Three years after flames engulfed their school in the middle of the night, hundreds of families gathered to see the reopening of William Fox Elementary School in the Fan District.
“The community has become stronger, more resilient and more connected, and tonight we complete the process of rebirth,” Superintendent Jason Kamras said at an Aug. 6 celebration attended by approximately 1,000 parents, students, teachers and alumni. The event came two weeks before the start of the new school year.
With twin boys entering first grade at Fox this school year, Mary Vann and David Witkowsky say they’re excited that their children will finally be attending their neighborhood school.
“The sense of community that we encountered when we started, even just in kindergarten, at the bus stop and … across the neighborhood, it’s really awesome,” Witkowsky says. “I’m not surprised at all to see everybody rally today and celebrate.”
The restoration of the century-old school, which was nearly destroyed by a catastrophic three-alarm fire in February 2022, cost $31 million, according to Alyssa Schwenk, director of communications for Richmond Public Schools. The city covered nearly half of the cost. The state pitched in about $5.5 million, while insurance covered the rest, she adds.
School Board member Katie Ricard, who represents the city’s 2nd District and the Fox Elementary community, says she remembers crying as she hurried to see the fire that collapsed the school’s roof.
She thought about how the disaster would impact her two children, whose elementary school experience had been turned upside down by the COVID-19 pandemic two years earlier.
“We just knew that this was going to be another disruption for them, for our teachers, for our families, and we just didn’t know what the future would hold,” Ricard says. “It’s really taught us that, as long as we are together, we are Fox Elementary.”
After the fire, students briefly attended classes virtually and then at First Baptist Church before moving to a temporary home at nearby Clark Springs Elementary School, which had closed nearly 10 years earlier.
Ricard says Fox’s location in the heart of the Fan makes it a major hub for parents and children. In the years waiting for it to reopen, she adds, gradual steps like the reopening of its playground sparked joy.
“Even that felt like such a gift, like our space was back,” she says. “I think that’s what led the community to feel really strongly about coming back to Hanover Avenue.”
