February 16th we will be voting on the Proposed FY2012-2013 Superintendent’s Budget. Presently we have to make decisions on balancing a $23.8 million dollar funding gap. Please email dcoleman2@richmond.k12.va.us your priorities or any other suggestions on what YOU THINK should be done. We will be voting on the budget Thursday, February 16.

Secondly, rezoning is probably one of the most important undertakings that will happen in the Richmond Public School system over the next few years, other than the building of new schools. The announcement below of an upcoming community meeting is extremely important! Again, our input is needed!!

The Rezoning Committee for Richmond Public Schools will hold a community meeting to give a progress report on rezoning considerations to date and also to seek community input on the options it will be presenting for each elementary, middle and high school level.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Thompson Middle School
7824 Forest Hill Ave * Richmond, VA 23225
6:30 to 7:30 p.m.

When asked about the inclusion of his name, Mr.Coleman said that “I met Chuck, he seems like a responsible person, but I’m not endorsing him”. He summed it all up by saying that “I got elected to be a good School Board member, not get mixed up in the politics.”

A representative at Mount Olivet Church was not able to say whether or not Bishop Husband has endorsed Smith. A phone call and email to the Smith campaign have not been returned.

From the email:

The following twelve spiritual leaders are leading the movement to endorse Chuck Smith, as their choice for the next Congressman from the 3rd District of Virginia:

Bishop Gerald O. Glenn (New Deliverance Evangelistic Church, New Deliverance Christian Academy)

Bishop Darryl F. Husband (Life More Abundant Ministries, Mount Olivet Church)

Bishop Leon Benjamin (New Life Harvest Church)

Pastor Joe Ellison (New Deliverance Evangelistic Church)

Pastor Dwayne Whitehead (World Overcomers Christian Ministries)

Pastor Shawn Nicholson (Beautiful Temple)

Pastor Benjamin Harris (St. Stephen’s Koinonia Church)

Pastor Don Coleman (Commonwealth Chapel)

Pastor Rudolph Jones, Sr. (Holy Ground Refuge Ministry)

Reverend Dean Nelson, Network of Politically Active Christians

Elder Wade Runge, New Deliverance Evangelistic Church

Elder Leroy Hardy, Nottoway Tribe of Virginia

Richmond Public Schools is pleased to bring The Choice campaign to the 6th & 7th Districts on Saturday, September 18, 2010. Beginning at 10 a.m. – noon, the roll out of this campaign will kickoff at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School with students, staff, parents and community volunteers canvassing the neighborhoods of the 6th and 7th Districts and highlighting the vast opportunities our district provides. This multi-tiered marketing initiative marks the district’s first broad-based public awareness effort designed to retain and recruit local students and families.

We know first hand that by supporting our schools, we strengthen our communities and enhance the economic vitality of this city. To that end, we are asking for your support on multiple levels. First, we are in need of your assistance in identifying areas within these districts that have been unreached. During each Choice event, volunteers are strategically assigned to locations that will help us to strengthen our school communities. We would also be pleased if you would assist us in securing community volunteers. In order to make this event a success, we are in need of 100 volunteers.

If you would like more information or have additional questions, please feel free to contact the Public Information Office (804) 780-7100 or call Don Coleman directly at 804-339-0745

Greetings! Richmond Public Schools, Councilwoman Cynthia Newbille and I, in collaboration with Civic Associations and other community entities here in the East End, are organizing a School Supply give-away on Saturday, August 28th at 10am to 12 noon at the East End Family Resource Center located at 2405 Jefferson Ave. VOLUNTEERS AND SUPPLIES ARE NEEDED!! PLEASE CONTACT DON AT 804-339-0745 IF INTERESTED

The purpose of this meeting is to provide a Building A Better Richmond status update and to drill down and get specific neighborhood-based feedback on how the rennovated or newly constructed school site can best be designed for community use beyond the traditional school day. This meeting is where everyone in the community can have input! We need to hear from all citizens.

School Board 7th District member Don Coleman sent out his email newsletter for June today, with a wrap-up of recent issues and activities, including his visit to Milwaukee to study successes of Violence Free Zones, Franklin Military now accepting applications for 6th graders for 2009-2010, the playground fire at George Mason, and spotlight on Fairfield Court Elementary School.

School Board meetings are the 1st and 3rd Mondays at 6pm in City Hall. 1st Mondays on 2nd Floor Council Chambers 3rd Mondays 17th Floor School Board Room. There will be no meetings in July 2009.

Subscribe to Don Coleman’s email newsletter.

Contact Don Coleman at (804) 339-0745 or DonColeman.RPS@gmail.com.

This is an exciting time to be a part of RPS. I honestly believe that with your help we will see real, tangible and measurable success across our system over the next four years. As your School Board member I am not afraid of the fact that we are facing serious challenges and opportunities. Yet I am also convinced that we are on the threshold of a historic turn-around story.

Subscribe to Don Coleman’s email newsletter.

Contact Don Coleman at (804) 339-0745 or DonColeman.RPS@gmail.com.

Richmond Mayor Dwight Jones

First up was Mayor Jones, fresh from the Irish Festival. He reiterated a message of unity and progress for the city and towards regional cooperation, and restated his embrace of the Downtown Master Plan and the recommendations of the city auditor. Jones said that the city is seeking all of the stimulus dollars that we are due and will not miss “a single penny that should come to us”. Such money will be targeted at schools, public safety, and transportation, with the intent of make Richmond a “tier-one city”.

Comments from the audience included suggestions to anchor the Shockoe Center proposal around a publc park instead of a ball park, a long inscrutable statement by a man from Ghana, and a question about Echo Harbor, none of which received much of an answer.

Richmond Public Schools Superintendent Yvonne Brandon

Richmond Public Schools Superintendent Yvonne Brandon followed Jones at the podium. She began by saying that RPS is undergoing transformation, but that there are great strides yet to be made. RPS has improved the graduation rate by 10%, almost 90% schools have state accreditation, 87% of the schools have made AYP. Brandon said that RPS is moving to embrace of the state process for procurement (EVA) to be able to further take advantage of scale, and that the school system is implementing energy efficiency programs.

She touched on the budget process, saying that RPS will be able to maintain student/teacher ratios next year, that there will be no staff reduction. Looking forward, the first phase of the City of the Future plan has MLK Middle School scheduled for extensive renovations and includes a feasibility study for placing a school in Fulton.

Asked about the potential closing of Bellevue ES, she referred to the planned study for Fulton as to what may determine the closings of schools in the East End.

Richmond City Police

Police speaker: crime is down. Citizens are the key. A huge decrease in homicides over the past 10 years. Prostitution stings along T Street recently.

Questions from the audience: thanks for recent focus on Venable Street. Thanks for anti-skateboarding signs in Patrick Henry Park.

Betty Squire, Jennifer McClellan, Don Coleman

The announcement of other meetings. Schoolboard 7th District representative Don Coleman speaks.

Towards the end of the meeting, Squire was asked directly “Why did you vote the way that you did about Oakwood?” Her response was basically “It was zoned that way. I respect the property rights of people.” Squire also confirmed that there is no money available to board up vacant properties, but said to contact her with the addresses of any problematic properties.

There is a move to get a memorial in Fulton; 71 houses are slated to be built in Fulton.

There is some shit going on in Fairfield Court. Drugs are bad.

UPCOMING MEETINGS

Open Forum on the Budget
April 4th @ Police Academy from 11AM-1PM

Regular Budget Meetings
April 7,8,9,14,15 at City Council Chambers @ 2PM; April 16th @ 2:30PM

Community Open House @ Armstrong High School
April 29, 6PM

April 7th District Meeting
April 25 – location TBA
with Commonwealth Attorney Herring& Sheriff Woody

See also Silver Persinger’s Richmond City Council Reporter & Telegraph for another take, he was across the room recording as well. It looked like he was probably better able to get the folks asking questions from the audiance.

The 2009-2013 RPS School Board members were sworn-in yesterday in ceremony at City Hall. The new board has four returning and five freshman members, including the new 7th District School Board member Don Coleman. [via]

RPS board members from left to right: Adria A. Graham Scott (4th district); Dr. Norma H. Murdoch-Kitt (3rd District); Kimberly B. Gray (2nd District); Kimberly M. Bridges (1st District); Donald L. Coleman (7th District); Betsy B. Carr (5th District); Chandra H. Smith (6th District); Dawn C. Page (8th District); Evette L. Wilson (9th District)

The city website has a map of all of the voter precincts and a breakdown of the recent vote by precinct. Interesting numbers if you’re into that kind of thing…

PRESIDENT

SCHOOL BOARD

CITY COUNCIL

MAYOR

The poll was up for a week. The intent was to close it when there were more than 100 votes cast, but I wanted to get that baseball poll in place. With ongoing discussions both here and River District News, I was curious to see if there was a quiet consensus out there either way on this.

Last season’s polling was essentially worthless, but still fun, right?

The 3 school board candidates took questions form the crowd of 25 or so, though nothing new or revelatory came out from either Don Coleman or Torey Edmonds. While Ronald Bond also took questions, it was at times difficult to ascertain his positions. I had recorded this forum, but my phone ate the file in the transfer; a shame, as you really need to hear Mr.Bond speak for yourself.

The 7th district candidates got much less time in Fulton. The school board candidates each gave a short statment but were not given time for questions. Ms.McQuinn was not present due to other pressing issues, but challenger Clarence Keney was there to give a statement.

> You can listen to Mr.Kenney’s statement here.

The mayoral candidates were up next, though I left fairly early into that.

Coleman is clearly an amiable man. In talking with him, potentially divisive issues become opportunities for collaboration, for “getting people excited at the opportunity to work together”. He describes this as a personal strength and it comes across in conversation. In our governance and in our schools he says that “we need to demonstrate a leadership culture of unity and mutual respect”, and this more than any specific set of solutions comes across as fundamental to his platform.

Coleman ran for the 7th district school board seat 2 years ago and missed by only 41 votes. He says that, if elected, he is “determined to be public servant” and that he will will work to hear parents, that “he will hear your perspective”. When asked which of the current school board he most respected, he paused for a moment and named 2nd District representative Lisa Dawson and 4th District representative George Braxton.

With a daughter at Martin Luther King Jr Middle School who is president of her class and a wife that is VP of PTA at MLK, Coleman says that he has strong connections to RPS. Coleman, his wife, and oldest daughter are all graduates of RPS; and he volunteers at Richmond Hill’s Armstrong Leadership Program.

Coleman has lofty goals, such as to “focus on raising our schools above and beyond the standard, and on closing any achievement gaps”, and to make it such that children “have the same great educational experience no matter where their school is located”. He does not, however, offer much in the way of specifics at this time. The two proposals that he describes, though, both work to build connections between the parents in the community and the schools.

One of Coleman’s ideas is to put together a group of parent advisors. He sees the new 4 year term as a great opportunity to forge strong relationships that will last. Another of his proposals is that the school system or the schools have a recorded information line for parents, much like the city’s recent 311 initiative.

It is a fact that percentage of parents in the East End choose to send their children to out-of-zone or private schools. Coleman says that “there needs to be an intentional effort to draw people back in”, and the “best people to do so are the parents that have stayed”. It is important, he says, to get the message out that you can get a good education for your child out of RPS.

Coleman takes on some of the structural issues concerning RPS in saying that “we should not just measure schools simply by SOL scores, but look at ‘Complete Health of Schools’ including teacher retention, graduation rates, and PTA involvement. When asked to elaborate, Coleman responded that, “We need SOLS, there is no question that need standards, but teachers need to have freedom to teach without being boxed on focussing on the SOL test. We need to not squelch the creativity of the teachers.” Acknowledging that teaching can be a hard job, he calls for incentives to encourage the teachers, teacher appreciation teams, to let them know that they are supported and that the community is invested. He went on to say that RPS need to work on recruitment, again with possible incentives, reasons to come into RPS.

When asked about a few of the local hot-button issues, Coleman was deferential. The potential closing of Bellevue prompted Coleman to say that this is an issue that needs to be “talked through”, that it would be “another opportunity to hear from parents”. His take on the megazone policy was the same: he would “want to hear from parents”. He says that is comes down to that he wants to represent constituent concerns: his door will be open, and people need to be engaged.

More info: the Don Coleman campaign has a website and has put out two info sheets: A City Wide Vision for Educational Excellence and Don Coleman’s Community Connection Strategy.

We want to hear from you! Please join us at Capt Buzzy’s Friday 27th from 6:00pm-7:30pm to have your voice heard regarding 7th District Schools, the last year’s school board and what you want from your school board in the future. [...] Don Coleman will be there to share his own story and listen to your thoughts and concerns. Free cup of coffee for participants! Send an e-mail to colemanforschoolboard@gmail.com if you plan on stopping by.

]]> http://chpn.net/news/2008/06/24/meet-don-coleman-buzzys_1738/feed/ 0 http://chpn.net/news/2008/05/24/coleman-seeks-school-board-seat_1660/ http://chpn.net/news/2008/05/24/coleman-seeks-school-board-seat_1660/#comments Sat, 24 May 2008 11:38:16 +0000 john_m http://chpn.net/news/?p=1660 Now there are three: An email from Don Coleman says that he is “strongly considering and have begun the process that will be official on June 10th” to run again for the 7th District School Board seat. Keith West beat Coleman by 41 votes in the 2006 contest.

I’m going to vote for Donald Coleman for a these reasons:

• He has been an active part of the larger community.
  I keep running into Mr.Coleman at the grunt-work civic events around the area. Some of these things can be boring as f*ck, but that is where imortant, neighborhood-building stuff happens. The folks that show up at the various meetings are truly investing themselves in everyone’s version of the neighborhood.

• Command of the issues.
  He knows what the issues are with regard to the schools. He can speak to people’s concerns, and knows enough to have his own informed opinions.

• His children attend or attended the public schools.
  He is invested as a parent and has knowledge of the system. This is important — I don’t think that someone from too far on the outside will be able to succeed.

• He will get things accomplished.
  Mr.Coleman seems to have both the desire to make things happen and the will and personal skills to see things through. He will be able to speak to and for every resident of the 7th district.

– John Murden

Fot the city council, it breaks down like this: Delores McQuinn 16%, Reggie Malone 77%, and undecided 7%. For school board: Ronald Bond 8%, Donald Coleman 21%, Delores Murray 13%, Keith West 45%, and undecided 13%.

This is obviously a flawed and probably valueless set of data, but what the heck. It’ll be interesting to look back afterward and find some corrolation here.

City Council

UHCA President Lora Toothman presided over the meeting of about 30 people. First up where the 2 city council candidates, Delores McQuinn and Reggie Malone. The UHCA had prepared 3 questions for the candidates.

The candidates were asked to describe the performance of city council under the strong mayor system, rate the efficiency of the city government on a scale of 1-10, and speak to the demolition of vacant houses in Union Hill.

Delores McQuinn spoke directly to the questions. She said, paraphrased, that the council has worked diligently and cohesively. She said that there are some glitches in system to address, like the fact that the council serves 2-year terms and that the mayor serves a 4-year term. She said that she feels that the council has held their own in an unbalanced environment. She described the budget as a big issue, described the system over-all as “a work in progress”.

McQuinn rated the efficiency of th government “a 7, maybe 7.5″. She acknowledged that there are areas that can be improved, saying that more attention needs to be paid to neighborhoods to address neighborhood concerns. She specified the need to find ways to reduce real estate taxes, to provide tax relief. She said that we must not stray from funding schools.

Speaking to the demolition of houses in Union Hill, McQuinn said that she is working to put into place a ‘demolition resolution’. She said that we “need to be sure that we are protecting the integrity of the community”.

Reggie Malone, animated, followed with more of a politicking response. Speaking on the role of the council under the strong mayor system, he said that the council has not understood their role, have not understood they are not mini-mayors, and that the “arrogance… is phenomenal”. He went on to say that “there are very few people on city council who are computer literate, and this is terrible in this day and time”. He then went on to state that a leader needs “vision and force”, while the community has been telling him that “we have no representation”.

Mr.Malone says that the city efficiency is at a 5. He cites the park service in the area as having been dismal. He went on to say that the parks weren’t just messed up when the storms hit, that they’ve been this way for years. Mallone predicts that the 7th District is ripe for a disaster like in Battery Park — “you can’t build a new city on old infrastructure”.

Speaking to the demolition of vacant houses in Union Hill, Malone says that a resolution is “fluff”, that “we need ordinances”.

School Board

The four candidates for school board — Ronald Bond, Delores Murray, Keith West, and Donald Coleman — then took the stage to answer the 2 questions put them as a group. This section will be more ragged because I was tired by then and am more tired now…

Question one was something like “Neighborhood schools have long been an unrealized public asset. The city is considering a move to consolidation. Respond.” The 2nd question was something like “What can we do to attract and keep middle class families in the public school system?”.

In response to the first question:

• Ronald Bond: no research, but improvement is long overdue, location something something, people like nice schools in a nice location.

• Delores Murray: cited her experience as a paraprofessional, cited research in favor.

• Keith West: Noted that many of the elementary schools in the district are very close to each other, said the the district is small enough to have fewer schools and still have them be neighborhood schools.

• Don Coleman: k-8 schools connect the students that much more with the school and teachers. Cited research that middle schools are the issue in urban areas all over the country — Baltimore, New Orleans, others. Concistency helps the students.

In response to the 2nd question:

• Ronald Bond: Nobody wants to send their children to inefficient schools, unsafe schools.

• Delores Murray: We have great teachers. various programs that are good: foreign languages, fine arts, preschool. Richmond has so much to offer to offer already.

• Keith West: This is crucial. There is no gimmick. We have to make these quality schools — no 50% drop-out rate, no graduates with average of 8th grade reading level. Fix this and we’ll attract more families. Gave props to the teachers and funding. Cited nned to give principles more control, the need to remove discipline problems.

• Don Coleman: Sees this as an issue. Cites families moving kids out of district for *nursery school*. Says that the economic future of the city is attached to the success of our schools. “We need to be able to market ourselves as a city with good schools.”

The interview took place July 7, 2006 at Mr.Coleman’s Mosby Street home. Also present was Jeremiah Winters, Coleman’s campaign manager.

This is Mr.Coleman’s 2nd run for the seat being vacated this year by Reggie Malone. The 45-year-old Coleman, a Armstrong High School graduaute, is an ordained minister and owner of his own management-consulting business, A Level Up, Inc.

According to an October 30, 2002, Richmond TImes-Dispatch article Malone faces 2 challengers for 7th District board seat, Coleman has acted as director of programs for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Richmond where he helped start clubs in public-housing projects and was co-founder of Fathers for Life, a abstinance program for teenage boys. He also started VirginiaChild, an organization dedicated to empowering parents.

Listen to the slightly edited interview here: Donald Coleman Interview, July 7, 2006 (5.6MB mp3).

If you are interested in getting involved in the campaign, contact Donald Coleman at 339-0745.