Photo by Jay Paul
Nearly three months after a fire gutted their Fan District school, students at William Fox Elementary received a military-style saber salute as they entered their new temporary home in the Randolph community, Clark Springs Elementary, on May 9.
It was a small but important victory for Richmond Public Schools, beset by politics and infighting on the School Board over the last few months. RPS spent more than $700,000 preparing the formerly vacant Clark Springs: fresh paint, roof repairs, landscaping, the addition of new classrooms. The work was completed in roughly four weeks.
"The building has really been brought back to life," Dana Fox, director of school construction for RPS, said in late April during a walkthrough with School Board members. It’s not perfect — the patchwork roof continues to develop leaks during hard rains — but the quick turnaround offered a glimpse of the school system’s ability to handle construction projects. Fox is one of three new construction managers hired in the last year as RPS begins the process of taking over school construction and procurement.
Fox students will attend Clark Springs for the foreseeable future as the school division begins the process of rebuilding their charred school in the Fan.
