Anne Holton was appointed to the Richmond School Board in early February. (Photo by Jay Paul)
There is something different about this Richmond School Board.
A full year after electing six new members in November 2024, the board is less combative and more cordial, a noticeable shift from the tumultuous internal bickering that marred the previous iteration. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the city’s public school system was in turmoil: some of the worst test scores in the state, fights with the city over school sizes, a devastating fire that claimed Fox Elementary, and a graduation day shooting that stunned the city and sparked district-wide introspection.
It’s not that the persistent challenges facing RPS have dissipated. The school system started this year’s budget cycle with a funding gap of more than $30 million. Despite expected increases from the city and state, it’s still not enough.
Enter Anne Holton. In February, she was appointed to fill the 6th District seat vacated by Shonda Harris-Muhammed, who stepped down in December to become superintendent of Southampton County Public Schools.
Holton is something of a get: The daughter of former Virginia Gov. Linwood Holton, she’s a former state secretary of education and juvenile district court judge, and she served as interim president of George Mason University from 2019-2020. She also spent eight years on the Virginia Board of Education.
She also has a long history with RPS. In 1970, her father sent her and her siblings to predominantly Black city schools — at age 12, Holton was enrolled at Mosby Middle School (now Martin Luther King Jr. Middle) — effectively ending Massive Resistance. Oh, and she’s married to former Gov. and current U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine.
Richmond magazine: The tone and tenor of these meetings is markedly different from what I remember.
Anne Holton: The whole board is working hard at being collaborative. We’re all trying to make [the] School Board boring again. Maybe that’s not fair, because I actually think school boards are something people should be paying attention to, because we wrestle with issues that affect children and families and communities every day. But we want them paying attention for the right reasons; not because of the controversies that don’t relate to outcomes for children.
RM: During the pandemic, it felt like the suburban school districts were dealing with this constant external pressure, whereas in the city of Richmond you didn’t really have that. Why?
Holton: [RPS] didn’t have the culture war thing. Dealing with COVID was hard everywhere, but some of the sharpest controversies were in the suburbs. I was teaching a graduate-level education policy class [at George Mason University]. I would make the students go out and watch a school board meeting somewhere, and I wouldn’t tell them where to go. That year, when I sent them all out, they came back like they were from a war zone. They’d been accosted on the way in by reporters as well as partisans. That’s the spirit in which I say, “Make the school board boring.”
RM: What is it going to take to root out the politicization of education?
Holton: Parents and families really just want what’s best for their kids. And we want all of our kids to have an opportunity at the trampoline-to-life success that a strong education can be. So, getting back to that focus: How do we make sure that every kid can read by third grade? How do we make sure that every child is on a trajectory toward a good-paying job and a successful life? One of the few truly bipartisan things going on in Virginia education is this Virginia Literacy Act, which is now in year two of implementation statewide. Richmond was ahead of the curve on it, and we’re seeing real results. Those kinds of things can bring us all back together.
RM: What are your first impressions? You joined the board literally as budget season kicked off.
Holton: I do feel like I’ve walked into drinking from a fire hose a little bit. Every budget is hard, but this year, for Richmond, is particularly hard. So we’re going to have to make tough choices. The best answer is to figure out what we can do to expand the pie. While the state has increased its contributions to public education over recent years, it still isn’t doing its share. Even by what state policy says, the state should be paying 55% of school costs, but across Virginia the state is paying more like 45% of school costs. And Richmond city, for a variety of reasons, we’re even worse than that because of these issues with our local composite index [the state’s funding formula]. While I don’t think any of the choices are easy ones, I do think that the priority of this board, and certainly my priority, is attracting and retaining great educators and great staff. And I do think that honoring the collective bargaining agreements, honoring the raises, is the clearest top priority.
RM: The highest concentrations of minority and economically depressed student populations are in the city of Richmond. That continues to be a problem.
Holton: Yeah, it is frustrating. When I was a kid, all the schools in the Richmond region were segregated, either all white or all Black. There were very, very few schools with more than 10% of a minority in them, of either race, probably zero in Richmond, Henrico and Chesterfield. Now we’ve got schools in the counties that are genuinely mixed, and we’ve got a handful of them in the city.
Economic segregation is really a key way to look at it. I think we can have great schools in the city of Richmond. It takes money and strong leadership. The research shows that to have success in schools serving high percentages of students from poverty, you need 40% to 100% more funding per student to help them be successful. The 200-day [year-round] schools are getting great results. But it takes more money, because you’ve got to pay teachers for more parts of the year. You’ve got to run utilities for more parts of the year, mental health supports, wraparound services. All of that costs more money. So we have to invest more, but we have to invest in ways that tie to results.
RM: What do you see as the biggest challenges facing RPS?
Holton: Well, funding, certainly. And then, as you point out, poverty. We’re always going to be swimming upstream as a division that serves a high population of students coming from high-poverty communities. The neighbors-helping-neighbors model doesn’t work as well when everybody is strapped. So, poverty, budget and all of these things tie together.
Research shows the most important factor is a high-quality teacher in every classroom. And while we are doing better on that, we still struggle with turnover; we still have a high percentage of teachers who aren’t fully licensed in the field they are teaching.
RM: Why now? Why did you apply for the seat?
Holton: It does feel like a full-circle moment for me. I have always thought school boards are the most important elected office in the land. They are where the rubber meets the road for things that affect our families so much. And I just love Richmond city schools. They’ve been a transformative part of my life since I was a kid.
RM: What’s the status on the special election? Do you plan to formally run?
Holton: It’s my understanding the special election will be in November. I am inclined to run, but I want to talk to folks in the community first. I really do think with the leadership on the board, with the leadership in the administration, that Richmond’s on the rise. We’re seeing real results, but we’ve got a long way to go. I felt like I could make a contribution, particularly around policy and helping with the relationships with the state.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
