Richmond Public Schools is a public

school district A school district is a special-purpose district that operates local public primary and secondary schools in various nations. North America United States In the U.S, most K–12 public schools function as units of local school districts, wh ...

located in the

independent city An independent city or independent town is a city or town that does not form part of another general-purpose local government entity (such as a province). Historical precursors In the Holy Roman Empire, and to a degree in its successor states ...

Richmond, Virginia (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...

. It is occasionally described locally as Richmond City Public Schools to emphasize its connection to the independent city rather than the

Richmond-Petersburg The Greater Richmond Region, the Richmond metropolitan area or Central Virginia, is a region and metropolitan area A metropolitan area or metro is a region that consists of a densely populated urban agglomeration and its surrounding terri ...

region at large or the rural

Richmond County, Virginia Richmond County is a county located on the Northern Neck in the U.S. state of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population sits at 8,923. Its county seat is Warsaw. The rural county should not be confused with the large city and state capit ...

Administration

Superintendent

The superintendent is Jason Kamras, who was also the 2005 United States National Teacher of the Year.

School board members

The school district is governed by an elected school board, with one member from each of nine districts. The current Members (2022) are:

Schools

Elementary schools

Barack Obama Elementary School
(formerly J. E. B. Stuart Elementary School) * Principal: Jennifer K. Moore * Mascot: Stars * Named after Confederate General

J.E.B. Stuart James Ewell Brown "Jeb" Stuart (February 6, 1833May 12, 1864) was a United States Army officer from Virginia who became a Confederate States Army general during the American Civil War. He was known to his friends as "Jeb,” from the initials of ...

* Renamed after President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

br>Bellevue Elementary School
* Principal: V. Tanaia Hines * Mascot: Dragon
Broad Rock Elementary School
* Principal: Teya Green * Mascot: Ram
Cardinal Elementary School
* Principal: Dr. Juvenal E. Abrego-Meneses * Mascot: Cardinals * Previously E.S.H. Greene Elementary Schoo
Chimborazo Elementary School
* Principal: Cordell Watkins * Mascot: Mighty Jaguar
Elizabeth D. Redd Elementary School
* Principal: Dr. Sherry Wharton-Carey * Mascot: Redd Lions * Named after teacher Elizabeth D. Redd
Fairfield Court Elementary School
* Principal: Angela Wright * Mascot: Eagle
G. H. Reid Elementary School
* Principal: Angela Delaney * Mascot: Ravens * Named after Principal Gurney Holland Rei
George Washington Carver Elementary School
* Principal: Tiawana Giles * Mascot: Peanuts * Named after inventor

George Washington Carver George Washington Carver ( 1864 – January 5, 1943) was an American agricultural scientist and inventor who promoted alternative crops to cotton and methods to prevent soil depletion. He was one of the most prominent black scientists of the ea ...

br>Ginter Park Elementary School
* Principal: Michelle Jones * Mascot: Venal Gator
Henry L. Marsh, III Elementary School
* Principal: Kimberly Cook * Mascot: Monarchs * Previously George Mason Elementary Schoo
J.B. Fisher Elementary School
* Principal: Mark Davis, II * Mascot: Flamingos
James H. Blackwell Elementary School
* Principal: Ebony Davis * Mascot: Bears * Named after James H. Blackwel
J. L. Francis Elementary School
* Principal: Kecia Ryan * Mascot: Eagles * Named after Principal Joseph Langhorne Francis
John B. Cary Elementary School
* Principal: Michael Powell * Mascot: Cougars
Linwood Holton Elementary School
* Principal: Dr. Nikea Hurt * Mascot: Lions * Named after Governor

A. Linwood Holton Jr. Abner Linwood Holton Jr. (September 21, 1923October 28, 2021) was an American politician and attorney. He served as the 61st governor of Virginia, from 1970 to 1974, and was the first elected Republican governor of Virginia of the 20th century. ...

br>Mary Munford Elementary School
(formerly

PBS Kids PBS Kids is the brand for most of the children's programming aired by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the United States. Some public television children's programs are not produced by PBS member stations or transmitted by PBS. Instead, ...

Mary Munford until 2013). * Principal: Greg Muzik * Mascot: Monarchs * Named after First woman to serve on the Richmond School Board Mary Munford
Miles Jones Elementary School
* Principal: Sonya Shaw * Mascot: Jaguars * Named after first African-American to chair the RPS School Board Dr. Miles Jerome Jones
Oak Grove-Bellemeade Elementary School
* Principal: Fatima Smith * Mascot: Teddy Bears
Overby-Sheppard Elementary School
* Principal: Kara Lancaster-Gay * Mascot: Bumblebees * Named after Ethel Thompson Overby and Eleanor Parker Sheppard
Southampton Elementary School
* Principal: Sheleta Crews * Mascot: Tigers
Swansboro Elementary School
* Principal: Theron Sampson * Mascot: Dolphins
Westover Hills Elementary School
* Principal: Alison El Koubi * Mascot: Beavers
William Fox Elementary School
* Principal: Daniela S. Jacobs * Mascot: Foxes
Woodville Elementary School
* Principal: Shannon M. Washington * Mascot: Bears

Middle schools

Albert Hill Middle School
* Principal: Tashina Ivy * Mascot: Tiger
Binford Middle School
* Principal: Melissa Rickey * Mascot: Lions
Lucille M. Brown Middle School
* Principal: Dr. Stacy Gaines * Mascot: Panthers
Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School
* Principal: Inett Dabney * Mascot: Titans
River City Middle School
* Principal: Jacquelyn Murphy-Braxton * Mascot: Red Trails
Thomas C. Boushall Middle School
* Principal: LaTonya Waller * Mascot: Eagles
Thomas H. Henderson Middle School
* Principal: Antoine London * Mascot: Warriors

High schools

Armstrong High School * East Highland Park * Principal: Dr. Willie J. Bell Jr. * Mascot: Wildcats
George Wythe High School
* Bon Air * Principal: * Mascot: Bulldogs

Huguenot High School Huguenot High School, part of the Richmond Public Schools system, is a high school located in Richmond, Virginia, United States, with grades 9–12. Huguenot High School was named in honor of the Huguenots, French Protestants who emigrated to th ...

* Bon Air * Principal: Robert Gilstrap * Mascot: Falcons Thomas Jefferson High School * Sauer's Gardens * Principal: Cherita H. Sears * Mascot: Vikings John Marshall High School * Chamberlyn * Principal: Monica Murray * Mascot: Justices

Richmond Career Education and Employment Academy Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, a ...

Alternative high schools

* Maggie L. Walker Governor's School for Government and International Studies—regional

magnet school In the U.S. education system, magnet schools are public schools with specialized courses or curricula. "Magnet" refers to how the schools draw students from across the normal boundaries defined by authorities (usually school boards) as school ...

to which RPS contributes students, located directly between the

Virginia Commonwealth University Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) is a public research university in Richmond, Virginia. VCU was founded in 1838 as the medical department of Hampden–Sydney College, becoming the Medical College of Virginia in 1854. In 1968, the Virgini ...

and

Virginia Union University Virginia Union University is a private historically black Baptist university in Richmond, Virginia. It is affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA. History The American Baptist Home Mission Society (ABHMS) founded the school as Richm ...

campuses. *

Richmond Community High School Richmond Community High School (RCHS) is an alternative high school operated by the Richmond City Public Schools in Richmond, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1977 as America's first full-time, four year, public high school for academi ...

* Open High School *Franklin Military Academy - first public military school in the nation, serves grades 6-12

History

Richmond did not have public schools during much of the 19th century, only private institutions funded by user fees or charities. From 1906 until 1962, the city of Richmond segregated its public schools by race, and schools serving African American Virginians received less funding and poorer facilities, which led in part to the U.S. Supreme Court's two decisions in ''

Brown v. Board of Education ''Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka'', 347 U.S. 483 (1954), was a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the segregat ...

'' in beginning in 1954. Defiance of those decisions by the

Commonwealth of Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern United States, Southeastern regions of the United States, between the East Coast of the United Stat ...

led to the

Massive Resistance Massive resistance was a strategy declared by U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd Sr. of Virginia and his brother-in-law James M. Thomson, who represented Alexandria in the Virginia General Assembly, to get the state's white politicians to pass laws and p ...

crisis in the state which lasted more than a decade. One of the people involved in eventual peaceful desegregation of Richmond's public schools was

Eleanor P. Sheppard Eleanor Parker Sheppard (July 24, 1907 – March 13, 1991) was an American civic activist and Democratic Party (United States), Democratic politician who became the first woman to be elected to the city council of Richmond, Virginia, and later ...

, who began her public involvement with the Parent-Teacher Association of her children's school in the Ginter Park neighborhood. In 1954, "Mrs. Sheppard" became the first woman elected to the Richmond City Council, and she became the city's first female mayor in 1962, and served in the

Virginia General Assembly The Virginia General Assembly is the legislative body of the Commonwealth of Virginia, the oldest continuous law-making body in the Western Hemisphere, the first elected legislative assembly in the New World, and was established on July 30, 161 ...

for a decade. The Richmond School Board acknowledged the crisis in part by naming an elementary school to honor her and one of the school district's first principals of African American descent, Overby-Sheppard Elementary School. The Richmond School district partly resolved the Massive Resistance crisis in its jurisdiction by eliminating racial terminology from this school district's official reports in 1962. Another important person in resolving the crisis was Virginia native and Richmond lawyer

Lewis F. Powell Jr. Lewis Franklin Powell Jr. (September 19, 1907 – August 25, 1998) was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1972 to 1987. Born in Suffolk, Virginia, he graduat ...

, who served as Chairman of the Richmond School Board from 1952 until 1961. Powell did not take any part in his law firm's representation of

Prince Edward County, Virginia Prince Edward County is located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 21,849. Its county seat is Farmville. History Formation and county seats Prince Edward County was formed in the Virginia Colony in ...

in ''

Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County ''Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County'' (Docket number: Civ. A. No. 1333; Case citation: 103 F. Supp. 337 (1952)) was one of the five cases combined into ''Brown v. Board of Education'', the famous case in which the U.S. Supreme C ...

'', which became one of the five cases decided under the caption ''

'' in 1954. The Richmond School Board also lacked authority at the time to force integration, since beginning in 1958, the state government assumed control over attendance policies. Powell later became president of the

American Bar Association The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. Founded in 1878, the ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of acad ...

and an associate justice of the

Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

Academic struggles and improvements

In October 2009, the Richmond ''Times Dispatch'' printed an editorial entitled "Dropping In," briefly outlining a program meant to reduce the number of high school dropouts in Richmond's public school system.Dropping In. (2009, October 23). Richmond Times Dispatch , pp. A-10. In this article it was revealed that Richmond's dropout rate was "hovering around 15 percent". It was also stated on the Richmond Public Schools' website that the four-year-cohort dropout rate was 14.8 percent for the 2005-2009 cohort, declined from its 16.2 percent rate for 2004–2008. While the percentage is declining, dropout and late graduation rates are still an issue. In October 2009 in a News Release about Richmond Public Schools, it is stated that "the latest data for students in the 2005-2009 cohort indicate that nearly 69 percent (68.7) of Richmond's students graduated on time." This is an increase from the 2004-2008 cohort rate of 65.8 percent and it is well below the state average of 83.2 percent.Brandon, D. Y. (2009, October 20). NR26_OnTimeGraduation_10202009.pdf. Retrieved February 19, 2010, from http://www.richmond.k12.va.us: http://www.richmond.k12.va.us/pdfs/NR/NR26_OnTimeGraduation_10202009.pdf

Dropout Prevention Initiative

While high dropout rates in the school system are a problem, positive action is being taken, as of 2009. On October 21, 2009, the superintendent of Richmond City Public Schools, Yvonne W. Brandon, unveiled a plan called "Dropout Prevention Initiative" (DPI). The objective of this program is to continue to decrease the school system's dropout rate.Slayton, J. (2009, October 22). Richmond targets school dropouts; Superintendent unveils plan to get students back into their classes. Richmond Times Dispatch , pp. B-02. There are a few objectives to the DPI. The first is to find high school dropouts and convince them to return to high school to graduate through mentoring programs, Individual Learning Plans (ILP), and partnerships with others in the community. These "others" include higher education institutions, elected officials, as well faith-based and community-based organizations. One of the most appealing aspects of the DPI is that it requires no additional funding and is solely a redistribution of resources. There is a district-wide mentoring program as a part of DPI that encourages Richmond Public Schools employees and students to serve as mentors once the recovered students return to school. There are also mentors provided by the higher educational institutions and the faith- and community-based organizations with which the DPI has partnerships.Richmond Public Schools. (n.d.). Retrieved February 19, 2010, from http://richmond.k12.va.us: http://www.richmond.k12.va.us/indexnew/sub/DPI/index.cfm A unique aspect of this program is that recovery specialists within the DPI literally walk door-to-door to the homes of students who have dropped out to talk with them about and encourage the possibility of returning to school. Students returning to school are assisted by the DPI Intake Counselors, who work with recovered students to help the student re-adjust to being in school and receive an ILP. The ILP is, as stated by the Richmond Public Schools website, "an online educational plan for students that helps pair students' career goals with academic and career and technical courses needed to accomplish their future interests". The program also recognizes at-risk students and works on preventing student dropouts, rather than only trying to reverse it. Richmond Public Schools have implemented "Extensive Mandatory Professional Development" for staff on how to effectively identify and help at-risk students. There is also a new "Get In – Stay in" media campaign on the radio and television to help encourage attendance among students.

Trivia

*Two of Richmond's public school facilities are physically located slightly outside the corporate limits of the

in the

East End The East End of London, often referred to within the London area simply as the East End, is the historic core of wider East London, east of the Roman and medieval walls of the City of London and north of the River Thames. It does not have uni ...

. They are Armstrong High School, located in the former Kennedy High School complex, and Fairfield Court Elementary School. Both are located in a small portion of

Henrico County Henrico County , officially the County of Henrico, is located in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 334,389 making it the fifth-most populous county in Virginia. Henrico County is incl ...

adjacent to

Interstate 64 Interstate 64 (I-64) is an east–west Interstate Highway in the Eastern United States. Its western terminus is at I-70, U.S. Route 40 (US 40), and US 61 in Wentzville, Missouri. Its eastern terminus is at an interchange w ...

which became isolated geographically from the rest of the county when the Interstate highway was built in the 1960s.

References

External links

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