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George Mason will remain open for upcoming school year

From Mark Robinson’s piece in the Times-Dispatch on last night’s School Board meeting:

Students and teachers will return to George Mason Elementary School for the upcoming school year after the Richmond School Board opted Monday night for short-term fixes to what is widely considered the worst building in the district.

The board approved a recommendation from interim Superintendent Thomas Kranz’s administration to complete repairs and clean up the building before students return to the Church Hill school on Sept. 5. In addition to the repairs, the division will conduct monthly air quality tests to “ensure safety,” Kranz said.

5 comments

Joe 08/10/2017 at 10:04 AM

This is a terrible decision.

This school board needs to start doing what is best for all the children in this city. Wasting money on a school that needs to be demolished just because they can’t act quickly is just another example of their incompetence.

Enrollment in schools in the Church Hill area has been plummeting for over a decade and continues to.

It’s gross that RVA spends so much per student on areas near city hall and wealthy neighborhoods like church hill, while they neglect the overcrowded schools South of the river.

I guess out of sight, out of mind.

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John M 08/10/2017 at 11:01 AM

Not to discount at all the needs of the Southside schools, but characterizing any of the neighborhood schools up here as being at all part of “wealthy neighborhoods like church hill” quite wrong. Mason serves the bulk of Mosby Court and Church Hill North.

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crd 08/10/2017 at 11:14 AM

@1 What’s really gross is that certain wealthy businessmen want to discuss spending millions on the coliseum and not fixing schools.

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Joe 08/11/2017 at 10:12 AM

@2 John M

I was referring to how they are close in proximity to wealthy neighborhoods.

You can probably walk from George Mason Elementary to an affluent area within minutes.

That is not the case for many of the overcrowded south side schools that really need help.

I’m not saying the students come from wealthy areas. I’m saying that they are more visible to wealthy/influential people because of their proximity to those people.

CHPN is an excellent example.

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