…still doesn’t seem to like the PH charter school.

The Richmond School Board met this evening at 6PM to consider a host of what looked to be rather typical items and also to receive and vote upon a recomendation from the Charter School Review Committee (SR07-08-72)(agenda). Dispatched to the back corner of a room adjacent to where the schoolboard meeting was taking place, part of the overflow crowd, the obvious draw was the Patrick Henry Initiative vote.

Read more >

Just a quick reminder that the School Board will vote on the PH Charter school at tonight’s meeting. The agenda confirms that it’s to be held during the 6PM portion of the meeting.

Prior to the vote, George Wythe students will be recognized by the board for various reasons.

The Virginia NAACP has come out in opposition to the Patrick Henry charter school. The REA and Richmond Council of PTAs also reiterated their opposition.

I’m not sure whether this one falls more under “All Education All The Time” or “High Comedy.” Either way, the Richmond Defender has a small blurb on the PH charter school (No website, but PDF here). Their first couple of questions are some that we’ve heard a lot the last couple of weeks:

Will the proposed charter school be open to all Richmond children, including the disabled? Will the school’s requirement of “parental involvement” and a staggered, year-round school schedule be an obstacle to working parents?

But the knee-slapper comes at the end:

And what will be the involvement of the Lexington Institute, the neocon Virginia think tank that has been advising the project?

Now, not being involved with the effort, I don’t know anything about the Lexington Institute, who they are or even if they’re actually involved. But of the people I do know who are involved and/or supportive of the the PH effort, “neocon” is the last descriptor that would come to mind.

Never a dull moment in Richmond…

Ross at RVANews (among other places) came through big and summed up last night’s meeting nicely. Between that and the constant updates from Gray & other folks here, it was a pretty impressive reporting effort, especially when compared to other articles that didn’t say too much we didn’t already know.

The next milestone comes May 15, 5PM, in a public meeting between the PHI folks & the school board. Let’s hope that someone affiliated w/ RPS actually reads the proposal thoroughly by then.

Gray brought this up comments to another post, but I thought it warranted a more prominent mention. The school board discussion on the Patrick Henry charter school initiative is scheduled for the 4:30 portion of today’s meeting, with a closed meeting to follow. It’s likely too late to do anything about it, but contacting your board rep today might be therapeutic, if not exactly productive.

The Patrick Henry Charter School is open to any Richmond City elementary student and the upcoming School Board vote, likely to occur on 5/5/08, will impact every child and district within the city limits. They’re asking for your help. See their mailing for all the details: PDF here, Word doc here.

At last night’s school board meeting, the PH Charter group had their proposal returned pending more information. Meetings with the school board to provide that information should occur soon, with a tentative vote scheduled by the board for May 5.

The Patrick Henry School Initiative gets a nice writeup in Today’s Style. PHSI President Richard Day:

My sense is there’s a good chance [the School Board] will shoot it down, but they won’t probably give us any solid, supportive reason.

Seeing the way RPS works, I fear he’s probably right, but either way, they’ve led a remarkable effort and I think they’re to be commended for their efforts. It’s a shame the entire school system can’t manage to work as hard as this group has.