RPS RECAP: Governance “Minis”
Hey Board Watchers! It’s been a few weeks since I’ve written an update. Join me as we play catchup with a series of “mini” updates. Starting with some long overdue governance discussions:
New 9th District Councilwoman, Vacancy
New 9th District School Board Representative
4th District Representative Resigns
Dodging Mandatory Governance Training
School Board Candidates, 2024
Ps: thanks to 🛋️ for finding these photos for me! I think they’re from social media.
New 9th District Councilwoman, Vacancy
Back in November, City Council President Mike Jones was elected to serve as the 77th District’s representative to Virginia’s House of Delegates.
Voters will decide who fills his council vacancy in November, but since that’s less than a year out, it’s City Council’s responsibility to appoint a short-term replacement.
Officially - they collected applications, conducted interviews, and appointed Nicole Jones to the seat.
Unofficially - Nicole Jones was Mike Jones’ hand-picked successor. (No relation, FYI)
Nicole resigned from School Board on Dec 31, and sworn in for her new role on Jan 2, alongside the cheers of her former-Board colleagues Liz Doerr, Stephanie Rizzi, Dawn page, and Cheryl Burke. (It was really sweet!)
She hopes to hit the ground running, telling Richmond Magazine:
“I aim to create an environment of citizen empowerment for all residents and to work collaboratively with the administration to meet their needs. I will also use my experience as a proven changemaker and consensus builder to work to address pressing issues present across the city but increasingly so in the 9th District…” Nicole Jones
It’ll be great having an RPS friend on city council, especially one who has promised to “[work] to ensure that our schools are fully funded.” I have not seen her do this yet, though. (I’ve watched/tweeted 1, 2, 3 council budget discussions, including one dedicated to RPS.) Hopefully she’s working behind the scenes to close the $24M shortfall.
She is also running to remain on council, and reports raising $6K toward that campaign.
New 9th District Representative
This - of course - created a new vacancy to fill.
The School Board interviewed several applicants after their January 24th budget hearing. On February 5th, they unanimously agreed to appoint Ms. Shavonda Dixon. She is sworn in a few days later.
“I am a servant leader. I believe in 1. giving respect to those that I serve with, I believe in inspiring vision...I believe in the three C’s” - commitment, collaboration, clarity. “In the collaboration efforts - this does not always mean that we will agree - but if we stand by a spirit of excellence - what I believe in - I believe that we can work toward our common goal.” Shavonda Dixon (Watch)
Ms. Dixon has been a very steady presence in her short time on the Board. She asks student-focused questions, (mostly) ignores drama, and doesn’t talk just to hear herself talk (which is a toxic trait shared by several of her colleagues, and drags meetings on and on foreverrrrr.)
Ms. Dixon is also hoping to hold onto her seat in November, having raised a reported $300 to support her campaign.
RPS’s current head of Custodial Services, Mary Gresham, is also running to serve as the 9th district representative. She has not reported any fundraising.
4th District Representative Resigns
On Monday, April 8th, the School Board unanimously approved a motion to update for review Policy 1-1.5 (Board Member Conduct).
This followed a last-minute discussion item 2nd District’s Ms. White had added to the agenda. Her reasoning was vague. So was their discussion.
We can infer that a Board Member behaved badly (White says she would have called the police) in a way that does not specifically violate Policy 1-1.5, and that’s not ok. White/Dawn/Dixon all indicate that this needs to be fixed immediately, but all of this is still so vague that Pak, their attorney, says he cannot read their minds and needs specific instruction about how they want to update the language. (They will email him their notes and review his draft at an upcoming meeting.)
Then they went into closed session to “consider the assignment, appointment, promotion, performance, demotion, salaries, disciplining or resignation of specific public officers, appointees or employees of the School Board” Whaaaaat?
We weren’t in suspense for long. The very next day, Jonathan Young reveals that he has been the subject of a 3rd party investigation into his conduct with a 15 year old RPS student during a school event.
The investigation interviewed many witnesses, all of whom said Young’s interaction with the girl was “weird” and “odd” - but not “outwardly sexual.”
Young told CBS6’s Tyler Layne that the investigation “absolved [him] of any wrongdoing whatsoever.”
Ms White says “no he wasn’t.”
Take this with a grain of salt - she offers no evidence to the contrary - and she’s sorta known for misunderstanding things and assuming the worst in people she doesn’t like. Ex: Young is a predator who is guilty because she says so, investigation-be-damned; but when students accuse RPS staff of inappropriate conduct, she thinks the administration are big meanies for even separating staff from their students while they’re being investigated.
White also tells us the complaint comes from the child’s mother, an RPS employee.
No police report was ever filed.
Evidently this spat was worse behind the scenes, because Young abruptly resigns three days later in fiery fashion:
“Few experiences have been as rewarding as for eight years fighting for Richmond’s teachers and students and though I can brag on some success; it’s no secret that at Richmond Public Schools we are coming up short. What our stakeholders need to know is why and whom to blame. In three words, the School Board. To be clear, not everyone on the School Board shares equally in the blame. SOME more than others have constituted an impediment to progress and still SOME others a barrier to objectivity and common sense. The same SOME have told me privately that though absolved of any wrongdoing, they intend to vigorously pursue crass political attacks and the worst kind of tit for tat brinksmanship. I will not oblige. Accordingly, I relinquish my service on the School Board.”
Presumably, this also ends his re-election campaign, for which he has already raised $1,000 and knocked on about as many doors.
The Board is now accepting applications (thru April 30th) to fill the 4th District vacancy.
Dodging Mandatory School Board Training
Richmond Public Schools has been in big trouble with the Virginia Department of Education for years. Our schools have consistently underperformed, and have operated under the thumb of a VDOE corrective action plan (called a memorandum of understanding, or “MOU”) since 2017.
The MOU covers academic-y things and hiring restrictions. It also mandates the School Board participate in annual governance training: “ALL members of the Richmond City School Board and the Division Superintendent will participate at a minimum annually in board and superintendent professional development provided by the Virginia School Board Association (VSBA)…” (emphasis mine)
If “the superintendent certifies that a local school board has failed or refused to meet any of those obligations, the Board of Education shall withhold payment of some or all at-risk add-on funds…”
Last year, that was $6,234,164.
*Ahem*
Six point two million dollars.
That’s why it’s pretty startling that - even knowing all of this - our Board has continually made themselves unavailable for VSBA governance training.
Back in March, Chairwoman Rizzi revealed that she has tried/failed to coordinate this training multiple times over the last year:
“If someone asked me for a timeline, I can give you emails from a year ago to now with repeated questions. I have asked them [VSBA] for [training] dates, I’ve taken the dates to you [Board colleagues], no one can attend. I cannot get a consensus on when to attend. That has happened at least 7 times.”
Ms Page has said (1.8.2024) “the community expects us to serve.. in our role of school board representative to the best of our ability. How can we expect to hone in on what’s expected, our role and responsibility as a school board representative, if we’re not willing to participate in professional development?”
Page is also frustrated (3.18.2024) that there have been emails between the Chairwoman and the VA Superintendent of Public Instruction, Dr. Lisa Coons, on March 15th to discuss this matter. (Page indicated that this communication was some sort of overstep of Rizzi’s authority, but being the Board’s go-between between RPS staff, media, and the VDOE is literally the job of Board Chair.)
Ms Burke is concerned because “we are not aligned with our memorandum of understanding… we are not in good standing.” (1.8.2024) On her colleague’s continued non-compliance: “It’s not an option. It’s not an option. It’s not an option.”
Ms. White has been animated about this too: “Mandatory means everyone needs to attend… mandatory is mandatory and as long as you’re on the [Richmond] School Board you need to attend VSBA training. There’s nothing else to that.” This could get tricky, because she goes on to tell us that the VSBA recently broke up with the Richmond School Board, and opted not to conduct their training anymore. (Rizzi says she “doesn’t necessarily blame the VSBA” - given how difficult her Board has been.)
Dr. Harris-Muhammed - who has never taken VDOE authority seriously anyway - is unfazed. Probably because she’s been trying to end our VSBA membership for months. She insists (1.22.2024 and 3.18.2024) that the Board has no issue with compliance. (Uhh) She asks “Is there someone else we can do this training with?” Then delivers a mini sermon about how her colleagues should pursue their own professional development instead.
Anyway. I promised you brevity so I’m going to leave it at: this is escalating, and local reporters should probably start FOIA-ing these emails to see which Board members are risking SIX POINT TWO MILLION DOLLARS that serve our neediest students.
School Board Candidates, 2024
Lastly! We have some new names on the scene.
In the 1st District, Liz Doerr is stepping down. Someone named Matt Percival is pursuing her School Board seat.
In the 2nd, Mariah White is running for relection. She has a number of rumored challengers. I’ve heard of 3. Though it sounds like they’re willing to coalesce around one of them. That’s all I’ll share for now. (No, I am none of those people.)
In the 3rd, Kenya Gibson has decided to run for City Council against incumbent Ann Francis Lambert, and Maria Carra (Car-rah) Rose. Ali Faruk (RPS parent, kids at Obama Elementary), Charlene Riley (RPS parent of older kids), and Ta’Quan Grant (I know nothing) are hoping to succeed Gibson.
In the 4th, I’m hearing rumors of a candidate for council who will run for School Board instead, especially now that Young has abruptly cleared the candidate field.
In the 5th, I am assured that Rizzi will pursue re-election. I’m also hearing a lot of ‘she’s done with this mess’ - who could blame her? She hasn’t officially announced either way, so we’ll just have to wait and see which sentiment wins out.
In the 6th, Dr. Shonda Harris Muhammed is *checks notes* the lone candidate in the field.
In the 7th and 8th I’m hearing “retire” and also “re-election” and also “maybe council?” From my seat in the audience, Dawn Page looks worn down by the drama, and Cheryl Burke is full of energy but not sure she wants to risk wasting it all on another 4 years with a dysfunctional board.
We already discussed the 9th.
If you’ve heard any other rumblings, give me a shout! Info@rvadirt.com