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Va. minimum wage goes to $9.50 on May 1
Saturday, May 1, will usher in a major jump in pay for tens of thousands of hourly workers across Virginia.
UR religion professor honored for 54 years
There is one word in the English language that Frank Edwin Eakin Jr. never utters: “Retirement.” Dr. Eakin has spent 54 years teaching religious studies courses, including 52 years at the University of Richmond, and he’s still going strong.
Study may help reverse shut out of Black businesses from city contracts
City Hall spends hundreds of millions of dollars a year to buy goods and services and pay for construction and renovation of its buildings, pipelines and other infrastructure. But only a tiny fraction of that money is spent with Black- and minority-owned companies.
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.
Foundation eyeing former Catholic school for apartments
An abandoned Catholic school on North Side is being targeted for a projected $10 million transformation into 92 affordable apartments for the elderly and disabled.
Richmond Police records show 84 complaints filed against officers in 2020
How well are Richmond Police policing themselves to prevent the kind of hugely expensive and horrific mess created by former Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin in his fatal arrest of George Floyd?
VFH receives grant to more fully tell story of Va. slavery
Students, scholars and others who want to know more about the African-American experience in Virginia soon may be able to take virtual reality tours of various sites in the state.
Restoration rights process bogged down
Gov. Terry McAuliffe has been unable to keep his promise to swiftly restore felons’ voting rights on a case-by-case basis after the Virginia Supreme Court struck down his executive orders restoring voting rights en masse to more than 200,000 felons.
Confederate flag replaced at Riverview Cemetery
A Confederate flag flying in Riverview Cemetery in Richmond’s West End has been replaced with a new banner — the Christian flag, a white banner with a red cross centered in a small, blue square in the flag’s top left corner.
Salvation Army looks to relocate from Downtown to North Side
People needing temporary housing and a helping hand might soon have to walk a bit farther to reach the Salvation Army’s combination headquarters and emergency shelter.
Eureka!
FDA approves milestone treatments for sickle cell disease
Two breakthrough gene therapies can now be used to treat and possibly cure sickle cell anemia, the genetic blood disorder that afflicts 100,000 mostly Black Americans and 20 million people worldwide. But the announcement from the Food and Drug Administration of approval of the treatments — the first use of medicines to address an inherited disease — drew cheers and caution flags from those in the field.
‘Jury still out’
Mayor Levar M.Stoney finishes first year amid ambivalence despite human touch
Richmond Mayor Levar M. Stoney has probably shaken more hands, taken more selfies with city residents, issued more tweets and participated in more events, programs and festivals than any mayor in recent memory.
City center vision
NH Foundation looks to new coliseum to spur major redevelopment in Downtown
How do you build a $220 million coliseum for Richmond without putting up any money?
Mayor introduces plan to boost affordable housing
For at least 25 years, City Hall has offered a tax abatement program that has spurred improvements and upgrades to at least 7,500 aging homes and apartment buildings in exchange for seven years of reduced real estate taxes.
Coliseum review panel stalled after attempt to add VUU president
New twists occurred this week in the ongoing saga of the Navy Hill District Corp. proposal to replace the Richmond Coliseum.
Councilman Michael Jones blasts ‘blatant discrimination’ by state Board of Elections
In a stunning reversal, the state Board of Elections has voted 2-1 to allow seven white candidates extra time to file missing paperwork needed to qualify for the Nov. 2 general election ballot.
4 named to Mayor Stoney’s staff
Richmond Mayor Levar M. Stoney has added four new people to his staff at City Hall, including three policy advisers and a senior assistant, as he seek to put his stamp on the city government.
Technical problem thwarts court case to remove Agelasto from office
Fifth District City Councilman Parker C. Agelasto gained a reprieve Tuesday from an effort to immediately remove him from the city’s governing body. Richmond Circuit Court Judge W. Reilly Marchant refused on Tuesday to consider a former councilman’s request for a temporary injunction that would have ended Mr. Agelasto’s tenure before his planned departure on Nov. 30.
Nasal flush possibly remedy to fight off coronavirus?
Photographer and home builder Robert Liverman has become an unlikely crusader for a method he believes people can use to help protect themselves from COVID-19 — daily rins- ing their noses.
Annie Giles Center to have grand reopening ceremony July 31
It has been a soup kitchen and a shelter for the homeless during the winter.
