Fox Elementary parent Becca DuVal (left) organized and led a march to "fund safe schools" down Hanover Avenue on Feb. 26.
Two weeks after a fire incinerated the roof and gutted most of William Fox Elementary School in Richmond’s Fan District, a group of parents and children gathered on Saturday, Feb. 26, in preparation for a rally to “fund safe schools.” There are strollers and dog walkers, a few on bikes. Students sell baked goods on the corner. Maya Glaser, who lives two blocks away on Rowland Street, finds herself glancing up at her 8-year-old son’s classroom window. It’s a charred shell, with several panes blown out, but she marvels at a plant that remains perched on the windowsill.
As debate ratchets up over what to do about aging schools, funding deficits and the growing tension between the Richmond School Board and City Hall, the surviving fern serves as a subtle reminder: Fox wasn’t just an irreplaceable, historic building, a 110-year-old anchor in this community of 20th-century homes along Hanover Avenue, it was a living, breathing space that bonded children, teachers and families.
“It’s a cornerstone of our community,” says Glaser, who watched the school burn from her kitchen window on Feb. 11. She knew the school needed repairs — there was persistent water damage from roof leaks, for example — but she admittedly didn’t view the building itself as a physical danger that could, in an instant, go up in smoke.
Of course, all that has changed.
“This can’t continue,” she says of the school system’s aging buildings. According to the Commission on School Construction and Modernization, created by the Virginia General Assembly in 2020, there are 20 schools in the city that haven’t undergone extensive renovation in at least 50 years, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported last week. Nine city schools haven’t seen major repairs in more than 90 years. It’s a problem that isn’t limited to Richmond. A Virginia Department of Education survey of unfunded school renovation projects prepared for the commission late last year found that 322 schools in the state are in need of repair or replacement, with an estimated price tag of $3.2 billion.
The fire at Fox has drawn significant attention to the issue. At the weekend rally, Glaser and dozens of RPS parents and community advocates took to the streets to rally support not just for repairing or rebuilding Fox, but for aging schools citywide. The fire also has fueled calls to rebuild George Wythe High School, a project that is currently hung up in the political push and pull between the School Board, City Council and the mayor’s office. Among the concerns is that Fox, one of the city’s six majority-white schools, would jump the line of new construction priorities, pushing back Wythe, built in 1960, even further.
Following the School Board’s decision in April of last year to bring design, procurement and construction in-house — it has long been managed jointly with city administration — plans to rebuild Wythe have been repeatedly delayed. The School Board prefers a smaller school for roughly 1,600 students, while the superintendent and the mayor both argue the school needs to be larger, big enough to accommodate 2,000 students, or the new Wythe runs the risk of opening over capacity.
The disagreement, which has led City Council to delay approving $7.3 million in initial construction funds for the new Wythe, has pushed back the timeline for completion at least three years, from the fall of 2024 to 2027.
“Fox is not the only school that is burning,” community activist Charles Willis tells the parents and advocates gathered outside Fox Elementary on Feb. 26. “There are other schools in Richmond that are burning.” It’s a need, he says, that stretches across the state.
The rallygoers are careful not to overlook Wythe. As they make their way down the sidewalk, they alternate chants between “fund safe schools” and “Wythe can’t wait” as they head toward Monroe Park.
Dozens of parents, children and community advocates march down Hanover Avenue on the morning of Feb. 26 to rally support for funding new school construction.
Fox’s burning also has exposed deep fault lines between the School Board and Kamras, who found himself fending off an attempt by some board members to gut his administrative team late last week. School Board Chairwoman Shonda Harris-Muhammed sent a directive to Kamras via email on Feb. 24, according to the Times-Dispatch, informing the superintendent that he must cut the chief operating officer position, currently held by Alana Gonzalez, and a vacant chief wellness officer position or the board would reject his initial $362.6 million budget proposal. He was also directed to restore funding for the school’s virtual academy and fund a new auditor position.
Faced with an overall budget gap of roughly $22 million, which includes an expected reduction in state funding of $7 million thanks to an archaic formula that penalizes the city for falling student enrollments and rising real estate values, the tensions rose to a fever pitch at the School Board’s budget meeting on Monday night.
Hundreds of parents fill the auditorium at the newly built River City Middle School on the city’s South Side, near the Chesterfield County line, for the 6 p.m. meeting. Many hold handmade signs reading “Let Kamras Lead,” demanding that the board not cut critical administrative positions at a time when the school system faces multiple crises: the ongoing pandemic, reduced funding and support from the state, and a host of capital construction needs.
At times, the meeting is contentious, and the board chair, Harris-Muhammed, struggles to manage the room. There are disagreements between individual board members on stage, between Kamras and the board. A clearly irritated Harris-Muhammed explains that she was even threatened earlier in the day, which elicits chuckles from the audience. “This work is serious,” she lectures. “We are not going to mistreat people because we do not agree.”
For a public meeting, it’s an odd juxtaposition. Most in the audience call for stability within the administration, voicing support for Kamras, some incredulous that the board would terminate Kamras’ chief operating officer. Many see the School Board as acting irresponsibly.
Shannon Heady, a parent with a 10th grader at Thomas Jefferson High School and a fourth grader at Fox, chokes up as she pleads with the board not to undermine the superintendent.
“Removing a chief operating officer and the chief wellness officer in a pandemic, when children are in crisis, caused me to not sleep at all last night,” she says, addressing the School Board members. “I see smart, dedicated people. I see parents on this stage. And I am sick to my stomach. … I am begging you to keep Jason Kamras and his team because you will cause massive chaos by dismantling his administration.”
Parents and community members line up to speak at the Richmond School Board's Feb. 28 meeting, which at times turned contentious.
Later in the night, the board would acquiesce. It approved a reduced budget proposal of $356.6 million, keeping funding for the virtual academy and the chief operating officer and wellness officer, but the drama raises the specter of more conflict around the corner. The mayor is expected to introduce his fiscal 2023 budget on Friday, which will kick off another round of negotiations over the next several weeks.
Several board members said they were frustrated that Kamras didn’t make budget adjustments as they requested. Kamras, however, countered that he did the best he could.
“On the one hand, board members have implored me to craft a needs-based budget that asks for everything that we could possibly need. On the other hand, board members have argued for deep cuts. On the one hand, board members have suggested that we should further downsize the central office. And on the other, board members have proposed adding central office positions that report directly to the board. In short, I am not clear what the board desires,” he says. “Here’s what I do know: I cannot effectively serve as superintendent without a complete leadership team. Eliminating the chief operating officer simply belies common sense.”
He also spends several minutes defending Gonzalez, the COO, pointing out that she successfully managed the school system’s pandemic response, which included HVAC upgrades, the installation of “hospital-grade” air filters at schools, and the purchase of 250,000 KN95 masks and 50,000 COVID-19 tests to make schools safe for students during the pandemic, among other initiatives.
And in less than a year’s time, Kamras adds, she also hired “three construction team members” and issued a request for proposals for the design of a new George Wythe. “Because of Ms. Gonzalez, we now have a contract ready for board approval as soon as funding is available.”
