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Patrick Henry School Project Reaches Vote

For months, a group of Richmonders has worked tirelessly to craft a detailed application that would be the basis for the first charter school in Richmond.

On Monday, after two meetings filled with questions, the Richmond School Board will decide whether to approve or decline the application.

The public will also have a chance to voice its opinion on the project, which proposes to create the Patrick Henry Charter School in the now closed Patrick Henry building just south of the river in Woodland Heights.

The mission, according to the Patrick Henry Initiative , is to establish a K-5 school based on meaningful parent, educator and community involvement. The school intends to provide the children of our ethnically and socio-economically diverse Richmond community with an academically rigorous science and liberal arts curriculum that emphasizes environmental awareness and social responsibility.

The school would be open to any student who wanted to apply, but it would be run independently from the city. It would be funded by both city and state funds as well as private donations and grants.

Among the plans for the school would be to:

-- provide a science-based, interdisciplinary curriculum;

-- utilize the resources of Forest Hill Park as an outdoor classroom;

-- employ innovative hands-on learning experiences to spark students' natural curiosity;

-- emphasize visual arts and music;

-- require a parent/student contract of involvement;

-- utilize a progressive quarter calendar; and

-- bridge economic barriers and focus on learning by requiring simple school uniforms.

But a few groups oppose the school because they believe will exclude some children in the city, especially those who don't have the transportation to get the child to the school.

Some of those concerns came up during a meeting with charter hopefuls and the School Board on Thursday evening. The questions ranged from the specific -- having specific forms in two places -- to the overall -- why not redirect the energy for this project into the current school system?

"We have worked endlessly to put this stuff in front of you," said charter initiative and former teacher Victoria Schnettler , "and it needs to be looked at for its merits before that even happens."

Board Chairman George Braxton also told the group that the same reasons still exist for the initial closing of Patrick Henry two years ago -- declining enrollment, noncompliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and the fact that nearby schools could accept the students.

School Board members questioned the lack of transportation options and pointed out that the charter school needed involvement from the black community.

"We do have African-Americans involved in different capacities," said Schnettler, who was one of five all-white members presenting the project to the board Thursday. "Now that we've done this work, we've been getting out into the community, churches and civic associations. There's been a lot of effort. This school will be diverse. It is of the utmost importance."

When asked about the lack of busing to the school, charter representatives said that right now they couldn't afford it, especially not knowing from what parts of the city students would be coming from.

School Board member Chandra Smith said the transportation was the biggest worry for her district residents.

"That immediately cuts out a whole group of people," Smith said.

Charter representatives said they weren't yet convinced that the lack of transportation would be an exclusionary aspect and that they would certainly be open to working on that in the future.

For more information on the Patrick Henry Charter Initiative, check out patrickhenrycharter.org.

UPDATE: The Richmond School Board gave the approval Monday for the city's first charter school, but it was not without controversy. Read more about the approval here.