Photo by Jay Paul
The school two of her children attend burned down in early February, so, naturally, Becca DuVal helped organize a rally two weeks later to fund its replacement. But she quickly realized that the charred school — Richmond Public Schools’ William Fox Elementary — wasn’t the only problem.
There are 20 city schools that haven’t been renovated in at least half a century. Meanwhile, the Richmond School Board is in the process of taking over school construction — it’s long been managed by the city — while attempting to cut staff and other resources. And there are the political fights the board has engaged in with Mayor Levar Stoney, City Council and, most notably, its own superintendent, Jason Kamras.
“People are just bamboozled,” says DuVal, who lives on Hanover Avenue, four blocks from Fox. “I have serious concerns about our underfunded school district.”
The last few weeks have been a whirlwind, to say the least. DuVal’s “Fund Safe Schools” rally on Feb. 26, where dozens of parents and community advocates marched from Fox to Monroe Park near Virginia Commonwealth University, quickly morphed into a different rally two days later. After several members of the School Board called on Kamras to cut two key administrative positions, including his chief operating officer, during budget negotiations, DuVal was back in front of the School Board the following Monday, Feb. 28.
“I address you today as a concerned mother, concerned because my children have spent a quarter of their lives in a world of pandemic upheaval and sacrifices beyond our control. But learning in virtual limbo right now doesn’t have to be one of them. Attending a school district in the throes of a disruptive, administrative shakeup does not have to be one of them,” Duval, one of at least 50 citizens who spoke that night, told the board. “It is my kids without a school today, but it is all kids at risk by the political games being played now.”
Indeed, the fire at Fox couldn’t have come at a worse time. It’s budget season, and the School Board’s internal negotiations this year have been particularly contentious. Exactly why, however, isn’t exactly clear. The School Board is taking a scalpel to its budget as the city experiences a surge in tax revenues. The mayor’s fiscal year 2023 general budget proposal of $836 million represents a marked increase in spending over last year, an additional $51 million, thanks to rising real estate values and a local economy that’s improving after two years of pandemic-related disruptions.
The School Board’s hand-wringing also led to missing the mayor’s deadline for submitting its budget request. Still, the money is there. In his budget proposal, Stoney included an additional $15 million for schools over last year’s city allocation of $185 million. The $15 million, however, was placed in a contingency fund subject to approval from City Council during budget negotiations over the next month.
Kimberly Bridges, assistant professor of educational leadership at VCU and a former Richmond School Board member, says budget battles with City Hall are hardly unique. School boards in Virginia are fiscally dependent, says Bridges, who has studied school board governance across the country, meaning they don’t have taxing authority and must go “hat in hand” to ask for money from their board of supervisors or city council. During her time on the School Board from 2007 to 2012, Richmond was mired in a recession, and there was nearly constant pressure from the mayor’s office to cut spending. It’s unusual, Bridges says, for a board to “preemptively cut” the superintendent’s budget prior to submitting a funding request.
“Now you’ve got a mayor who has been funding consistently at the level they are requesting. Every year, it’s gone up,” Bridges says. “In this case, the board is saying, ‘We want to ask for less than what the person we hired says we need.’ ”
The last couple of years have put an enormous strain on city schools. Enrollment declined during the pandemic, which is expected to result in lower state funding this year. Virginia is the 10th richest state in the country per median household income ($76,456), but state spending on education is just $5,488 per pupil, according to census data from 2019. Unlike surrounding jurisdictions, Richmond saw its tax base shrink after desegregation and white flight, which left RPS with fewer resources.
The fire at Fox was an unexpected tragedy, but it shouldn’t overshadow other long-running needs in the district, says Genevieve Siegel-Hawley, associate professor of educational leadership at VCU. Bringing Fox back, for example, shouldn’t take priority over another contentious school construction project — the rebuilding of George Wythe High.
“RPS, like school districts across the country, is reeling from an ongoing pandemic, and there are other school construction battles being waged in the district,” Siegel-Hawley says. “I think it’s important that we keep the larger picture in mind even as we attend to the needs of this one particular community.”
