I'd like to thank John Murden and John Gerner for being at the November 9th Work Session of the Richmond School Board. After the meeting, John Murden followed up with a report on CHPN entitled "King Tentatively Dropped from List..."  The key word in that report is "tentatively". All that was done on Monday was "polling" not "voting" which will be done on Monday, November 16th during the 6pm regular School Board meeting.

The polling method had several hick-ups with people hitting wrong buttons and not being sure if they had polled properly. In the end, it looks like it will come down to either building a second elementary school in Southside or MLK. School Board Member, Dawn Page, from the 8th District (a portion of Southside) admitted she is not against MLK. Sixth District School Board Member and Chairwoman, Chandra Smith, who represents MLK, was also passionate that MLK and its students are in great need of better facilities
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Now some commentary: The polling revealed a clear desire from the board for 5 schools to be done: Huguenot, Broad Rock, George Mason, Oak Grove and MLK.  Funding (a matter not within the School Board's authority) will, of course, be the sticking point. I expressed at the meeting that we need a clear process committed to by members of the Board for the development of an ongoing plan for quality facilities. This plan at some point would also need to be agreed to by the Mayor and Council, as funders for whichever schools are ultimately built.

The administration agreed and stated that the plan would need to be revisted and updated as needed as a living document. The working document now is the updated Facility Master Plan from November 2007.   This document will need to be updated based on decisions that will be made over the next few days and weeks.

At this point we, are still on track for shovels in the ground by December 2010 or a little sooner if George Mason gets the votes it needs to move forward.  I believe it will.  School Board members from the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 9th Districts need to know that there is public support for MLK remaining in Phase 1.  I encourage each of you to contact them to let them know that MLK should be a priority.  The RPS website has contact information for all districts and I have included them below for convenience.

I can already see a crisp winter day in December of 2010 with children and adults bundled up and smiling at a groundbreaking ceremony for a new school in our district.  Could it really be that after 40 years we will have a new school in the East End? May this vision become reality!
 
I hope many of you will choose to come out to the School Board meeting on November 16th at 4:30pm for public comment and again at the 6pm regular meeting as we vote on what will be our recommendation to City Council for the building of new schools. After the School Board's decision on the 16th, our recommendation will be taken to Council on November 23rd.  They will ultimately decide whether to fund our recommendations.

One City, Our City.Our Schools!!!