RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — Richmond School Board members were faced with difficult decisions at their October 19 meeting, voting to move some teachers to new schools.
Eight teachers from four different elementary schools will be taken from their classrooms and reassigned to eight different Richmond schools faced with overcrowding. These changes could potentially impact 23 of the city’s elementary schools that are eligible for the K-3 program.
John B. Cary Elementary and Swansboro Elementary are both losing two teachers each. Overby-Sheppard Elementary is losing one teacher and Southampton Elementary is losing three teachers.
City school officials say they are working internally to develop a plan and timeline to meet the state’s December deadline.
Uncertain about the future of their children’s education, parents lined up in the city council chamber to ask school board members to let teachers stay put.
“They’re just now at the time where they’ve grown used to the teachers in their classrooms,” pleaded one mother, “and if they get moved they’re going to have to start from square one like they did on the first day of school.”
“It’s unfortunate that it has to happen,” said 2nd district school board member Kim Gray, “but understanding the benefit of the overall population- if you have a tiny classroom with 14 students in one part of town and almost 30 kids in another classroom, you can understand why we would have a need to try to level that out.”
In order to get state funding, every school has a required student-teacher count. Some expressed concern that losing staff would have a negative effect on the infrastructure of impacted schools.
“While it’s helping certain schools to level their student to teacher ratios, it’s crippling the foundation of other schools that already have their good thing in place,” said fifth grade teacher Alex Newsome.
Before the board made its decision, several teachers asked them to consider the potential toll on students.
“By shuffling around year to year that’s not helping emotionally,” said Robin Major, a teacher at Cary Elementary School. “It’s not helping their stability; it’s not helping with student achievement. What is it helping with?”
However, school board members said they must consider the big picture and what will benefit the most students in the long run.
“It’s not just leveling staffing; it’s leveling the playing field to have the best opportunity available for every student,” Gray told 8 News.
School officials say it would cost more than $2 million to hire more teachers in overcrowded schools- money the district doesn’t have.
