RPS Agenda Preview: Jan 2, 2023
Happy New Year, Board Watchers! There’s no easing into 2023 in RPS world, because folks are gearing up for the year’s first School Board Meeting tomorrow, January 2nd at 6PM. You can stream the meeting here, or follow Emily’s live tweets here.
I’ve taken a look at the posted agenda and pulled out a few of the discussions I think you’ll find most interesting. If you’re new to this series - welcome! - this is a “choose your own adventure” setup, so feel free to skip around. Here’s your menu:
Electing Chair & Vice Chair
Attendance Update
Collective Bargaining
Construction Updates
Deputy Clerk
Electing Chair & Vice Chair
The Board’s first task of the new year is electing their 2023 Chair & Vice-Chair. Any member (with 5+ supportive colleagues) is eligible to hold either position.
Ordinarily, this election is just a formality. Members would have spent the holiday break making some calls, recruiting support, and ultimately deciding the victors well before taking the stage.
But this is no ordinary Board. And the slim 5-4 majority that reigned in 2022 visibly fractured as the year went on. I’m really not sure that anyone has the votes to win either seat. But here’s who I think is interested (and a few I’d like to see serve):
Shonda Harris-Muhammed (6th) for Chair. She has great confidence in her leadership abilities, and really enjoys the spotlight. She invested a lot of time into her role as RPS figurehead - attending an impressive number of RPS celebratory events for a woman with a full time job an hour away in Southampton County Public Schools.
But… 6+ hour marathon-meetings became the trademark of her time as Chairwoman. I expect even her allies on the Board are wary of signing up for another year of that. (I also expect some of those friends want the title for themselves.)
Kenya Gibson (3rd) for Chair. This is an obvious/natural next step after her year serving as Vice-Chair, and may have been the plan all along. Either way - I’m supporting this promotion. Gibson led an efficient Board meeting back in November, and seems very much up to the task of policing her Board colleagues to stay on topic and churn through their agenda quickly. Those are very welcomed skills to have after a year of free-for-all Board discussions and constantly shifting focus.
But… She’s not known for investing much time into community engagement. Up until last month - she hadn’t met with her constituents in two years, and she has missed quite a few Board events as well. I’m sure she would up her attendance game if she became Chair - but she may prefer to stay Vice-Chair and keep her current work/life balance.
Jonathan Young (4th) for Chair. He was Vice-Chair a couple years ago, and he’s rumored to be pursuing higher office. Serving as Chair now would pad that resume, and free him up to campaign in 2024. Honestly, I think he’d be great at it, too. He’s easily got the most experience relationship-building with all his Board colleagues, and (despite the occasional MAGA-jab on stage) goes out of his way to be pleasant and collaborative. The path to 5 yes’s may be easiest for him.
Nicole Jones (9th) for Vice Chair. Rep. Jones made a name for herself as a “truth teller” over the last two years. She has an incredible knack for knowing what to say, and when to say it. This is an important skill to have on Board leadership, since the body is in constant conflict with one another and their administration. She’s also very active in the community, suggesting she has the time and intention to devote to this sort of public-facing role.
But… her truth-telling is probably more popular among Board Watchers than her Board colleagues. I’m certain she has hurt feelings or bruised egos along the way, and I’m not sure if lingering grudges would keep her from getting the 5+ votes necessary to win an officer seat.
Stephanie Rizzi (5th) for Vice Chair. Rizzi is my ”Most Improved” nominee in 2022. As the Wythe debate ugliness faded, she really emerged as a member intent on building policy and making a positive change. In particular: she’s been warmly received by her peers on the LULAC committee, building important relationships that would ensure better representation for Richmond’s fastest growing student sub-group.
But… I really don’t know if she wants a leadership role. She - and most of the Board members that didn’t make this list - appear exhausted by the gamesmanship of some of their colleagues. Maybe Rizzi wants to “be the change” - but she may also prefer to keep her head down and do the work.
We’ll see how it goes! Hopefully we’ll end up with officers committed to orderly, efficient meetings, and who take an active peace-keeping role so this Board can squabble less, and compromise more.
Attendance Update
The attendance presentation is pretty grim. Over a quarter of RPS students are considered chronically absent, which means they’ve missed 10% or more instructional days. This is a pandemic-era crisis that continues to hold down academic progress and graduation rates across the division. (More on this, here.)
Chronic absenteeism also hits RPS in the wallet.
Don’t let talk of “per pupil funding” fool you: Virginia does not pay school districts based on overall student enrollment numbers. They pay based on average daily attendance.
A 25.9% drop in attendance essentially means a 25.9% loss of district funding. That’s massive. (Oversimplified a bit too, but I’d need a whole separate post to breakdown the complexities of public school funding.)
The unfortunate irony is: Improving attendance rates requires a lot of additional spending. This presentation describes “TRIO” teams of social workers, family liasions, and Community In Schools (CIS) personnel who intervene when students start to rack up absences, and work directly with families to customize their student’s attendance plans. There are simply not enough of these teams to meet current demand, and too few of them are fluent in the 22 languages spoken by RPS families. (To emphasize this last point: Dr. Harris’ report also indicates translation and interpretation service requests have ballooned from 3,000 last year, to 11,500 this year!)
Housing instability is another growing attendance barrier for RPS students. It’s important that the Board fund the division’s “C-FIT” (Center for families in transition) teams to better support these students.
Unfortunately, I expect that the Chief Engagement Officer’s staffing and funding recommendations will get a mixed reception from the Board. Just weeks ago, Rep. White - a repeated critic of family liasions - proposed gutting these engagement teams and having this staff serve as school security personnel instead.
Collective Bargaining
Since the Board last met, RPS teachers, instructional assistants, nutritional and safety staff voted to approve the collective bargaining agreements that the Richmond Educator’s Association negotiated on their behalf. This is a historic moment for organizing in Virginia.
I’m definitely not an expert on the subject, and won’t pretend to be. Instead, I point you to the various employee protections and compensation agreements that are laid out on Board Docs.
Construction Updates
New Chief Operating Officer, Dana Fox, hasn’t skipped a beat! As of Dec 23rd, plans have been finalized for a new roof on Fox elementary. She’d previously suggested this roof could be installed by the end of January, though there’s no mention of that in this report. I look forward to hearing an update on that, as well as the current funding dilemma. (There have been murmurs over the last few months that insurance doesn’t want to pay for a full rebuild. Shocker!) RPS may be able to close some funding gaps by applying for new school construction grants - thanks in large part to fellow RPS parent, Jennifer McClellan (perhaps as a parting gift on her way to serve in the US congress?! 🤞).
Next up for Fox: A community engagement meeting at Clark springs on January 12, 6 pm. From the presentation: “This meeting we will provide an overview of the work completed to date and discuss the new floor plan for the 2300 Hanover Avenue building.”
Wythe is a bit of a mixed bag: it sounds like either the Department of Public Works and/or(?) the Department of Utilities have been sitting on a permit that RPS needs to start Early Site Work since Nov 7. While they await this approval, the construction team is busy finalizing plans for the athletic complex, and gazing lovingly at the wining color selection for the new school interior (even if the artist renderings aren’t up to Jonathan Young’s classroom design standards.)
Deputy Clerk
Adding a “Deputy Clerk” to the Board’s staff has been a long-time priority for 3rd District Rep Kenya Gibson, and echoed by 6th District Rep Dr. HM. It just… wasn’t a priority when they were crafting the 2022-2023 budget last February.
I’ll be following this conversation to see where they “find” the funds to cover this salary… with the sincere hope that they don’t siphon money away from an existing academic priority. This kind of “budget jenga” has a history of biting RPS in the butt - like that time a same-night-motion to start up their own construction team forced the administration to “find” nearly $500K in salaries from other central office positions. It’s a seriously chaotic way to “manage” taxpayer dollars, and the consequences never get the level of scrutiny they deserve. Hopefully they’ve either found the funds in their own (Board’s) budget, or they’ll agree to work this new funding priority into the broader 2023-24 budget they’ll be crafting over the next couple of months.
Thats all for this Agenda Preview! Follow along with the action on twitter tomorrow, where Emily will be live-tweeting the meeting starting at 6PM. Then check back here later in the week for a full meeting recap. Cheers!