KFRPS Town Hall Talking Points
We had a great turnout for our first parent townhall! It was great to meet so many of you, and see your dedication for the children of RPS. Thanks for showing up on short notice and asking some really great questions, and sharing your concerns.
If you’re just tuning in to our current school board climate, the layers of concerning leadership probably feels pretty dense and hard to play catch-up. Below is a list of talking points we prepared and delivered ahead of soliciting parent feedback. Please, read over it again, and share it with a friend (or more!) to get their feedback. We’d also like to come to you and facilitate a similar conversation about “next steps” - so please reach out if you’d like to help us plan that. Maybe we can get a few of your neighbors together and sit around your living room to discuss concerns, or maybe we can arrange a neighborhood playdate so kids are occupied and parents can engage. Zooms are always an option too, if after hours best fits your schedule. Let us know how we can connect with you!
Backdrop
2021-22 was always going to be a highly challenging year for Richmond Public Schools. The challenge of resuming in-person education during a still-active pandemic, meeting the profound emotional and learning needs of children, and supporting our teachers and staff was always going to be an enormous lift.
But it has been made exponentially harder by the fact that our School Board has acted to obstruct progress for our kids and make the work of the Administration and RPS staff harder, not easier. In the process again and again they have either overstepped the proper role of the School Board or they have acted against common sense.
Budget
Our schools have serious needs. Every resource is important. A prime responsibility of the School Board is to advocate for every resource it can get.
The School Board approved a budget framework stripping $6 million of unassigned cuts (ie, with no intention on where those cuts should or could come from) out of the administration’s proposal before sending it to the Mayor and City Council.
The School Board has yet to agree on what those cuts will be, or to complete a line-by-line budget proposal.* This is deeply irresponsible and makes it nearly impossible for City Council to evaluate the budget request. Every other department/organization in the city submitted their request well in advance of the Mayor’s budget proposal.
The approved budget framework calls for $16 million of new City funds; right now it is almost certain they will only get $15 million, meaning additional cuts are necessary.
At the same time this is going on, the state budget is still in limbo. If the House version of the budget is adopted, At-Risk Add-On Funding will be cut, leading to a $12.5 million reduction in funding for Richmond Public Schools.
Right now the full budgetary attention of School Board should be on getting more money from City Council and from the state. Instead the Board is still trying to finalize a line-by-line budgetary plan to fill in the gaps for its budget proposal. The Board is still arguing over details while it should be fighting the much larger battle, especially at the state level, to fund our schools.
We are looking at a situation where the Board may be forced into another round of last-minute, deeply painful cuts, because the advocacy for more resources is not happening. This is unfair to employees who may be affected directly, as well as to all RPS students and staff.
The School Board has shown that they are more focused on cutting spending at any cost - including meeting the needs of RPS kids and families, something we should not have to expect from a Board comprised of 8 Democrats and 1 Republican.
This is a fundamental failure of both good governance and the Board’s responsibility to act in the interests of our kids.
*UPDATE: a final budget was agreed upon and submitted this week, 2 hours before the last city council budget work session. While we’re grateful the city didn’t have to resort to simply reusing last year’s RPS budget proposal as a framework, we can’t help but notice a pattern of fully preventable delays to time-sensitive decision making.)
Wellness
On February 28 the Board approved an overall budget number via a resolution that included the $6 million in cuts as a desperate compromise after members of the Board indicated they wished to consider eliminating the positions of both the Chief Operating Officer and the Chief Wellness Officer (a “reorganization” as they called it, which is both an overstep of board authority and an inappropriate outcome of a budget process).
Having a Chief Operating Officer or the equivalent is a functional requirement of any complex organization. The fact this was even floated demonstrates a dereliction of responsibility.
The Superintendent, who has strong community support and whose contract was renewed for 4 years by this very board just over a year ago, would not have been able to continue to do his job with these Cabinet cuts.
Strong community pushback led to a resolution of compromise in which these Cabinet positions would remain intact in the budget proposal in exchange for $6MM in cuts required by the resolution (this resolution was drafted by the one conservative on the School Board, Jonathan Young).
Unfortunately, this did not mean the issue was resolved: just a few weeks later the Board prevented the administration from hiring a Chief Wellness Officer. In a late-night, closed session, the Board majority acted to block the Superintendent from hiring the highly qualified candidate who had been chosen for the role.
Despite Board members indicating otherwise, the Chief Wellness Officer is neither new or unfunded. The cabinet positions were reworked after the Chief Schools Officer left in July 2021. This cabinet position is, therefore, budget neutral, not a new expense.
The Chief Wellness Officer is tasked with the creation and implementation of wellness informed initiatives to benefit thousands of RPS scholars who have serious needs impacting their ability to learn. It is a reflection of the RPS commitment to public health - not just physical, but socio-emotional and behavioral health - and developing a district-wide plan to prevent and reduce trauma and harm wherever possible.
The Wellness Officer position addresses the current post-pandemic student mental health crisis that RPS staff, community partners, and families are reporting right now, and represents and advocates for this priority at the highest level of administrative decision making.
This is why it’s a Cabinet role: to make sure there is someone at the table in every decision for whom Wellness and Student Well-Being is their #1 lens, so decisions can always be made with wellness top of mind and not an afterthought. It is a position that Puts Kids First.
FOIA communications reveal that key RPS personnel currently performing this work have informed the Board of the essential need to fill this position. More case workers are needed; so, too, is effective leadership and policies that match the scale of the 22,000-students in need.
Failing to fill this position deeply compromises the effectiveness of Mr. Kamras’s administration, the RPS Strategic Plan, and the well-being of our kids. It also illustrates the Board's misunderstanding of current school climate, and their mistrust of RPS staff and administrators communicating this need.
George Wythe High School
The School Board’s neglect of our communities also was a driving factor in the needless and continued delays in the construction of George Wythe High School.
In spring 2021, City Council approved a FY 2022-FY 2026 Capital Improvement Plan including $100 million for a new George Wythe High School, and the City Administration prepared a Request For Proposals on the design of the new George Wythe High School, with the goal of fast-tracking construction so it could open by Fall 2024.
Before that work could get underway, however, , the School Board, with no public input, voted 5-4 to adopt a “Schools Build Schools” policy. In practice this meant withdrawing from the Joint Construction Team process used to build the prior round of schools (River City Middle, Henry Marsh Elementary, and Cardinal Elementary), and creating a new division of employees in RPS with responsibility for managing school construction.
This step in itself, as the administration warned, inevitably delayed the anticipated completion date of the George Wythe High School project. The School Board also did not respond to subsequent offers by the City of Richmond for collaboration to accelerate the construction of George Wythe High School even as it worked to establish its own school construction capacity. Note: this new department is completely redundant to an already existing department within city government, and required the addition of multiple Central Office staff members who have no direct impact on student outcomes.
After a July 2021 School Board meeting at George Wythe High School in which dozens of speakers begged the School Board to collaborate with the City of Richmond to move the Wythe project forward by joining the RFP for design services already issued by the City, the School Board took another major decision with no community input: to reduce the size of the new George Wythe High School from 2000 seats to 1600 seats. This decision was made counter to previous policy recommendations with no clear justification other than a desire to save money for other projects.
However, at no point did the Board prepare a credible, professionally vetted alternative plan to support the claims that the Board could simultaneously build Wythe, build a new Career & Technical Center, and renovate or rebuild Woodville Elementary within budget.
As evidence of the lack of planning that went into this resolution, School Board members were shocked to learn that they required City Council approval to use remaining funds ($7.3 million) from prior school construction projects on design services for Wythe until after they had issued the RFP.
To attempt to circumvent that problem, in November the board actually voted to move $2 million from the current year maintenance budget to jump-start the RFP for the design of George Wythe.
This reckless move damaged the ability of the district to respond to maintenance and safety issues at buildings across the entire district, including replacing the roof of Carver Elementary and replacing many aging fire panels across the city.
City Council did not in fact approve the $7.3 million transfer because by an overwhelming majority they agreed with the community that a larger high school was needed. After months of community pressure and presentation of copious evidence showing why a larger building was needed, in April the School Board chair finally changed her vote and indicated approval for a compromise size of 1800 students with potential expansion to 2000 students.
In the meantime, we have lost over a year of time on building the badly needed new George Wythe.
River City Middle School
The problems and dangers of building a school that doesn’t reflect population demand is already evident at River City Middle School. The building opened to students this year, already severely overcrowded. The obvious remedy is to redistrict middle school boundaries to move some of those children to available seats in other nearby schools.
The school district launched an in-depth rezoning process in November, involving extensive community input, as well as detailed discussions with leadership at each of the affected schools. The committee held 15 community meetings in addition to 7 committee meetings. Extensive conversation, deliberation, and negotiation, involving consideration of multiple strategies, resulted in an immediate, realistic remedy.
The committee and administration routinely updated the School Board throughout this 5-month process. Two board members served directly on the committee. The Board had ample time to consider, communicate, and problem-solve any technical concerns regarding the plan, which was initially presented to the Board on April 11.
Prior to the April 25 meeting, there was little indication that the plan would be controversial. The Board majority instead blindsided the administration and middle school leadership by capriciously rejecting the plan.
Some members cited a 40-seat reduction in Binford Middle School open enrollment slots as a problem with the plan. Currently, Binford (with its 200+ Open Enrollment seats) is a favored destination for middle and upper middle class parents unwilling to enroll children in their zoned schools. The board majority defended parent "choice" over the basic safety of 1600 students and accompanying staff at River City.
Other board members stated they needed more information, which could have been requested on April 11 or at any prior time. Board members stated they expected to see a budget and transportation plan accompany the rezoning proposal, yet at no point did they mention this when the proposal was first presented on April 11.
Board members were well aware of the urgency of completing this process so that the open enrollment process for middle school children for next year could be implemented.
This refusal to approve rezoning left RPS staff and senior leadership literally in tears. If not swiftly reversed, this willful negligence will lead to a dangerously overcrowded school next year.
The Board rejected the expertise of the assembled committee, disregarded the will of the affected community (including all 4 principals, who spoke at the April 25 meeting in support of the proposal), and demonstrated mistrust of two duly elected Board colleagues, all of whom worked created a workable plan to alleviate the overcrowding crisis.
Governance
Throughout their service, the Board majority block of 5 has skirted good governance procedures. Among our many concerns:
Taking action on significant policy items without the awareness of the other 4 elected school board colleagues, or notifying the public or soliciting their feedback. Frequently, this includes introducing and adopting resolutions in a single meeting.
Ignoring public comment or input, in some cases directly criticizing citizens who have offered public comment to the board
Overstepping the boundaries of the Board’s role and micro-managing the Administration
Having frequent late-night closed sessions, not always followed by publicly reconvening the meeting as required or reconvening so late that neither the clerk nor the public is present.
Extensive email discussions of policy items that violate open-meeting requirements under Virginia law.
Inappropriate public comment about personnel matters including sharing the concerns about the qualifications of cabinet members with reporters.
Frequently indicating through actions, words, and tone a lack of professional respect for the Superintendent and his professional staff.
Failing to adhere to the governance procedures adopted by the Board in July 2021, including especially the commitment to “Give the superintendent full administrative authority for properly discharging his/her professional duties, holding him/her responsible for acceptable results.” (p. 11)
Failing to recognize that to achieve its goals School Board must communicate and collaborate with Richmond City Council, which has ultimate authority over the expenditure of City funds for all City agencies, including RPS
Why This All Matters
All of these issues are important in themselves. But we close with three final points:
First, a dysfunctional School Board that does not make good decisions in the interests of children is a threat to the well-being of kids throughout the system. We don’t know what the next school community will be to be harmed by this Board’s actions.
Second, several members of the Board appear determined to drive the Superintendent away. This would be tragic for the community and would lead both to immediate crisis and years of rebuilding to even get to the point of being able to implement a strategic plan to meet RPS’s many, interlocking needs.
Third, a leadership change would make RPS a deeply unattractive employer for highly qualified superintendents. It’s hard to see why someone would choose to come work for this Board under these circumstances. And it’s also likely that many RPS families, among those who have a choice, would choose to exit the system.
In short, the School Board has charted a path that could set RPS and the entire city back by years, if not decades, causing irreversible harm to the approximately 22,000 current RPS students.
Final Note: On Democracy and Accountability
In democratic societies, public officials are elected for limited time periods to exercise specific authority defined by law. A minimal requirement is that this authority is exercised in accordance with established procedures and legal requirements. Truly effective governance requires that officials strive to act in the best interests of the community at all times.
The mere fact of being elected does not give an individual or a faction either unlimited power; nor does it make them infallible. That’s why citizen participation, including the right to question, criticize, and oppose policy decisions, is also an essential part of democracy.
The various actions of the School Board over the past two years have been frequently defended with the statement or claim that these actions must be respected because they are the product of the “democratically elected school board.”
In a minimal, technical sense this is true: no one has suggested that the decisions the Board makes, for better or worse, do not have the actual force of policy. When the Board voted to transfer $2 million out of current maintenance to pay for a George Wythe RFP, that money actually was transferred.
In a more important, substantive sense, the statement is vacuous and misleading, and a terrible basis for thinking about government and policy. Democratic majorities make mistakes. Sometimes, they even commit injustices. All of our history, including Richmond history, teaches us this. Majority opinion and the truth don’t always coincide. Neither do majority actions and good government.
That’s why it’s the obligation of citizens to monitor the actions of elected officials, to engage and to speak up when they act in objectionable ways, whether as individual officials or as a corporate body. Wise elected officials recognize the limits of their own knowledge and actively seek out and welcome the views of constituents and stakeholders, including people they often disagree with.
It’s a serious thing to say that the School Board has established a pattern of not acting in the best interests of students, especially to go so far as to say they are acting in ways which harm and endanger children and families throughout the system. We have come to that conclusion not because of any single issue, but because the overall pattern shows a disregard for community input and opinion that has been harmful for RPS students.
We will always hold hope for progress on specific issues, and that there might be some breakthrough of perspective that could change this unhealthy dynamic. We also will continue to organize, to protest and wherever possible prevent actions and policy decisions that are damaging to our schools and our kids.
But the weight of the evidence before us impels us to the conclusion that real change will require different people in the seats. The time to start working towards that goal is now.
