RECENT COMMENTS
King tentatively dropped from list of schools for redevelopment
At a 3-hour meeting today, the School Board tentatively decided to pursue redevelopment for Huguenot High School, Broad Rock Elementary School, Oak Grove Elementary School, and George Mason Elementary School as Phase 1 of overhauling the city’s aging stock of school buildings. M.L.King Middle School, on the original list for redevelopment, was shelved in favor of the 3rd elementary school. Opportunity for public comment and an official vote will take place at the next School Board meeting on November 16.
The agenda for the meeting outlined the School Board’s intent to: review the list of schools for which new contruction is a priority, prioritize schools for construction, set opportunities for public comment, and develop a recommendation to the board. An attached document described the 5 key factors to consider as: 1) instructional priorities, 2) demographic demands, 3) facilities shortcomings, 4) available financing, and 5) Mayor/City Council priorities.
The Mayor’s proposal calls for a new Huguenot High School, an unspecified middle school, and 2 unspecified elementary schools to be reconstructed or overhauled. The 9 schools considered for redevelopment, with costs, were:
- $ 5,000,000 – Amelia Street School
- $10,000,000 – Capital City Program
- $27,700,000 – Broad Rock Elementary
- $35,000,000 – Elkhart Middle School
- $29,600,000 – E.H.S.Green Elementary
- $81,300,000 – Huguenot High School
- $36,900,000 – M.L.King Middle School
- $27,700,000 – George Mason Elementary
- $27,600,000 – Oak Grove Elementary
The money for Amelia Street School and the Capital City Program has already been committed. In addition, Mayor Jones has already included Huguenot High School in Phase 1, a move vocally supported by the 9th District’s Evette Wilson and the 5th District’s Betsy Carr. The discussion then centered around which of the other schools should be a part of the initial push, and which priorities should be used to determine how to approach this.
After much back on forth on funding, demographics, and the need for future data, the 7 participating School Board members and Superintendent Brandon were polled on which schools should be a priority. The first set of polling indicated overwhelming support for a new Broad Rock Elementary, and strong support for George Mason Elementary, Martin Luther King Middle School, and Oak Grove Elementary (in that order).
In the following discussion to winnow the list further, population growth and school crowding on southside were brought up by both Wilson and the 8th District’s Page. In an attempt to bump up the chances for Oak Grove ES, Page pointed out that money has already been spent on the design work for all 3 elementary schools, with less work being completed for MLK MS; her point was that it would save money to move on the 3 elementary schools and shelve the plan for MLK MS. The 6th District’s Chandra Smith then spoke heatedly on the need for work at MLK MS. A repolling after the discussion dropped support for both George Mason ES and MLK MS to behind Oak Grove ES, pushing MLK MS to 4th on the list.
School Board 3rd District representative Murdoch-Kitt was not present at the meeting. School Board 2nd District representative Gray came in about an hour after the start of the meeting and did not take part in any of the polling. Gray asked questions about the legality of the process regarding from where the funding and direction were coming; this confused me a bit: look for a post by Isaac Graves or perhaps comments from others present (you know who you are…) for clarification on this.
Thanks John Murden and John Gerner for being at the meeting last night. Thanks to everyone who has e-mailed and given me perspectives on this issue. As 7th District School Board member I encourage all of us to care and act for all of “our” children.
The key word in John Murden’s report is “tentatively”. All that was done on Monday was “polling” not “voting” which will be done on Monday November 16th during the 6pm regular School Board meeting. The polling method had several hick-ups with people hitting wrong buttons and not being sure if they had polled properly.
The bottom line becomes either a second elementary school in Southside or MLK. The Honorable Dawn Page 8th District(a portion of Southside) School Board member admitted she is not against MLK. Sixth District School Board Member and Chairwoman The Honorable Chandra Smith who represents MLK was also passionate that MLK(which has students from the 6th,3rd,and 7th Districts)and it’s students are in need also.
Now some commentary. The polling revealed a clear desire from the board for 5 schools to be done:
Huguenot, Broad Rock, George Mason, Oak Grove and MLK.
Funding(not the School Boards authority) becomes the sticking point. My point made during the meeting was that we need a clear process committed to by the board to an ongoing plan for quality facilities. This plan at some point would also need to be agreed to by the Mayor and Council as funders of whatever can actually be done.
The administration agreed and stated that the plan would need to be revisted and updated as needed as a living document. The working document now is the updated Facility Master Plan Update November 2007 which will need to be updated based on decisions that will be made over the next few days and weeks.
At this point we are still on track for shovels in the ground by December 2010 or a little sooner if George Mason makes it through the vote; which it should. School Board members from the 1st,2nd,3rd,4th,5th,6th,9th need to know if there is public support for MLK remaining in Phase 1. The RPS website has contact information for all districts.
I see a crisp winter day in December of 2010 children and adults bundled up and smiling. The excitement in the air is real could it be after 40 years a new school in the East End? May this vision become reality.
I hope many of you will choose to come out to the School Board meeting on November 16th at 4:30pm for public comment and again at the 6pm regular meeting that will also have a public comment period and the vote on what will be our recommendation to City Council as our sequence for building new schools.
FYI. After November 16th School Board decision, on November 23rd the School Board and the Mayor take our recommendation to Council who will decide whether they will fund our recommendation. One City, Our City.Our Schools!!!!
I think Mr. Coleman slightly misstates the process for funding. Outside the normal budget process, a budget amendment must be recommended by the mayor. Council, based on an opinion of the city attorney, cannot amend the mayor’s request by adding to it. Council may reduce the request, accept of reject. In the annual budget process in the spring, council has full amendment powers.
HEAR YE, hEAR YE
On November 16th, come and watch the honorable Donald Coleman sell-out the East end communities by supporting a plan by the Mayor that builds no schools in the East end of Richmond. There is no bottom line unless Mr. Coleman abandons the current plan which builds two schools in the East -end and addresses the overcrowding problem. The fact is that unless Mr. Coleman changes his vote he has already voted the schools in the East-End away or has driven construction of these schools back to 2014.
Folks this is business as usual in the City of Richmond; let’s force two historically disadvantaged communities into the center ring to fight each other over the right to build a school that will not address their needs nor fix their problems. We all want to see a new High School, its a good IDEA. This is just a bad way to build it. Mr. Coleman’s crisp day in winter folks is really a cold new in HELL.
Don Coleman’s most recent email newsletter went out today and echoes his comments above.