The latest edition of Richmond.com’s Meet Your District column features the 4th District. The heavy focus on the school board race (including quotes from all 4 candidates) suggests that we’re not the only ones afflicted with the All Education All The Time theme…

At tomorrow’s rendition of the South of the James Market, 4th District Council representative Kathy Graziano and her culinary-minded sons will compete against a team of chefs from Positive Vibe Cafe in the MarketVibe Chefs Challenge. Like something straight out of Top Chef, the teams will purchase all items from the market offerings and prepare a variety of dishes using small appliances, grills and the like. Graziano told the T-D:

We originally thought of this as a way to get people to come to the park, and it’s also a good way to show people what they can do with fresh stuff…It should be fun. We should raise a lot of money for a good cause and get even more people to come to the market.”

According to a list of filed candidates, Jonathan Christopher Mallard has thrown his hat into the 4th District School Board race. Bert Berlin had previously announced his intention to run for the seat being vacated by George Braxton. 5th District representative Betsy Carr is the only candidate who’s filed for that particular seat.

On the City Council side, Kathy Graziano is so far unopposed in the 4th, and nobody has yet filed to run in the 5th.

The 2nd of this month’s 4th District meetings is tonight, 7PM, at Crestwood Presbyterian Church. The meeting’s focus will be the Jahnke Rd widening project, though something tells me that the buzz over a certain other hot-button issue might well come up as well.

When your School Board rep just happens to be the Chair of the most-scrutinized quasi-government body in recent memory, there’s never a dull moment for your district. The latest round of George Braxton vs. Keith West flared up this week, with Braxton removing West from his position as chair of the Finance committee. Braxton’s resistance to any sort of criticism combined with West’s abandonment and dismissal of the school system as a parent suggests the ugliness has only just begun.

Full Disclosure: The author’s significant other is a RPS teacher. Neither of us have much faith in the school board or RPS administration.

The monthly 4th District meetings have been rescheduled to 2 sessions this week: Wednesday, 6:30 pm at Forest Hill Presbyterian Church (coinciding w/ the FHNA regular meeting) and Thursday, 7:00 pm at St. Luke Lutheran Church. Director of Public Utilities Chris Beschler will talk about proposals to redesign the water and sewer rate structure and to create a stormwater utility.