Bourne and Del. Lamont Bagby, D-Richmond, introduced HB 1644, requiring owners to report lost or stolen firearms, but it died in committee.

Other bills failed as well. 

HB 2492, introduced by Del. Kathy Tran, D-Fairfax, also died in committee. The bill would have prohibited any person from “importing, selling, bartering, or transferring a firearms magazine designed to hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition.” A similar bill, SB 1748, was introduced by Sen. Adam Ebbin, D-Alexandria, and it also died in committee.

“I will tell you what you all know — that common sense ain’t common when it comes to gun violence reduction measures,” Bourne said. 

Manager of School Climate and Culture Strategy Dr. Ram Bhagat led 10 student volunteers in a call-and-response with government and school officials advocating for reducing gun violence. Photo via VCU CNS

Ram Bhagat, manager of school climate and culture strategy for RPS, helped lead the forum. He introduced speakers, gave a brief testimonial, and led an exercise in which the audience clapped rhythmically and chanted “love,” “faith,” “justice,” and “hope.” 

Attendees wrote down ideas for strategies to reduce gun violence, and some were shared with the audience.

Spartan Academy Executive Director Ray Strickland said something he sees working is group counseling, which gives students an opportunity to exist in a non-judgmental space. 

“I think the first thing that we need to understand is having empathy,” said Strickland. “Before we can put different plans into place, we need to be empathetic to what our students are going through.”

Kristin DuMont, with Moms Demand Action Richmond, said her organization is excited that leaders such as Stoney, Bourne, and Kamras attended the event. The group MDA works to pass stronger gun laws through its nationwide chapters.

“There are a lot of parents who’ve lost children and young people, who have lost friends,” DuMont said. “We want to support them, and we want to make sure that this doesn’t happen to anyone else.” 

Written by Susan Shibut, Capital News Service. Top Photo: Attendees held hands in an exercise in remembrance of loved ones lost to gun violence. via VCU CNS

Adding Fuel To The Fire

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A polarizing petition circulated on the first day of school by state Senator Glen Sturtevant has local school and government officials outraged.

Tuesday, September 3 was the first day of school for Richmond Public Schools, a day that is generally fun and memorable for students and their families. But at Mary Munford and William Fox Elementary Schools, back-to-school excitement was overshadowed by a campaign tactic used by Republican Virginia state Senator Glen Sturtevant, who is up for re-election in November.

That morning, Sturtevant campaign workers met arriving students and parents at Munford and Fox with petitions they were encouraging the parents to sign. Entitled “Save Our Neighborhood Schools,” the petition had been drafted by Sturtevant himself, and stated that “State Senator Glen Sturtevant strongly opposes the rezoning of Mary Munford Elementary and Fox Elementary.”

The petition referred to “pairing” proposals currently being considered by the Richmond School Board, some of which would combine the student bodies of William Fox Elementary, which is 60 percent white, and John B. Cary Elementary, which is 83 percent black. This combined student body would then attend Fox for kindergarten through 2nd grade, and attend Cary for 3rd through 5th grades. Another pairing proposal would combine Munford’s student body, which is 72 percent white, with that of Cary.

In a recent Richmond Times-Dispatch column, Michael Paul Williams pointed out that the title of Sturtevant’s petition carries heavy historical implications. Williams writes that “S.O.N.S.” was an acronym commonly seen on bumper stickers used in local opposition to the crosstown bussing proposals of the 1970’s, which sought to end de facto segregation that had persisted for more than a decade after Brown v. Board of Education.

Richmond School Board Chair Dawn Page and School Board member Scott Barlow told VPM that they feel the Senator’s actions are unwelcome and intrusive. School Board Vice Chair Liz Doerr expressed her distaste and concern for the actions in a public FaceBook post that evening, calling it an “election year stunt,” and Mayor Levar Stoney echoed this sentiment, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Sturtevant’s petition says that the rezoning proposals are “wrong for our schools.” However, his petition only mentions Munford and Fox. “Developing a petition specifically for Mary Munford and Fox, the whitest and most affluent schools in the city, was race baiting and political posturing,” said Doerr. “I would like to remind the Senator and his campaign team that he represents many other schools in Richmond that will be impacted by this plan other than just Fox and Munford.”

Mary Munford Elementary School, via RVAschools.net

Along with the announcement of his petition on Tuesday, Sturtevant’s office sent out a press release detailing legislation he planned to propose in the General Assembly. The legislation Sturtevant proposed in his petition would require a voter referendum before a school rezoning plan can be enacted — despite the fact that rezoning is already one of the main tasks that school board officials are elected and expected to do.

The Senator will not, however, be able to propose new legislation until January of 2020 when the next General Assembly session begins — and his ability to propose legislation depends on his first winning re-election in November. Meanwhile, Richmond’s school board plans to vote on rezoning by the end of this year.

Richmond’s School Board has worked to include the community throughout the rezoning process, holding community meetings several times a month all across the city since August and utilizing an online feedback form for taking public comments.

With Richmond Public Schools enrollment expected to increase 6.6 percent within a decade, the plan to rezone is an effort to alleviate overcrowding at schools. It is also meant to remedy educational and fiscal disparities between city school districts due to the breakdown of racial diversity. RPS employed consulting company Cropper GIS to craft the rezoning proposals, and the first two of the four options were announced in July. Almost all of the proposals involve some pairing of local elementary schools.

The negative responses from parents in Fox Elementary’s district in particular led Richmond City Schools Superintendent Jason Kamras to characterize some of the backlash as “Massive Resistance 2.0” in a Twitter post. However, more recent responses on the RPS feedback form have seen an increase in support. Still, the issue remains divisive in Richmond — and with his petition, Sturtevant has taken a definitive stance on one side of the divide.

Some see the petition’s rhetoric as ironic, since Sturtevant’s own stint on the Richmond School Board, which lasted from 2012 until 2016, is associated with the controversial 2013 rezoning plan that resulted in the closure of Clark Springs Elementary, which had the effect of increasing de facto segregation within Richmond’s school system.

After the closing, former Clark Springs students were rezoned for Cary, making that school less than 25 percent white. Students from the Museum district, predominantly an affluent, white community, had formerly attended Cary Elementary prior to the new zoning, but in the 2013 plan, those students were rezoned for Fox. This raised white enrollment at Fox from 65 percent to over 75 of the student body, according to data from a 2016 University of Richmond study.

The Richmond School Board in 2013. Sturtevant is in the middle of the back row. Photo via Glen Sturtevant/Facebook

The UR study found that white-black segregation in Richmond elementary schools rose from a rate of 65 percent to 70 percent under the new zones created in 2013; it called the plan “a rapid, politically charged and resegregative school closure and elementary school rezoning process.” And a 2013 Style Weekly article reported that Sturtevant, along with another school board member, Kim Gray, privately asked Matthew Cropper of Cropper GIS to draft a third rezoning proposal over one weekend in May, right before the board was due to vote. This was the plan that was ultimately adopted — the plan that increased de facto segregation in Richmond City Public Schools.

Sturtevant was sued in 2013 by Kimberly Johnson Jones, a parent in the district that accused him and other school board members of conducting private dealings that resulted in an unfair protection of white enrollment. The case was eventually dismissed when Jones moved out of the district, but significant evidence had been presented. Court documents indicate that Sturtevant sent private emails disclosing details of his plan to his allies on the board, leaving four other members in the dark. Evidence was also entered indicating that Sturtevant and Gray had private phone calls with Cropper leading up to the creation of the final proposal.

Ghazala Hashmi, who is running against Sturtevant in the upcoming state Senatorial election this November, is quick to point out this history. She asserted that the petition is simply a stunt that Sturtevant is using to divert attention from his complicated past as a school board member, as well as his Republican-aligned voting record in the Senate, which she claims has undermined funding for public education. “He’s trying to hamstring local school board members from doing their jobs,” said Hashmi. “As a Richmond-area educator of 25 years and a mom who sent both of her daughters to public school here, this issue is deeply personal to me. I am committed to ensuring that all of our schools have robust and equitable funding so that every child is afforded the same opportunities, regardless of their zip code.”

With many public officials on record expressing distaste for Sturtevant’s petition, the rezoning discussion is clearly going to remain a pertinent talking point leading up to the Senatorial election on November 5. Hashmi has strong words for the incumbent. “If he wants to do the job of a school board member, he should go back to running for school board. As a Senator I will do what Sturtevant has not: stand up for teachers, students, and Central Virginia families by prioritizing and expanding funding for public schools.”

Top Photo via Mary Munford Elementary School/Facebook

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.”

Richmond Schools Wrestle with Low Graduation Rates

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As graduation season approaches, over 720 high school seniors enrolled in the city’s public schools this year hope to change the declining trend that is Richmond’s on-time graduation rate.

Richmond Public Schools have been under the spotlight after coming in last in on-time graduation rates in the state in 2018 and second to last in 2017.

Of the RPS Class of 2018, data shows, 75.4% graduated within four years. That was down from nearly 84% in 2015.

At the same time, statewide graduation rates have been increasing — from 89.9 percent in 2014 to 91.6 percent last year.

Richmond’s suburbs have on-time graduation rates above or around the state average:

  • 95.2% in Hanover County
  • 92.3% in Henrico County (up from 89% in 2014)
  • 90.9% in Chesterfield County

Bottom line: Statewide and in neighboring counties, more than nine out of 10 high school students earn their diplomas in four years — but in Richmond, only three out of four do so.

The flip side of the graduation rate is the dropout rate, and in 2018, RPS also had the worst dropout rate in the commonwealth — more than 20%. For certain groups of students, the dropout rate was much higher: About 60 percent of Richmond’s Hispanic students and students in English-language classes quit school.

RPS advocates note that the city’s public schools have higher levels of poverty and other socioeconomic factors than most other districts face. Even so, why aren’t more RPS students graduating on time — and what can be done to address the problem?

Absenteeism is a chronic problem

Zenobia Bey is CEO of Community 50/50, a community outreach program for inner-city youth. She believes that lack of support from both the community and RPS is to blame.

Bey said one of the biggest reasons for low graduation rates in Richmond is chronic absenteeism, defined as students missing more than 10% of their enrolled school days.

The three largest high schools in Richmond have the highest chronic absenteeism rates in the state.

At Armstrong High School, for example, the rate was 54% — meaning more than half of the students missed more than 10% of the classes. The figure was 46% at George Wythe High and 31% at Huguenot High.

The numbers provide a stark contrast compared with high schools in neighboring counties. For example, the chronic absenteeism rate was 6% at Lee-Davis High School in Hanover County, 10% at Glen Allen High in Henrico County and 12% at Thomas Dale High in Chesterfield County.

To prevent even worse graduation statistics, the Richmond School Board last spring suspended an attendance policy that would have put over 400 students at risk of lowering their GPA and missing graduation.

Changing norms and mindsets about attending school

Whether it is because some students lack ambition or because they are dealing with community or family issues, Bey said that a negative culture around attending school has formed in the city.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, for the first half of 2018, Richmond was Virginia’s most violent city, with a rate of 247 violent crimes per 100,000 residents.

“How do you expect a kid to worry about school when they’re more concerned about whether they’re going to get shot?” Bey said. “Or if they’re an older sibling, making sure their younger siblings are going to school and have something to eat, because their parents for whatever reason cannot support them.”

Bey says this is where the community has failed Richmond youth. Chronic absenteeism has been a problem in RPS for years — and when adults let children skip school, norms begin to form.

“It’s a generational cycle of some norms that a lot of kids are seeing, and it is becoming OK not to go to school,” Bey said.

Jennifer Blackwell, a bilingual guidance counselor at Huguenot High, agrees that the community’s perspective on education and attending school is the key in addressing chronic absenteeism.

“If we can reach them at home, if we can reach their parents, if we can reach community members, I think we will have more of an opportunity to make an impact … especially with changing mindsets in any community,” Blackwell said.

Blackwell also wants inner-city children to understand the legal significance of skipping class.

“It’s not only their right to come to school every day, but it is actually the law to come to school every day — and that’s another thing that kids have to take into account,” Blackwell said.

‘Give them a reason to attend’ — and provide financial resources

Bey says she hopes both the community and schools will tap into students’ interests — for instance, by offering interesting and relevant after-school programs, as well as internships and apprenticeships at local businesses.

It is crucial to give young people a reason to engage in something positive, Bey said.

“These kids aren’t stupid; they get it,” Bey said. “If the community and schools don’t give them a reason to attend, then they will ask themselves, ‘What’s in it for me? Why go?’”

Blackwell and Bey both agree that at the end of the day, not much can be done without financial resources.

Blackwell says the goal is not equality but rather equity of funding.

“To get these kids up to the same level of our students that are in county schools, we have to spend more money because these students need more,” Blackwell said. “They need more resources for teachers, social workers, food and mental health services, for example.”

In 2018, counties like Chesterfield ($475 million) and Henrico ($384 million) had significantly more funding for instructional expenses — teachers, guidance counselors and social workers — than Richmond ($256 million).

Another discrepancy between inner-city and county schools is funding for facility maintenance, renovation, and construction.

In 2018, Henrico and Chesterfield counties had nearly $220 million combined for facility-related expenses, while Richmond had only $35 million.

Bey said that if RPS schools offered resources unavailable at home or elsewhere in the community, children would be more likely to value the importance of school.

“If they don’t have their basic needs being met, how do we expect them to learn anything?” Blackwell said.

Blackwell said RPS also can address low graduation rates by offering different pathways for graduation.

As the bilingual guidance counselor at Huguenot, Blackwell works with many Hispanic immigrant students, some attending school for the first time, and many other at-risk youths. Blackwell said these students often have responsibilities that the average teenager doesn’t worry about — like helping provide for the family.

“Other counties with more money are able to provide different pathways to graduation like night schools, ESL (English as a Second Language) programs and adult programs,” Blackwell said.

“Richmond has nothing. And when you’re a 17-year-old freshman from another country who doesn’t know the language and you’re put on a five-year plan — when every other student is put on a traditional four-year plan — then you lose motivation and ambition to finish.”

By Adrian Teran-Tapia, Capital News Service.

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