A classroom in Richmond Public Schools’ new Henry Marsh Elementary, which was completed in summer 2020. (Photo courtesy Richmond Public Schools)
Although COVID-19 has mostly sidelined in-person instruction at Richmond-area public schools since March 2020, construction of new schools has proceeded apace.
Recently completed school buildings await some students once pandemic restrictions are lifted, while other projects are underway across Richmond and in neighboring Henrico and Chesterfield counties. The new schools replace aging facilities and will help usher learning into the new decade.
Three new schools — Cardinal Elementary, Henry Marsh Elementary and River City Middle — were completed in Richmond in the summer of 2020, though the pandemic and a decision from the city’s school board will keep them closed through the remainder of the 2020-21 school year. George Wythe High School in Richmond’s South Side is next in line to be rebuilt following an announcement by Mayor Levar Stoney and Richmond Public School (RPS) officials in October 2020.
The high school first opened in 1960 and was only renovated once, four decades ago. RPS Principal Director of High Schools James Brown says the outdated facility and projected increases in enrollment due in part to South Richmond’s growing Latino population require a larger, modern school building. Today, Wythe is almost at capacity with 1,300 students.
“The new building will represent more than just bricks and mortar,” 8th District Richmond School Board member Dawn Page said at the announcement event. “It will provide the most up-to-date technology and a state-of-the-art facility that will give our children opportunities to become 21st-century learners.”
Though city leaders have unveiled the project, it is likely years away from breaking ground. About $4 million in excess funds from a 1.5% meals tax increase approved by Richmond City Council in 2018 to fund Cardinal, Henry Marsh and River City Middle’s construction will go toward the new Wythe building’s initial planning and design costs. The Richmond School Board will lead efforts to gather community input to inform the design process.
In an interview, Stoney said funds for the school’s construction won’t be available until the city’s borrowing capacity opens in 2024.
“The planning is underway,” he says. “Obviously, we have some fiscal constraints [because] the dollars will not be available for construction until roughly 2024, when the city’s credit capacity opens up. We understand after taking on these three major [school construction] projects in the last two years that you [must] have the planning and design work done as quickly as possible before even moving forward with putting a shovel in the ground.”
The George Wythe replacement was identified as a priority in the division’s 2018-23 Dreams4RPS strategic plan but was postponed in favor of the new middle and elementary schools. New 5th District Richmond School Board member and VCU professor Stephanie Rizzi, who represents George Wythe on the board and spent time there while training to become a teacher in 1992, says it is crucial that the project remains a priority for the school district going forward.
“It’s a little hard to maintain morale, especially in a building that is as old as it is, and I think in some ways, it communicates to the children that — I’ve talked to some that say they feel forgotten there,” she says.
Though the Wythe project remains in its earliest stages, school construction is well underway in Henrico and Chesterfield counties. Chesterfield’s Harrowgate Elementary, Matoaca Elementary and Manchester Middle schools were rebuilt last fall and were funded through a school bond referendum approved by voters in 2013. Three more replacement projects — also funded through the $353 million referendum — are underway at Crestwood, Ettrick and Reams elementary schools, Chesterfield school spokesman Shawn Smith reports via email. The three new schools are expected to be completed this year; Crestwood is scheduled to open in April.
“The new building will represent more than just bricks and mortar.” —Dawn Page, 8th District Richmond School Board member
In Henrico, crews began work on replacements for J.R. Tucker High in the county’s West End and Highland Springs High in the East End in 2019, and both schools are expected to open this fall, Henrico County Public Schools Director of Facilities Susan Moore says. The 59-year-old Tucker will be demolished once the new building is completed, while the county will retain Highland Springs, which opened in 1952 and was renovated in 2008.
The new buildings are modeled after Glen Allen High School, the county’s newest high school, and they will be two-story, 265,101-square-foot facilities accompanied by new field houses, concession stands and synthetic turf athletic fields, according to a county news release. Moore estimates that the new Tucker High has cost roughly $92 million, while the Highland Springs replacement cost the county approximately $98 million. Both projects were mainly funded through meals tax revenues and a bond referendum approved by voters in 2016.
For Highland Springs, the new school will provide relief for an older building that is “busting at the seams,” according to Principal Kenneth White.
“We’re not over capacity, but we are very close to the capacity of the students that we can have in our building,” he says. “I don’t want to paint a picture that we have 40 kids sitting outside and can’t be in classrooms, it’s not that extreme, but we have 1,900 kids, and our building gets pushed to the max when it comes to space.”
Principals at both schools touted “extended learning areas” planned for the new buildings, which will allow students to work in more flexible.
“We’re trying to design a building that [will be] able to be used for things that are relevant 20 years from now,” says Tucker Principal Arthur Raymond. “You don’t want to build a building that’s great for today when you don’t know what tomorrow may bring, and in education, we’re always trying to figure that out. We’re trying to figure out future needs so we can address those through our course offerings and through the experience that we’re providing for our students.”
Henrico’s 2016 bond referendum also will fund a $25 million expansion to Elizabeth Holladay Elementary School, which will roughly double the school’s size when it is completed in fall 2021. Former Henrico Director of Elementary Education Rich Hall says the added space will eliminate the need for nine classroom trailers currently in use at the school, and it could support around 200 pre-K students from neighboring schools that are nearing their capacity limits once it is completed.
