RPS Continues its Patrick Henry Harassment
Chris Dovi of Richmond Magazine.com attended the Wednesday meeting of the Patrick Henry Board and does an excellent job of not only summarizing the meeting but all the events that have lead us down this path. The RPS school board is demanding a charter compliance review, including an “expedited audit,” on Monday. In a letter to PHSSA, RPS cited the recent events as the reason. The compliance review is not part of the charter and some members of the school board were unaware of the letter sent to PHSSA. From Chris Dovi’s article.
And at least one Richmond School Board member confirms that she was not made aware of Bridges’ plan to call for any early review of the charter, at least until she was informed of it as news got out about Bridges’ letter to Burton. In fact, says 2nd District School Board member Kimberly Gray, she did not know of Bridges’ intention to send the letter, or of the letter’s contents. She says that she was not part of any discussion regarding the lengthy list of demands that Bridges indicates were the requests of the full Richmond School Board.
In a text message to Richmond magazine on Wednesday afternoon, Bridges repeated that assertion, that the full board — minus 3rd District representative Norma Murdoch-Kitt, who is vacationing in Canada — was consulted “1 to 1 with each of the 7 members individually” before the letter “received approval of majority prior to sending.”
Harassment AND interference. Shame on RPS.
The students and staff have been truly dedicated to getting this task. Mia has always been a hard working student. We are so proud of them all!
“Physician heal thyself.” (A biblical proverb meaning that people should take care of their own defects and not just correct the faults of others.)
This is typical RPS.
They have always been frightened of anything experimental or out of the norm. They simply don’t know what to do with alternative school programs. They’re suspicious of anything that doesn’t conform to their one-size-fits-all, fast food approach to education.
They treat these semi-public/semi-private programs as redheaded step children, yet are noticeably quick to take credit for the numerous accolades that the programs accumulate.
I’m a product of the Richmond public school system, and I’ve seen RPS and the School Board behave this way before with Richmond Community High School, Open High School and countless other programs – jerking them around until they become defunct or a shell of their former self.
It really just amounts to persistent bullying of the children, parents, teachers and faculty who believe in these programs. Shame on them. They should set a better example.
Stay strong PHSSA.