School system at risk

At Save Richmond, publisher Don Harrison has posted a letter from Carol A.O. Wolf, Third District Member of the Richmond School Board. For those interested in Richmond’s public schools, it’s worth a look. Your help is needed. Our school system is at risk for losing some of its best principals because central administration refuses to […]

February 28, 2008; 9:13 PM • by FTRea

At Save Richmond, publisher Don Harrison has posted a letter from Carol A.O. Wolf, Third District Member of the Richmond School Board. For those interested in Richmond’s public schools, it’s worth a look.

Your help is needed. Our school system is at risk for losing some of its best principals because central administration refuses to pay them what they are worth and the surrounding county school systems are attempting to hire away our best and brightest. I have tried to get the people on the 17th-floor of City Hall to understand that Richmond Public Schools cannot afford to lose talented principals who understand how to run a school, keep quality teachers and engage the community.

Click here to read the entire post.

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February 28, 2008 0

Good Morning, RVA: Budgets, interns, training camps, candidates, and menus

Real pleasant out there today.

April 14, 2016; 7:10 AM • by Ross Catrow

Photo by: Floridaman1985

Good morning, RVA! It’s 41 °F, and today will look and feel a lot like yesterday: Sun for days and highs in the 60s. We’ve got about three more days of this on the books, so get used to it. Then, go find your shorts, because it’s about to get for-realsies warm!

Water cooler

Governmental budgets are very complicated, and–depending on the type of person you are and what you like to do with your free time–very boring. But if you want to understand how we can fund Richmond Public Schools you’ve got to understand how these dang budgets work. Teresa Cole continues to do the very important heavy lifting to make this topic accessible and even, dare I say, entertaining (of course I dare, because this kind of stuff is right up my alley!).

Quasi-related, our fabulous intern Chris Bolling was one of the many students who walked out of school on Monday to protest in support of Richmond Public Schools. He wrote about the experience here. Excuse me while I burst with pride.

Finally on the schools tip, I guess you should read this back-page piece in Style by Carol A.O. Wolf because Folks Are Talking About It. There are definitely true things in there, but the reality is that by the time the Mayor first called up the team from Washington to talk about building them a training center, Richmond had been underfunding school maintenance for a long time. Until 2015, we spent $0.06 per square foot per year on school maintenance. Common industry practice says you should be putting $4.08 per square foot per year towards maintenance (PDF, page 35). That’s 6,800 times more than what we were doing! So yes, it’s ridiculous that we pay an NFL team for the privilege of seeing their faces a couple weeks out of the year, but the poor decision making when it comes to funding schools predates this whole debacle.

Ned Oliver would like you to meet two of the new people running for City Council. Compare his list with the list of folks who’ve filed the papers required to raise money and you get a sense of the current candidate picture. We’re still 61 days out from the filing deadline, though, so if you think you’d make a good Council Person get started collecting your signatures and filing your paperwork. It’s the perfect time to get involved in local politics; At least 3-4 of the districts will be wide open!

I would like you to meet all of the dang spring restaurant week menus. There are many restaurant weeks like it, but this one is ours.

If you want to get real bummed, read the executive summary of Chicago’s Police Accountability Task Force report (PDF). Definitely check out the fascinating / depressing chartsandgraphs.

Oh, there’s a Democratic debate tonight at 9:00 PM on CNN. Been awhile!

Sports!

The Flying Squirrels will have fireworks tonight, so, no, that’s not someone breaking into your house. Here’s the full list of fireworks dates if you want to put them on your calendar.

  • Squirrels lost to Reading, 4-6. But! They return home tonight for Opening Night! They’ll face Altoona at 6:35 PM, and you can get tickets here.
  • Nats picked up their fourth straight win, moving to 6-1. They wrap up the series with the Braves today at 4:05 PM.
  • 1st-seeded Caps host the 8th-seed Flyers tonight at 7:00 PM in their first game of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

This morning’s longread

Classic ’80s and ’90s Personal Ads From New York

What a time to be alive!

Before Tinder, Hinge, Bumble, and OkCupid, mortals had to navigate the maddening nuances of everyday social rituals to find romance. Just kidding — they had New York Magazine, which in the golden age of print was famous for its “Strictly Personals” section. There’s some comfort in knowing that even before Tinder was allegedly ruining dating, Richard Gere look-alikes and Bulgarian princesses were turning to outside help in their great search for love. Below, we’ve combed through the New York Magazine archive room, poring over issues from 1983 to 2001, to bring you 33 highlights from the personals.

This morning’s Instagram

Keeping Virginia beautiful

A photo posted by Diane L. Harris (@dianelharris) on

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Ross Catrow

Founder and publisher of RVANews.

April 14, 2016 0

Law suit filed to force release of secret Byron Marshall documents proceeds

Deputy Chief Administrative Officer of Operations Christopher Beschler will function as the interim CAO.

February 4, 2015; 12:05 PM • by Ross Catrow

Byron Marshall has resigned from his post as the City’s Chief Administrative Officer-a position not unlike the King’s Hand in Game of Thrones. The circumstances of his resignation are shrouded in secrecy and nondisclosure agreements (which four City Council members refused to signed). Carol A.O Wolf’s lawsuit to force a release of the documents proceeds, despite the city’s hopes to have the suit tossed out.

Quotes

The city, like any other, has the right to resolve disputes privately Stephen Hall, attorney representing the city
Source: RVANews • Date: 2.4.2015

It is highly unusual for a resignation like this in any municipality to remain a secret, and even more unusual that a confidentiality agreement is required to ascertain the facts surrounding it. It is certainly an anathema to open and transparent government. Councilman Jon Baliles
Source: 1st District Newsletter • Date: 10.1.2014

The idea that an employment contract for the highest-ranking city official can be shielded from taxpayers because it is a “personnel matter” is ethically offensive. Carol A.O. Wolf
Source: Style Weekly • Date: 9.23.2014

It is not uncommon for high-level executives to negotiate separation packages Tammy Hawley, Press Secretary
Source: Richmond Times-Dispatch • Date: 9.23.2014

When it’s time to go, it’s time to go…These jobs serve at the pleasure of the mayor…so any day in a strong-mayor form of government, the mayor can say, you know, ‘I no longer need your services.’Byron Marshall
Source: Richmond Times-Dispatch • Date: 9.17.2014

So far Baliles, Trammell and Agelasto have said they haven’t signed confidentiality agreement about CAO departure.Ned Oliver
Source: Twitter • Date: 9.16.2014

Ultimately, it’s not a very transparent departure…It’s the kind of statement that raises dozens of questions. And it’s unlikely to stand as it is. Bob Holsworth, Public policy consultant
Source: Richmond Times-Dispatch • Date: 9.16.2014

On signing the confidentiality agreement: “I felt like it was really important for the council president to know what was going on” in case the body needed to respond in some way, he said. Councilman Charles Samuels
Source: Richmond Times-Dispatch • Date: 9.16.2015

“I told them it’s going to be a cold day in hell before I sign anything like a [confidentiality agreement]…I think it’s a damn shame that everything we do we’ve got to go sign something to keep the taxpayers of Richmond in the dark.” Councilwoman Reva Trammell
Source: Richmond Times-Dispatch • Date: 9.15.2014

Mayor’s office saying they won’t release Marshall resignation letter because it’s a “personnel record that is protected” Graham Moomaw
Source: Twitter • Date: 9.15.2014

I look forward to working with the administration on finding a suitable replacement. Councilman Charles Samuels
Source: Twitter • Date: 9.15.2014

Mr. Marshall has served in the position of CAO longer than most would have had an opportunity to do so, as a result of my being elected to a second term.Mayor Jones

Source: Press release • Date: 9.15.2014

Required reading

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Resources

Council members who refused to sign the confidentiality agreement

  • Councilman Jon Baliles (1st District)
  • Councilman Chris Hilbert (3rd District)
  • Councilman Parker Agelasto (5th District)
  • Councilwoman Reva Trammell (8th District)

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Mayor Announces Marshall’s Resignation

Mayor Dwight C. Jones today announced that he has accepted the resignation of Byron Marshall. Marshall resigned from his position as chief administrative officer (CAO) after having served over five years in the top operations position.

“Mr. Marshall has served in the position of CAO longer than most would have had an opportunity to do so, as a result of my being elected to a second term,” said Jones. “We are grateful to have had his service for more than five years, and we wish him well in his future endeavors. The city has benefited in many ways during his tenure.”

Christopher Beschler, deputy chief administrative officer for operations, has been named as interim CAO by Jones. Beschler has served in this capacity previously and is seen as amply-qualified to manage city operations during the transition period.

“Along with Chris, we have a capable team in place – many of whom have been with me since the beginning – and we are anticipating moving forward without interruption.”

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Ross Catrow

Founder and publisher of RVANews.

February 4, 2015 2 7 updates

FOIA lawsuit against City of Richmond can proceed

A lawsuit against the City of Richmond seeking to unearth documents under the state’s Freedom of Information Act about the departure of the former chief administrative officer Byron Marshall will still be considered in Richmond Circuit Court.

February 3, 2015; 6:00 AM • by Capital News Service

By Cameron Vigliano

In a hearing Thursday morning at the John Marshall Courthouse, attorneys representing the city sought to have the lawsuit thrown out. They argued that documents detailing an employee dispute – in this case, Marshall – are exempt from public disclosure.

“The city, like any other, has the right to resolve disputes privately,” Stephen Hall, an attorney representing the city, told the court. That appeared to be a revelation regarding Marshall’s departure from the city’s highest profile unelected position. Previously, his exit was described by city officials and Marshall himself as a friendly resignation.

No other information was disclosed about the dispute between Marshall and Mayor Dwight C. Jones’ administration. Judge Joi Jeter Taylor didn’t officially rule on the city’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit, saying, “I’m going to take the demurrer under advisement.” Taylor said she would schedule another hearing in the civil case within 10 days. She will consider the city’s motion to throw out the suit before the next hearing.

The lawsuit was filed in September by a former Richmond School Board member, Carol A.O. Wolf. She was among many citizens who filed Freedom of Information Act requests asking the city for details on Marshall’s departure.

Wolf specifically requested the separation agreement between Marshall and the city, his job application, and the confidentiality agreements some Richmond City Council members were required to sign before being briefed on Marshall’s departure.

Several council members refused to sign the documents and therefore weren’t briefed on the matter. It’s not clear whether the confidentiality agreements must be publicly released. The city said those documents are exempt from FOIA because of attorney-client privilege.

As for Marshall, the city hired an attorney to negotiate his exit, which resulted in a $163,617 severance package. City officials have not released details on how that was negotiated, again citing attorney-client privilege.

Wolf spoke to reporters after the hearing and seemed encouraged by her suit’s continuation. She commended Taylor for “taking her time.” “I appreciate that in a judge,” Wolf said.

As for the city’s attorney, Hall had no further comment on his argument in the hearing that the city and Marshall were in an employment dispute. “We appreciate the court’s time, and we’re eager to get to the judge’s ruling.”

Marshall: No Stranger to Controversy

As Mayor Jones’s right-hand man, Marshall oversaw the day-to-day operations of Richmond city government. Consequently, he was involved in handling controversial issues like the mayor’s failed plan to build a baseball stadium in Shockoe Bottom. Marshall was also involved in a recent scandal that prompted the city’s former director of finance, Sharon Judkins, to file a $10 million defamation lawsuit against the city’s chief auditor, Umesh Dalal. Marshall’s connection there is that he incorrectly credited Judkins with 800 hours of sick leave, equaling about $400,000 of pension pay.

Additional information about Marshall was reported late last summer on Open Source RVA, which airs on the community radio station WRIR 97.3. Before coming to Richmond, Marshall worked for city governments in Washington, D.C.; Austin and Houston, Texas; and Atlanta, Georgia. Despite being the highest-paid Richmond city employee before his departure, Marshall does not possess a master’s degree. Moreover, he lacked an undergraduate degree well into his tenure as a top city administrator in Atlanta, receiving a bachelor’s in history from Syracuse University in 1997.

According to the National Student Clearinghouse, which is an online database keeping track of degree recipients in higher education as well as enrollment dates, a young Byron Marshall attended Syracuse University between September of 1974 and December of 1980 – but never received his undergraduate or master’s.

When confronted by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution more than 15 years later about his lack of a degree, Marshall sought permission from the university to convert graduate credits he had accrued to undergraduate credits so he could be granted his bachelor’s from the school.

Syracuse awarded Marshall’s bachelor’s degree in history in December 1997. At that time, Marshall was working as a top administrator in Austin. News reports from the time blamed a clerical error by Syracuse University for the late degree.

Unexplained in the National Student Clearinghouse report is why Marshall’s time as an undergraduate student at Syracuse was so short. He attended from September 1974 until May 1976. For the additional four years of attendance, the Syracuse registrar’s office told Open Source RVA that Marshall “was enrolled in master’s classes” but could not provide more information on how many course credits Marshall took or received.

After a City Council meeting on June 9th, Marshall gave Open Source RVA a brief explanation of the matter. He acknowledged he did not possess a master’s degree. Asked why, Marshall said, “I dropped out. I had a job and a wife and kid.”

Richmond city officials declined to provide information on whether a master’s degree was a requirement for the position of chief administrative officer. Typical job listings for similar positions in other cities require a master’s degree in public administration or business administration for consideration.

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Capital News Service

February 3, 2015 1

Alternative (and questionable) test to be phased out

An alternative test once used by school districts to cheat their way around Virginia testing requirements – the state’s Standards of Learning Tests – will soon no longer be available, according to changes announced by the Virginia Department of Education.

April 23, 2010; 6:00 AM • by Chris Dovi

An alternative test once used by school districts to cheat their way around Virginia testing requirements – the state’s Standards of Learning Tests – will soon no longer be available, according to changes announced by the Virginia Department of Education.

Virginia’s superintendent of public instruction, Patricia I. Wright announced Thursday that the alternative tests, commonly called the VGLAs, which had been easy to abuse because they were graded and reported within the districts where the students took them, are being replaced by online tests. Those new tests will be administered by the state.

The first tests to be replaced will be the math tests, beginning in 2011, followed by the reading tests in 2012. The VGLA, or Virginia Grade-Level Alternative tests, were first implemented in 2005.

Issues with the VGLAs, which are administered to students with disabilities that prevent them from being assessed by Standards of Learning (SOL) tests, were first brought to light by a series of blog postings by a local state retiree, John Butcher, and a former Richmond Public Schools board member, Carol A.O. Wolf. Their findings were later, in part, reported by the Washington Post. The state’s changes were mandated after a bill patroned by State Del. John M. O’Bannon (R-Henrico) was passed by this year’s Virginia General Assembly.

“Today’s announcement is the first step in carrying out the will of the General Assembly and addressing my own concerns about overuse and misuse of the VGLA,” Wright said in a statement released by the Virginia Department of Education on Thursday.

Even with the change, Butcher remains critical of the state, which he suggests ignored signs that the tests were being abused.

“In light of the information … one cannot but wonder why it takes a new law to excite the Superintendent’s ‘concerns’,” he wrote in an email and on his blog. “It seems to me that we need a Superintendent whose concerns center on Virginia’s students, not the administrators who have been abusing them via these alternative testing schemes.”

Wolf said she’s satisfied that some change is coming, but called for broader change — and an acknowledgment of the real human cost of the cheating that already has been allowed to go on: “Teachers have been fired, students kicked out of school and denied regular diplomas, parents treated as if they are non-entities with no rights — still, top-level administrators who knew of the cheating and chose to remain silent — continue to be paid high salaries.”

There was plenty of reason just in Richmond to suspect overuse when Wolf and Butcher began their investigation of the tests last year. According to a post on Butcher’s blog, crankytaxpayer.org, “Richmond has the second-highest rate of VGLA testing (substitute tests in grades 3-8 for kids with handicaps or disabilities) in the state” and “classifies an atypical number of black schoolchildren as ‘disabled,’ which contributes to Richmond’s high rate of VGLA testing.”

Though other VGLA tests will continue to be administered until they are eventually phased out, the state also indicated its desire to see greater accountability with those tests. According to the state’s release, “this spring, the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) directed assessment, special education and other staff in divisions with VGLA participation rates of 25 percent or greater to undergo training on proper administration of the test.” The state average is 20 percent in both reading and mathematics.

The press release indicates that no time table has yet been established to phase out VGLA tests in writing, history, and science.

Supporting articles:
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Chris Dovi

April 23, 2010 13

School ADA funds could go to business development

Councilman Bruce Tyler proposes that a portion of proceeds from city property sales be used to develop businesses in RVA. But could it end up shortchanging efforts to bring city schools into compliance with the American with Disabilities Act?

April 2, 2010; 6:00 AM • by Chris Dovi

It certainly wasn’t the endless supply of free coffee provided by City Councilman Bruce Tyler that packed the Mary Munford Elementary School cafeteria early Saturday morning two weeks ago with sleepy-eyed Near West End residents.

Rather, it was the fate of the turn-of-the-century Westhampton Elementary School building (the dominant architectural feature on the corner of Libbie and Patterson avenues) that had so many in this community stirred up.

“I haven’t had my first cup of coffee yet, so forgive me,” says the as-always impeccably coiffed Tyler, offering his gathered constituents a self-deprecating joke meant to infer that he might not yet be on his game as the meeting starts.

Unlikely. Despite his purported low reserves of caffeine, it is clear Tyler is operating on enough juice to know how to disarm this crowd. This meeting, he tells them, will NOT focus on the Westhampton Building – with its beautiful art-deco influenced detailing and its deeply undervalued city assessed value of $7 million – but rather on the future of the entire area.

Murmurs of vague displeasure pass through the room, but Tyler keeps the meeting steered along a friendly course – there’s free coffee and pastries, after all.

The Westhampton Building is just the first of many city-owned surplus properties for sale that Tyler would like to use to seed a proposed economic development fund aimed at attracting and supporting businesses to the city. The councilman seeks to establish the fund in a new way – not the slush-fund approach of the past where the city freely passed out money and tax abatements to developers promising big returns only to find themselves and the taxpayers they represent on the hook for soaring debt and disappointing project results. Instead, he sees it working almost like a line of credit.

Tyler would like to see 25 percent of the proceeds of all city property sales to go to the fund.

“It won’t be a gift, it would be a fund that would have to be paid back to the city so we could grow this fund,” says Tyler, even envisioning the city becoming a profit-sharing partner. “For instance, if a developer comes to the area and he needs capital to finish out a building, when the building is sold or as the payments go down, we would get a return on investment.”

But there’s a hitch. As currently proposed, Tyler’s proposal may shortchange the most vulnerable city residents – not only children with handicaps who attend Richmond Public Schools, but the roughly 23,000 students who attend schools in buildings, many of which lack modern libraries, computer labs, athletic facilities, and adequate and accessible playground equipment.

Two years ago, then-Council President Bill Pantele pushed through an ordinance that sets aside all proceeds from the sale of surplus school buildings to pay for capital improvements in the schools, which would include the cost of bringing the schools into compliance with the nearly 20-year-old Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

Pantele’s ordinance came at a time when former Mayor L. Douglas Wilder refused to allocate any money to pay for the tens of millions of dollars needed to bring Richmond’s 50-plus school buildings into compliance with both state and federal laws and the terms of the settlement agreement of a lawsuit brought in U.S. District Court by parents and children with disabilities against the city school system.

Tyler’s plan to partly undermine Pantele’s ordinance isn’t raising hackles yet, but schools officials and advocates for the disabled are cautious and want to know more.

“I have reached out to Councilman Tyler to get more information,” says School Board Chairwoman Kimberly Bridges, who says she only recently became aware of Tyler’s proposal and is working on a time to meet with Tyler to discuss his proposal. “I would want to find out how this would impact our ADA funding.”

Carol A.O. Wolf, an advocate for the disabled and former School Board member who pushed hard during her time on the board to bring city schools into compliance with ADA, credits Tyler with pushing through a $25 million Council plan to fund ADA improvements. But, she says she remains skeptical of a plan that might take any other funding resources away from school ADA projects and other capital needs of the city schools.

“I’m relieved to hear he’s only talking about 25 percent here,” Wolf says. “I think we need to get the ADA improvements made in the schools and that most people know that the economic development that will do the greatest good for Richmond is to make all of our schools models of excellence that are 21st century learning environments.”

Wolf’s concern is in part due to the possibility that a desire to feed the fund could lead to an overly hasty sale of historically significant school properties that – like Westhampton Building — are worth far more than their apparent market or city assessment values. Valuable historic tax credits – amounting to as much as 45-percent of the value of the properties – are only available to whatever parties move forward to renovate the buildings, and with past school sales these potential credits were not factored as part of the sale price.

“I was really surprised to hear now with the properties coming available – properties that carry substantial historic tax credits that are gold to developers – that he now wants to take back the money promised in the ordinance,” Wolf says.

For his part Tyler says he’s ready to talk – and possibly willing to make compromises like a sunset clause for school sales that would expire after the renovations imposed by the school district’s ADA settlement are completed.

“I think it’s reasonable to have the conversation,” says Tyler, hammering on the bad deals Richmond taxpayers have continually been saddled with when good economic development ideas have gone wrong. Besides, he says, “three years ago when [Pantele’s] ordinance was introduced, there was no [ADA] money going into Richmond Public Schools. That has changed and I think it’s fair to look at it in a different light – and we’re going to look at some of this money for different purposes.”

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Chris Dovi

April 2, 2010 21

Screwy reporting of SOL scores?

I got an email from former school board member Carol A.O. Wolf (you know, your second favorite elected official) with a link to quite the fascinating post on her blog. I’ve included an excerpt of it here with some key points in bold. Please visit Save Our Schools to read the entire post. When my […]

April 16, 2009; 10:58 AM • by Valerie Catrow

I got an email from former school board member Carol A.O. Wolf (you know, your second favorite elected official) with a link to quite the fascinating post on her blog.

I’ve included an excerpt of it here with some key points in bold. Please visit Save Our Schools to read the entire post.

When my son, a sophomore at Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School for Government and International Studies (MLWGSGIS), asked why it is that his school is not listed in the U.S. News and World Report as one of the “Top High Schools in the Nation,” I told him that I didn’t know, but that I would be happy to find out.

I honestly believed that it had to be a simple oversight, one that could easily be explained and corrected. After all, everyone knows that Maggie Walker is an excellent school with plenty of national honors to prove it. I also saw getting an answer to my son’s question as the perfect opportunity to dispel a persistent rumor that was so preposterous that I thought it had to be one of those Richmond Public Schools “urban myths.” I recall being told in hushed tones by several teachers over the years that they thought it was “downright dishonest” for RPS to take the SOL scores of the children attending the Governor’s Schools and calculate said scores into the SOL numbers of the zone high school nearest the students’ respective addresses.

Boy, was I ever wrong. After several conversations with people in positions to know — and thanks to a couple of Freedom of Information Act requests submitted by my friend, John Butcher — I managed to obtain some facts. But, facts are stubborn things which inevitably give rise to more complicated questions. So, what follows is what I know, don’t know and would love to know:

U.S. News and World Report doesn’t list it as an outstanding “high school” because the Virginia Department of Education doesn’t identify it as “a school” on their website. If VDOE does not recognize Maggie Walker as “a school” and allow it to report its accreditation numbers, how is it that the “program” is legally authorized to issue diplomas? How do we fix this?

Astonishingly, RPS really does take the SOL scores of students who take the tests at Maggie Walker and calculates them into the scores of the comprehensive high school nearest the students’ home address. How is this honest in any way? Is this misrepresentation of these scores legal?

What does this do to the AYP numbers that VDOE is required to report to the federal government? For example, John Marshall and Huguenot each received more than a 5 percent boost in the number of children allegedly taking the SOLs at their schools. Thomas Jefferson received a whopping 9.76 percent boost and George Wythe received a 2.32 percent increase. The only high school that did not add in SOL scores of students at Maggie Walker was Armstrong.

Each of the various districts that send students to Maggie Walker claim those students as part of their own ADM count. There has to be an honest way of reporting this. It makes no sense whatsoever to represent that these children are enrolled at their respective home “zone” high school, when in reality they are not! Surely, the fine minds at VDOE can help the Superintendents figure out a way to do this so their gifted students can continue to avail themselves of a more rigorous and academically challenging education.

For those of you not familiar with No Child Left Behind acronyms:
AYP = Adequate yearly progress, a state’s measure of yearly progress toward achieving state academic standards. Adequate yearly progress is the minimum level of improvement that states, school districts, and schools must achieve each year, according to No Child Left Behind.

ADM = Average daily membership, the average number of students belonging each day in a room, school, or school system for within the period of data collection.

Thoughts, feelings, emotions?

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Valerie Catrow

Valerie Catrow is editor of RVAFamily, mother to a mop-topped first grader, and always really excited to go to bed.

April 16, 2009 30

Chandler Middle School slated to be closed, RTD reports

The 300 students at Chandler Middle School in North Richmond may be looking for a new place to hit the books come autumn, according to a report in last week’s Richmond Times-Dispatch: Richmond’s Chandler Middle School almost certainly will close at the end of the school year because of failure to meet federal academic standards, a […]

January 31, 2009; 9:12 PM • by North Richmond News

The 300 students at Chandler Middle School in North Richmond may be looking for a new place to hit the books come autumn, according to a report in last week’s Richmond Times-Dispatch:

Richmond’s Chandler Middle School almost certainly will close at the end of the school year because of failure to meet federal academic standards, a small group of parents learned during a meeting last night at the North Side school.

The school is in the seventh and final year of improvement efforts prescribed in No Child Left Behind guidelines. Under that plan, if a school fails to reach a sufficient level of academic success, the school district has to close the school or turn it over to the state.

Based on testing earlier in the school year and ongoing biweekly work sessions at the school, administrators are projecting that Chandler will fail to achieve test scores necessary to pass.

Several school administrators and School Board members on hand said turning the school over to the state is not a viable option. Barring a challenge to the federal law, closing the school is a formality.

The same story noted a possible new future for the school, which is located on Brookland Park Boulevard:

What will become of Chandler — in 1960, it became the first school in the city to be integrated — also was left undecided. Former board member Carol A.O. Wolf suggested it as a new home for Richmond Community High School, a 200-student school for the academically gifted.

Carey would neither deny nor confirm that as a possibility.

“It’s all on the table,” he said.

Community’s current home on Patterson Avenue is in need of millions of dollars of improvements to make it handicap accessible.

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North Richmond News

January 31, 2009 0

North Richmond scores in RVANews “Worst and Best” survey

RVANews, Richmond’s community news aggregator and publisher of its own unique content, has released its second annual “Worst and Best” poll, and once again Northside lands a few accolades from the voting public: Best New Restaurant: Kitchen 64 (second place: Lulu’s) There were so many nominated for this category that I feel duty bound to report […]

September 18, 2008; 7:31 PM • by North Richmond News

RVANews, Richmond’s community news aggregator and publisher of its own unique content, has released its second annual “Worst and Best” poll, and once again Northside lands a few accolades from the voting public:

Best New Restaurant: Kitchen 64 (second place: Lulu’s) There were so many nominated for this category that I feel duty bound to report that Richmond has a lot of good new restaurants.

Best Place to settle down: Northside (second place: Near West End)

Best Elected official: Tim Kaine (second place: Carol A.O. Wolf) [Both Northsiders]

(Thanks to Carol Wolf for passing this along. Submit your news and information directly to us at north.richmond.news@gmail.com)

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North Richmond News

September 18, 2008 0

Worst and Best – Phase 3: Argue About the Results

Enjoy, Richmond Internets. You nominated, you voted, you commented, I stayed up late compiling data. We literally could not have done it without you. Or me.

September 16, 2008; 10:30 AM • by Susan Howson

Enjoy, Richmond Internets. You nominated, you voted, you commented, I stayed up late compiling data. We literally could not have done it without you. Or me.

For a recap of the process, check out:
Phase 1 – The Nomz
Phase 2 – The Poll

Food

New Restaurant:
Best – Kitchen 64 (second place: Lulu’s) There were so many nominated for this category that I feel duty bound to report that Richmond has a lot of good new restaurants.
Worst – De Lux (second place: Sushi Ninja). There were so many nominated for this category that I feel duty bound to report that Richmond has a lot of terrible new restaurants.

Overall restaurant:
Best – Ipanema Cafe and Edo’s Squid (tie) (second place: Can Can and Kuba Kuba) There were tons of nominations though, so that bodes well for us all. So many that someone asked us why we didn’t put them in alphabetical order. The answer, of course, is that we put these together in a burst of painstaking laziness. The proprietor of Ipanema wins the award for actually knowing about this list before it came out and asking excitedly if they’d won anything.
Worst – BlackFinn (second place: Can Can) Dammit, we let a chain through, whoops. So we’ll award Can Can an honorary first – or is it last? As one responder put it, “Froofy. Bad food. And suburbanites that try to run over scooter kids in their Mercedes. That about sums it up.”

Coffee:
Best – Crossoads (second place: Captain Buzzy’s Beanery) A responder commented, “Richmond really does spoil its coffee drinkers with a huge selection of great coffee shops. It’s hard to select a favorite, but Crossroads gets it for me because of their coffee, ice cream, breakfast, environment, location, etc. etc.”
Worst – Can Can (second place: Common Groundz) For some reason, things people say about Can Can are always the most hilarious: “Give me real coffee, Pierre!”

Super casual dinner:
Best – 821 Cafe (second place: Kuba Kuba and Ipanema) One commenter wrote, “So hard!” because, I imagine, it is hard not to exclaim in delight on your way home “I just ate a crap-ton of food yet I still have money to go buy a crap ton of stuff.”
Worst – The Eatery (second place: Baja Bean) Yet it still exists, so SOMEBODY must be eating there.

Fancy dinner:
Best – Edo’s Squid by a mile (second place: Millie’s) I’m headed there right now, so this has leveled up my excitement, which will in turn get me through the miserable hour-long wait that is inevitable. Load me up with wine, Edo’s! I will wait forever!
Worst – Tobacco Company by a bigger mile (second place: Bank) but the results were limited. As someone put it, “I still can’t afford to vote for the worst of the best.”

Lunch:
Best – This category was ridiculous, it turns out. Perly’s and Copolla’s tied for first, but the voting was so spread out over a million places that it hardly even counts. However, Perly’s generated a comment like this, so you make the call, “Sweet sweet Perly’s. Saw a clown there one time as I was coming out of the bathroom after a post-hangover purge. Good times n’ great eats.”
Worst – Nacho Mama’s (second place: Ukrop’s) Poor Ukrop’s! Here’s one comment: “Rather just avoid the crowd of rich stay-at-home-moms and their bratty kids (yeah, you know who are are!).” (Psst, it’s hilarious that you think they are reading this.)

Brunch:
Best – Millie’s (second place: 821 Cafe) Good thing somebody noticed that we’ve “got Millie’s on there twice.” Thanks for the heads up. Luckily I brought my calculator and was able to make a simple mathematical equation adding a million to a million. Here are the fantastic things about Millie’s: Ben-Gurion is the most delicious thing I have ever tasted, mimosas are almost put in front of you before you even order them, and I live within walking distance so I can come and meet you. Perfection!
Worst – 3rd Street (second place: Tobacco Company) Can I say a thing? Someone needs to point me towards a brunch place that, although I do love some hollandaise, offers some interesting healthy options. Can I get some fruit and granola? Is that too crazy? I mean, I can put hot sauce on it if that makes you feel better.

Shopping

Farmer’s Market:
Best – 17th Street (second place: Forest Hill)
Worst – 17th Street (second place: Byrd House) Le sigh.
Another category that is indicative of nothing. It turns out everyone is fickle and prizes different things about farmer’s markets. I think next year we will just keep it to “best overall restaurant” and “grossest Richmonder.” How’s that?

Mall:
Best – Short Pump (second place: Stony Point)
Worst – Willow Lawn (second place: Short Pump)
The mall category gets pretty interesting, actually. Because half the comments are like, “Malls are evil” and half of them are like, “Here is everything that is amazing about Stony Point.”

Beer store:
Best – River City Cellars (close second place: Wine and Beer Westpark) But I should mention that Wine and Beer Westpark got some of the gushiest comments. Sounds like the biggest criterion for this category and the one below is “Doesn’t make me feel like a huge dunce.”

Wine store:
Best – River City Cellars (second place: Wine and Beer Westpark)
See above.

Clothier:
Best – Need Supply Co. (second place: Diversity Thrift)
Worst – Glass & Powder (second place: Pink) It is hilarious to me that 50 people voted ol’ Glass & Powder as the worst clothier. Best comment (about Pink) “I like spending $600 on a bag. Except I’m a dude and I’m not an idiot. Who goes here?” One time I went in there and walked around in a stupor. One of the staff complimented my ($6) earrings, and all I could think to do was stop dead in my tracks, drop my bag on the ground, put my hands up to my ears, and sputter, “But they’re plastic!” I swear I almost ripped them out and gave them to her out of pure fear.

Bookstore:
Best – Chop Suey in a landslide victory (second place: Black Swan)

Salon:
Best – Nesbit (second place: Pine Street Barbershop)
Worst – Nesbit (second place: Legends)
These were scattered results as well, and the big list resulted in this comment: “Hands down the ‘best list of awkward business names.'”

Neighborhoods

Place to live when you are single:
Best – The Fan (second place: Shockoe Bottom)
Worst – Midlothian (second place: Short Pump)
You know, that’s true. I lived in Midlothian during my very single middle school years, and no shit ever went down that was worth sneaking out of my parents’ house, I’ll tell you that much right now!

Place to settle down:
Best – Northside (second place: Near West End)
Worst – Short Pump (second place: Shockoe Bottom)
The second place results were really scattered for best, but the worst kinda surprises me. A whole lot of people are very happily settled down in the Far West End. I mean, I assume they are since we never see them.

Place to take a walk:
Best – Maymont (second place: Hollywood Cemetery IF YOU ARE A GHOST OF A PRESIDENT!)
Worst – Short Pump Town Center (second place: Broad St.)
Regarding Maymont: “You can’t see a buffalo/bison at any of those other places. Psshhh.” While that is true, this was another huge list of scattered results, proving once again that we have many wonderful places to take a walk. Unless you’re walking ON Broad Street IN Short Pump. Double whammy!

Park:
Best – Maymont (triple tie for second: Byrd, Bryan, Lewis Ginter)
Worst – Monroe (second place: Chimborazo)
WTF! Chimbo as second for worst? I mean I guess it doesn’t have baby unicorns and magical gardens like Maymont, but I feel that it is a pretty neat place.

Island:
Best – Belle Isle (second place: Brown’s Island)
Worst – Vauxhall aka Hobo Island (close second: Mayo Island)
Aw, I have fond memories of the Mayo Island Music Festival, where I got a T-shirt autographed by They Might Be Giants and got to sit next to G. Love while I sold Squirrel Nut Zippers CDs. I write letters to the 90s every night begging them to come back.

Place to get into the James:
Best – Pony Pasture (second place: Belle Isle)
Worst – Pump House (second place: Great Shiplock Park)
Clear winner for best comment ever is the following regarding the Pony Pasture (edited by yours truly): “At least where the foam is….Also I’ve never been able to get over the time I saw two couples side by side <several words redacted> on a rock … it changed me.”

Entertainment

Local Band:
Best – Carbon Leaf (second place: Denali)
Worst – Carbon Leaf by a lot more votes (second place: Prabir and the Substitutes)
Again, in retrospect, this category is so pointless. Musical tastes vary wildly, the results were thinly spread, and everyone just put other bands that weren’t on the list in the comments. Although, I am filling up with pride a little that my spouse’s band placed second (yes, I do sell Maura’s digits for $20 a pop – email me and we’ll talk) (Maura: just kidding!!) (Dudes: Totally not kidding, email me!!).

Venue for, like, rock stuff:
Best – The National (second place: Toad’s Place)
Worst – Innsbrook (second place: Alley Katz)
No one cares enough about venues, it seems, to leave us good comments except that to tell us that we listed Toad’s Place twice. But remember last year when none of this stuff existed yet, and everyone just complained and complained?? Look what you have done for us, National and Toad’s Place! Just look!

Venue for proper grown up events:
Best – The National (second place: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts)
Worst – Innsbrook (second place: Richmond Convention Center)
Poor Innsbrook. As someone said, “I go to the West End even less often than I go to grown up events.”

Festival:
Best – Greek (second place: Folk)
Worst – Y101’s Rock the Bottom (second place: Slaughterama)
Oh man, did you just hear the collective crunch of a thousand cans of Coors Light and PBR being smashed into the foreheads of angry Y101 fans/biking enthusiasts, who will now shelve their differences and combine forces to stage the scariest assault ever on the unlucky, peaceful lambs attending the Greek and Folk festivals? Quick, somebody get Matthew McDonald into a helicopter to preserve this battle on film forever and win us a Pulitzer!

Print publication:
Best – Style Weekly (second place: RVA Magazine)
Worst – Richmond Times-Dispatch (second place: Brick Weekly)
Oh, my. People. The comments for the “worst” category were really filled with venom. I was unaware that there was SO much animosity towards specific columnists/editors/seemingly random individuals that write things down and print them out. Good thing Style is still around to save the day in an almost unanimous landslide.

Museum:
Best – Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (second place: Science Museum of Virginia)
Worst – Museum of the Confederacy (second place: Edgar Allan Poe Museum)
What exactly does it mean when someone thinks your museum is bad? Inattentive docents? Crappy gift shop? F&@*ing long lines to the new “photo-retrospective”? “The more intimate feel is nice. That’s what she said,” said one commenter of the Edgar Allan Poe Museum. Somebody else said of the Black History Museum, “This place has potential but needs major funding and administrative staff.” But then another simply yelled “IMAX!!!!!!” about the Science Museum, so who knows.

Gallery:
Best – Quirk (close seconds: Eric Schindler and Gallery 5)
Worst – triple tie: Henry Street, Reynolds Gallery, and Quirk (second place: Gallery 5)
About Quirk: “I love this place. It’s worth bumping through on First Friday with the 100 other people that can’t resist going in even though it’s packed wall to wall people.” I too am intrigued by Quirk, and I really enjoy Eric Schindler, but I tend to forget the other ones and just remember the stuff that was showing there. But I guess that’s the point, eh?

Bowling alley:
Best – Sunset Lanes (second place: Plaza Bowl)
One comment about Plaza Bowl was aptly: “I LOVE YOU DUCKPINZ,” but another one was “Who bowls?” Me, my friend. People who know Plaza Bowl tend to wiggle with glee when you suggest a night there. Brave the Southside and discover the magic. Bring your appetite for Journey and mozzarella sticks!

Movie Theatre:
Best – The Byrd (second place: Westhampton)
Worst – Virginia Center Commons (close second: Short Pump)
Though I can’t even figure out why, VCC tends to be my movie theatre of choice. The crowds there are always energetic, and they tend to show a better variety of movies. But anyway, matter at hand. The Byrd and Westhampton are clearly local gems. Although we did get this comment: “If the Byrd gets this it invalidates this entire process. Sure, it’s cheap, but it also sucks.” So, does that mean you suspect that we accepted a HUGE BRIBE from Richmond’s HISTORICAL MOVIE PALACE so that we would stuff the ballot box? “Look, RVAnews, we need more business, see? And if you know what’s good for you, YOU’LL GIVE IT TO US. Jenny, fire up the organ. Sally, pull a spring from one of the seats. We’ll show these Richmonders who read the Internet what for, you follow?? YOU SHALL FEAR THE BYRD THEATRE FOUNDATION (dot com!).”

Etc.

Elected official:
Best – Tim Kaine (second place: Carol A.O. Wolf)
Worst – Doug Wilder (second place: Bill Pantele)
Well, as you can imagine, commenters were lousy with disparaging things to say about Doug Wilder…and affectionate things to say about Tim Kaine’s eyebrows! Turns out they are a local hit!

Highway:
Best – 288 (second place: Downtown Expressway)
Worst – 95 (second place: Powhite Parkway)
I came up with the idea for this category when my friend moved into her new place on Grayland and exclaimed excitedly, “And it even looks out over the DTE! MY FAVORITE HIGHWAY!!” No one was very enthusiastic with their “best” choices, but everyone chimed in for the worst: “Hold on, I forgot my life savings that I need to cross this bridge.”

Historical landmark:
Best – The Capitol (second place: Jefferson Hotel)
Worst – Arthur Ashe Monument (second place: Robert E. Lee monument)
Everyone agreed about Arthur Ashe, as usual with variations on this theme: “I admire Ashe and DiPasquale. But DiPasquale failed on this statue- looks so rigid and awkward like he’s beatin’ down those poor chiles.”

Mayoral candidate:
Best – Dirtwoman (second place: Paul Goldman)
Worst – Dirtwoman (second place: Bill Pantele)
Har!

Thing from 2008:
Best – The National (second place: breaking ground on the new movie theatre complex)
Worst – Gas prices (second place: Wilder v. City Council)

And, in closing, I am just so pleased that at the very least, our hurried, amateur list shot rays of sunshine all over the Internet when someone nominated “ABC stores now open on Sundays” for Best Thing from 2008, eliciting a ton of responses like this:”Is that for real???? Holy crap it is true, thanks RVAnews!”

You’re welcome, Richmond. Oh, how welcome you are.

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Susan Howson

Susan Howson is managing editor for this very website. She writes THE BEST bios.

September 16, 2008 40