RPS RECAP: Jan 2, 2023

Happy Wednesday, Board Watchers! The RPS Board kicked off 2023 in a BIG WAY Monday night - and I cannot wait to tell you about it. Let’s jump right in with our RECAP: 

  • New Board Leadership

  • At-Odds with Attendance

  • R-E-YAY

  • Gold-Star Audit

  • Community Outreach

A note for new readers: these posts are (necessarily) long so that I can provide the relevant (national, regional, and personal) context. You are welcomed and encouraged to skip around to the topics that most interest you. Welcome, and cheers!

New Board Leadership

I won’t bury the lede here: We have new Board leadership! Chairwoman Rizzi, and Vice-Chair Burke. And believe me when I say - they were every bit as surprised as the rest of us.

Rizzi and Burke represent a “unity ticket.” A moderate member of the Board Majority, and a moderate member of the Board Minority. Rizzi is a newbie to Robert’s Rules of Order, and Burke is an ol’ pro. They bring balance to Board leadership, and constructive relationships with all 9 members. It’s an absolutely masterful pairing, and it was all Mariah White’s idea. 

That’s right: the 2nd District rep is apparently as good at matchmaking as she is at putting together a killer outfit. 

  • She said of Rizzi: She is fair, transparent, and agreeable. (Unanimous Approval)

  • And of Burke: She is knowledgeable, transparent, and supportive. (Only the outgoing Chair and Vice Chair - Dr H-M and Kenya Gibson - reject this proposal.)

In her explanation, White refuted the “dysfunctional” label that was so often used to describe the 2022 Board and leadership. Nevertheless, she recognized the limits of the current power structure and stepped up to change it. 

“We will not accept just anything in Richmond Public Schools any longer. We know what we need to do here on this Board…We need to work together. This is not personal. This is strictly business.” - Mariah White

I have to tell you: I did NOT see this rebuke of the 2022 leadership team coming from Rep. White. She has never publicly faltered in her support for Dr. H-M or Rep. Gibson - who otherwise appears to be her closest Board ally. To oust weak leadership is one thing - but to see her friends as weak leaders, and put her duty to students ahead of personal comfort takes a whole different level of courage and conviction. At the risk of overdramatizing this, I cannot shake the idea that her military background prepared her for this kind of triage, and I am beyond impressed. 

Our new Chair and Vice Chair - surprised though they were - embraced their unexpected nominations with grace and optimism. Burke sounded downright relieved when she addressed her new Chairwoman:

“I can pick up the phone to call you - we can agree or disagree - but at the end of the day it’s not about us. It’s not personal. It’s about our children. However I can support you, I will.” 

Their term begins as a true act of service, and free from the stench of political gamesmanship or micromanagement. I see real potential for them to restore the Board’s focus, and their reputation in the community. 

Of course, not everybody is pleased with this shake up. Dr. H-M defended her legacy, saying “It is extremely difficult to collaborate when you are consistently undercut by individuals who have the vision of destroying progress or individuals due to personal conflict instead of operating in decency and in order.” That she and Rep. Gibson were the only ones to object to new leadership says a lot about how out-of-touch they’d become with broader Board sentiment. Nevertheless, Dr. HM held her chin high, and carried out the rest of the meeting with professionalism.

At-Odds with Attendance

We’ve already discussed the contents of the attendance report in the agenda preview, and Emily’s live-tweets. It’s bad. So bad that Jonathan Young called the 25.9% Chronic Absenteeism figure a “colossal failure.”

Dr. Shadae Harris spoke passionately about the division’s focus on building relationships, holding fast to the belief that “attendance is an engagement problem.” Sure, truancy officers can scoop up kids and bring them to school, but since punitive practices do not address the root cause, the kids will just leave again.

Rep Jones agrees. She says that poor attendance reflects “harm that has been done” between the school/community relationship. We need to embrace and fund restorative practices to rebuild that trust. 

But there is friction here. Not all Board members are convinced in this compassion-only approach. RPS may lead with love - but the school system operates within a larger framework based on compliance. This friction is creating problems with academic performance, graduation rates, accreditation, and funding (more on that in the REA segment). 

Compassion is noble - but is it also naive?

Dr. H-M says “there’s a piece missing.” She supports the use of truancy officers with a targeted focus. Given all the time we’ve spent discussing the significance of class time, this seems reasonable. Scooped-up-kids may skip again tomorrow, but at least they’d get some instruction today.

Jonathan Young supports the division’s strategic plan, Dreams4RPS, but he’s had enough. “I can’t identify a single element where we’re actually even coming close to the goals that we set.” He suggests we may need to go back to the drawing board.

This is a devastating review, and one that I hope the administration is taking seriously. They’ve been underfunded, understaffed, and embattled at every turn. They inherited a school district bearing the scars (and open wounds) of systemic racism, and were blindsided along with the rest of us by an unprecedented global pandemic. They are absolutely underdogs in this fight to serve children and set them up for future success. But they cannot afford to be blinded now by their original vision. 

This governance team (Board + administration) has a real opportunity now, heading into budget season, to consider a revised approach. One that strikes a better balance between compassion and compliance, and benefits from the support of a (largely) progressive Board body who will put the “whole child” first. 

R-E-“Yay” 

Superintendent introduces the collective bargaining segment, calling it a “truly remarkable” accomplishment the demonstrates the “dignity and respect” his administration has for all members of the RPS family.

The Richmond Education Association (REA), represented RPS staff in these negotiations with the administration. They acknowledge that the process was not always easy, but thanked the administration for being “intentional” and collaborative. Together, they’ve built a pathway for future negotiations. 

“When Unions and districts work together - It’s not an adversarial process. It’s a collaborative process. One that I think we can all be proud of.” Darrell Turner, REA VP

I won’t linger long on the victory lap portion of this discussion - because, in many ways, the work isn’t done yet. Ms. Hudacsko explains the next steps:

  • The admin will present a draft budget on Jan 17 that reflects the negotiated compensation.

  • Then it will be up to the Board to fund those priorities…

  • And then up to the City to approve that funding…

  • Then it will be up to the State to honor and sustain this funding. (REA and the RPS administration have already been lobbying lawmakers to do exactly that.)

Past REA President, Ms. Charlotte Hayer, says that the collective bargaining process “could not have been any better.” It will boost morale, but it is “long overdo” - and ultimately, real change needs to come from the General Assembly:

“We can do all the advocating that we can - but until the people across the street see us - and you - advocating that the [funding] formulas in place are harming our children - children that look like me - we’re not going to make any changes… We’ve all got to get on that bandwagon and sing the same song: Our kids deserve better in Richmond than what your formulas are giving us. If you want quality education, then you’ve got to provide quality resources.”

Ms. Hudacsko joins the funding formula talk, and ties it into the earlier conversation on attendance. The state penalizes RPS quarterly, “shaving off” a portion of their funds when students are absent. The ADM (which I preview here) has a “significant impact on our budget.” She does not mince words: 

“We will lose millions of dollars. These formulas do not work. They are unfair to school divisions like ours. We must continue to advocate for things that give divisions like RPS the resources we need.” 

The context here is: the state pays school divisions on a sliding scale based on how much of the bill they think the community can pay. (This is the LCI - the Local Composite Index - which is known colloquially as the “local ability to pay.”) It over-estimates the wealth of urban and rural school systems, and under-estimates the investments they need to be successful. The State knows this, but since so many Virginia legislators represent suburban communities (who aren’t in the same financial crisis) - there’s a collective (bipartisan) shrugging of the shoulders. It’s an entire structure built on the initial racist, classist assumption that high-poverty rural and urban districts are inept and/or full of fraud, and maintained today by legislator apathy.

I won’t get into all of the details (for now) - but Ms Hayer is right: “too many people do not understand how schools are funded.” I hope the administration kicks off budget season with a high-level funding lesson for both the people in the audience - and the ones on stage. 

With any luck, we’ll avoid the same “cut-our-own-budget-by-$6MM” fiasco that caused so much pain and confusion in 2022.

Gold-Star Audit

On the topic of inept, fraudulent school systems… Richmond Public Schools is not one! 

After a 2.5 hour wait, independent auditor and “professional skeptic,” Rob Churchman, was invited to the podium to deliver the findings of RPS’ routine financial audit. 

He was also immediately turned away. Evidently his office, Cherry Bekaert, had not sent the Board his final report ahead of this presentation. Third District’s Kenya Gibson, who makes something of a sport out of picking apart RPS audits (screen time use, chromebook distribution), was distressed by the lack of time she (and others) had to prepare for this presentation. She asked to delay the presentation until a later meeting. 

RPS has relationships with many community partners - some that they hire (like Churchman) and some that they are beneficiaries of - but they all seem to get this same “your time doesn’t matter to me” treatment. This is one of many patterns that I hope this new Board breaks. Agendas are set the Wednesday before the meeting, and documents are often uploaded by Friday at 5PM. If a document is missing, and it’s a deal-breaker, surely this man could have received a call on Monday morning to send the file, or reschedule? I continue to be embarrassed by the lack of consideration for Board guests - be it waiting from 6PM until midnight to share a presentation at the Board’s request, or driving across town, hanging out for 2.5 hours, just to be turned away at the podium. 

Fortunately the Board agreed to a middle ground: Mr. Churchman could present, provided he return for follow-up questions. 

Ms. Gibson texted her way through the presentation (or maybe Wordle’d?), then left the stage for an extended period of time to make a phone call. For all I know, her pet chicken escaped the yard, or she had to attend to an urgent family matter. Not my business - it happens with all members all the time. It only piqued my interest because she had just asked this man to leave because his material was so important that she hoped to give it extra careful attention.

Onto Churchman’s presentation: “We audited your statements and disclosures, and found them to be in accordance with accounting principles. That’s what you want to hear from your auditor. That’s when you take this home and put it on your fridge with a big smiley face. A+” 

A skeptic might wonder if he just wasn’t thorough, or if he rubber-stamps all audits. In which case, you can look to City Hall for evidence to the contrary. Evidently, Churchman and his firm stopped working with the City years ago, after they experienced excessive “disagreements with management.” Such a tease!

Anyway - if his cool reception tonight doesn’t inspire Mr. Churchman to drop the RPS Board as clients, it sounds like Dr H-M is prepared to sever that relationship herself. During New Business, she asked her Board colleagues to replace their financial auditor. These are the same open hostilities that likely caused their law firm to drop RPS, and have made recruiting a replacement firm difficult. 

The reputational damage is real, and so, it seems, are the consequences.

Community outreach

The Board discussed a medley of items they want the admin to discuss with the community. Here’s a non-exhaustive list to put on your radar!

  • Calendar and School Start Time Survey (Expected release: Jan 17th): The Board is very motivated to move quickly through the 2023-24 calendar approval process. There’s general agreement to stick to a very similar calendar to this year - but there continues to be a Year Round School tug-of-war among Board members (mostly, but not limited to, Gibson Vs. Young). This survey -  to be very very very clear - only asks about Year Round School in the interest of setting up a Pilot program. It is not to gauge interest on a division-wide change. (Someone’s going to have to catch me up: why doesn’t  Patrick Henry count as a pilot? They’ve operated on a year round calendar for a while, right?)

  • George Wythe School Renaming: Rep Page & co. passed a resolution to rename George Wythe. It is currently named for an enslaver. The timing makes financial sense, since construction already includes new signage. Rep. White wonders if the Wythe community will support this, because she is loyal to her school and would not want it renamed. The engagement team will host some listening sessions and find out.

  • Fox Floorplan Redesign: Design firm, Quinn Evans, will meet with the Fox community at Clark Springs on January 12, at 6PM, to collect feedback on the new floorplan proposal. 

  • Trade School investments: There’s been a lot of trade school talk in Richmond lately. Representatives from groups like Richmond Crusade for Voters - concerned about the shockingly low literacy rates of Richmond students - have asked the Board to expand trade programs so students who may not graduate still have skills to support them in adulthood. Jonathan Young has repeatedly asked for Dr. Shadae Harris and her engagement team to identify a trade school curriculum that most interests the community. Yet, on Monday night, RPS proposed to cut core trade programs - like carpentry and electrical training - based on low enrollment. The Board sent the academic team back to the drawing board, and encouraged student/community awareness campaigns to boost enrollment instead.

  • Holton Listening Tour & Deferred Safety Discussion: Before break, Emily live-tweeted a high stress community meeting with Holton families and staff. A poorly executed safety drill caused needless panic, and bolstered the agenda of some Holton parents who already wanted to see their principal, Dr. Hurt, “held accountable” (fired) for low teacher satisfaction rates. This was on the evening's agenda, though got deferred. (The new chair and vice chair opted to respect their constituents' concerns and cut the meeting “short” - just after 10PM.) This community meeting, and additional sessions Dr. H-M hopes to have, will be at the top of the next agenda. I’m sure there will be plenty to discuss, especially now that the superintendent has issued a letter that made a passing suggestion that some Holton parent and staff grievances are rooted in racial bias. I’d wondered if the Hurt-hate was just because she wasn’t their old principal, Mr. Hudson, who is much beloved; but I’ll be bringing popcorn on the 17th in hopes that Mr. Kamras brings receipts. I sure hope he has them - because Richmond has a long memory for comments like this and folks in the Fox and Munford community are still sore about his “Massive Resistance 2.0” comment during the 2019 rezoning.

That’s all for today! Thanks, as always, for getting engaged and staying engaged in Richmond’s Public Schools. If you’d like to support the work we’re doing, and the investigations we hope to do in the year ahead, please consider becoming a patreon subscriber.

Becca DuVal