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Va. voters’ choice: Moving forward or going back, by Ben Jealous
Virginia voters will pick the state’s next governor in November. The choice couldn’t be clearer, and neither could the national implications of this race in a bellwether state. Not only is the Virginia election a curtain-raiser for the midterm elections of 2022, it’s also the biggest test so far of whether the Trumpified GOP can win major races.
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Poverty lost during campaign
There is no question that Hillary Clinton won the Sept. 26 presidential debate. She was knowledgeable, composed, unflappable and occasionally even funny. Her opponent, who had the temerity to criticize her “stamina,” seemed to lack stamina of his own. By the time the 90-minute debate was over, her rude, sniffling, frequent water-sipping opponent Donald Trump looked like a candidate for enforced bed rest.
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VCU to turn over its bus service to GRTC
Students, faculty and employees of Virginia Commonwealth University will continue to ride free on GRTC buses, including Pulse, local and express service for at least three more years.
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SCC bans most utility cutoffs until Aug. 31
Virginians who have fallen far behind in paying their electric bills have gained a two-month reprieve from disconnections.
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Richmond Virtual Academy may become its own school
The Richmond Virtual Academy is to become a new elementary school that could enroll between 400 and 500 students a year in online classes, the Richmond School Board decided Monday night. Instead of phasing out the program online learning program as Superintendent Jason Kamras proposed in February, the board, after hearing pleas from academy supporters, adopted a proposal by School Board member Kenya Gibson, 3rd District, to make RVA a school of record like other elementary schools, and eligible for annual state and local funding like other schools. While that decision must be approved by the state Department of Education, the vote to keep RVA as a functioning entity came as the board finalized its budget for the 2022-23 fiscal year. The board had a deadline on Wednesday to deliver a finished budget to City Council. Overall, the approved budget authorizes a record $548 million in total spending, or an expenditure of about $25,253 for each of the 21,700 students RPS estimated as enrolled in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade. Along with grants and one-time federal funds, the RPS budget provides $356.6 million in general fund spending, which mostly includes revenue from the city and state, or about $16,400 per student. The board, which cut $6 million from Mr. Kamras’ original general fund proposal, is relying on receiving a $15 million increase from the city in the fiscal year that begins July 1. That would boost total support from the city from $185.3 million this fiscal year to a new record of $200.3 million in 2022- 23. The increase from the city is largely designed to fund the local share of a 5 percent pay increase for teachers and other staff that the state plans to institute. Staff and teachers of the Richmond Virtual Academy, currently listed as a program and funded with federal CARES Act dollars, advocated for it to remain open and funded and rallied parents to lobby for the survival of the academy that adopted the owl as its mascot and bills itself as a space “where learning is a hoot.” The board’s vote was both a reaction to the lobbying and a rebuke to the adminis- tration, which had notified the academy’s entire staff that they would be laid off as of July 1 and would need to reapply for positions within RPS. Mr. Kamras initially proposed cutting the program from 70 to just 10 instructors, who would largely teach homebound students too sick or injured to come to school or students removed from in-person learning for discipline reasons. Cindi Robinson, the academy’s princi- pal, said the board’s action is good news for parents and students. “Virtual learning is not just a Band-Aid,” Ms. Robinson said, noting that numerous school divisions have found some students “actually thrive and do better” in an online program. Among them is Sheila Barlow’s 19-year- old son, Douglas. Ms. Barlow told the board that the virtual school has been a boon for her son and other students like him with serious disabilities who can now attend class from home in a safe environment. Her son has Down syndrome and can- not talk, she said. “He has a sign language interpreter for all of his classes,” Ms. Barlow told the Free Press. “If he goes back to in-person learning, my son would not have that service.” While the board’s action appears to have saved the virtual academy, the board’s funding will provide only for a reduced operation. Richmond’s virtual operation enrolls about 768 students, including 500 elementary school students, which is fewer students than Henrico and Chesterfield’s school systems. But that would shrink further. The board’s funding would allow for only 30 total staff, including a principal, counselors and other staff and about 23 instructional staff strictly for elementary programming. Currently, the school has at least 70 staff members, including a 43-member instructional staff. As part of the transition, the School Board agreed with the administration’s plan to end enrollment for middle and high school students who can move to the state’s online program, Virtual Virginia. The revamped Richmond Virtual Acad- emy also will oversee virtual educational programming for students who are home- bound for disciplinary or health reasons. According to board members, the ad- ministration is expected to drop the cur- rent homebound program that dispatches teachers to the homes of students to provide in-person instruction two hours a day. If it becomes a school of record as anticipated, RVA would not only have a budget, but would also report state Stan- dards of Learning test results. The board’s budget, meanwhile, cuts more deeply into the central office staff than Mr. Kamras proposed and largely eliminates contracts for consultants pro- viding curriculum training. Ms. Gibson also won approval for an audit of Mr. Kamras’ original budget plan after she turned up a significant discrepancy in total employee numbers compared with the current year. The board also provided funding for the first time to enable 400 students to take math, science and other required high school classes at the Richmond Technical Center along with their career and voca- tional training programs. Under the initiative advanced by Jona- than Young, 4th District, the students will no longer have to be shuttled back to their home schools for those courses. This change is seen as a harbinger of the proposed career and technical high school that RPS plans to create in a former tobacco plant in South Side. In addition, the board also provided funds to support an increase in the number of students during the next four years at two specialty high schools, Richmond Com- munity and Franklin Military Academy, and three regional high schools, Code RVA and the Maggie L. Walker and Appomattox regional governor’s schools.
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Shelter in place?
Homeless advocacy group says many unaware of warm housing when temperatures drop
As temperatures plunged into the 30s this week as fore- cast, a reluctant City Hall at the last minute grudgingly opened two overnight shelters – one for 50 single men and one for 50 single women, but none for those with children. Mayor Levar M. Stoney and his administration quietly sent email notices to some home- less groups about opening, but refused to issue any public statement in an apparent bid to reduce demand — follow- ing the script from the Sept. 30 tropical storm when only 12 homeless people managed to find the unannounced city shelter to get out of the heavy downpour. As was the case Sept. 30, most people who needed a warm place never got the word, ac- cording to a homeless advocacy organization, which decried the fact the city waited until 6 p.m. to announce the two shelters had opened an hour earlier. The shelters at United Na- tions Church, 214 Cowardin Ave. in South Side, and at the
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President Obama’s memoir off to record-setting sales start
Former President Barack Obama’s memoir, “A Promised Land” sold nearly 890,000 copies in the United States and Canada in its first 24 hours, putting it on track to be the best selling presidential memoir in modern history.
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Glen Lea Elementary School educator Dexter Price credits his wife, Denise, for encouraging him to continue teaching, despite his medical challenges.
Published on August 17, 2023
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Isaiah “Prince Trombone” Robinson serenades passing motorists as fellow musician, Robert Johnson III, accompanies him on an electric drum outside The National in the 700 …
Published on May 7, 2020
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VCU drops Moore Street School day care project
Virginia Commonwealth University apparently has dropped its $5 million plan to transform the historic, but deteriorating Moore Street School in the Carver community near Downtown into a day care and child development center for pre-school children.
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VUU appoints director of global and online learning
Tunesha Witcher has been appointed director of VUU Global and Online Learning in the Division of Academic Affairs.
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A Fourth of July travesty
Editorials
President Trump’s ego-driven, militaristic Fourth of July display has come with a big price tag.
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Flanked by U.S. Rep. Robert C. “Bobby” Scott, left, and Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam, Anne Holton, wife of Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine, engages …
Published on September 9, 2016
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Advocate aims to change RPS culture through Restorative Practices program
An activist who moves people with the beat of drums will now have his hand on the pulse of Richmond Public Schools as the new manager of School Climate and Culture Strategy.
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Tyler drops out of mayor’s race; new poll shows Morrissey leading
A candidate for Richmond mayor dropped out Tuesday in a bid to help derail the acknowledged frontrunner, former Delegate Joseph D. “Joe” Morrissey.
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Commonwealth Catholic Charities to lead city’s winter overflow shelter efforts
Homeless people needing shelter in Richmond beginning Friday, Oct. 1, through mid-April will have a place to stay if the private shelters are full during cold weather.
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Buying black then and now
The advent of initiatives throughout this country to “Buy Black” and “Bank Black” can be traced to the early 1900s during which time campaigns similar to today’s efforts were established. Slogans such as “Double-Duty Dollars,” “Don’t shop where you can’t work” and efforts such as Black Cooperatives cropped up as a result of our forebears understanding and being willing to act upon the fact that their dollars mattered.
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Stamp prices going up Sunday
Beginning Sunday, Jan. 21, the price of postage is going up. The U.S. Postal Service announced its 2018 increases last fall, which were approved in November by the Postal Regulatory Commission.
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Keeping land in the family, by Sen. Jennifer L. McClellan and Parker C. Agelasto
As Virginia and America continue the long overdue work of addressing structural inequity, our Commonwealth has taken one significant step toward fixing a leading cause of loss of land and wealth for African-Americans.
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RRHA taking comments on what qualities next CEO should possess
The Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority is asking the public to weigh in on what qualities the next CEO should possess.
