The school board faced a number of tough decisions in crafting this budget, and I appreciate it choosing to pass a plan that prioritizes students and teachers. I am committed to identifying the resources needed to provide our students with the learning opportunities they deserve. Fully funding Richmond Public Schools would be easier if the Commonwealth of Virginia would step up and fulfill its constitutional obligation to adequately support K-12 education. Virginia’s current approach to funding public education is not only inadequate and inequitable, it is unjust and immoral. The Commonwealth needs to do more for Virginia’s children, especially those growing up in poverty. The RPS adopted budget demands a lot from the City of Richmond. We have our own tough decisions ahead, but our kids deserve nothing less than our bold leadership.

Mayor Levar M. Stoney is being tapped by the United States Conference of Mayors (USCM) to develop a “proactive, strategic agenda” as the new chairman of the USCM’s Children, Health and Human Services Standing Committee.

“Mayor Stoney has demonstrated leadership, commitment and a collaborative approach to meeting the needs of children and families in the City of Richmond,” said USCM president Steve Benjamin, the mayor of Columbia, South Carolina. “We’re grateful for his willingness to chair this important committee, and are excited for him to share Richmond’s recipe for success with USCM cities and localities across the country.”

Over the last two years, the Stoney administration has brought national attention to Richmond with numerous successful initiatives to benefit children and families.

Working with private, community and nonprofit partners, the administration implemented a critically important expansion of after-school programs for city school children and formed a partnership to provide tablets and internet access to incoming public high school freshmen. The administration also created a free ride program on the city bus system for students, and launched the successful “Change for RVA Schools” initiative, which generated $150 million to finance the construction of three new schools.
 
Focusing on the welfare of residents and working families, the Stoney administration is well on its way toward meeting the promise of building 1,500 affordable housing units by 2023, and just weeks ago announced the first eviction diversion program in the Commonwealth of Virginia, designed to help vulnerable residents avoid the devastating impact of losing their home.

This year, the administration also achieved the highest Municipal Equality Index (MEI) score in Virginia, a program sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign that measures the support for LGBTQIA+ communities within American localities. 

Richmond’s nationally recognized Office of Community Wealth Building has expanded its Center for Workforce Innovation to improve the city’s workforce development programs. And in 2017, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation awarded Richmond its Culture of Health Prize, in recognition of the city’s initiatives to build a culture of health throughout the city.

“I thank Mayor Benjamin for this opportunity,” said Mayor Stoney. “We’re proud of what we’ve accomplished in Richmond, and I’m looking forward to working with my fellow mayors to advance our successful initiatives nationwide.”

More information about the US Conference of Mayors can be found here.

Last night, Mayor Stoney convened the first Education Compact Quarterly Meeting of 2019. 
Please click to find relevant material: Education Compact Presentation, Multi-Year School Capital Funding Plan and the Dreams4RPS: 5-Year Cost Estimate of Strategic Plan 

All members of City Council and School Board are expected to attend these quarterly meetings. 

In addition to Mayor Stoney and Superintendent Kamras, the following were in attendance: 

City Council 

    •    Chris Hilbert (3rd District)
    •    Kristen Larsen (4th District)
    •    Ellen Robertson (6th District)
    •    Cynthia Newbille (7th District)

School Board
    •    Liz Doerr (1st District)
    •    Scott Barlow (2nd District)
    •    Jonathan Young (4th District)
    •    Cheryl Burke (7th District)
    •    Dawn Page (8th District)
    •    Linda Owen (9th District)

The following were absent:

City Council

    •    Andreas Addison (1st District)
    •    Kim Gray (2nd District)
    •    Parker Agelasto (5th District)
    •    Reva Trammell (8th District)
    •    Mike Jones (9th District)
School Board

    •    Kenya Gibson (3rd District)
    •    Patrick Sapini (5th District)
    •    Felicia Cosby (6th District)

Please visit the Education Compact website for videos, future meetings and more information.

A new tool is now helping the Richmond Department of Emergency Communications to get fast, accurate location information from mobile devices for emergencies.

Getting the accurate location for an emergency is the top priority for 911 call-takers, and the first step to dispatching first responders. The new tool, RapidSOS NG911 Clearinghouse, is an online platform to help pinpoint the location when the caller is unsure or unable to provide the location or when information provided by the cell phone company based on tower location is not specific enough.

This was the case on Jan. 13, when a Richmond 911 call-taker answered a call for domestic violence but was not able to get a location from the caller immediately. The 911 supervisor was able to find the location through the RapidSOS NG911 Clearinghouse.

“In this case, the first responders were there more quickly, because of our use of RapidSOS, rather than waiting for the caller to give the address,” said Stephen Willoughby, director of the Richmond Department of Emergency Communications. “Rather than using radio signals from the telephone and triangulating the towers to get a general idea of the location, RapidSOS asks the cell phone where it is.”

Jackie Crotts, the Richmond Department of Emergency Communications deputy director of technology, said that it is simple to use. “Essentially when the enabled device (iPhone iOS 12 or Android version 4.0 and up) calls 911, the location is sent to the RapidSOS NG911 Clearinghouse. Our 911 emergency communications supervisors make a request for the location, using one of our automated systems,” he said.

Crotts said that the location information is only available for active calls and only for those calls coming from the 911 emergency communications centers’ area.

“It helps us better locate callers, but nothing bypasses having a smart person behind the headset to get the best location and response,” Willoughby said.

RapidSOS is a free service available to authorized 911 emergency communications centers.

“The Richmond Department of Emergency Communications is leading the way in 911 technology to improve emergency response,” said RapidSOS CEO Michael Martin. “We are thrilled to provide Richmond call-takers and dispatchers with the information they need to get citizens help quickly in an emergency, saving lives and property.”

For more information about the service, visit https://rapidsos.com/ng911clearinghouse/ and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFoRYuW5hps

Local Governments Across Virginia Join Effort to Advocate for more Education Funding

Since 2009, state funding for K-12 education is down 9%, while overall student population has grown by 5%.

Today, local elected officials from across the Commonwealth are joining the call for more state funding for K-12 public education.  Leaders from a number of localities have signed on to support the March For More, which was announced on Wednesday by Mayor Levar Stoney, Richmond Public Schools leadership and education leaders from the across the region. March For More will take place on December 8th starting at Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School in Richmond and end at the State Capitol steps.
The March is also supported by a growing number of organizations committed to increasing state funding for education, including the Virginia Education Association, Virginia Municipal League, Virginia First Cities, and the NAACP, to name a few.
Leaders from across the Commonwealth, representing a diversity of Virginians, support the March For More and are encouraging parents, students, teachers, administrators and others in the education field to participate in the march in Richmond:

• Virginia Municipal League
  • “We represent 38 cities, 160 towns, and eight counties in the Commonwealth of Virginia,” said Michelle Gowdy, Executive Director of the Virginia Municipal League. “In July of this year, the City of Richmond came to our legislative committee meeting asking our members to support advocating the state to fund the true cost of education. this initiative, and our members did overwhelmingly. We then took this issue to our entire membership in October and again they overwhelmingly supported this initiative, and we look forward to supporting it going forward.”
• Virginia First Cities
  • “We are a coalition of 14 cities from across the Commonwealth and want to express our strongest possible support for increased funding for Virginia public education,” said Kelly Harris-Braxton, Executive Director of Virginia First Cities. “We represent cities all across the state, including: Charlottesville, Danville, Hampton, Hopewell, Lynchburg, Martinsville, Newport News, Norfolk, Petersburg, Portsmouth, Richmond, Staunton, Williamsburg, and Winchester.”
  • “Year after year, our cities are digging deeper and deeper and making incredibly hard decisions about where to cut in order to adequately educate our children because Virginia continues to disproportionately rely on local governments to fund public schools…”
• Mayor Justin Wilson, City of Alexandria:
  • “Localities like Alexandria are committed to the investment necessary to create 21st century learning environments for our children. However, we believe that the Commonwealth needs to recognize and fund the true cost of public education in our communities. Simply put, Virginia needs more state funding for K-12 education in our communities. Our children need it. Our families deserve it. Our leaders must demand it.”
• Chairwoman Katie Cristol, Arlington County:
  • “As a locality that receives the smallest percentage of funds from the state for K-12 education, we’ve watched funding dwindle since the start of the recession in 2009. The Virginia Department of Education’s data shows this in stark terms: Arlington’s local expenditures for operations for the Standards of Quality in 2017 exceeded our required local effort by 181.6 percent. Shifting such a disproportionate burden of educating young Virginians on to the Commonwealth’s localities is as inequitable as it is unsustainable.”
• Mayor Nikuyah Walker and Superintendent of Schools Dr. Rosa Atkins City of Charlottesville:
  • “We’ve asked the General Assembly to recognize and fund the true cost of public education. From adequate SOQ funding, to increasing the At Risk Add On, to funding for extended school day/extended school year programs, the Commonwealth’s attention to funding a quality public education is being called on and it’s urgent, for our children cannot afford to be kept waiting.”
• Mayor Treney Tweedy, City of Lynchburg:
  • "Jobs are the key to economic recovery and adequate education is essential for the foundational preparation of the current and future workforce. The State should fully fund the Standards of Quality (SOQ), including support staff costs and categorical incentive funds for At-Risk students and restore funding from cuts to education over the last biennium. The state must meet its education funding obligations and should refrain from changes in methodology and division of financial responsibility that result in a further shift of funding responsibility from the state to localities. These shifts do not change what it actually costs to provide education but simply transfers additional costs to local governments, and ultimately to the local real estate tax base."
• Mayor Gene Teague and Superintendent of Schools Dr. Zebedee Talley Jr, City of Martinsville:
  • “We are asking for statewide parity in state funding for school construction, maintenance and operations. Further, we have asked the Commonwealth to fully fund the expenditures imposed upon local school systems by implementing the Standards of Quality because Martinsville invested 148.2% above the required local effort for SOQ programs in 2016-2017.”
• Mayor Kenneth Alexander, City of Norfolk:
  • “State support of K-12 education has steadily declined over the last generation when compared to the total growth of the general fund. Since FY2009, the state’s K-12 appropriation has dropped from 35.2% of total general fund appropriations to 29.9% in FY2019.  There have been zero direct state grants for capital improvements since FY2010, and even literary fund loans to school divisions have been impacted.  Localities have been forced to make up the difference, and other vital services for families and communities have suffered in the balance. In a time when Virginia is experiencing significant economic growth and state revenue forecasts are improving, it is critical that we atone for these cuts in investment imposed on our schools and restore state funding for K-12 education.”
• Councilwoman Jill Carson, Town of Pennington Gap
  • “The formula for funding public schools, as it currently exists, does little or even perhaps fails to meet the educational needs of poor rural school districts."
• Mayor John Rowe, Jr., City of Portsmouth:
  • "The local, state, and federal shares of school operations funding has shifted since 2008-2009 and Portsmouth has taken on a much larger share of funding. Portsmouth invested 296.3% above the required local effort for SOQ programs in 2016-2017. Obviously, we cannot raise property taxes on an already stressed citizenry. The state needs to step up funding for K-12 education."
• Vice-Mayor Anita James-Price, City of Roanoke:
  • “Now is the time for leadership to clearly establish that education is Virginia’s top priority. Frederick Douglas said it best: “it is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men”. Let’s invest today for the future of tomorrow’s commonwealth.”
• Mayor Carolyn Dull, City of Staunton:
  • “The General Assembly simply needs to fully fund K - 12 education and fix the SOQ formula to recognize the true cost of education, as our children deserve, and our future workforce demands.”

In Virginia, localities are required to fund 45% of K-12 education, but are funding 57% of the spending – to the tune of about $4 billion more than required. In Virginia, localities are funding more than $4 billion over the State’s required local contribution.
“This is not just an urban school problem, but a statewide issue that effects our rural and suburban localities as well. Since 2009, state funding for K-12 education is down 9%, while overall student population has grown by 5%,” said Mayor Levar Stoney. “I’m proud to stand with local governments and school districts across Virginia to say this is not only unacceptable – it is unjust and immoral.”

For more information about the March For More, visit MoreBetterStronger.com.