Fisher and Southampton temporarily off the chopping block
News that Fisher and Southampton may dodge the axe was first reported on Twitter by 4th District Candidate Kristen Larson and now NBC12.
The School Board met Monday night to tweak the plan for the Southside, and decided to keep Fisher open, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Many parents of children who attend Fisher and Southampton want the choice of either school.
With this tentative plan set by the board, priority enrollment would be given to students who live closest. The Board still needs to hold a public hearing on this new plan. That meeting is set for August 6th
Check out a discussion Bryce and I are having on Facebook about whether this is a good thing or not. In other RPS news the Blackwell principal that lost his job for hosting fraternity parties at his school after hours has found a new job. The new job is with RPS and includes a $3,130 pay raise up to to $73,145 . Full story on RTD. Maurice Henderson, 5th District School board member as usual didn’t have much to say.
Maurice Henderson, the vice chairman of the School Board and the representative from the 5th District, said he would not comment on specific employee matters.
“His new placement is a decision within the authority of the administration,” he said. “We’re not casual about this. Those decisions are well-scrutinized.”
When questioned about reappointing Roselle without a public discussion of the April incident, Henderson said: “I’m not going to take you through the journey of that whole process.”
Don’t forget that while this is happening teachers will be facing mandatory furlough days next school year.
This news out of Blackwell offers even more reasons for Woodland Heights families to encourage the School Board to adopt the “alternate” proposed rezoning lines which would bring the Woodland Heights neighborhood into the same elementary school zone with its H&H neighbors in Westover Hills and Forest Hill. I truly believe that the combined parental resources of these three H&H neighborhoods could make Westover Hills Elementary one of the best schools in the city (and even the greater Richmond region).
I have been in contact with all nine school board members about my support for the “alternate” lines, but I live in Westover Hills so I’m sure they would love to hear from some District 5 Woodland Heights parents about this as well. I really believe that one of the best things that could come out of the rezoning would be to bring the H&H neighborhoods together which could help lead to a renaissance for Westover Hills Elementary.
I’d love to get in touch with any like-minded H&H parents so please let me know if you want to chat about what our neighborhood school might look like if our neighborhood families actually utilized it.
The Roselle situation is just S.O.P. for RPS. If you’re in good with downtown, you never get fired, just transferred or promoted. Hell, if you know the right person, they’ll just keep forgetting that you never passed your Praxis and thus never received a teaching license.
Central Administration needs to be flushed, 100%.
Agree, AreaMan. I know of too many good, hard working people with high standards that have lost jobs in this economy for much less reason (or no reason) than this. It just sucks when you read this mess going on in RPS.
I said it when I ran, and I’ll say it again:
Until there are 5 consistent votes to buck the administration, we should continue to expect to read stories like this, not be surprised by them.
Agree with Jonathan. Administration has demonstrated repeatedly they can’t be trusted. Need SB members who support greater accountability and transparency.
RPS is now saying that Roselle’s move was lateral and not a promotion http://southofthejames.nbc12.com/news/news/82518-richmond-schools-principal-did-not-get-promotion
The article that Page linked to is full of contradictions as well. First off if it was a 3% raise his raise should have been $2,100 not over $3,000. The article states it was a lateral move but then says, “That position pays him $3,000 a year more than his principal position.” Being paid more in my mind is a promotion.
Instructional specialists in RPS are typically higher than principals on the org chart. The way RPS arranges things, if a teacher is either a department head or teaches a non-SOL discipline (electives, library, exceptional ed, etc), they report not just to their school principal but also to an Instructional Specialist for their particular discipline. Whereas before Roselle had just one school reporting to him, he now likely has multiple people from multiple schools reporting to him. They may be technically correct that it’s not a “promotion” because it’s not within the same chain of command, but it’s a more prominent role which touches more than one building.
But again, it’s no surprise- they do this all the time. An audit of Instructional Specialists would be quite interesting, seeing as I know of 2 off the top of my head who are either minimally or not-at-all qualified for their positions and were HORRIBLE in the classroom prior to getting the specialist jobs, but they’re members of Alpha Kappa Alpha, so heads look the other way.
I believe the raise was being explained by the fact that the General Assembly this past year passed legislation that says local government workers and teachers now have to pay their contributions (5%) to VRS, the Virginia Retirement System, b/c it was underfunded b/c the state has been shorting their contribution for years. To make up for this localities and school boards gave raises equivalent to the amount that had been paid into the VRS. While local workers have gotten a raise the taxes on their increased pay actually means that they not only have to pay out 5%, but more taxes as well, so essentially every local government worker and school employee in the state lost money this past year.
I just want to clarify this does not mean I agree with his new position, but it does explain the raise.
I agree with Bryce. We live in Woodland Heights and have always lamented the fact that no one sends their kids to our neighborhood schools (but we totally understand why). So much energy has been devoted to sending kids to better, out-of-neighborhood schools and the Patrick Henry charter that we ignore the most obvious solution- why don’t we try to make our neighborhoods school better? This seems an attainable goal if Woodland Heights is zoned for WH Elementary. School choice and Patrick Henry are great options for those lucky enough to get a spot in the lottery, but we need more for our neighborhoods children- there are tons of them, after all! :)
Hey Whitney, I’m really glad to hear that you share this sentiment. That is exactly what I’m thinking. I’d love to talk with you more about this idea that I really think is attainable. Send me an email at brycehlyle@gmail.com if you want to chat about neighborhood schools sometime. (emails from all other interested parties are welcome as well)
Like I said I emailed all of the school board members last week to voice my opinion and I heard back from several of them (not mine, of course, but I did hear back from yours). Two members asked me if the “rest of the neighborhood” agrees with me. All I could say is “I’m not sure, but I think so!”
My friend Kristen Larson, who is running for school board in the 4th, went to the meeting and said that they discussed my email during the work session. I think a couple more emails would go a long way. Please consider at least sending an email to the 5th district member Maurice Henderson at mhenders3@richmond.k12.va.us to voice your opinion. I think they really do want to hear from people (obviously they are listening to the parents from Fisher)