Monday, September 2, 2019
Dear RPS Family,

Happy Labor Day! I'm SO excited for tomorrow. It's going to be a fabulous year for Richmond Public Schools and I can't wait to get started!

To kick things off, we've refreshed the look of RPS Direct. Help us spread the word about RPS by forwarding this email to five friends right now and ask them to subscribe here . Thank you!

You may have noticed that we've also refreshed our website . One of our goals this year is to enhance our communications, particularly at the school level. Towards that end, over the next several weeks, you'll start to see more school-specific information on your local school's homepage.

Before I dive in, I just want to share how appreciative I'm feeling today. RPS is such a special school division, and I feel enormous gratitude for the opportunity to serve here. I'm also incredibly humbled by our principals, teachers, and support staff, as well as by the larger Richmond community, which has wrapped its hands around us with donations, volunteering, and more. On behalf of RPS, thank you, thank you, thank you!
RPS Inspiration
I have some absolutely fabulous academic news to share regarding our students' Advanced Placement (AP) scores from last year. First, some context. One of the equity commitments I made in my 100-day entry plan was to launch AP for All, an initiative to broaden access to Advanced Placement offerings at our comprehensive high schools. As I've often said, we can't expect greatness of our students if we don't ask greatness of them. As a result of this effort – which is still growing – we saw big gains on a variety of key metrics:
• Number of students taking AP courses: up 25%!
• Number of AP exams taken: up 37%!
• Number of AP exams with qualifying scores (3, 4, or 5): up 42%!
• Number of AP exams with top two scores (4 or 5): up 63%!

The largest increases in qualifying scores were for Calculus AB, English Literature, Human Geography, Spanish Language, Statistics, US Government, and US History. In addition to the myriad academic benefits associated with taking an AP course, students who earn qualifying scores are eligible to receive college credit.

I cannot overstate how exciting this is, as AP is a nationally recognized standard of excellence. Of course, we need to keep pushing to make sure ALL of our students participate in this type of rigorous coursework. But it's undeniable that we're making progress!
Today's Topics
RPS Shines 2019 Thank you, Richmond! Over 50 organizations and more than 1,300 volunteers helped beautify our schools this summer by painting, planting, organizing, cleaning, and more. We couldn't be more grateful to everyone who pitched in!
See below for a list of our 2019 partners. If I missed anyone, please let me know and I'll include you in next week's RPS Direct.
• Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay
• Altria
• Atlantic Union Bank
• Blue Sky Fund
• Bon Secours
• Building a Better RPS
• Capital One
• CarMax
• Cary Elementary PTA
• Chapel RVA
• Children's Museum of Richmond
• Christ Church Episcopal
• Chuck Scott's Foundation
• Church Hill Rotary Club
• Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
• Community Foundation for a greater Richmond
• Dominion
• DSV Solutions
• East End Rotary Club
• Embrace Carver Foundation
• ExCELL
• Fairfield Middle School (Henrico County Public Schools)
• Genworth
• Greater Richmond Fit4Kids
• Hamilton Glass
• Hands On Greater Richmond
• Hunton Baptist Church
• Junior League of Richmond
• Kiwanis Club of Richmond
• Life Church
• Literacy Lab
• Mary Munford PTA B&G Committee
• Nordstrom
• Richmond Bar Association
• Richmond Community ToolBank
• River City Rotary Club
• Robins Foundation
• RPS Talent Office
• Sanctuary RIC
• Special Olympics Virginia
• Sports Backers
• STAY RVA
• SunTrust
• United Church
• United Way of Greater Richmond
• VCU College of Engineering
• VCU Ram Camp
• Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice
• WAVE Church
• Yard Works
• YMCA of Greater Richmond

One of the highlights of this year's RPS Shines was the extraordinary mural work done by local artist Hamilton Glass, in collaboration with community volunteers. Here are a couple of examples from Obama ES and Miles Jones ES.
Staffing As of today, we have 14 teacher vacancies remaining (of roughly 2,000 total teacher positions). For reference, two years ago, RPS opened with 54 vacancies, and last year, we opened with 18. Of course, we're continuing to work towards zero vacancies – and we'll have substitutes to make sure every classroom is staffed. But I'd like to shout out the Talent Office, as well as our principals and principal directors, for continuing to make progress in this critical area!
Summer Teacher Training ("Pre-Service") We had a busy week of professional learning for our teachers and other educators last week, with a focus on enhancing reading instruction and expanding the pilot of a new math curriculum (last year's pilot schools saw DOUBLE the gains of non-pilot schools). I'll be the first to admit that we still have work to do to iron out some of the logistics of these trainings. We owe that to our teachers. Still, initial data from our educators was encouraging – especially after we worked through some of the logistical challenges from Day 1.
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Summer Facilities Projects Over the summer, our facilities team has been hard at work on major projects all across the division to make sure our students have a healthier and more comfortable learning environment when they return tomorrow. We still have lots more to do over the next several years, but we're beginning to make significant progress. Here are a few examples: new HVAC system at Henderson MS (left), new boiler and roof at Summer Hill PS (middle), and HVAC improvements at RTC (right) that will save us $210K per year in equipment rental costs. I've also included the full list of projects below the pictures. Of note, as of now, we're under budget!
School Lunch Pilot Over the summer, we also launched a pilot in partnership with an organization called Brigaid to begin "scratch cooking" in three schools: Armstrong, Blackwell, and Boushall. Our nutrition staff at these schools are receiving training and new equipment, as necessary, to begin preparing more nutritious and more flavorful meals from scratch. If all goes well, we hope to expand the pilot to the entire division. This year, we're also eliminating styrofoam lunch trays and replacing them with recyclable paper ones!
Warehouse Clean-up Am I really talking about the warehouse? Yup! See below for the before and after pictures to understand why. As a result of the clean-up, we were able to sell old textbooks back to publishers to raise funds, get critical instructional supplies and furniture out to schools, and actually catalogue what we have. If we're going to reach our ambitious goals, we have to get the basics right – and that means having a functioning warehouse that works for our schools.
Before I sign off, I want to wish every RPS student, family member, staff member, and community partner a wonderful 2019-20 school year, filled with learning and love!

#LeadWithLove
#TeachWithLove
#ServeWithLove

With the deepest appreciation,
Jason

www.rvaschoools.net