• Jennie Dotts’ explains herself here.
• Keith West has this letter of explanation and introduction, and has called for “a community forum so that the neighborhood can meet the applicants”.
• Matt Conrad sent in this letter of introduction and answers to the council questionnaire.
• John Gerner describes his qualifications and pledges not to run in the fall.
• Sharon Burton (letter | resume) introduces herself and speaks to preservation, education, public safety, and accountability.
• Carletta Wilson introduces herself and says that ” I understand the need to bridge the gaps within our community” and “while we are a diverse community, we all want the same things”.

To any and all applicants to the vacant City Council 7th District seat, email your letters to murden@gmail.com and I’ll get’em posted.

I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to serve for two years and answer those questions for myself. So that the effort does some good other than my own gratification, I attempt here and in next week’s column to pass on my impressions and offer suggestions to the incoming board and the city about how we can have a better school system.

Below is West’s response when prompted to explain the appeal of this group, his take on the Family Foundation of Virginia, and how school competition could be helpful to already struggling public schools:

First off, I don’t know anything about the Family Foundation of Virginia. I was contacted by delegate Chris Saxman, a longtime advocate for school choice, and asked to be on the board. It’s a nonpartisan group. Another member is head of Democrats for School Choice.

My entire position is that the public schools aren’t going to reform themselves. There is not a single urban school system in this country delivering the education needed by the students. As some point we’re going to have to quit doing the same ole thing hoping it will work, and try something different. School choice won’t lead us to educational utopia, but what it will do is provide competition to the public schools and give justice to disadvantaged students forced to go to schools not doing the job.

School choice started nearly two decades ago as a cause of the right. That is quickly changing as urban dwellers are realizing that their clinging to government operated schools are doing little good.

“Quality candidates will be running in every district,” West writes, warning that “of course, as always, money will be an important factor, and the issue has been addressed. I would imagine that, unless some wealthy benefactor intends to buy your seat, significant spending will be necessary for a competitive race.”

“There has been such a number of colossal failures over the years, the only reasonable thing to do is put a new group in place,” says West, who has said he’s not likely to run again for his own post. He calls his Web [sic] site “a long overdue effort to recruit qualified people to be on the Richmond School Board.”

Members voted 6-2 for Braxton to remain chairman, with Joan Mimms not in attendance and Carol A.O. Wolf and West dissenting. Lisa Dawson remains the vice chairwoman by the same vote.

“It’s just appalling the failures we’ve had this year,” West says, acknowledging his attempt to unseat Braxton. He says the chairman has a long series of failures of leadership, among them the School Board’s bungled responses – and lawsuits – related to Mayor L. Douglas Wilder’s call for an audit of schools and to his withholding of money budgeted to schools by City Council.

On the heels of the release of the Richmond City Schools Facility Master Plan (PDF), you are invited to be part of a community conversation around the building of new schools in the East District. 7th District School Board Representative Keith West will be present. Tuesday Dec.4 @ EDI – 701 N 25th Street.

The presentation began with an acknowledgement of the progress that Richmond Public Schools have made over the past 3 years. In that time, the percentage of students taking AP classes has increased from .97% to 5.2%, the percentage of schools making AYP has increased form 23% to 84%, the percentage of schools that are SOL -accredited has improved from 19% to 86%, and the number of students dual enrolled has jumped from 241 to 1253. West said that these are major steps, but we are still not where we need to be.

He then delved into the basic tenets of the board’s “new direction”. He explained that with an emphasis on “developing the whole person”, the schools can ensure that students have the mental, physical, and ethical capabilities necessary to succeed after graduation (a notion first floated at the September Mayor’s 7th District Roundtable Meeting). Specific capabilities to be emphasized include punctuality, civic responsibility, effective communication skills, problem-solving capabilities, and healthy lifestyles and nutrition awareness.

A foundation of the new plan is putting in place a Personalized Education Plan (PEP) for each student. A sample PEP, apparently from Henrico, was provided as a hand-out. The PEP would be related to but different than Individualized Education Plan (IEP) that is federally mandated for Exceptional Education students. The plan seeks to identify learning characteristics and strengths/weaknesses of the student so that the schools are able to taylor an education for an individual student. The Henrico example is required for students that are retained or who are not performing at grade level and focuses purely on academics. The plan is a collaboration between the teacher, student, and parent to work towards ensuring the student’s success in the classroom.

Another point in the plan is an increase in “Program Choices”. As Community High, Open High, and Franklin Military offer options at the high school level, other options such as foreign language immersion and different academies can be considered. This is also a call for an expansion in popular programs such as AP (Advanced Placement) and IB (International Baccalaureate) courses.

West said that the school system needs to strive to “make ourselves as efficient as possible”, so that they can take the savings and apply them “where we can help the children the most”. He also acknowledge the potential need for reallocation of resources, saying that “nothing comes for free”.

After the presentation portion of the evening, the attendees were broken up into groups for a moderated discussion.

The big framing questions at the end of the presentation were:

1. What do you like about this framework?
2. What is missing?
3. How would you prioritize the possibilities?

(For what it is worth, I am a teacher at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School. That makes West and Jewell-Sherman something like my boss’ boss’ boss.)

The forums are scheduled for:
Nov. 12 6PM, at John Marshall, 4225 Old Brook Road.
Nov. 13 6PM, at Thomas Jefferson, 4100 West Grace St.
Nov. 26 6PM, at Armstrong, 2300 Cool Lane.
Nov. 27 6PM, at Huguenot, 7945 Forest Hill Ave.
Nov. 29 6PM, at George Wythe, 4313 Crutchfield St.

The meeting informally began early; I walked in to a free-form discussion on bus issues, hours of attendance for high school students, and a general criticism of the schoolboard & administration.

West got the discussion focussed with a critique of the schoolboard, saying that the “schoolboard needs to be fixed before you can fix the administration”. He went on to say that “the board has failed by not giving direction” to the system as whole. He pointed out that there are successes among individual schools, but that there is no over-all guiding structure in the system. Speaking of progress made on SOLs results and school accreditation, West declared that “we have made some great progress in the past 4 or 5 years”. He went on to say that “the board is coming together” (at least partially in response to the recent outside pressures), and that he is “more hopeful than anytime in years”.

Keith West then put forth a call for a schoolboard that provides direction for the system, stating that the board needs to say “here is what we’re going to build and this is what it will look like”. He proposed ideas based on the classical notion of education that experiences at school can offer guidance for the students ethically, mentally, and physically. He spoke on offering school choice, some type of personal education plan for every student, and utilizing the central position of the schools to build community connections and offer services.

West then asked “what are the issues that face the system?”, and pointed out that as a system 70% of the students receive free or reduced lunch (an indicator of poverty). An older black woman responded that poverty is not the issue, that “you need to deal with the parents”. A discussion ensued on what parental involvement means and looks like in the East End. One man responded that no school system “can deal with everyones’ social ills”.

The same woman proposed that we need technical training for students whose strength is not book learning. There were complaints on the rigidity of the curriculum. One attendee spoke about her experiences with students and parents being stereotyped because of their address and name. Some folks felt that the schools and students need more structure, going so far as to propose specific rules of engagement between students and teachers. At one point a scathing critique erupted of the inefficiency and poor service of the administration downtown, some of the school board, and the superintendent.

“We’ve had appointed school boards before and they didn’t seem to do such a great job, and I don’t know why it would be so different now.” [via]

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.”