Cary-Clark Springs merger off the table for another year

On a 5-4 vote Monday night, Richmond’s School Board indefinitely delayed the idea of closing schools. The vote came about two months after the board adopted the plan in an effort to shave $1 million off its operating budget.

April 23, 2013; 7:00 AM • by West of the Boulevard News

On a 5-4 vote Monday night, the board indefinitely delayed the idea of closing schools. The vote came about two months after the board adopted the plan in an effort to shave $1 million off its operating budget. […]

Mamie Taylor, the 5th District representative whose zone includes a school believed to top the list — Clark Springs Elementary — put forth the motion and found just enough support to get it through.

Kristen Larson (4th), Shonda Harris-Muhammed (6th), Donald Coleman (7th) and Tichi Pinkney Eppes (9th) supported Taylor in keeping Clark Springs open, while Jeffery Bourne (3rd), Glen Sturtevant (1st), Kimberly Gray (2nd), and Derik Jones (8th) favored closing the school.

Taylor celebrated the reversal on her Facebook:

We did it!!!! We did it!!!! Thanks to a collective effort, our schools will remain open for at least another year. It’s a great first step, and one that we can all be proud of!!!

Sturtevant posted a response this morning on his Facebook:

Last night was not a Profile in Courage for a majority of the School Board.

We have far too many chronically under-enrolled schools in RPS. Keeping them all open is unsustainable.

The majority’s vote last night means we must now cut more than a million dollars in the Budget and use that money to continue operating chronically under-enrolled schools that the majority voted to keep open.