August 6, 2024

Big Bets with a 5-year Plan for RPS

Cheers RVA!

Today will be partly cloudy, humid, with a high of 90. Stay hydrated.

the dive:

The Richmond School Board met last night for their regular biweekly meeting.

Legal Consultation

After the formal opening and recognition, the board held a closed session for consultation with legal council. RPS is currently being sued for a combined $26 million in two lawsuits stemming from the Monroe Park shooting incident.

Public Comments

During public commenting, REA president Neri Suarez provided an update on progress the teacher’s union and the board had made through mediation, but continued to express urgency on the ASL interpreters contractual issues.

Suarez also suggested that the improvement data presented from the pilot 200-day school year program was flawed, in that the two schools, Fairfield and Cardinal, have a disproportionate number of tutors, with Fairfield Elementary having nine tutors while comparably sized schools in Richmond have only one.

A bus driver was passionate in her comments about the changes in bus diver pay, saying that it takes 12 hours to work an 8-hour day, and the new rules offer no incentive to work an extra 45 minutes after a 12-hour day. Previously drivers had been paid 2 hours for after school activity routes, regardless of the time the trip took.

Another driver was in tears, saying she had worked 10 years for RPS and would not quit, but was disappointed.

A parent and teacher who was a member of the PTA at Fox Elementary, spoke of her support for Parent Teacher Associations and Parent Teacher Organizations at all RPS schools.

She spoke of the disappointment knowing 5th graders from Fox could go to Washington D.C. on a field trip each year, but students from Carver could not, due to an absence of an effective PTA or PTO. This parent, Kathryn Ricard, is also running for the School Board 2nd District Seat

A 5-year Vision with Big Bets

After comments, Kamras presented a draft of his 5-year Dream4RPS plan. He noted it was just a draft, with the focus of the board discussion on the following points:

• Shifting all elementary schools to a 200-day schedule over the next 5 years. Currently 4 of the 25 schools have this schedule.

• Ensuring every school has an active PTA or PTO that supports student success

A 200-day School Year

The council was unanimous with their hesitancy to rapidly push forward with expanding the 200-day plan. Boardmember Muhammad-Harris suggested the planning be paused until more data on the program is received in the Fall.

I reached out to one teacher currently in the pilot program. The feedback was the kids haven’t been negative about it, parent interaction has been limited so far, and attendance has been good. The sentiment was “if this is what it takes to help students get on grade-level, it’s worth it.”

Teacher and student burn-out is certainly a fear, and historically students tend to be more well-behaved in the first month of school than month two.

Parent Teacher Organizations

The other contentious issue at the meeting was regarding Parent Teacher Associations and Organizations. Kamras noted that PTA’s involve more money, paperwork, and fundraising, whereas PTO’s are smaller and more flexible.

Boardmember Doerr, noted that some PTA’s allow schools to act almost like private schools in terms of the amount of fundraising they do.

Shonda Harris-Muhammed, who represents the 6th district, used careful language to describe the realities of poverty in her communities, suggesting many parents would need real financial and leadership training to effectively lead such an organization.

Mariah White, of the 2nd District, echoed the sentiment and noted that while most of the schools in RPS are Title I, the PTA is not Title I. The woman who spoke during public comments about Fox School trips to D.C. is running against White in the upcoming school board election.

Doerr noted that a solution to these challenges could be a central located PTO that coordinated with all the schools.

The board was united in their agreement: effective Teacher Organizations are critical tools in educational success, but voiced concerns on the practicality of implementation and potential unethical behavior.

Gibson Sounding Like a Politician

Kenya Gibson, who represents the 3rd district and is running for City Council, briefly attacked Kamras for his comments on potential self-driving school buses in the future along with electric buses. She noted how earlier they’d witnessed Bus Drivers in tears and how insulting that idea would be to hear.

She nearly went into a rant on the absurdity of the notion but composed herself.

I’m guessing her rant would have included some of the following:

• Do you believe Bus Drivers are only transporters, not caretakers?

• Who would be responsible for the children in a driver-less bus?

• Many days there is police presence at pick-up at schools in my district. How does that align with a driver-less bus?

Kamras concluded the discussion saying this was an initial draft for a 5-year plan, and would have the next version ready at the August 19 meeting.

The current seats on the School Board with contested elections are in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 8th districts.

the vibe:

The most common buzzwords at the meeting were equity and intentionality.

Have a purposive day RVA!

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