The First Day of School, the Booth Home, and a Wal-mart Mural
Cheers RVA!
Things continue to cool off today with a high of 80, albeit with high humidity. Expect showers and thunderstorms with a 70% chance of rain.
the juice:
Today is the first day of school for four of Richmond’s Public Elementary Schools, as part of the pilot 200-day school year program.
The initiative began last year at just two schools, Fairfield Court and Cardinal Elementary.
RPS officials say literacy scores improved and absenteeism was reduced as a result of the program.
Specifically, at Fairfield, year-to-year scores on the state literacy test increased from 61% to 82%. Schools with similar demographics to Fairfield, which is 97% economically disadvantaged, saw an average increase of 5%.
Cardinal Elementary on the other hand, which is 80% ESL learners, saw an increase from 53% to 58% on the same test.
Two more schools were added to the pilot program, Woodville Elementary and Oak-Grove Bellameade.
The cost to extend the school year by 20 days per school is 1.25 million, with the extension of the pilot program being funded by a donation from Bloomberg Philanthropy. The $2.5 million donation is the largest ever made to the Richmond Education Foundation.
The director of the Education Foundation, Taikein Cooper, notes the challenge of innovating using public dollars, so the foundation seeks private dollars to try new approaches in RPS.
A cheersrva reader who works at Woodville noted nearly all of the teachers returned again for the longer school year, and the program is overwhelmingly approved by parents.
the pulp:
Two shootings occurred over the weekend with two men killed. A triple shooting occurred Saturday evening downtown on the 00 block of West Broad, with three people shot including one deceased. A man was also found shot to death near Nine Mile Road early Sunday evening.
The first of the VDOE’s cell-phone free community meetings was held last week in northern Virginia. The Richmond Area’s meeting will take place August 6 in Chesterfield.
the dive:
The Shockoe Examiner, a blog about the history of Richmond, revisits the Booth Home, a home and hospital for unwed mothers that once stood in Highland Park.
The home for women who, “have for any reason become misfits in the social structure of life” was opened in 1923 and operated for 50 years, until it became a nursing home and eventually closed in 2000.
The Examiner writes:
The Booth Home and Hospital for unwed mothers at 2710 Fifth Avenue has been demolished and in its place is a new owner is constructing “Chestnut Flats,” a group of twelve condominiums priced at more than $400,000 each. Promotional material for the project describes the design scheme as “This contemporary take on a classic Scandinavian chalet is artfully blended with the saltbox style found in the surrounding neighborhood.”
Whoever wrote that description clearly never visited Highland Park and their description of rows of neat, New England saltbox houses in the area (let alone how Scandinavian chalets might somehow blend with the existing neighborhood) betrays that lack of knowledge.
Read the full article here.
the vibe:
A mural in Wal-Mart.
Have a great day RVA!
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