I haven’t had a chance to check it out thoroughly yet and probably won’t today. Let me know what you think. At first glance looks much better. Richmond Public School Website

Please join the Richmond Public Library and the Richmond Public Schools Arts And Humanities Center as we celebrate the creativity of artists & musicians from Richmond Public Schools.

During March, the Westover Hills Library will exhibit original artwork by students from neighborhood schools and the Thompson Middle School Choir will perform during the opening reception. The reception will take place Thursday, March 4th from 4 – 6 p.m. at the Westover Hills Library located at 1408 Westover Hills Boulevard.

From the RPS Press Release:
School Board members to hold district meetings regarding composite index school funding

Richmond City School Board members will hold a series of district meetings to discuss the most recent proposal now before the General Assembly regarding public school funding for the 2010-2011 school year.

Read more >

The title says it all. Your little bundles of joy that you have been trapped in the house with for day after day after day go to school  tomorrow on a two hour delay. Additionally they shall be packing their little book bags and going to school on Monday which previously had been a holiday.

From the RPS website:
Parent Resource Center to hold workshops on
How to recognize and prevent bullying, Tuesday, Feb. 9
The Richmond Public Schools Parent Resource Center will hold two workshops to help parents recognize and prevent bullying among their children. Sessions will be held for parents of both elementary and secondary school students on Tuesday, Feb. 9 at the following locations and times:
• Miles Jones Elementary School
200 Beaufont Hills Drive
Noon – 1:30 p.m.
• Huguenot High School
7945 Forest Hill Avenue
7:00 – 8:30 p.m.

Richmond Schools open tomorrow but with a 2 hour delay. Would it be inappropriate to say Thank God? [via]

According to NBC12 Richmond Public Schools will be closed tomorrow. What are you going to do with your little ones tomorrow? No really, I need some ideas. We might head over the Virginia Historical Society.

From RPS Website:

Richmond Public Schools, Closed Tuesday, February 2, 2010.
12-Month Employees 2-hr. delay, Plant Services Employees On Time NBC12 list of other closings.

As we posted earlier in the week Patrick Henry needs some help. That help comes in the form of showing up for the school board meeting on Monday (6 pm 2nd floor of City Hall, 301 North Ninth Street) and speaking in favor of the school. In order to speak (you’ll be given 3 minutes) you need to register with School Board Clerk Angela Lewis at alewis@richmond.k12.va.us or 804-780-7716. UPDATE 9:35: We tried to email Angela to speak and got the following automatic reply: If your email is a request to speak at the School Board meeting on Monday, February 1, 2010 during the Public Information Period of the School Board meeting please call 780-7882 or 780-7716 to sign up. Thank you.

Neighborhood blogger Mommy Gourmet deviates from her great posts on cooking and food to chime in supporting the school.

Someone asked me why, why wouldn’t Richmond Public Schools want to add to their accomplishments a Charter school? She went on to say, every area she has ever known that has had charter options has thrived. It is a good question. Richmond is an amazing city, that has thrived not because of great leadership but in despite of bad. I can’t imagine the booming city Richmond could be if it could just simply say 4 words, “We have great schools.” This really is a matter of if you build it they will come. So what could Richmond possibly stand to loose by not supporting this?

From Patrick Henry:

Dear Friends of PHSSA,

You may have read some recent articles that highlight tension between Richmond Public School Board and Patrick Henry School of Science and Arts. We are working hard to address those challenges with the public and RPS, but we need your support in this journey. Join us at the February 1st RPS School Board meeting as PHSSA presents on the following topics: Outreach/Diversity, Financial Update, School Building Renovations, Transportation, and Hiring.

Consider signing up to tell the RPS Board why you support PHSSA. They need to hear the encouraging stories from parents who have sought out the PHSSA as their school of choice for their family. Each registered citizen will receive up to 3 minutes to speak. You must register by this Friday, January 29 at noon with School Board Clerk Angela Lewis at alewis@richmond.k12.va.us or 804-780-7716. The meeting will be on February 1 on the 2nd floor of City Hall, located at 301 North Ninth Street. See more details online.

Thank you for supporting Patrick Henry School! Hope to see you there.

Deb Butterworth
President, PHSSA

Some other local bloggers have chimed in recently on the Patrick Henry debate. Jonathan Mallard notices that PH is not in the budget and Carol Wolf takes a much more critical look at the Richmond Public School Board and their interaction with PH. Style Weekly chimes in with RPS stating:

In an e-mail, schools spokeswoman Felicia Cosby writes that concerns are unfounded: “Once an agreement [with Patrick Henry] has been made, the budget will be altered to reflect additional expenditures for the operation of the Charter school.”

From the RPS Press Release:
City schools postpone Jan. 30 testing for IB program; rescheduled for Feb. 13

Richmond Public Schools has postponed its January 30 testing session for students interested in applying to the district’s International Baccalaureate program housed at Thomas Jefferson High School.

School officials opted to postpone the test due to the forecast of a major winter storm to hit Richmond this weekend.

Testing has been rescheduled for Feb. 13 beginning at 8:45 a.m. at Thomas Jefferson High School, 4100 W. Grace St.

For more details, contact Rodney Fout at 780-7805

Patrick Henry is getting lots of press lately not all of it good. Today’s issue of Style Weekly looks into what many of us have suspected, that RPS is working against not with the folks trying to get Patrick Henry off the ground.

Richmond’s first charter school is running into more roadblocks with the School Board.

Chairwoman Kimberly Bridges sent a letter to officials with the Patrick Henry School of Science and Arts, questioning the school’s finances and its ability to comply with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act.

The letter cites a variety of issues of “great concern” to the School Board, including a recent Patrick Henry finance report showing a heavy reliance on federal grant funding to maintain a required $100,000 bank balance.

Bridges’ Jan. 12 letter pointedly questions whether Patrick Henry leaders have met their obligations according to the charter school contract they negotiated with Richmond just six moths before the school is set to open.

Though city school leaders publicly have been positive about the charter school, Patrick Henry officials acknowledge that there’s resistance within the city school administration and from Mayor Dwight Jones.

This continued resistance by the school board is really making the Choice Campaign a very contradictory marketing decision by RPS.

From the official Press Release:

Information deadline for candidates to fulfill 5th District School Board seat is Jan. 22

The Richmond City School Board will accept information until Jan. 22 from citizens interested in fulfilling the unexpired term of former 5th District School Board member Betsy Carr. Carr was elected to the Virginia General Assembly in November and is unable to complete her term.

Candidates must reside in the 5th District, must be a registered voter and must submit twelve copies of their information package, including a brief statement of interest, a resumé and a completed Statement of Economics Interests form, by noon on Jan. 22.

Information packets must be delivered or mailed to:
School Board of the City of Richmond
301 North 9th Street, 17th Floor
Richmond, VA 23219-1927
Attn: Angela C. Lewis, Clerk

For more information, call the School Board office at 780-7716.

From the official Press Release:
Open enrollment applications available Jan. 11;
Open enrollment period runs from Feb. 2­16

Applications to attend open enrollment schools in Richmond will be available to parents beginning Jan. 11 at any Richmond City school or from the district’s Office of Pupil Personnel Services located on the 13th floor of City Hall.

Students may apply to attend a maximum of two schools. (This is a change from 3 last year. – ed.) Applications may be submitted to the Office of Pupil Personnel Services from Feb. 2­16. No applications will be accepted after 4:30 p.m. on Feb. 16.

Students already attending an out-of-zoned school through open enrollment must complete the “Intent to Return” form and also list any siblings living within the residence who also wish to attend the school. Richmond Public Schools will not provide transportation for open enrollment students.

Read more >

Congrats to all those nominated including Lauren Leake of Westover Hills Elementary. From the official press release:

Latonya Waller, a science teacher at Lucille Brown Middle School, is having one terrific school year. Recently, she was named a recipient of this year’s R.E.B. Award for Teaching Excellence, an honor that included a $10,000 cash award for educational travel and study abroad.

And now, the eight-year veteran has been selected Richmond Public Schools’ 2010 Teacher of the Year. The award was announced Nov. 19 at a special reception held at the Marriott that recognized all of the 51 Richmond City educators who had been nominated for the district’s top teaching honor.

Read more >

According to the RPS home page all after school activities for today have been canceled due to the weather. RTD is saying that Chesterfield and Henrico have also canceled after school activities.

RTD has some of the numbers on the Richmond Public Schools budget woes. If you are thinking of fleeing to the counties they are facing the same situation or worse. Chesterfield county has cut $32 million.

Richmond cut $9.7 million for this school year, and with that money went 78 positions and a 50 percent reduction in funding for field trips. Summer school, tuition assistance and after-school programs were cut by 25 percent. The cuts would have been deeper — $16.2 million — had it not been for stimulus help.

But the cuts may not end there, even for the current year.

Lynn Bragga, director of finance for Richmond’s schools, said an additional $2 million may be taken before the end of school next summer thanks to the city’s diminishing sales and personal-property taxes, from which the schools get a big chunk of their budget.

This Saturday Fourth District School Board Member Adria Graham Scott will hold a meeting to discuss Richmond Public schools. There are a ton of great programs happening such as the Artist in Residence program and school garden. Richmond schools are testing well and all the the schools in the 4th are fully accredited. On the downside there a city-wide budget crisis and some hard choices may have to be made down the road.

I would encourage all parents of school age children to attend even if you are not currently enrolling your children in Richmond Public Schools. I know that Board Member Scott would like to talk with you to hear why you aren’t using public schools and what needs to change.

DATE: Saturday, September 26, 2009
TIME: 2:30 – 4:30 p.m. (this is a time change)
WHERE: Westover Hills Library

RTD is reporting the results of the Virginia Department of Education’s Accreditation Report and all currently open schools in the 4th District received full accreditation. Patrick Henry which is set to open next year received conditional accreditation since obviously there was not testing last year. Church Hill People’s News has this handy chart to check on other Richmond Schools. Don’t forget,  the superintendent of schools Yvonne Brandon will be at Westover Hills Elementary tomorrow. Meeting Details

Read more >

The RTD had a story this morning on health inspections in the local schools. The story takes a look at the city and surrounding counties but I thought it would be interesting to take a closer look at the schools in our district. The report I am pulling my information from is here and covers both private and public schools throughout the state. At least two inspections were made at all the schools listed below. The link above also gives you information on local daycare facilities that serve meals.

Public Schools
Westover Hills Elementary – 2 Critical Violations in 2009
Southampton Elementary – 1 Critical Violations in 2009
Fisher Elementary – 0 Critical Violations in 2009
Brown Middle – 4 Critical Violations in 2009 (3 of those in the last inspection in May)
Thompson Middle – 1 Critical Violation in 2009
George Wythe High – 0 Critical Violations in 2009
Huguenot – 0 Critical Violations in 2009

Private Schools
I only know of 2 private schools in the Hills and Heights neighborhood, Waldorf and Good Shepherd. No information was found on Waldorf.
Good Shepherd – 1 Critical Violation in 2009

Richmond Public Schools Superintendent Yvonne Brandon will be at the 4th District Meeting Wednesday night but if that doesn’t work out you have a second chance on Thursday, September 17 at Westover Hills Elemetary or 3 other locations. At both meetings Superintendent Brandon will discuss the upcoming school year and new projects.

• 8AM at Westover Hills Elementary – 1211 Jahnke Road
• 11AM at Richmond Community High – 201 East Brookland Park Blvd.
• 2PM at Martin Luther King Jr. MS – 1000 Mosby Street
• 5:30PM at Richmond Technical Center – 2020 Westwood Avenue

Thanks to John at Church Hill People’s News for catching this one. It slipped past me and isn’t posted on the RPS website.

From the RPS website.

When parents register their children for school, don’t forget:

• Proof of current address
• Withdrawal papers and transcript from former school
• Last report card
• Birth certificate (original copy)
• Social Security card (original copy)
• Immunization record (current)
• School Entrance Health Form (MCH 213 F Revised 4/07)
• Current Individual Education Plan (IEP) for Exceptional Education students
• Current 504 plan (if applicable)

Remember, the state requires that all rising sixth-graders receive the Tdap immunization prior to the opening of the school.

For more information, contact the School Health department at 780-7801.

Additional Information:

• School Supply List
• Elementary Code of Conduct
• Secondary Code of Conduct
• Medical Information (PDF)

I know every parent out there has enjoyed every single minute of time spent with his/her child this summer. I also know that not one of you will breathe a sweet, sweet sigh of relief as your angel goes off to school next month leaving with a quiet house. In preparation for the start of school the commonwealth is cutting you a little break. No sales tax on school supplies or clothes purchased Fri-Sat-Sun. Each eligible school supply item must be priced at $20 or less, and each eligible article of clothing and footwear must be priced at $100 or less. Full list of eligible items and regulations here.

The list of school supplies that your child will need on the RPS website. If you have a little extra cash please consider helping out a family that needs a little boost.

School is starting up soon and parents city-wide are outfitting their kids in anticipation. There are a shocking number of Richmond families who can’t afford to properly send their kids off with the supplies they need. 34.5% of children in our city live below the poverty level, and the YMCA of Greater Richmond Bright Beginnings program works to help these kids get what they need to start the school year.

Whether you choose to fill a backpack or send a check, you can do a world of good!

YMCA Bright Beginnings helps more than 2,400 children from low-income families arrive on their first day of school with a new backpack filled with school supplies, new clothes and shoes, and a readiness to learn. With your help, YMCA Bright Beginnings will serve its 25,000th child in the Greater Richmond and Petersburg area since the program began in 1992.

I am a big fan of history so I was pleased to read that the Richmond Public Schools were one of six Virginia schools to receive a $1 million dollar grant to be used for a Teaching American History Academy II for K-12 teachers as well some additional programs including partnerships with American Civil War Center at Historic Tredegar, and the Virginia Holocaust Museum among others.  Good news for Richmond Public Schools and more importantly Richmond Public School students.

RPS Press Release:

Richmond Public Schools is one of six Virginia school districts to receive 2009 Teaching American History grants from the U.S. Department of Education. The nearly $1 million grant was announced July 14 by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

Read more >