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Rezoning task force offers changes for Bellevue, George Mason
05/22/2012 6:00 AM by John M
Bellevue, John B. Cary, Summer Hill, and Fisher or Southampton — one or the other, not both — could be “repurposed,” the task force suggested during the late afternoon meeting.
An alternative recommendation has Bellevue being combined with George Mason Elementary. Under that scenario, Mason would house students in kindergarten and first and second grades. Third-, fourth- and fifth-graders would attend Bellevue.
There will be public meetings held on May 29 at George Wythe High School and May 31 at John Marshall High School.
I hope those K-2 kids from Bellevue take their umbrellas. All the holes in the roof @ Mason make it fun when it rains.
Why would they change Bellevue? I thought it won awards? We were happy to have such a great school just down the street to send our kid to. I never understand these things. What “problem” would this solve?
It is my understanding that Bellevue is always on the list for the chopping block because there are not enough elementary students in it’s draw zone, that the school’s population is heavily made up of students that are zoned for other neighborhood schools such as George Mason or Chimborazo or whatever.
Aren’t third and fifth grade SOL grades? Send the kids to the school that wins awards for those grades to get the stats up?
The school board doesn’t even recognize the gem they have in Bellevue. This school is fantastic. Dissecting the grades and the families by splitting into two schools is not an option. Closing Bellevue will only bring more negative press to Richmond City schools. I know from first hand experience the quality of the school b/c my son attends Kindergarten there. In my opinion, the school board should spend their time and money on a marketing campaign that highlights the success of Bellevue, it’s a feather in their cap.
John M is right. Lack of community enrollment in your neighborhood school is the source of its demise. The Bellevue PTA executive committee will be holding a meeting today to discuss how we can address this. Now more than ever, we will need community support to Save Our School.
Heather – thank you for this. We are parents who live in the area and have to young boys – still a year out from our oldest being in Kindergarten, but this upsets me greatly. Especially when I see all the wonderful work the community is doing with the Chimborazo program. Bellevue should be in competition and shouting from the roofs – and the city should be touting how amazing it is two have two great schools in Church Hill. Please keep us all posted of the work needed to help save this school. I for one will do what I can.
@LoveCityLife– Bellevue has a FANTASTIC pre-k program and it’s a free full day program. Anyone can take advantage of it, you just need to enroll. My son learned so much and had a great time, Shenandoah Williams was his teacher. She recognized he loved to draw and would bring in those step by step drawing books. One day he started drawing really cool things, and I realized it was due to Mrs. Williams taking the time to encourage him in something she saw he enjoyed.
Regarding this potential disastrous decision, you can help by showing up to either speak or just be there for support (wear purple) at the public meetings and bring your neighbors. Here are the dates:
May 29 George Wythe High School 6:30 p.m.
May 31 John Marshall High School 6:30 p.m.
Thank you so much for your support!
Heather #7, is Pre-k for four year olds? I’ve got a friend with a 3 1/2 year old who will be four in January, and am curious. Many thanks.
My understanding is that they have to be 4 by September 30th.
For anyone wanting to see updates on the Bellevue progress, i have just created a facebook page. We are starting a High Five video social campaign where you can post videos of you and your friends High Fiving in support of Bellevue. High represents the Excellence in Performance and Five represents us wanting to keep it PreK through 5. Please post your support on the site:
http://www.facebook.com/SOSbellevue
Thanks so much for your interest and support!
Please come out and show your support at the rezoning meeting Thursday May 31, at John Marshall High at 6:00 PM. The School Board needs to hear from families who were planning on sending their children to Bellevue, and from the community to show its support of our local schools.
Interesting that there is so much support for Bellevue when all the kids I know in the neighborhood go to private or out of district. Happy to see it though. I’m a proud Bellevue alum myself.
Why would combining them be such a bad thing again? Wouldn’t it be a wonderful chance to integrate the two sections of the neighborhood? Win win for everyone!
-just a neighbor…. Can you explain how this would be a “win” for the children that currently attend Bellevue?
I hope that RPS can close these schools. They’ve been talking about the need to close facilities due to declining enrollment for a long time now. Keeping extra schools open is a drag on the system, a system which is short quite a bit of money.
It would benefit all of the students in the system to attend a school that is financially stable. All of the students deserve schools which are staffed by good teachers who are happy at their jobs and who have the resources to teach. When we start seeing local schools go without basic supplies and teachers hit with furlough days due to the budget crunch, the whole system will be in peril.
@13…can you explain to me how it wouldn’t? why does putting them together scare you?
@just a neighbor… I do understand how this could be a win for George Mason children, as I am familiar with research showing that socioeconomic integration benefits children on the lower end of the economic scale. I am not familiar with any research showing that this integration benefits children on the higher end; therefore, I would expect that the combined school would benefit some children and hurt others. Furthermore, Bellevue is already a pretty disadvantaged school, and it is wonderful that they are producing so much academic success, but I worry that their successes are still a bit too fragile to handle the influx of lower achieving students from George Mason without lowering achievement levels overall.
Just saying… I do think there is a legitimate reason why Mary Munford parents aren’t sitting around at PTA meetings brainstorming ways to enroll more Gilpin Court students in their school, and it’s not just racism.
I’m still interested to know why you see this as a win-win for everyone, because it is quite possible that I am missing something here. Care to explain?
there actually is research to show that all children benefit from a diverse population, both racially and economically.
Here is an excellent piece written recently by a UR professor talking mostly about race, but I think it falls across class lines as well, although he doesn’t as specifically address it.
http://www.styleweekly.com/richmond/rezoning-race/Content?oid=1716367
“Second, having more diverse schools is good for everyone. Substantial evidence documents the positive long-term impact of attending racially integrated schools on black children. But it’s increasingly recognized that white students also have much to gain from diverse learning environments, from learning to be comfortable in the experience of being in the racial minority to making friends across racial lines. The America of their adulthood will be one in which non-Hispanic whites cease to be the majority.
Third, it’s simply false to assume that white students will suffer academically from being in a majority-black setting.”
They aren’t “winning” but they aren’t being harmed either. From a study
“However, there is ample evidence suggesting that integration does not harm middle-class performance. One source of evidence supporting this conclusion is found in the achievement results of white students before and after racial desegregation reforms. Numerous studies consistently demonstrate that white performance was unaffected by racial integration across many districts (Armor, 1995; Jencks and Phillips, 1998 as cited in Century Foundation Taskforce & Chaplin, 2002). Specifically addressing economic integration, David Rusk found that middle class performance was not impeded as long as the majority of students came from middle class households (1998).”
http://a100educationalpolicy.pbworks.com/f/Closing+the+Achievement+Gap+-+Socioeconomic+Integration.pdf
@just a neighbor- I think you and I can agree that diversity is a good thing for schools; however, I think we disagree on the definition of “diversity.” I consider diversity to mean a variety of ethnic backgrounds and/or socioeconomic backgrounds, whereas you appear to have confounded diversity with a high percentage of students in poverty and/or a high percentage of African-American students.
The first article is irrelevant because it focuses on schools that have increased their diversity, whereas combining with George Mason would actually decrease the diversity for Bellevue students. Bellevue is currently 2.5% non-African-American and George Mason is only 1.2%. Combining would result in a pool of students that is 1.7% anything besides African-American. Is this an increase or decrease in diversity in your definition?
Similarly, on the economic side, Bellevue has 81.2% of students on free or reduced price lunch (an indicator of poverty level) and George Mason has an even higher level of 90% of students on subsidized lunch. Combining these schools would dilute the already sparse middle class students in Bellevue. Again, does this qualify as greater “diversity?”
The second article is also irrelevant because it rests on this caveat: “David Rusk found that middle class performance was not impeded as long as the majority of students came from middle class households (1998).” Clearly, this is not the case in either school.
Bellevue is already not exactly a bastion of middle-class diversity but is making strides towards achieving the kind of performance that would convince more middle class parents to send their kids there – and thus actually attain the elusive “diversity” that is so rare in Richmond Schools. This move would send it backwards on a literal “diversity” metric. Even you acknowledge that “they aren’t ‘winning.'” I still don’t think you’ve shown any evidence that they aren’t losing, and I have seen A LOT of research showing that increasing a school’s poverty levels harms academic achievement– therefore, I maintain my position that Bellevue students would be the losers in such a scenario.
First of all, please don’t bold words at me like I’m an idiot. I am equally as intelligent, even if we disagree.
Second, I admit, I was unable to find the statistical data regarding race for Bellevue despite spending a short amount of time looking. I was working off assumptions from previous posts that the children are from a small area, made up mostly of Union Hill and south of broad. I was also working on the assumption that I know many middle class families in the two surrounding zones (Mason and Chimbo) elect to get their children accepted in to Bellevue rather then send them to the other two schools. Because of this, among other things I know about Bellevue, I made an erroneous assumption about both the racial make up and the socio-economic make up of the school. I knew it was still predominately african american, but I thought it was a little closer to being the make-up of Holton (not quiet. I said close. I assumed 15% or more white, 30% or more middle income)
It is not that I think I have confounded ideas of diversity. I do not think adding more low-income african american students will make the problem better. I’m 100% in favor of desegregating the entire metropolitan area’s school systems to bring some equity to schools. I would love to see a system more like the (now defunct) one that was implemented in Seattle when I worked and lived there that required area high schools to reflect the diversity of the county. Of course, in Seattle, the city is part of the larger county. Virginia doesn’t do that leaving Richmond this abysmal school system surrounded by wealth in the outer counties.
I’m big enough to admit when I’ve made a mistake in assumption.
Could you please share where you were able to find this statistical date reagrding at Bellevue?
RPS posts these statistics on their website, though the page is sort of buried deep within the site: http://web.richmond.k12.va.us/AboutRPS/Statistics.aspx.
Thank you. I was looking to the VDOE for this information.
RICHMOND, Va. —
The Richmond School Board is putting off its vote on citywide rezoning — including the possible closure of as many as four elementary schools — until at least July 16.
The board had been scheduled to make a decision on a rezoning proposal at its meeting Monday, but now won’t do so until its July 16 meeting at the earliest.
via http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/local-education/2012/jun/16/tdmet01-richmond-school-board-puts-off-vote-on-sch-ar-1991647/
Can someone remind me again why there was such a big desire for radical change here? What was the expected benefit, etc. of shaking everything up supposed to be?
This process has dragged on so long I honestly can’t recall. I do suspect it probably wouldn’t be worth all the times and resources put into discussions about it. If only RPS put the same amount of energy into fixing the stuff that is broken as they do breaking the stuff that wasn’t, we’d be in good shape.