February 16, 2019
Message from the Superintendent 

Dear RPS Family,
 
As I write this, I'm looking out the window, marveling at the enormous snowflakes falling outside. Thank goodness it's not a school day. Stay safe, everyone!
 
Six topics today:
 
1) RPS Inspiration!
 
First, we are SO proud of Jazz Miles, an 8th grader at Binford MS, who is serving as a Senate Page during this year's General Assembly session. Earlier this week, Jazz participated with his peers in a mock Senate Session. He introduced S.B. 1282 to train teachers to support students dealing with mental health challenges. Jazz's bill passed 34-1! We can't wait until he - and lots of his RPS peers - are on the ballot in Virginia!
 

 

Second, we opened another Loads of Love laundry center this week! Many thanks to the Washington Football Team for their partnership on this new center at Richmond Alternative School. This program provides students and families with a discreet and free solution to the challenge of having clean clothes. Not only is this important for the health and happiness of our students, but it boosts their attendance and participation in athletics and other school activities.
 
Third, in collaboration with VCU's School of Engineering, John B. Cary Elementary School hosted their first annual Innovation Day. Students throughout the building engaged in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) activities to promote collaboration, creativity, and ingenuity. Kindergartners constructed towers of spaghetti and marshmallows, challenging each other to build the tallest freestanding structure using only those materials. Second graders let out shrieks of excitement as they flew gliders they created through hula hoops, competing to see whose glider could fly the furthest. And fifth graders were busy building flood barriers, testing to see what materials and designs protected their structures from water.
 
2) Budget
 
I can only imagine how confusing our budget is if you don't spend every day looking at it (one of the less exciting, but really important, parts of my job). Every day you hear a new number reported in the news and it's tough to make sense of it all. So I'm going to do my level best to summarize things for everyone as clearly as I can right now. I'm using an FAQ approach, pulling from the questions I most often hear.
 
  • Wait, RPS has 2 budgets? Yup. One is called the "Operating Budget" and the other is the "Capital Budget." The Operating Budget pays for the people and stuff that keep us, well, operating: teachers and other staff, books, computers, and so on. The Capital Budget pays for the construction of new schools and the maintenance of existing ones.
  • So how much is in the current year's Operating and Capital budgets? For this year (which we call Fiscal Year 19, or FY19), we have $300,960,527 in our Operating Budget. In FY19, we have $151,562,000 in our Capital Budget. Please note that $150,000,000 of that is from the Meals Tax. Enormous gratitude to the Mayor, the Council, and everyone who dines out for this money, which is paying for the new George Mason ES, the new Greene ES, and the new middle school on Hull Street (old Elkhardt site). Please note that this $150,000,000 can ONLY be used for new school construction, not maintenance.
  • I read in the paper that the Administration is proposing cuts to the Central Office. Why? In short, because we have about a $12 million deficit in our Operating Budget going into next year. I'm committed to holding schools harmless, which means the cuts need to come from the Central Office. Unfortunately, that will mean a net loss of about 50 positions from central teams. We will do everything possible to limit the impact this has on the service we provide to our staff and students.
  • What about Dreams4RPS, the new strategic plan? How are you going to pay for that? I'm proposing that we ask the City to fund the plan with new revenue for RPS. Next year, that means about $12 million more. That money would pay for all sorts of critical things, like better pay for our staff, more mental health supports, and new buses to improve transportation.
  • What about the teacher raise that the Assembly may pass? Right now, the Assembly is considering a 5% raise for teachers and most other school staff. I want to clarify a few very important points about this raise. First, even if this passes, the state doesn't put up all the money. The locality has to put up a big chunk. In Richmond, the City would have to come up with nearly 2/3 of the cost of the raise. (Don't get me started on the Commonwealth's wildly inequitable funding formulas - see Item #6 below.) That 2/3 comes to about $6 million, which we will ask the City to fund. Second, the 5% raise is over the biennium, meaning 5% over the current year (FY19) and next year (FY20). Some divisions, like Richmond, gave a 2% increase for the current year. That means that, if the raise passes, it would show up as an additional 3% next year. But teachers in Richmond will also get a "step increase" next year of about 1.1%. I promised this last year and I'm committed to seeing it through.
  • So what happens next? On Tuesday, I'll be formally presenting our FY20 budget for Board to approval. This is the budget we've been discussing over the last several weeks in our budget work sessions. In short, it will have the cuts I mentioned above, and a roughly $18 million ask of the City ($12 million for Dreams4RPS and $6 million for the raise). If the Board approves this budget, it will go to the Mayor. He and his team will then consider its requests and create a budget for the entire city, which will be submitted to the Council.
  • Wait a second, what about the Capital Budget? I'll be submitting that for approval on Tuesday, as well. In short, we're asking for an additional $21 million for maintenance.
 
3) High School Transcripts
 
After thousands of hours of work to correct more than 1,500 errors, I'm delighted to report that our seniors' high school transcripts are going out this week. One of the things you'll see is a new format for the transcript, intended to make it more comprehensive and easier to read. We previewed it to my High School Student Advisory Council recently and they were very excited about the new look. If you're a senior and you have questions after reviewing your transcript, please reach out to your counselor or email us at transcripts@rvaschools.net . Please note that we will now turn our attention to the transcripts for Juniors, Sophomores, and Freshmen. These will be ready before the end of the school year.
 
4) Next Year's Calendar
 
We've already received a lot of great feedback about the calendar for next year. If you haven't had a chance to weigh in, please do so by sharing your thoughts here .
 
5) Meals When We're Closed
 
Thank you to everyone who has reached out following my request for help to set up Regional Meal Centers on days when inclement weather forces us to close schools. We've been overjoyed by the response we've received from the RVA community. We're in the process of evaluating several options, including opening meal centers in partnership with community organizations and expanding our Weekend Backpack Food Program in partnership with FeedMore. In the meantime, if you and your family, friends, or neighbors need food assistance, please call the FeedMore Referral Line at 804-521-2500.
 
6) State Advocacy
 
We're in the home stretch, but your voice is needed now more than ever. One of the biggest issues still being hammered out? The "at-risk" add-on that provides additional funds for divisions with large percentages of low-income families (like Richmond). As I have argued in an OpEd in the RTD this weekend , this is about more than money. It's about fighting racism in Virginia. If the Commonwealth's leaders are truly committed to dismantling racial injustice, they must begin by ensuring that the students who need the most actually get the most. Right now, the exact opposite is true. According to the National Center on Education Statistics, Virginia's highest poverty school divisions - which serve large percentages of children of color - receive 8.3% less in per-pupil funding than the state's wealthiest districts. Is this about race? Of course it is. If all the children in our poorest school divisions were white, I am certain the Commonwealth would have found a way to fix its convoluted and unjust education funding policies so that our lowest-income communities received more. Make your voice heard: call your Assembly members right now and tell them to dramatically increase the "at-risk" add-on.
 
With appreciation,
 
Jason Kamras
RPS Superintendent
301 North 9th St, Richmond, VA 23219
P: 804.780.7710 | www.rvaschools.net
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