RPS RECAP: March 20, 2023

Happy Thursday, Board Watchers! I come to you today with tales from another (rather dystopian) 4.5hr-long School Board meeting. 

  • Academic Update: Rising SOL Scores

  • Budget Update

  • Specialty Schools

  • Metal Detectors in Middle Schools

  • 200 Day Pilot

  • BONUS: “We have got to show up differently”

Academic Update: Rising SOL Scores

Results are in! High school students took their Fall SOLs and things are looking up. Many schools saw double-digit gains over last year’s scores. Hurray! 

Some subject areas, like Science, need extra help. The district has already hired new specialists and coaches to address those deficits and better resource struggling schools.

  • History – 7% improvement

  • Math – 16% improvement

  • Reading – 4% improvement

  • Science – 5% decline

The academic team analyzed each result at each school and presented the Board with a list of what’s working (curriculum revisions and supports, additional staff, review “bootcamps”) and what’s not (being short-staffed, inadequate time for teacher planning and content review). 

Rep Doerr thanked the academic team and the administration for their work.

Vice-Chair Burke asked the team how the Board could better support these efforts, noting that it’s already Spring and “time is of the essence.” 

Rep Harris-Muhammed suggests the district isn’t putting enough resources into hiring coaches and specialists. She also credits the school administrators for any academic progress. (Watch)

Rep White thinks the academic team is painting a “false picture” because student participation in Fall SOLs is about half of the number of students who participate in the Spring. (But actually, the Spring SOL count is cumulative, and the Fall SOL count really marks the halfway point.) She made similar accusations of fraud in the Fall.

Chairwoman Rizzi doesn’t think this data is useful because the number of students participating in SOLs changes year-to-year. (Watch) However, the number of students taking SOLs each year changes based on how many students are enrolled per grade, and how many students initially failed the test and opt to retake it.

Rep Gibson thinks the SOL improvements are “so remarkable” that she advises the administration to put policy in place to ensure the schools aren’t cheating. (Watch)

Doerr responds to her colleague’s skepticism and cynicism with a helpless sort of chuckle. She says “we fall into a dangerous spiral if we believe the data anytime it’s bad and question the data anytime it’s good.” (Watch)

Superintendent Kamras cradles his head in his hands. The accusations of fraud and cheating are disrespectful, so is Dr H-M’s dismissive and patronizing treatment of his Academic team. He thanks his “high school teams, teachers, administrators and everybody else for working so diligently to move these scores.” He asks the public to give all high school teachers a “big hug and a big thank you.” (Watch)

This whole episode left me in disbelief. 

We just saw the measurable impact a short-staffed academic department has on student achievement. The schools with more coaches and the departments with more specialists produced better educated students. Why, then, is the board receiving their academic team (and their “boots on the ground”) with the same mistrust and hostility that drove away our Chief Academic Officer and Director of Curriculum and Instruction mere months ago? They are sworn to serve student achievement - yet they consistently prioritize their own political ambitions and personal vengeance. 

Budget Update

A couple weeks back, the Mayor announced his intention to increase RPS’ budget by $21M in FY2024. This is a 10.6% increase over last year’s contribution, matching the City’s projected 10.6% growth in tax revenue. Still, this falls $8M short of the Board’s full $29M request. It doesn’t cover the $24.2M needed for Collective Bargaining Agreement, either.

Gibson celebrates this record-breaking increase in City revenue like it’s a double-digit increase in high school students passing their SOLs. (Which is to say - she doesn’t.) She says there’s no reason the City shouldn’t fund RPS’ full budget request. (She did not attend January’s joint meeting with council where Andreas Addison explained the limits of city revenue, and the unintended consequences of the School Board’s opposition to past economic development projects.

White looks at the City’s CIP proposal. She is grateful for the $15M for Fox, but reads the description of the $2.5M CIP line item. Repair roofs, replace boilers… has RPS identified needing those repairs? Kamras says yes, they are in the budget the Board passed exactly one month ago. (Deja Vu?)

The RPS community is responding to the budget-shortfall news in a few different ways: 

The administration is (for lack of a better word) trying to get creative with cuts. They proposed shortening their Career and Technical Education (CTE) teacher’s 10 month contract to 9.5 months, which would produce some cost savings. I don’t know all the details - but everyone (CTE teachers in public comment, the superintendent, and the Board) agrees this roll-out was anxiety-producing, disrespectful, and ought to be rescinded. It was, and the Superintendent made a public apology. (Watch)

Teachers are playing both defense and offense. They passed around  flyers inviting the audience to participate in a “Fund Our Schools” Rally on Monday the 27th. They also gave public comment accusing the Board/Administration of divisive, “union-busting” tactics like negotiating with Holton teachers separately for duty-free lunch, and opposing the extended-calendar bonuses as merit-based pay. (More on that later..)

The Board plays defense, too, setting up the superintendent as the fall-guy for any upcoming cuts to division staff. They reflect on two years worth of the superintendent’s recommended RIFs (“reduction in force”), describing them as vague and improperly communicated. They continue to perceive RIFs as personal attacks - not necessary professional choices - that sabotage the Board’s teacher retention efforts because the administration doesn’t “really want to address it.” They walk all of this back when the facts don’t support their “messy” feelings, but there is no apology for what the superintendent calls “inappropriate characterizations” of standard budget-balancing behavior.

Additionally, Rep Gibson makes a trademark same-night motion to codify all collective bargaining agreements before the district knows if it’ll have the necessary funding to follow through. She also wants policy language to guarantee teachers get duty-free lunch (nevermind that this has been state law for decades) and offers no rebuttal when Vice Chair Burke asks “who is going to cover” lunches instead? Students will be left unsupervised because there’s not enough staff in the buildings. 

She rejects Harris-Muhammed’s suggestion to bring her ideas to the policy committee instead. Says she is frustrated, and the committee process will create a delay. (She does not show sympathy an hour later when the superintendent uses that same delay/inefficiency argument to oppose her Bring all sole source contracts over $25K/Bring all regular contracts over $100K to the Board for approval plan.)

Gibson’s sweeping, impatient, and dangerous motion gets no second and fails. 

Specialty Schools

The agenda included both a discussion on RPS’ Specialty School selection process, and years worth of forgotten Maggie Walker audits. Rep Mariah White was lead in both discussions. 

White’s son had just applied to four specialty schools, and she was unsatisfied with the experience. She objected to her child writing multiple essays, and that parents are asked to disclose if their child has an IEP (individualized education plan) during the application process. (Sounds like she suspects students with IEPs are being discriminated against, but Kamras explains it allows schools to offer accommodations for students during their entry exams.)

We also hear the usual concerns:

  • The students that Richmond sends to area specialty schools don’t look like the RPS student body, and

  • RPS shouldn’t pay specialty school tuition fees for Richmond’s private school students

The superintendent proposes setting a GPA “floor” and then selecting students via a lottery process. 

White thinks out loud about eliminating the GPA requirements too. 

Ultimately, Kamras says it is up to the Board to decide what balance they’d like to strike between equity and selecting students who are prepared for the academic rigor of these programs. They’ll discuss their priorities further over the coming months.

As for the Maggie Walker audits - it sounds like the current administration didn’t know this was on their plate? The superintendent also confesses that he does not have the central office staff necessary to do this kind of extra work. (This is also why RPS tried to get out of being fiscal agents for the Virginia Virtual Academy, aka VaVA.) They’ve contracted their auditor to catch up on outstanding audits, and passed off future Maggie Walker audit responisiblities to Henrico. 

Mariah White still gets in a public scolding, though. She serves on the Maggie Walker Board and describes “walking into a storm” of embarrassment when asked about these missing documents. 

Hurt people hurt people, I guess.

Middle Schools and Metal Detectors

The Board didn’t end up discussing the administration’s “metal detectors in middle schools” (plus additional Care and Safety Associates - CSAs) recommendation until after 10PM. By then, fatigue and the evening’s hostilities had run emotions high. (Start watching at the 3hr 30 minute mark, or catch up on Emily’s tweets) 

We heard all the Board’s Greatest Hits:

  • This is a bullying problem

  • This is a school problem

  • This is a community problem

  • This is a cell phone access problem

  • This is a “we don’t expel dangerous students” problem

  • This is a “we shouldn’t expel any students” problem

  • This is a “we don’t have safety and security protocols” problem (despite this claim getting consistently debunked…)

  • This is a “we HAVE safety and security protocols, we just don’t follow them” problem, and

  • This is a “we don’t have a district-wide vision or plan” problem 

I’m often hard on Rep Jones for this last point: there’s no district-wide vision/plan for safety, security and restorative justice. She is right, of course, but without a plan or the resources to execute the plan (a crisis team, perhaps?) it’s just another vague and frustrated complaint. 

Last night, though, she offered a solution - or, at least, a solid next step: the Board needs to define Restorative Justice, and then they need to act on it.

“We keep doing the same thing expecting different results… it was put out there that the School Board is a part of the problem?  So since we’re a part of the problem, let’s be part of the solution. And we, as a School Board need to be discussing what that looks like. Because again we have constantly said ‘oh we’ve been talking about it for three years’ - so the same embarrassment should be also on us…

We have half of us who don’t agree with metal detectors and half of us who do. We have half of us who understand it and understand what’s happening, but we have not collectively come up with a plan either. We have the data. When we get the data, we question the data… 

We’re getting new buildings, but what good is a new building if what’s happening in the buildings continue to be the same thing?…

We need to work on this. This is something we keep hearing. Stop using the words and let’s put action to it. If we don’t understand what Restorative Justice is then let’s work together to figure out what that is so we can all be speaking a shared language. This is a time that we need to have a shared vision - not an individual vision that is putting us all over the place.”

The superintendent attempts to translate the Board’s 40-minute long therapy session. He will engage the community around school safety, and return a more comprehensive safety proposal based on that feedback.

200 Day Calendar (The Sequel!)

Last meeting, the Board approved Fairfield Elementary School’s bid for a 200 Day calendar. Fairfield worked hard to engage their community, and recruited the support of 96% of their staff and 91% of their parents. Staff are eligible for ARP-funded bonuses, and students can look forward to spending their additional 20 days on things like enrichment activities or field trips. The motion passed overwhelmingly, with White and Gibson the only “no” votes. (Catch up on the facts and details here.)

This week, Cardinal Elementary School brought forward their “R200” bid. They have the support of 81% of their staff, and 87% of their parents. 

This week, the Board has a whole different perspective. White and Gibson came armed with new ways to discredit the initiative, courtesy of public comment and the growing teacher backlash. This time, Rizzi is on their side:

“I will admit to you that I have since done some research and talked to some people since I voted to approve the [Fairfield] plan… I have since talked to some people that got me thinking a little differently about that.”

Among the complaints:

“People are not shy about reaching out to me when they are unhappy. I have not had a single family from either school community contact me in any way shape or form about feeling pressured to vote for this.”

  • The pay gap between summer school and R200 is proof that the administration doesn’t value their summer school employees. Kamras says “this is just a very different responsibility” than summer school. They are full, required days, with all the same expectations of a regular school day.

Kamras is also wary of suggestions to reduce the R200 compensation:

“This is a plan that has been before this board - and was approved by this board - for weeks now… and [staff] have voted based upon the criteria that they understood to be offered to them. I would think it highly disrespectful to those individuals if the Board were to now retroactively change what has already been in the public domain for quite some time.”

Chairwoman Rizzi, perhaps biased by the handful of frustrated teacher comments she heard earlier in the evening, flinched at the superintendent’s characterization. “I think that disrespectful is somewhat of a loaded term here.”

In the end, Cardinal’s R200 barely passes. White, Gibson, and Rizzi got their gold-standard data (teacher surveys with +90% participation and +81% approval), rejected the will of the “boots on the ground,” and voted “no.” 

BONUS: “We have got to show up differently”

I’d like to take a moment to look at the School Board Code of Conduct from the Virginia School Board Association (VSBA), and see how our Board measured up:

“I will have integrity in all matters and support the full development of all children and the welfare of the community, Commonwealth and Nation.”

We recently learned that, as Chairwoman, Harris-Muhammed did not engage or allow Diamond District developers to present their plans to renovate the Altria property. This was dishonest, and delayed student access to a new Career and Technical Education site. We’ve also had multiple (most) conversations throughout Monday evening that never once discussed student development.

“I will attend scheduled board meetings.”

Most Board members attend… eventually. Monday night, three board members (Doerr, White, Harris-Muhammed) showed up 30 minutes late. I cannot remember the last meeting that started at 6PM, but have noted White and Harris-Muhammed consistently (significantly) tardy. Over the last year, Gibson does not attend (or leaves early) any meeting with City Council, and has attended one governance training (virtually) throughout her 6 years on School Board.  These are required per the RPS/VDOE MOU agreement.

“I will come to board meetings informed concerning the issues under consideration.”

This recent meeting alone had 10 embarrassing Unprepared Board examples - but there’s more evidence every week. I mean. My God, we are STILL having the “does RPS fund Next Up?” Conversation. (No!)

“I will make policy decisions based on the available facts and appropriate public input.”

This Board reliably sends the administration on a never ending hunt for “more data” to stall voting on anything they don’t like, or anything controversial that they don’t want to be responsible for. On the flip side - they routinely propose (and pass) same-night motions with no public engagement opportunity. On Monday, Gibson, White, and Rizzi rejected R200 teacher surveys and weeks of community engagement and supportive public comment.

“I will delegate authority for the administration of the schools to the superintendent, and establish a process for accountability of administrators.”

Most recently: Young, Gibson, and Harris-Muhammed want to lower the threshold for administrative purchase, require Board approval for anything over $100K, and effectively vetoing the superintendent’s sole-Source contract authority. This would dramatically slow down the Admin’s day to day work and effectiveness, and lengthen School Board meetings.
Other examples include the Board blocking new hires, petty things like blocking Kamras’ nomination for the Chief Operating Officer to serve as his agent, demanding to sit in on staff meetings, pitching a fit anytime he makes personnel decisions that are well within his authority, interfering with the day-to-day responsibilities assigned to school social workers (watch), manipulating who serves on the admin’s task forces (and the application methods), and even telling him what to put in his newsletter.

“I will encourage individual board members' expression of opinion and establish an open, two-way communication process with all segments of the community.”

This Board routinely cuts out the 4 members of the Board minority. When they are confronted with this, they play the victim or say [adjective redacted] things like “cry me a river.” They also interrupt the superintendent, the staff actively answering their questions, and their own Board colleagues.

“I will communicate, in accordance with board policies, public reaction and opinion regarding board policies and school programs to the full board and superintendent.”

In fact, members of this Board - Gibson and Harris-Muhammed -  routinely violate Policy 1-5.2 on Board-Staff communications. They fashion themselves as champions for transparency, opening their phones and inboxes to aggrieved RPS employees they consider “whistleblowers.” They are known for this. They are proud of this. They encourage this. They wield it as a weapon. They do not fact check the claims, nor do they believe the facts when they’re provided. (“I’m coming on Monday,” anyone?)

In reality, they are all undermining the administration and the very process designed to receive and resolve employee disputes. A process designed to preserve the reputation of the district, and individual maligned employees. Instead they accuse high school teachers of cheating, principals they personally don’t like of being retaliatory towards favored teachers (*cough* Holton), publicly humiliate their safety and security director, and constantly perpetuate the myth that their Superintendent is inept, corrupt and earning kickbacks from curriculum investments. This is having measurable effects on our district’s ability to recruit what Doerr calls “top talent”

“I will bring about desired changes through legal and ethical procedures, upholding and enforcing all laws, state regulations, and court orders pertaining to schools.”

In addition to the relentless defamation tactics described above, our Board also has a history of leaking confidential personnel data to the media. (I’m withholding those receipts for the moment..) They also resent (reject) their own Board norms and the VDOE. Rules are suggestions, not mandates - except of course when they want other people to follow them. 

“I will refrain from using the board position for personal or partisan gain and avoid any conflict of interest or the appearance of impropriety.”

Sigh. Everything is personal. Many (most?) Board members have a council of at least one aggrieved former-RPS employee, and (ab)use their elected authority to enact revenge on their friend’s behalf. Some even have their own revenge with one another - which I trust will be public soon enough.
I’m also actively investigating a claim from multiple sources that a Board member received free or reduced cost handyman work from a member of the RPS facilities team prior to approving their lofty pay increase.

“I will respect the confidentiality of privileged information and make no individual decisions or commitments that might compromise the board or administration.”

See the “leak confidential, privileged information to the press” comment above. 

“I will be informed about current educational issues through individual study and participation in appropriate programs, such as those sponsored by my state and national school boards associations.”

Most Board members solely rely on admin presentations to inform them about developments in state or city education, policy, and budgets. Unfortunately, since they have no trust for the messenger, they refuse to believe that information. For example: the Board is often tasked with creating local police to combat nationwide trends like teacher dis-satisfaction, bus driver shortages, chronic absenteeism, student violence, and covid-era academic setbacks. Instead, they throw that guidance out the window and insist every one of those big complicated problems are the fault of the superintendent (or the scapegoat of their choosing). They make policy based on that myopic perspective, often serving their own self interests (personal vengeance) while neglecting to address the root cause of the problem at hand. Case in point: the 2022 curriculum saga.

“I will always remember that the foremost concern of the board is to improve and enhance the teaching and learning experience for all students in the public schools of Virginia.”

They care a lot about improving the teacher's experience, but they rarely discuss matters from a student achievement standpoint.  See: the rest of this blog archive. This one too.

All-in, I give the Board a D. 

D for the policies they defy. D for the delays they intentionally create to slow or stop the administrations’ effectiveness. D for deceiving the public with baseless, defamatory talk of corruption, fraud, and retaliation. D for deflecting responsibility - be they RIF confusion, or missed emails. And D for diminishing community confidence in our schools and sowing doubt about its employees.

(It’d honestly be an F if I could come up with as many alliterative words.)

We most certainly do not need to see these events the same, or assign each failing the same level of significance. What’s important, though, is that we recognize that Board behavior is a critical piece to our Division’s dysfunction; because when Kamras leaves RPS, we’ll all be left with the Board’s same bad habits. Each with an individual vision. Each with their own set of facts. Each with their own vengeance to pursue and RPS employee council to please. And too few of them serving in the best interest of Richmond’s students. 

As one public commenter said: They’re like a crew team, with the Board divided and rowing in opposite directions. (Watch) Together, they’re rowing RPS in an endless loop, delaying all school-accreditation progress, and failing to set our students up for successful futures. 

Some states take over a “mayhem” district like that.

Becca DuVal