Exit Interview

Last night the RPS School Board voted to terminate the employment of REA President Neri Suarez. Disappointingly, only two School Board members voted to oppose or pause this termination. Third District School Board rep and City Council candidate Kenya Gibson voted "no;"  Shonda Harris-Muhammed (6th District) abstained. Obviously education workers will be making all of this an election issue. In advance of the termination vote, I sent the following written comment to some members of the School Board. Since emailing these remarks, I have added to them and extended them. *** RPS has put the President of the REA up for termination. In response, the REA Board launched a petition asking that the School Board rescind this termination. In response to the petition and the accompanying email that went out out to all REA members, Superintendent Kamras accused the REA Vice President of libel and demanded that she retract the email and petition issued by the REA Board. He also demanded th...

I've had so many thoughts and reflections concerning this turn of events. It will take me some days to process it all, collect my reactions, and ponder next steps. In the meantime, I offer a metaphor by way of this image found on Reddit . Whether or not it is real, I hardly care. They tried to chop off our president by the knees. Her union comrades, here in Richmond, in Chesterfield, and further afield; and her community, including elected officials like Kenya Gibson and school board candidate Charlene Riley , have all stepped in to lift her up. We're not going to let the REA President get chopped down.  We are going to supply her the spiritual, emotional, and collegial support she needs to survive this attack. This retaliatory strike against the REA president was never about just one person. This was a signal to anyone who might be thinking of assuming a leadership role in our union that they will be immediately placed on a [metaphorical*] hit list. This is a classic union-bu...

(fro m:  Does a longer school year or longer school day improve student achievement scores? ) ELet's get two facts out of the way immediately:  1. We ALL want children’s outcomes to improve (although increasingly I question some peoples' motives. and, 2. Extending the school year is a bogus way to do this. Every teacher gets this. I would wager 95 percent of teachers get this, and over 80 percent would be willing to express this. Every teacher I have spoken with, to a person, has rolled their eyes at the notion of extending the school year. Teachers know that our students need more quality, not more quantity. Every teacher wants RPS to fix what's broken first. Do we build a fancy addition on a house that is crumbling? No - we fix the foundation(al) issues first. Most teachers look aghast at the notion of extending the school year when we have to go begging for the basic supplies to function for 180 days. We don't have what we need to deliver high quality instruction for...

I am assigning every RPS school board candidate homework. Is this a bit cheeky? Maybe. But I was seriously - SERIOUSLY - surprised when more than one school board candidate indicated to me that they do not watch school board meetings. School Board candidates - here is your first assignment. Study guide, quiz and syllabus to follow. *** The first assignment is to watch the public comment given by RPS employees at the May 6, 2024 School Board meeting. In this series of public comments, members of the REA, including Board members and officers, describe multiple violations of the collective bargaining agreement and resolution. These violations include transgressions against "the letter" (i.e. explicit conditions) of the agreement, as well as the spirit of collective bargaining. The viewing homework lasts for approximately 30 minutes. Speakers include: REA Vice President, REA Secretary (and past President),  REA Treasurer of the REA,  three REA Board members,  an American Sig...

All of these musings will be updated in the coming days. As always, I welcome fact checking! 1. A colleague of mine has officially resigned, and NOT for the predictable reasons. It's not the kids; it's not the parents..... This particular resignation is a huge loss to RPS. 2. The School Board has remained completely silent on the C-Suite's continued flouting of the spirit and letter of collective bargaining. Seriously perplexing in Richmond, one of the incubators for the modern labor movement. RPS was happy to slap "BLM" all over its website during the 2020 uprisings against police brutality. Black Lives Matter, but do Black Workers Matter? 3. Why won't the School Board acknowledge that the Woodville workers voted against implementation of the 200 day pilot in December 2023? 4.  Teachers need a bathroom break. 5. We need to study the impact of having multiple classroom teachers in one year on Pre-K-5 students. Experiencing your teacher quit once, twice, eve...

Tonight the RPS School Board will interview 14 candidates to fill the 4th District seat vacated by Jonathan Young. The appointee will be chosen at the May 20, 2024 School Board meeting.  (Note: The RPS School Board website says that interviews took place on May 6th. They did not. The date was moved to May 14th to accommodate the large number of candidates). I have had the pleasure to meet informally with two of these candidates, Garrett Sawyer and Derek Redwine, and look forward to meeting all those who plan to run for the seat in November. So, this is as good a time as any to launch my own personal litmus test for potential school board candidates: Will you commit to the following:  1. Compel/require RPS to ensure that all buildings are in compliance with fire code before the first day of school.  At present, the RPS website indicates that buildings are to be cleared of fire code violations by September 30 of a given school year. That's not good enough. In a school syste...