RPS RECAP: March 6, 2023

Happy Friday, Board Watchers! The Richmond School Board met Monday night to discuss a little bit of everything. Let’s dive in:

  • Social-Emotional Learning Discussion

  • An Artificial Crisis

  • Legislative Update

  • 200-day Calendar Pilot

Social-Emotional Learning

Monday’s agenda started with a Board-requested, Board-led discussion on Social-Emotional Learning. At least - it was supposed to. Instead, Chairwoman Rizzi looked to her left and right, somewhat bewildered by the initial silence.

Everyone scratched their head and wondered aloud: 

This whole exchange proves two things:

  1. The Board makes so many demands that even they cannot keep them all straight. And,

  2. The Board’s demands are so poorly communicated that even they cannot understand each other’s requests.

When RPS staff or administrators misinterpret a Board member’s requests, they’re publicly humiliated, or accused of intentionally sabotaging Board governance. But, since this is a Board colleague doing the misunderstanding, everyone offers Chairwoman Rizzi some grace. 

The Chairwoman is learning fast, too. She saw the confusion, and stepped in to play translator. What is the Board asking for? And how can I clearly define this task for the administration? 

“Board members are requesting a plan for how the social emotional needs of our students are being addressed, and how [the departments of] Safety and Security, Culture and Climate, and Community Engagement work in synchrony to address those needs.” 

The superintendent will deliver this presentation at an upcoming meeting.

I continue to be impressed by this New Board leadership. Chairwoman Rizzi also enforced public comment rules, and Vice-Chair Burke shared a bit about how they’re crafting responsible agendas and pacing their colleague’s requests:

“When we met for our agenda-setting, we have a list - Chair Rizzi, the superintendent and myself - we have a list of everything everybody suggested. There’s a long list. So we’re trying to pull 2 items for each meeting so we can make sure we’re addressing the business at hand as well as our requests.”

This must be why Board meetings are now reliably ending between 9 and 9:30PM. Well done! 

The better-governance tool box now looks like:

  • Enforcing public comment rules (behavior and time limits)

  • Limiting the agenda length

  • Limiting presentation time

  • Limiting ceremonial bits, like reading the items on the consent agenda.

Not all Board members support these changes. “No presentations” means “the Board has to read the provided materials ahead of time.” (And we all know how that goes...) 

The former-Chairwoman, in particular, doesn’t want to give up her trademark 7-hour-Board meeting. She doesn’t like the new streamlined consent agenda procedure. (Watch) She also wants to add two new recurring agenda items to every Board meeting. There’s no widespread support for any of this. Instead, the Board just sort of shrugs and moves on. (So shall we..)

An Artificial Crisis

Last month, the RPS Academic team began a limited trial of “Amira” in some 2nd and 3rd grade classrooms. 

Amira is a reading intervention software used in 250+ school districts across 49 states. Students read into a microphone, and Amira detects their pronunciation and reading proficiency. It logs this information, tracks student progress, and estimates students’ reading age. Then, it produces individualized, teacher-and-parent-friendly reports with “specific suggestions for ways to help” develop a student’s literacy skills. It’s also an effective screener for dyslexia. (Source)

This is an opt-in pilot running from February through May.

Participating schools include: Obama, Blackwell, Ginter Park, Miles Jones, Bellevue, Francis, Fairfield, Overby-Sheppard, and Westover Hills Elementary School.

Or, if you wade into the East-Palestine-like waters of Alternate-Reality Richmond, Amira is an expensive, racist, reading robot here to take teacher’s jobs and sell student data. 

I’m not sure whether Ms. Gibson is drinking this kool-aid or serving it. Either way, she secured a last-minute, prime-time spot in the evening’s agenda on behalf of her allies in Conspiracy-Ed.

Ms White was first up to bat: 

  • Teachers are too busy to learn this (optional) program. 

  • The What Works Clearinghouse website doesn’t say if Amira works “in Urban schools like Richmond Public Schools” and,

  • Why isn’t this in all grades and all schools that “are in need?” 

“Did you call Carver? Because I didn’t hear that, and you said this was specifically for reading - so I am concerned if you have a small pilot, why is it not going out to all the elementary schools?”

This is a contradicting blend of why are you withholding an important resource from my schools? And this program probably doesn’t work anyway. It’s almost like half of these talking points are hers, and the other half come from someone else entirely. 

Gibson is concerned about who and how Amira was purchased: 

“The Board did not approve a $70K contract. I’m wondering why this didn’t come to the Board?... I’m trying to understand why we are approving it after the fact.” 

The lawyer reminds her: the Board isn’t approving this contract at all. Per policy, only contracts over $250K require Board approval.

Gibson pivots.

“I’m not sure why it’s just a $70K contract when I’m assuming [the Pilot] would be multiple years.”

RPS receives city, state, and federal funds on an annual basis. It makes sense they’d write contracts that way, too. Surely, Gibson - a 2-term Board member - knows this.

Instead, this comment serves as a sort of “Sneaky Kamras” dog whistle, sowing doubt in the minds of her colleagues. The Superintendent is intentionally breaking up purchases into smaller, annual contracts just so he can hide his spending from the Board. 

Her colleagues eat this up.

Ms White asks to see other RPS contracts with Amira’s vendor, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. She’s pretty sure that they’ll add up to (or exceed) $250K. (Nevermind that HMH is a vendor for educational materials the same way Staples is a vendor for office supplies.)

Harris-Muhammed is all for new programs that enhance student outcomes - and dismisses Amira’s cost as “a drop in the budget.” But, “this whole thing of ‘Because the policy says I don’t have to’” appears to frustrate her. For a second time tonight, she suspects the RPS administration is finding loopholes to avoid or undermine Board authority. “Transparency matters when we’re seeking support.” (Watch)

Evidence matters, too. Unfortunately, Kamras offers none because he just found out about this agenda item minutes ago. He promises to send the Board everything he knows in the morning, but they’ve already made up their minds that the program is trash:

  • White says Amira’s creators are still “building and refining it.” 

  • Gibson says “this is AI, it’s rather untested.”

Harris-Muhammed doesn’t believe Kamras’ purchase was evidence-based, either. Instead, she suggests he was selfishly motivated:

“…If there is no evidence, if we’re just popping programs out of the sky, because somebody knows somebody who knows somebody, then I’m very concerned.”

Aka, the superintendent is just using taxpayer dollars to enrich his friends. This is the same accusation Gibson made last summer when she called on her colleagues to fire Kamras - an “ambitious individual” using “public office to advance their personal career at the public’s expense.”

It all plays into a tired RPS conspiracy theory peddled by Kamras’ biggest critics who truly believe he is a puppet for some DC Cabal of Curriculum-profiteers. They’ve offered no proof of this in the 5 years Kamras has served in RPS, but they’re sure - any minute now! - he’ll pull off his monster-mask and reveal he’s been DC-public-school-boogeyman Michelle Rhee this whole time. (Zoinks!) 

Quinton Robbins serves along side Rep. Kenya Gibson on the governing board of Richmond For All. Their PAC made considerable contributions to Gibson and Rizzi’s campaigns.

Behold, the conspiracy! I’m sure the Amira rep’s mention of “DCPS” set critics off as much as the mention of “IMPACT” - which is a whole other can of worms I’ll cover some other time. (Maybe.)

Unfortunately for them, and their Board allies, this Amira discussion is just another failed unmasking. It’s still just Kamras, an award-winning career educator, using his perfectly-legal purchasing authority to combat the district’s literacy crisis, and trying to make positive change with whoever wants to “opt-in” to participate: 

In the end, it doesn’t matter that Kamras acted well within Board policy. The Board is mad because they don’t trust him, and he shouldn’t run their district without getting their blessing on every decision he makes. Dr. Harris-Muhammed feels unseen:

“…my voice goes unnoticed because this continues to happen. So I don’t know what to do - just keep repeating it? Put it on a flash card? I don’t know. But we need to have some kind of courtesy communication that these things are happening…” (watch)

The former-Chairwoman has a history of defiance when she hits the bounds of her authority. She won’t accept that feedback from anyone - not even the VDOE. Nevertheless, there are limits to her authority. 

The Board’s powers are strong, but few. The superintendent’s are weak, but many.

  • Virginia School Boards are responsible for 

    • Ensuring school policies align with state law 

    • Maintaining appropriate school zones and facility conditions

    • Keeping the division adequately staffed, and 

    • Receiving community feedback

  • The Superintendent is responsible for “all executive and administrative powers or duties in connection with the conduct of the schools which are not required by statute to be executed directly by the School Board.”

Even Gibson knows that:

“We are not permitted day-to-day oversight, and as part-time officials, we can’t run the schools.” (Source)

The Board closes out this failed-unmasking with a consolation prize. At the next meeting, they will modify Board Policy to require Board approval of all purchases over $100k. Gibson would “also welcome making sure that [the Board sees] those lower contracts - even if we don’t approve them - that we see them before they are signed.” That way, they can effectively veto any purchase they want, and threaten to fire the superintendent for insubordination if he (legally) buys it anyway.

There’s some other talk, too. Something about a FOIA-processing error, Gibson wanting her FOIAs for free, and also some clarity about how to report “Sole Source” contracts to the Board. The Superintendent thought he emailed the Board everything already, but he’ll send over anything he’s forgotten in the morning.

Also sending emails: Dr. Harris-Muhammed, who has been chatting with a full-time RPS teacher (in violation of policy 1-5.2) who swears Amira is “mandatory.”

I’d have loved to investigate this claim, but I can’t swing the $150 FOIA fee to do it.

What I do know is that months of emails contradict this claim. In addition to Kamras’ “opt-in” email above, we know the Academic team followed through, recruiting participants with an interest-form:

…and later proof that the Academic team received and respected individual school’s participation preferences. 

In fact, the FOIA’d emails (which start on pg 34, by the way - no idea why) indicate so much interest that it sounds like the pilot expanded to accommodate all interested schools. (pg 248)

Anyway. A trusting Board might say “Cool, I’ll set the record straight with this teacher - they’ll be thrilled to learn this was a misunderstanding!” 

Instead, our Board thinks “I caught the superintendent in a lie!” And starts the unmasking process all over again. (…and again)

Legislative Update

The General Assembly failed to reach a budget compromise during session this year. Instead, they passed a “skinny budget” - and left many legislative priorities unfinished, unfunded, and/or untouched. Some action items (like lifting the support cap, and 7% teacher raises) may be resolved during “Special Session” in the spring. But others (like school construction grants and english learner supports) failed outright. In general:

  • The Senate budget generously funds Public Schools (over $1B). If it passes, Mr. Stanley says “that’s another $19M in resources we could use next year.”

  • The House budget is a punch in the face* ($383M), plus a $50M gift to Lab Schools** 

  • The Governor’s budget started bad ($321M), and got worse.

* Kamras alluded to the detrimental impact the House Budget would have on RPS during the city’s Education and Human Services committee meeting last week. There are no official estimates, but I’m hearing rumblings that the district will need to cut up to 30 positions - including teachers - if the House budget passes. I share this for two reasons:

  1. To illustrate how important it is for public school advocates to push the general assembly to pass the Senate budget instead. 

  2. To be clear that the House is responsible for any potential RPS RIFs (reduction in force). Know this now so when rumors start swirling that this is Board or Admin retaliation for collective bargaining (or whatever), you can sound the BS alarm. 

** On lab schools: Monday night, Jonathan Young informed us that VUU has proposed a lab school partnership with RPS. Mariah White asked “how about bringing the lab schools to Carver [Elementary]?” Rep Page, though, was clear that she does not want public school money going to lab schools.

How does all of this impact RPS’ FY2024 budget? For that answer, we’ll need to watch both The City, and The Governor. 

The City

Mayor Stoney presented his FY2024 budget to City Council on Monday. He said the City’s revenues had increased by 10.6% last year, and he proposed increasing RPS’s funding by 10.6%, too. This increases the City’s RPS contribution by $21.1M over last year’s $200M budget. That’s a lot of money!

Unfortunately, $21.1M does not cover the Board’s full $29M request, or the $24M needed to cover collective bargaining. As Rep Young and Superintendent Kamras predicted, the Board will have to go back to the drawing board - this time with a lot more red ink - and shrink their plans to fit within the City’s expected contribution.

Fortunately, RPS will not have to cut back on their current Capital Improvement Plans (CIP).  In addition to the $200M the district was already expecting to fund construction or renovations at Wythe, Altria, and Woodville, the Mayor has set aside $15M in new CIP funds for the reconstruction of Fox Elementary School. This is huge news for the district, who otherwise would have had to pick and choose between funding the Fox or Woodville projects. Hopefully this development encourages the Board to (finally) revisit their Woodville design discussion, because - at this point - they are the delay.

The Governor

This has been a very Education-y week for Governor Youngkin. He engaged in an “Education Townhall” last night on CNN. There were no big surprises. He wants more bathrooms in schools so Trans kids don't have to share, but he isn’t offering schools the construction funding to provide them. He also continues to use the term “equity” as though it is a dirty word, and touts Virginia Democrat’s 10% teacher raise as his personal victory. You can follow that recap here.

In real (and really sad) educational news, VA Secretary of Education, Aimee Guidera shared this week that “Virginia fourth graders had the largest decline in the country for both math and reading -- three times worse than the national average.” (Source)

The Governor announced a $30M grant to financially support parents who want to close their child’s academic achievement gap via “tutoring, summer enrichment programs and other specialized services.” I’m not sure yet how (or if) this ties into his promise last night to offer virtual tutoring for Virginia students, or what “rigorous standards” he has for the educators who pop up to collect that $30M. 

Anyhow - it looks like we can expect another late budget season, with all the same last-minute scrambling we saw last year when the Governor signed the FY2023 budget just days before it took effect. (It’s no wonder we had that $200M ‘whoopsie’ in State education funding, huh?)

200-Day Calendar Pilot

The RPS Board has been talking about piloting a Year-Round-School program for years. And Monday night? They (kinda, sorta) got one!

The Board approved “R200,” an extended year calendar that offers students 20 additional instructional days. Rep Young calls this program a “transformational opportunity to move the needle in a substantive way.”

I am most excited because this is a project that 91% of parents and 97% of teachers at Fairfield Elementary want to participate in. There is a lot of energy and excitement from the school’s principal and staff - many of whom have shared their R200-support during recent public comment sessions. This community is truly invested in seeing the Fairfield Eagles “continue to soar.” 

So, the facts:

  • This is ARP funded… for now. When those one-time COVID relief funds expire next year, they’ll continue to fund the pilot via state grants.

  • RPS Schools had to opt-in to the pilot. They had to have the support of a majority of staff and a majority of parents to be eligible. 

  • Teachers will receive a $10k bonus, Principals $15k, and school staff $5k.

  • Everyone could receive a $5k bonus if they meet agreed-upon academic goals. 

  • Schools will provide a detailed plan for how they intend to spend the extra instructional time (field trips, STEM activities, tutoring, etc) and

  • Any disinterested staff can apply for a transfer to another RPS school; any interested staff can apply to transfer into an “R200” pilot school. 

  • Ditto for RPS families - they can opt-out or opt-in.

It’s not all sunshine and rainbows, though. The Board still has concerns:

  • White “is really not clear about” why Fairfield, an accredited school, needs 20 extra days. “We have a lot of other schools that are very much needed.” Also, these are large bonuses. We should give all principals an opportunity to spend money for “whatever they choose to.” (If those expenses are not eligible for grant funding, they would increase RPS’s operating budget, which we just discussed the Board will need to shrink.)

  • Jones supports this, but is concerned that we can’t afford to do this district-wide.

  • Harris-Muhammed wants R200 in MLK Middle School. 

  • Gibson opposes the motion because it’s ARP-funded, and ARP funds are running out. (Increasing instructional time is one of the recommended uses of ARP funding.)

“…an LEA that receives ARP ESSER funds must reserve at least 20 percent of the funds to measure and address the academic impact of lost instructional time on all students, through the implementation of evidence-based interventions, such as interventions implemented through summer learning or summer enrichment, extended day, comprehensive afterschool programs, or extended school year programs.” Section 2001(e)(1)

Teachers have concerns, too:

  • There’s some confusion about funding, and whether or not these R200 bonuses will compete with Collective Bargaining. (They won’t. The district can only use Extended-Year Grant money for extended year programs.)

  • There are claims of RPS favoritism by school. Why is Fairfield getting an extra million dollars but mine isn’t? (A: Fairfield opted into the pilot. Other schools did not.) 

  • There’s frustration that RPS doesn’t value it’s summer school teachers, whose compensation is less than R200. (Summer school and R200 are both optional programs. Teachers considered the compensation proposals of each before deciding to participate in either program - or none at all.)

  • The most unreal claim I’ve heard is: R200 is a secret RPS union-busting tactic, using big bonuses to turn teachers against each other. I’ve had enough conspiracy talk for one day, so I’ll just note that “secret union-busting” is an evergreen accusation among RPS’ fring-i-est critics. If this has been the administration’s objective since 2017, then they are failing miserably. (Especially this week, when they secured $21.1M for Collective Bargaining.)

Quinton Robbins serves along side Rep. Kenya Gibson on the governing board of Richmond For All. Their PAC made considerable contributions to Gibson and Rizzi’s campaigns.

That’s all for now! Have a restful weekend, write a legislator, and drop some coins in the Patreon so I can fund the next FOIA. Cheers!

Becca DuVal