On November 16th, come and watch the honorable Donald Coleman sell-out the East end communities by supporting a plan by the Mayor that builds no schools in the East end of Richmond. There is no bottom line unless Mr. Coleman abandons the current plan which builds two schools in the East -end and addresses the overcrowding problem. The fact is that unless Mr. Coleman changes his vote he has already voted the schools in the East-End away or has driven construction of these schools back to 2014.

Folks this is business as usual in the City of Richmond; let’s force two historically disadvantaged communities into the center ring to fight each other over the right to build a school that will not address their needs nor fix their problems. We all want to see a new High School, its a good IDEA. This is just a bad way to build it. Mr. Coleman’s crisp day in winter folks is really a cold new in HELL.

The key word in John Murden’s report is “tentatively”. All that was done on Monday was “polling” not “voting” which will be done on Monday November 16th during the 6pm regular School Board meeting. The polling method had several hick-ups with people hitting wrong buttons and not being sure if they had polled properly.

The bottom line becomes either a second elementary school in Southside or MLK. The Honorable Dawn Page 8th District(a portion of Southside) School Board member admitted she is not against MLK. Sixth District School Board Member and Chairwoman The Honorable Chandra Smith who represents MLK was also passionate that MLK(which has students from the 6th,3rd,and 7th Districts)and it’s students are in need also.

Now some commentary. The polling revealed a clear desire from the board for 5 schools to be done:
Huguenot, Broad Rock, George Mason, Oak Grove and MLK.

Funding(not the School Boards authority) becomes the sticking point. My point made during the meeting was that we need a clear process committed to by the board to an ongoing plan for quality facilities. This plan at some point would also need to be agreed to by the Mayor and Council as funders of whatever can actually be done.
The administration agreed and stated that the plan would need to be revisted and updated as needed as a living document. The working document now is the updated Facility Master Plan Update November 2007 which will need to be updated based on decisions that will be made over the next few days and weeks.

At this point we are still on track for shovels in the ground by December 2010 or a little sooner if George Mason makes it through the vote; which it should. School Board members from the 1st,2nd,3rd,4th,5th,6th,9th need to know if there is public support for MLK remaining in Phase 1. The RPS website has contact information for all districts.

I see a crisp winter day in December of 2010 children and adults bundled up and smiling. The excitement in the air is real could it be after 40 years a new school in the East End? May this vision become reality.

I hope many of you will choose to come out to the School Board meeting on November 16th at 4:30pm for public comment and again at the 6pm regular meeting that will also have a public comment period and the vote on what will be our recommendation to City Council as our sequence for building new schools.

FYI. After November 16th School Board decision, on November 23rd the School Board and the Mayor take our recommendation to Council who will decide whether they will fund our recommendation. One City, Our City.Our Schools!!!!