RPS RECAP: Feb 20, 2023
Happy Friday, Board Watchers! There’s a lot to catch you up on this week, from an incredibly productive meeting on Monday, to a high-profile resignation that has rocked the RPS world on Wednesday. Today, I offer a little bit of everything: a summary of Board action, a discussion of Board culture, and the evolving standard for Board meetings. Let’s dive in!
Houston, We Have a Budget
English Learner Recommendations, Adopted
Calendar Approval
Course Corrections
“This is NOT New”
Houston, We Have a Budget!
The RPS School Board has approved a FY2024 budget, and one that (I think?) everyone can get excited about.
For starters, the Board fully funded collective bargaining agreements with teachers, instructional assistants (IAs), nutritional staff, and care & safety associates (CSAs). This is a huge investment in compensation - coming in with a $24.2M price tag.
Patrick Korte, a history teacher at George Wythe High School, said students “deserve a safe and nurturing learning environment” with educators who “are not going to leave in the middle of the year.” This investment is critical to the district’s efforts to “retain quality educators.”
The Board also maintained their commitment to school choice - increasing the number of seats to Code RVA, and Maggie Walker and Appotmatox Governor’s schools.
RPS parent Rosa Castellano spoke to this significance - saying these schools “help make RPS kids’ dreams come true” by allowing students to explore their “individual areas of excellence.”
RPS is also breaking records with a $3.14M investment in athletic facilities like bleachers, tennis courts, and resurfacing a running track. New stadium lighting will also allow students to play home games after dark, instead of - as Ms. White noted last week - driving out to the counties where the fields are well lit. (Watch White’s comments on athletic investments.)
Younger students will also enjoy more than half a million dollars worth of upgrades to RPS playground equipment.
These CIP investments are an important part of RPS’ plan to develop children’s social, emotional, and physical health. This is long overdue, said Kevin Starlings, a member of RPS’s Student Health Advisory Board (SHAB). He encouraged the Board to think of athletics as co-curricular instead of extra-curricular. Sports are “proven intervention programs” for troubled students, who benefit from being part of a team and learning to think critically.
Superintendent Jason Kamras says this is a “strong budget,” which Vice-Chair Burke was “elated” to approve. It will now go to the City Council for final approval and funding.
This does feel more like a “budget intermission” than a “budget finale,” though. Rep. Jonathan Young has consistently warned that City leaders are not prepared to fund this budget in full. Superintendent Kamras has shared this concern, too:
“Unfortunately, I think most of what we’ve talked about tonight we likely won’t be able to do given funding realities.” (Feb 15, 2023)
Now we wait for the final word on the State budget, and shift our attention to the City budgeting process.
English Learner Recommendations, Adopted
LULAC’s taskforce has been hard at work for months now, talking with teachers and community members to identify barriers to English Learner’s (EL) academic achievement, and considering potential solutions. Monday night was the Board’s first update, complete with some recommendations:
Reorganize an existing EL staff into a new Division of English Learner Support, complete with a new Director and an “ombudsman” - which is a role I’d never heard of but sounds like it’s a sort of catch-all “fixer.”
Establish School-based systems for support by moving instructional specialists out of central office and into schools with a high population of English Learners.
Create an EL Data Dashboard that tracks student testing, accommodations, and eligibility for services.
Train all RPS teachers and staff so there is ”system-wide familiarity and competency in supporting English Learners” - including compliance with State mandates and awareness of all available supports for these students.
Superintendent Kamras thanks the taskforce for the “thougtfulness and specificity” of these recommendations, and supports maintaining the taskforce to help oversee their implementation.
Gibson motions to amend the just-passed budget to include funding for the taskforce-requested Director and ombudsman positions, rather than wait for the Superintendent to present a revenue-neutral option. She reasons that RPS should incorporate these positions as part of the needs-based budget they present to council. Motion passes.
Jonathan Young is the lone vote in opposition. Though he supports many of the recommendations, he is unwilling to increase staffing in central office.
The Taskforce Co-Chairs lead the Board in a much-deserved victory lap. Rizzi says she was “proud to play a part,” and Jones hopes that Board “support for this proposal will shift the narrative from ‘us vs. them’ - to equity for all.” (Watch)
Calendar Approval
As promised, the administration presents two final calendar plans for Board consideration. One 180-day calendar starts on August 21st (like the counties do), and one starts on August 28th. They adopt the August 21 - May 31 school year. (Even though the governance piece was super sloppy… watch.)
There is some discussion about changing the start times, especially for Elementary School students. Ultimately this problem - like so many in RPS - comes down to limited resources. We don’t have enough buses (or drivers) to start all schools later - and the brain science doesn’t support sending High Schoolers to school first. They adopt the same bell schedule for 2023-24.
Hardly anyone discusses the 4x4 block schedule. The survey consensus supports maintaining it, which is what the Board decides to do. This disappoints many high school parents and teachers, who are concerned that the 4x4 schedule limits student’s participation in some courses. They also worry about the high-volume of learning that students need to absorb in a short period of time.
Superintendent Kamras agrees that next year’s setup is imperfect, and empathizes with the Board when viable alternatives are hard to find. “There are many, many challenges that we face, no doubt.”
Course Corrections
Chairwoman Rizzi was really winning me over on Monday night with some new - and effective! - governance strategies.
First: She reinstated the Board’s 30-minute public comment policy. This is an important step to control the overall length of Board Meetings, and it ensures that the Board has the time and bandwidth to complete their agenda.
Second: She asked the administration to cut down on the length of their presentations. Instead, she’s expecting her Board colleagues to “do their homework” and read through any materials loaded onto Board Docs before the meeting. This saved a lot of time.
As a result, the Board made it through all 19 items on their agenda by 9:10PM. This is a seriously impressive feat for a governing body that spent much of the last year consistently blowing past their Board-agreed 10PM cutoff time.
Third: The Chairwoman appears to be trending towards the use of a “consent agenda.” This is a strategy that many Boards use to approve all the routine/non-controversial action items in one vote.
Henrico’s Consent Agenda from Feb 23, 2023
Our Board rarely uses a consent agenda, mostly because there are hardly ever “non-controversial” action items. Even routine, boring things - like approving pay schedules or approving a program add-on for record keeping software - attract Board ridicule and suspicion.
The RPS Feb 20th consent agenda… only used to approve other Board Member’s requests.
On Monday night, though, the Board breezed through at least 11 discussion items with no needless questions, no lengthy presentation, and no grandstanding. Instead the Chairwoman quickly looked to the left and right, checking for Board questions, and moving right along to “Madam clerk, roll call vote, please.”
They may as well have used the consent agenda to quickly cross those items off the list and reserve more time for “robust” Board discussion on other matters.
I’m impressed by our new Chairwoman’s progress, and look forward to seeing the other tools she adds to her “efficient meeting” toolbox as she gets comfortable in her new role.
“This is NOT New”
Unfortunately, the Board still hasn’t outgrown some of their most toxic habits.
They need data. Always, always, more data. These aren’t the “I’d like to be informed” data requests, either. These are delay tactics. The Board either wants to put off big/controversial decisions, or they are continually fishing for something - anything - they can use to support their own agenda (whatever that may be, and whoever that may serve.)
Then they don’t read the data. They show up to meetings either unprepared, or selectively-prepared. If the superintendent himself hasn’t delivered data via sky-writer, the Board will default to a “gotcha!” posture.
They say “I don’t see [insert data point here]” and either insinuate, or directly accuse the administration of failing to do their jobs.
Does this happen? Sure. They are human, and occasionally miss 1-of-30 requests the Board makes at any given meeting.
But for the most part, the Board’s accusations play out like they did this week:
0:54, Gibson doesn’t see where the Board consensus approves funding for additional Governor’s School seats. It’s on page 7.
0:57, Gibson doesn’t see where there’s funding for teachers who cover classes. It’s on page 1.
1:04, Harris-Muhammed doesn’t see where Kamras budgeted for a counselor at Richmond Alternative School (RAS, aka “Razz”). It’s on page 4.
1:07, Rizzi says “you told us we’d get a list of positions that are ARP funded.” They’re on pages 1 and 2, labeled “personnel.”
1:10, Harris-Muhammed says “we don’t have that list of [ARP-funded] positions that we have repeatedly asked for.” They’re STILL on pages 1 and 2, labeled “personnel.” (Watch)
1:17, Gibson says: “I’ve brought up sprinkler systems, I don’t know how much they cost.” The $20-25M estimate has been on page 15, #38 of the Q&A document since February 1st.
2:15, Doerr is disappointed that the admin didn’t bring a 2-year calendar she’d requested. But what she’d actually done on 2/6/23, 4:19 was ask for 2 calendars with 2 different start dates (which she received) and then told her colleagues she would motion to approve the winning calendar for a second year.
2:24, Gibson complains that “these things [school calendars] don’t align [with the counties].” But the approved calendar (Option A) is nearly identical to Henrico’s.
2:35, Gibson says of hard-to-staff school incentives: “we need to document which schools this applies to.” They’re listed in the second sentence of this 2-page document.
2:45, White says the administration hasn’t explained the benefits of extending the school year. “What outcome are we looking for?” Page 2 of this document (and this one from January 2021) directly address the rationale and intended academic impact, as have about a dozen different admin presentations since 2020.
As a Boardwatcher, this sort of thing is both comical and embarrassing. These people were elected to do a job, and it’s painfully obvious that they’re not doing it.
But I can imagine this hamster wheel hits RPS employees differently. Staff spend all week collecting data. Then, come Monday night, their hard work goes unnoticed, unappreciated, and unacknowledged. Worse yet, they’re subjected to constant Board-suspicion and accusations that they’re bad at their job, or being intentionally evasive and withholding information.
RPS staff are also expected to endure these beatings in silence. If they dare stand up for themselves, they’re called “passive aggressive” and subjected to months-long grudges and retaliation for the high-crime of bruising a Board member’s fragile ego.
Unfortunately, this reckless style of leadership met its natural conclusion on Wednesday when RPS’s Chief power-house, Michelle Hudacscko, resigned. She told the Board:
“…the hostile and toxic work environment that some members of the RPS School Board have created and actively perpetuate on a daily basis is a deep disservice to RPS students and families. The frequent actions that some Board Members take to dismantle progress and intentionally set the administration up to fail, along with the mean-spirited personal attacks, threats, and unfounded accusations have made doing this work nearly impossible.”
Unsurprisingly, some Board members immediately took to the media to retaliate:
“Democracy is not served when our elected officials are labeled as hostile when asking important questions and pushing for accountability. This is especially concerning because nationally school boards are under attack by right wing and corporate interests that do not benefit from bottom-up governance. Any administration that comes to Richmond will have to prioritize democratic buy-in as part of their planning, as has every administration before them. It does not serve schools or students to undermine elected leadership.” - Kenya Gibson, 3rd District
Which brings me to the last “bad Board habit” I’d like to address today:
The Victim Paradox.
Though they sit at the top of the RPS food chain, there are Board members who truly believe they are underdogs. My best guess is, this is a reflection of the company they keep.
I don’t know how it works in other districts - but here in Richmond, our Board members either seek out (or are magnets for) frustrated RPS employees. (In direct violation of district policy, by the way.) Then the Board will (mis)use their elected authority to enact revenge on behalf of their aggrieved council, who will later take to social media and celebrate the “takedown” of their Goliath.
(For what it’s worth, I know full well that there are problems in the division worth complaining about. I just think there are infinitely better ways to address them than creating these destructive distractions while the SS RPS sinks with 22k students on board.)
The result is a school division that is both devouring itself from the top down, and the bottom up. This toxic culture breeds exhaustion and suspicion - with overworked employees constantly looking over their shoulder for “moles” who will sic the power of the School Board on them (whether they deserve it or not).
RPS is burning through talent faster than they can replace it, and - as Ms. Hudacsko notes - “our students are the ones paying the price.”
Something’s got to change - and, like Jonathan Young, I hope it’ll be his colleagues:
“I encourage the District, beginning with the School Board, to demonstrate enough maturity to self-reflect and to genuinely solicit Michelle’s counsel relevant to our many shortcomings.” - Jonathan Young
On that cheerful note, I hope you all enjoy a beautiful, restorative weekend. I’ll be back here in March to cover the Board’s meeting on the 6th. See you then!