For the second year in a row, some Richmond public schools are beginning classes early.
The Monday start date at four local schools is part of RPS200, an expanded pilot program aimed at combating pandemic-era learning loss. Fairfield Court and Cardinal elementary schools were the program’s first participating schools in 2023; they’re joined this year by Oak Grove-Bellemeade and Woodville.
The program’s focus, according to Fairfield Court principal Angela Wright, is getting elementary school students to appropriate reading levels by third grade.
“We go to school 200 days,” Wright said. “We have our data from the spring that we continue to close those gaps.”
RPS officials point to statistical benefits from the program’s first year: Early literacy scores at Fairfield Court went up by 30 points, while absenteeism rates dropped by more than 20%.
But not everyone is onboard. Some teachers contacted by VPM News said the program accelerated teacher turnover at the schools where it was implemented and questioned the numbers cited by the school division.
“A lot of the outcomes are being misattributed to the extension of the school year,” said Beth Almore, who teaches music at four Richmond elementary schools.
Among the schools where Almore taught was Woodville, but when school officials announced they were entering the RPS200 program in April, she transferred out.
“RPS has done some wonderful initiatives as regards absenteeism,” she said, adding that divisionwide outreach programs played a role in changing attendance numbers. “But that is not a function of extending the school year.”
Some parents also said the school system decided late to put the program in place at some schools.
“Back in February, I scheduled my daughter for surgery on July 23, thinking it would be during summer break,” Woodville parent Margaret Ann Szabo wrote in an email to VPM News.
She didn’t learn the school would enter the program until late last school year.
“Now, she will attend school on Monday and have her surgery on Tuesday, and I’m not sure when she will make it back,” Szabo said. “Our school waited until April to become a 200[-day] school.”
On Friday, Fairfield Court teachers and employees busily prepared for students to return for the first day of classes.
Wright said she had full buy-in from both parents and teachers.
“We truly work as a team here,” she said, “That’s why we’re able to have so much success for the 200-day school year.”
All other schools in the division begin class Aug. 19.
