Happy Thanksgiving
Richmond Free Press © 2017 Paradigm Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
VOL. 26 NO. 47
RICHMOND, VIRGINIA
www.richmondfreepress.com
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c e l e b rat ing o u r 2 5 t h A nniv e r s ar y
November 22-25, 2017
City welcomes new schools chief Jason Kamras from D.C. to become next Richmond superintendent By Jeremy M. Lazarus
They campaigned on a platform of change for a school system that continues to rank high in dropouts and suspensions and low in student academic achievement. Now the largely novice Richmond School Board hopes it has begun to deliver with its choice of a novice superintendent to lead Richmond Public Schools. With a 9-0 vote Monday, the board selected 43-year-old Jason Kamras, a key player in Washington, D.C.’s efforts to deal with similar school issues, as Richmond’s next schools superintendent.
Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press
Jason Kamras, the newly selected Richmond Public Schools superintendent, receives a congratulatory hug Monday night from Richmond School Board Chairwoman Dawn Page. Mr. Kamras, who won National Teacher of the Year honors in 2005, is to start Feb. 1.
The board hopes that Mr. Kamras’ experience as a celebrated teacher and administrator — he was the 2005 National Teacher of the Year — will pay dividends for Richmond students in his first foray as a superintendent. He will be paid a record $250,000 to start, with a contract good through June 30, 2021. He assumes his duties on Feb. 1. Mr. Kamras’ selection capped a secretive process driven by a 26-member selection committee. In contrast to four years ago when his predecessor, Dr. Dana T. Bedden, was chosen, the current School Board declined to
Collecting comfort items for children separated from parents By Ronald E. Carrington
hold a public meeting to showcase the three finalists and receive public input on the choices before the final vote. School Board Chairwoman Dawn Page is enthusiastic about Mr. Kamras leading the city’s public school system of 24,000 students, the majority of whom are African-American. In her introduction after the vote, she called Mr. Kamras the ideal candidate based on his “nationally acclaimed work to attract, retain and develop outstanding teachers and principals, his innovative efforts to improve instruction for all students in D.C. and his laser-like focus on equity.” In his first remarks to a crowd of well-wishers, Mr. Kamras, who earned his undergraduate degree at Princeton and master’s at Harvard, vowed to make “excellence” the hallmark of his administration. He wants to mold RPS into a school system everyone would admire, a place where all of the children are “ loved and nurtured, have their unique identities affirmed and celebrated, are engaged in rich and rigorous learning every single day and secure the academic, emotional and social skills they will need to achieve their greatest aspirations.”
Most people wouldn’t think something as simple as a teddy bear would make an emotional impact, but Cynthia Downing, creator of The Comfort Movement, has a different opinion. When Ms. Downing’s mother was hospitalized in Brooklyn, N.Y., where Ms. Downing grew up, she bought a stuffed animal from the hospital gift shop to comfort her mom when no family was there. “When my Mom passed away, that stuffed animal became a comfort to me,” Ms. Downing recalled. Two weeks after her mother’s burial, the Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press stuffed animal brought her solace when her Cynthia Downing is surrounded by some of the stuffed animals she has collected for The Comfort Please turn to A4
Movement project she started to help Richmond area youngsters whose parents are incarcerated.
Guns and churches: Local pastors caught between welcoming strangers, congregants’ fears By Saraya Wintersmith
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Historic Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston, S.C., is still recovering from the June 2015 mass shooting at a Bible study in which the church’s senior pastor and eight members of the church were killed. Three other victims survived.
Pastor Preston R. Gainer is deeply perturbed. As violence dominates local and national headlines, he now is considering whether to arm himself and members of his East End church’s safety team as part of St. James United Holy Church’s security precautions. “With the things going on in society now, it has been quite troubling,” Pastor Gainer said following a church security forum last weekend sponsored by the Richmond Police Department. Pastor Gainer admits he grew discouraged watching a recent television news report in the wake of the mass shooting in a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, that ended with 26 people dead and 20 others wounded at the hands of a gunman with a history of domestic abuse. He said he was struck by the words of a woman who vowed to avoid church and, instead, study her Bible at home. He, like many pastors, is grappling with the tough task of how to keep church open and welcoming, but also safe from those looking to inflict harm. He said he wants to alleviate his congregations’ fears “and also alleviate the opportunity for someone to walk in” and catch worshipers off guard. “I’m concerned about my parishioners and I have to be concerned about the people I don’t know — the strangers. Are they coming to worship, or are they coming in to do us harm?”
African-American churches have long been targets for violence, several pastors pointed out. They recalled the deadly June 2015 shooting at historic Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston, S.C., in which a white supremacist opened fire after sitting through a weeknight Bible study, killing the pastor and eight members of the church. They also pointed to the September 1963 bombing of a church in Birmingham, Ala., by Ku Klux Klan members, killing four little girls during Sunday services. It’s a scary situation, Pastor Gainer said, but “it’s the climate that we live in today.” Heavy on the minds of more than 200 faith leaders and congregants attending last Saturday’s police forum was formulating plans for, or shoring up responses to, potential attacks and emergencies at places of worship. Under Virginia law, anyone who carries a weapon into a place Please turn to A4
Gold tapped to launch new grocery in Church Hill By Jeremy M. Lazarus
Steve and Kathie Markel refused to be deterred when they could not find anyone interested in opening a supermarket in the $30 million Church Hill North retail-commercial-apartment complex they are developing at 25th Street, Fairmount Avenue and Nine Mile Road. So the couple is starting their own full-service grocery in an area that big and small grocery chains left years ago. The Markels also have
found the person they is projected to create believe can make the 60 to 70 jobs for this store a success — employment-starved Norman D. “Norm” section of Church Gold, chief operatHill when it opens ing officer of Feednext fall, possibly More, the umbrella before Thanksgiving nonprofit that runs 2018. the Central Virginia Now 62, Mr. Gold Mr. Gold Food Bank, Meals said he agreed to take on Wheels and other hunger on the challenge of creating an relief programs. independent grocery “because I Mr. Gold’s selection was an- have a passion for helping the nounced Nov. 16. He is expected community.” to begin work in January on Please turn to A4 developing the new store that
James Haskins/Richmond Free Press
Big bird Romiah Short, 6, gets a strong grip on a frozen turkey that was the centerpiece of Thanksgiving dinner boxes distributed last week to area families at the Arthur Ashe Jr. Athletic Center on the Boulevard. Please see more photos from area holiday programs to help people, Page B2.
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HU exits MEAC for Big South Conference By Fred Jeter
There’s an upside and a downside to Hampton University’s surprise decision to leave the MEAC for the Big South Conference. The upside: Less travel and time lost from class by Hampton athletes. The downside: Severing decades-old rivalries with other HBCUs. Hampton University President Wi l l i a m Dr. Harvey R. Harvey announced on Nov. 16 that the Pirates were ending a 22-year relationship with the MidEastern Athletic Conference, or MEAC, to join the Big South in July 2018. “Institutions in the Big South are located in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina, which means our student athletes will spend less time traveling and more time in classes,” Dr. Harvey stated in announcing the change. “This keeps the proper focus on athletes, which is our chief reason for being. The smaller geographic footprint will also reduce travel expenses. Another important consideration is the large number of alumni located in the Big South region.” The Pirates will be eligible for Big South championships in all sports starting in the fall of 2018, although HU does not sponsor a lacrosse team. With the change, HU becomes the second HBCU aligning itself with a NCAA Division I majority-white Please turn to A4