Janet Rainey retires after 47 years

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Native Americans by labeling them as “colored.”

For 17 years, she and other team members worked with Native American families to correct their birth certificates to ensure they and other family members were properly listed as tribal members. Through her decades with the office, Ms. Rainey continued to personally help Virginians find and correct their records, VDH noted. Before Ms. Rainey retired, VDH cited her for assisting to properly list an 88-year-old whose birth was never recorded

As registrar, Ms. Rainey carried out a legislative mandate to connect Virginia’s vital records with the genealogy firms such as Ancentry.com, making records more available to individuals researching their family tree, VDH stated.

She also is credited with working with DMV to link that agency to the computerized records, which has enabled DMV to issue than 1 million birth certificates and other records to customers since 2013.

She also played a key role in creating an electronic system that makes it easier for doctors, medical examiners and funeral homes to file death certificates and enabling mothers to obtain a copy of a newborn child’s birth certificate while in the hospital, VDH noted.

“It’s been an amazing ride,” Ms. Rainey said, whose only regret is that she was unable to complete making marriage and divorce information more available through court clerk’s offices and other sites before she left office.

It didn’t start out that way for the daughter of a farmer and a factory seamstress, who grew up in rural Chase City in Mecklenburg County.

Like several siblings before her, her parents encouraged her after she graduated from high school to go to Richmond to find a better life than was available in an area where agricultural or factory work were the main occupations.

With the support of two sisters who already had come to Richmond, Ms. Rainey said that she went to SmithdealMassey Business College to improve her office skills and landed a clerk typist job immediately after graduating in the VDH office that would be her workplace from then on.

Her initial tools were pencils, ink pens and hundreds of record books that had to be searched by hand.

“I wasn’t’ sure I liked it at first,” she said, but she began taking more of an interest with help from a mentor, Russell

E. “Rusty” Booker Jr., then an assistant registrar and later state registrar for 13 years. She said Mr. Booker helped her understand the importance of the work. Ms. Rainey said she began developing a passion for vital records after she was promoted to the section that worked on correcting primarily birth records. She said she was shocked to find out about the alterations of the facts of a person’s birth that Mr. Plecker and his successor, Estelle Marks, directed and became immersed in working with people to make corrections.

She rose to become assistant state registrar and took on the top post in 2004, first on an interim basis. She became the permanent director in 2006.

Some people hoped she would stay until she had served 50 years, “but that wasn’t me,’ she said with a laugh.

Instead, she looks forward to fishing, traveling and visiting with members of her family.

Still, she believes she made the right to decision to make her career in the records office.

“People will chase the dollar more so than the career,” she said. “Sometimes our careers may not pay a top dollar that we want, but it’s something that you can go home saying that you made a difference in somebody’s life.”

Continued from A1 local union officials across the country for financial crimes involving misuse of union funds.

Among the key reasons that union leaders can be tempted is most duespaying members do not attend meetings or participate in policy matters. Minutes for Local 2145 indicate that fewer than 50 members would attend monthly general meetings to participate in discussions and vote on spending.

Still, some AFGE members are very active and are making no secret of their concern about the operation of the Richmond local and other locals in the organization as well as the stewardship that Mr. Kelley and the national officers are providing.

Those members publicize their concerns in a Facebook group called “Stop the Corruption: AFGE Members Coming Together.”

At long stable Local 2145, the turmoil began in 2019 after Jennifer Marshall, who had been president for 20 years was apparently defeated in her bid for a sixth term, by Gloria Dunham-Anderson and a slate of new people. Ms. Marshall went to the Labor Department with complaints about conduct of the election, which upheld her complaint and ordered a new election in 2021, which she won.

However, during Ms. Dunham-Anderson’s tenure, not only were dues raised, but her slate approved monthly payments for officers, rather than the quarterly payments that had been authorized by the bylaws.

An audit of the local’s finances also reported that during Ms. Dunham-Anderson’s tenure, bonus payments to members of her team for recruiting new members exceeded the reported number of people listed as joining the union.

Ms. Marshall had begun trying to clean up the financial situation after taking office again in 2022, only to be removed by Mr. Kelley within several months based on an assault complaint that the executive vice president, Mintina Minto, filed against her. Ms. Marshall has denied the complaint and is now battling for reinstatement.

Meanwhile, Ms. Minto moved up to acting president after Ms. Marshall was removed and ended up being removed for a trustee following investigation of misspending complaints from members. In a report obtained by the Free Press, the chair of the investigative committee, Anita M.Autrey, president of AFGE Local 1923 in Baltimore, notified Mr. Kelley that the evidence indicated Ms. Minto “committed the alleged offenses. In addition others may be complicit.”

Ms. Minto vehemently denies any wrongdoing, telling the Free Press that allegations have been trumped up by a faction of union members who have oppose her and support Ms. Marshall.

Deneen Harris, a 20-year member of the local and an active member in Concerned Members of AFGE, told the Free Press, “I’ve never seen the local in the state it is in right now.

“The union was created to protect the rights of employees and hold management accountable,” said Ms. Harris, who has been a steward and held other offices in the local. “But this local is being destroyed from within. It is time for members of the local to hold those responsible for the financial problems we face and install officers with integrity to run the local.”

RPS to launch 200-day school year in July

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In his presentation to the School Board at the Feb. 20 meeting, Mr. Kamras pointed to a study published in 2010 by the American Education Research Association that said “extending school time can be an effective way to support student learning.” The data is based on research conducted from 1985 to 2009. In addition, RPS students, like many public and private school students across the country, are struggling to recover from learning loss experience during the COVID-19 pandemic and are not performing on grade level. Mr. Kamras has previously said this program is a step in the direction of improving student performance.

Mr. Kamras also has repeatedly said four additional weeks of instruction may help students better retain the material they learn during the school year. For decades, research has shown students experience learning loss during summer break, known as the “summer slide.” This research identifies younger children and low-income students who are at highest risk of learning loss over the summer.

Families currently enrolled at an “RPS200” school who do not want to participate in the pilot can transfer their student out of the school and will be prioritized for placement at other schools, as long as space exists. Families can also opt their students into one of the pilot schools’ programs depending on availability. However, families opting in or opting out of these schools will be required to provide their own transportation for their RPS students.

Principals and assistant principals will receive $15,000 bonuses; teachers and staff with contracts will move to 11-month contracts and receive a bonus of $10,000 every year of the pilot. And all staff participating in the program “will receive an additional $5,000 bonus if their school meets student outcome goals established at the beginning of the year and approved by the Superintendent.”

RPS is launching its program just as Chesterfield County Public Schools may end a similar program at two elementary schools: Bellwood Elementary and Falling Creek Elementary.