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School Board approves $224.7M for school buildings
The Richmond School Board once again is challenging the mayor and City Council to find money to start replacing or renovating the decrepit public school buildings a majority of students attend.
City welcomes new schools chief
Jason Kamras from D.C. to become next Richmond superintendent
They campaigned on a platform of change for a school system that continues to rank high in dropouts and suspensions and low in student academic achievement.
Slot machines hit jackpot in stores around Va.
Andrea R. Hill is a self-confessed “slot machine grinder,” but she still hasn’t visited the new Rosie’s Richmond Gaming Emporium in South Side to try her luck on the array of slot-style machines.
Aird defeats Morrissey
Winning 13th Senate District, November’s general election likely a shoo-in
Call it a special birthday present. Just two days before turning 37, Lashrecse D. Aird celebrated in advance Tuesday by putting an election whipping on maverick Democratic state Sen. Joseph D. Morrissey in their head-to-head contest.
Jury still out
After a year on the job, Richmond Police Chief Gerald Smith has not won over many officers or residents either through style or substance
A year ago, Gerald M. Smith was introduced to the city as an “innovator” and a “reform-minded change agent” as Mayor Levar M. Stoney introduced him as Richmond’s new police chief.
Va. loses a freedom fighter
Jack W. Gravely, who led the fight for civil rights as head of the Va. NAACP, dies at 72
Jack W. Gravely was the definition of outspoken. He never hesitated to speak his mind about issues affecting the African-American community. The son of a coal miner, he led the charge for civil rights during two separate stints as executive director of the Virginia State Conference of the NAACP, most recently in the past year.
Owners seek return of Maggie Walker papers
Eight years ago, curious students from the College of William & Mary stumbled across a treasure trove of documents hidden in the attic of a vacant building in Gilpin Court.
Booted out
After days of protests and videos of police tear-gassing and pepper-spraying peaceful crowds, Richmond Police Chief Will Smith was asked to resign Tuesday by Mayor Levar M. Stoney
A year ago, new Richmond Police Chief Will Smith was extolled as the best thing since sliced bread when it came to leading 754 sworn officers in the fight against crime.
‘I was handed a death sentence’
Advocates help NAACP stalwart Ora Lomax receive life-saving dialysis after a Henrico center moves to terminate her treatment
Getting kicked out of a dialysis clinic is the worst thing that can happen to a patient with failing kidneys. But that is what 86-year-old Ora M. Lomax has been facing.
Winners and losers
Mayor Levar M. Stoney offers details of his $1.42B, 2-year budget plan
High school students would be able ride GRTC buses without charge on an unlimited basis for a year. After-school programs for city youths would be expanded by enabling six city recreation centers to stay open longer and through support for programs offered by the YMCA, the YWCA and several other youth-serving groups.
It’s a sweep!
Virginia elects Democrats to top posts, other offices
In a result seen as a wholesale rejection of a president many see as unfit, and a message to the political party that has backed him, fired up Virginia voters ensured Democrats retained control of the top tiers of state government and replaced at least a dozen seasoned Republican lawmakers in the General Assembly to boot.
More bad news
As consultant points out flaws, City Council majority gives Mayor Stoney a choice to withdraw the $1.5B Coliseum and Downtown development plan or have it stricken
The bad news just keeps coming for the doomed $1.5 billion proposal to replace the Richmond Coliseum and develop an area of Downtown around it.
Dr. Roy A. West, former Richmond mayor, educator, dies at 89
Dr. Roy A. West, a decisive and outspoken man known for his strong opinions and who exercised power at City Hall as mayor while playing an influential role in public education in Richmond, has died.
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.
Henrico commonwealth’s attorney’s race hit with allegation of special treatment
The case of John J. Trak, who has been convicted of two felony drug possession charges and two other felonies since 2011, is roiling the election contest for Henrico County commonwealth’s attorney as the Nov. 5 election approaches.
Marching for dollars
City Council takes first steps to give more to RPS
Before dozens of students, parents and teachers began pleading, berating and challenging Richmond City Council to beef up funding for city schools, the nine members of the governing body had already taken the first step. In a 9-0 vote Monday night, in front of a packed council chamber of school supporters, the council approved an ordinance requiring the city administration to give to the schools real estate tax money collected from surplus property previously owned by the school system.
A treasure trove of history
Jackson Ward couple discovers legal papers of civil rights icon Roland J. ‘Duke’ Ealey
Five years into the renovation of a 143-year-old brick house on East Clay Street in Jackson Ward, James Vigeant’s work halted. To his surprise and amazement, he found an unexpected treasure — 144 moldy boxes filled with the decaying legal papers of one of Richmond’s legal giants, Roland J. “Duke” Ealey.
Plans to use city schools for day care program break down
Talks between City Hall and Richmond Public Schools over using five school buildings as day care sites have broken down.
School day care?
Empty public school buildings may be central to city task force plan to help parents with day care as they return to work
Sharonda Robinson hoped against hope that Richmond Public Schools would reopen this fall so her sons, ages 6 and 8, could be in school taking classes while she went to work.
New laws tax cigarettes in city, raise smoking age statewide
Smoke ’em if you got ’em, because the cost of cigarettes and vaping is about to go up in more ways than one.
