Historic unveiling of Obama portraits A7
Richmond Free Press © 2018 Paradigm Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
VOL. 27 NO. 7
RICHMOND, VIRGINIA
www.richmondfreepress.com
ee Fr
Fr ee
c e l e b rat ing o u r 2 6 t h A nniv e rsar y
February 15-17, 2018
Feeding schools’ budget
City Council approves 1.5% meals tax hike for schools construction By Jeremy M. Lazarus
On July 1, people dining out in Richmond will pay an extra 1.5 percent in tax on their prepared meals. The projected extra $9 million in annual tax revenue will be used to repay $150 million the city plans to borrow to build up to four new schools in Church Hill and South Side to replace aging and decaying buildings. As anticipated, the Richmond City Council swept aside concerns from restaurant owners and theater operators that the higher tax would slow this booming section of the city’s economy and approved the meals tax hike on a 7-2 vote Monday night, handing Mayor Levar M. Stoney his biggest victory since taking ofMayor fice a year ago. The vote to boost the local tax on meals capped the mayor’s whirlwind, three-week campaign that began Jan. 22 when he announced the proposal. Although he did not attend the council meeting, Mayor Stoney
started the meeting with at least five council members committed to approve the increase based on a test vote a week earlier. However, the mayor continued to campaign for the tax in the days leading up to the vote and gained the backing of two more members, Parker C. Agelasto, 5th District, and Reva M. Trammell, 8th District, both of whom supported a 30-day delay last week. Andreas Addison, 1st District; President Chris A. Hilbert, 3rd District; Ellen F. Robertson, 6th District; Vice President Cynthia Newbille, 7th District; and Michael J. Jones, 9th District, also voted to approve the meals tax increase. The “no” votes came from Kim B. Gray, 2nd District, and Kristen N. Larson, 4th District, who, during their Stoney previous service on the School Board, created a plan for school improvement that ultimately went nowhere. Ms. Gray blasted the plan to renovate and build new schools as “half-baked” because specifics on how the new tax money would be spent do not exist. “This is taxation without preparation,” she said as she scolded her colleagues for refusing to take the time to consider where the money would go. “What is the rush?” she asked. She said the mayor had broken his promise to only back a “fully vetted plan” that was to go through his Educational Compact and a community review. Ms. Larson, who was rebuffed in a last-ditch effort to delay the vote, expressed disappointment that the council was giving up its role to “serve as a check and balance on the mayor.” Based on the current city financial outlook and limited debt capacity, the new meals tax dollars could be the only money the city will spend to replace decrepit schools in the next five years. Still, Mayor Stoney said the vote “sent a strong message to students that (the city) is no longer willing to kick the can down the road when it comes to providing them with modern, safe and healthy environments in which to learn.” In his statement, he promised that Monday night’s vote was just “the first big step in what will be many more steps to improve our schools for our children.” The mayor promoted the
Dr. Grace E. Harris, whose leadership helped transform VCU, dies at 84 By Jeremy M. Lazarus
Grace Edmondson Harris was rejected when she first sought admission to what is now Virginia Commonwealth University because she was African-American. Undaunted by the racial bigotry, she would reapply and complete her master’s degree in social work at the school. Remarkably, she would go on to teach and mentor a generation of social work students at VCU and, as provost, earn recognition as a transformational leader whose work helped reshape the university into a diverse academic center with an enlarged relationship with Richmond and its residents. Although concerns about the diversity of the faculty still plague VCU, along with worries about the university’s huge impact on the city, Dr. Harris won credit for seeking to open VCU to the community and end the town-and-gown divide. Today, Dr. Harris’ name graces the building that houses VCU’s School of Business and is incorporated into the name of a VCU leadership institute she helped create and support for 15 years — evidence of the esteem in which the influential educator is held. Her multiple contributions to VCU are being lauded following her death Monday, Feb. 12, 2018. She was 84. Please turn to A4
Dr. Harris
Please turn to A6
Flags at half-staff in memory, honor of Dr. Walker Virginia’s state flag will be flown at halfstaff over the Capitol and throughout the commonwealth in honor of the late civil rights icon Dr. Wyatt Tee Walker. Dr. Walker, 88 and a Virginia Union University graduate, was executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and chief of staff to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s. He died Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2018, in Chester, where he lived for the last 14 years. Gov. Ralph S. Northam ordered flags throughout the commonwealth to be lowered
on Wednesday, Feb. 14, and remain at halfstaff until sunset on Saturday, Feb. 17, following a noon memorial service that day for Dr. Walker at Gillfield Baptist Church, 209 Perry St. in Petersburg. Dr. Walker served as Gillfield Baptist Church’s pastor from 1953 to 1959 and led many demonstrations and civil rights actions in protest of segregation. Richmond Mayor Levar M. Stoney also instructed that the City of Richmond’s flag be lowered through sunset on Saturday.
Christopher Smith
New Richmond schools Superintendent Jason Kamras kneels for a big hug as he greets Broad Rock Elementary School students last Friday at the South Side school.
New superintendent works to engage, build trust with school community By Ronald E. Carrington
Superintendent Jason Kamras finished his first full week as the new head of Richmond Public Schools fielding a round of tough questions from about 50 teachers, staff and administrators at Broad Rock Elementary School. The 44-year-old former Washington public schools administrator and National Teacher of the Year was calm, cool and collected as he answered questions about the lack of bilingual staff in RPS schools and offices, the overwhelming needs of students and the lack of consistency at the top. “The system’s superintendent revolving door has caused chaos, confusion, a lack of vision and deteriorating facilities,” a veteran teacher with 24 years of experience told him. “With all that, the students are not going anywhere.” Since 2002, RPS has had five superintendents. Mr. Kamras, who was sworn in on Feb. 1, is the sixth. He was tapped unanimously by the Richmond School Board to lead a district that faces major issues, including poor student performance, low school accreditation rates — only 19 of the city’s 44 schools are fully accredited — and a major city debate on how to fund longoverdue repair or replacement of dilapidated school buildings. Standing before the group in the early morning meeting at the South Side elementary school before the first bell last Please turn to A4
Dialysis transfer up in the air for Ora Lomax By Jeremy M. Lazarus
Ora M. Lomax expects to be transferred to another dialysis clinic, but it won’t be DaVita Dialysis Henrico in the Brookhill Azalea Shopping Center as she first expected. Instead, her current provider, Fresenius Kidney Care, has stated that she would be able to transfer to another clinic that the nation’s largest provider of dialysis services operates in the Richmond area, although the actual clinic she will go to for low the community to have a voice in the process,” service still was being worked School Board Chairman Kenneth Pritchett said. “When out at Free Press deadline on the data was presented, the top names given by the Wednesday. community were the ones we went with.” In a letter dated Feb. 9 The estimated cost for signs and others items as- that Mrs. Lomax received on sociated with renaming all three schools is $18,135, Monday, Katherine Sarisen, officials said. FKC regional vice president, To date, the school system has received two stated that Fresenius wants her donations totaling $20,500 to cover the cost and an to choose between two other additional $700 has been pledged. A donor in Henrico Fresenius clinics for service County gave $20,000. following her anticipated in“We were amazed by the donations from individu- voluntary discharge on Friday,
Petersburg votes to rename Confederate schools By Ronald E. Carrington
The Confederate names on three Petersburg public schools are coming down. The Petersburg School Board voted unanimously on Feb. 7 to rename the schools following a series of public meetings, a public hearing and survey of Petersburg teachers, students, families, school employees and the public. Effective July 1, Robert E. Lee Elementary will become Lakemont Elementary, J.E.B. Stuart Elementary will become Pleasants Lane Elementary and A.P. Hill Elementary will become Cool Springs Elementary.
According to the School Board’s online survey, naming the schools after the community or streets where they are located were by far the most popular suggestions by respondents. Officials said 70 percent of the survey’s respondents favored eliminating the names of the ConMr. Pritchett federate generals from the schools. Only 30 percent were opposed to renaming them. The student population in Petersburg Public Schools is about 80 percent African-American. “The board priority was to be transparent and al-
Please turn to A4
Please turn to A4