Patrick Henry Faces Challenges in Style Weekly
From today’s Style Weeky:
The school, which plans to reopen the 87-year-old Patrick Henry Elementary building next to Forest Hill Park, is in the midst of a million-dollar drive to cover the cost of its planned opening next fall. The school’s charter president, Debbie Butterworth, says the effort is off to a rousing start despite a depressed economy.
“We have had over $30,000 in donations and those are all just the private, personal donations,” Butterworth says, noting too a $100,000 grant received Sept. 14 from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, made possible by the school’s planned eco-friendly curriculum. Butterworth says she’s “confident” the school will receive an additional $300,000 federal charter schools grant, expected to be announced Oct. 28.
But Patrick Henry boosters also face the daunting task of paying for expensive upgrades needed to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. A letter from the Richmond School Board sent Aug. 31 expresses that board’s concerns about the charter school’s ability to meet that challenge.
I hope that the School Board is not only expressing concern but offering some ways to help this new school come online. Patrick Henry school board meets every 1st and 3rd Thursday of the month at 8 p.m. at the Patrick Henry school building, 3411 Semmes Avenue.
Regarding the School Board’s worry about ADA funds, if the school system had updated all the buildings years ago when they were supposed to, this would not be an issue. How many of the other RPS schools comply, now, with ADA? Darn few. Why should Patrick Henry have its ADA ducks in a row when the other schools are so far from compliance? I agree with Richard. The board should work to assist PH, as they stand to benefit much from the methods and curriculum the school plan to uses.
I wish PH success, but its not the only historic Richmond school that needs help with ADA funding. Open High has been rated one of the best high schools in the country, but evidently Richmond leadership considers ‘Center Stage’ more important. Its truly disgusting and sad.
Let’s face it: the school board is pleased that the PH building isn’t ADA compliant. RPS has no interest in PH’s success, and ADA is a convenient stumbling block.
Dan, there are members of the school board who want to see the success of this school. However, Yvonne Brandon has not demonstrated any amount of interest in the Charter School or even attended one meeting since its conception 3 years ago. RPS follows her lead. Unfortunately, she’s NOT leading when it comes to PHESSA. (Patrick Henry Elementary School of Science and Arts) If the charter school is successful, you can bet that Brandon will be first in line to accept any accolades, claiming it was a partnership from the beginning. What a crock!
I could see how RPS, and especially someone who has been a part of it for 30 years, like Ms. Brandon, might be defensive when it comes to citizens setting up their own school. It would be pretty easy to take it as a criticism rather than the opportunity it could be. Perhaps the administration has long wanted to try innovative choices but been thwarted somehow. Seems like, at this point, they’d benefit more by helping. If PHSSA is successful, they’d have the substantiated proof to move forward with new practices within the other schools.
It will get even more interesting to watch the interactions between the School Board and the PH folks within the context of the second charter school submittal.
http://www.styleweekly.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=Publishing&mod=Publications::Article&mid=8F3A7027421841978F18BE895F87F791&tier=4&id=DAC81B05F97C410D98B274EFDF5D5DB0