RICHMOND, Va. -- Two Richmond Public School mothers have planned a weekend march for a crisis they said they see at both of their kids' school buildings.
They plan to call on the state to use its revenue surplus to fund school construction.
“I had to tell them last night that their school construction was going to be available for them to re-enter as students,” Becca DuVal said about her chat with her 3rd and 5th grader at Fox Elementary. A fire destroyed the Richmond school earlier this month.
“I’m sad for Fox, just want to put that out there. I’m so sad,” Tisha Erby, whose sons will soon attend George Wythe High School, said.
Wythe, according to Erby and other parents, has been in desperate need of repair for years.
The march, scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. Saturday at Fox Elementary. hopes to show the Fox fire highlights a greater need to address aging school buildings throughout Virginia.
“Schools cannot repair buildings with money that they don’t have," Duvall said. "If love alone could keep a school building standing, they would all be in pristine condition and no kid would ever have this as their reality."
“I’m speaking on behalf of my students, my sons, who have to come into this building. It might not be physically burning, but the parents are crying wolf. We are burning. We need some saving. We need some water to cool us down. We need a building!” Erby said. “I graduated [from Wythe] in 2007! This building is still the same.”
“Your school doesn’t look very different than when I was Mayor,” former Richmond Mayor, Virginia Governor and current U.S. Senator Tim Kaine (D-Virginias) said during a visit to Wythe on Wednesday. Kaine was the mayor of Richmond between 1998 and 2001.
Kaine also noted that he has a direct connection to Fox Elementary.
“I really felt sad about Fox. My two oldest boys went to Fox before the Linwood Holton school opened up over in Northside,” Kaine said.
Although school construction timing and project decisions lie on the local level, Kaine said recent federal funding funneled to local school districts can be used for construction, renovation, and moderation projects.
“The combination of the CARES Act and especially the American Rescue Plan. . . Because they are one-time funds, it’s really good to use them on buildings. You don’t want to start up a program on one-time funds when you won’t get it next year, but those are really good funds for capital projects.” Kaine said.
DuVal and Erby said their Saturday march is in coordination with parents from rural Virginia too.
“[They are] detailing stories of cracked pavement where they have to mow their parking lots,” DuVal said.
Erby knows firsthand what a new school building can mean for students when construction funds are available to school districts. Her sons currently attend the recently completed River City Middle School.
“My kids, they don’t want to leave school. They want to stay there. I'm like, ‘why aren’t you coming home?’ [They say] I love my school,” Erby said.
The Saturday morning march will begin on Hanover Avenue directly in front of Fox Elementary, organizers said. Stations will be set up, and supplies made available, for participants to create their own original signs and banners to carry during the March to Fund Safe Schools, according to their press release.
Richmond’s School Board is debating budget issues.
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