April 7 Newsletter: An RPS reading success story

Weather: The cold arrives. High of 53.

On this date in 1943, Mayor Gordon B. Ambler rejected the demands of garbage collectors for a 10-cent pay race, and refused to recognize their right to strike.

‘Brilliant at the basics’: How one elementary school is beating the trends and boosting literacy rates

Lois Harrison-Jones Elementary School has been one of the city's top performers in reading improvement over the past few years. The school has the highest percentage of students classified as disadvantaged who passed the third-grade state reading test.

What's the secret?

• A new curriculum, which has since been adopted by the rest of RPS
• Teacher retention jumping from 50% to 85%, creating stability
• After-school clubs that further build bonds between teachers and students
• A reading intervention program that works with kids in small groups

"When a teacher comes to them and says, ‘read this book,’ but there’s no relationship, the likelihood of it happening is slim to none," the school's principal said. "Whereas if there is a positive relationship, it increases the students’ drive and intrinsic motivation."

Take a visit inside the classroom, and hear thoughts from parents and teachers, here.

Henrico became a data center hub seemingly overnight. How did it happen, and what are the impacts?

Data centers have been in the news in recent months, and Henrico has found itself at the center of the action.

• The county's QTS facility convenes four cables that run underneath the ocean, providing the backbone of global internet service.
• Google has also installed a cable with a 250 terabyte capacity. (A gigabyte is 1,000 megabytes, and a terabyte is 1,000 gigabytes.)

One Henrico resident is fighting against the encroachment of the facilities on what was formerly farmland, and a JLARC report cautioned against increased energy demands in the years to come.

Henrico recently raised its tax rates on data centers, and will use that money to create an Affordable Housing Trust Fund.

Read more on the data center boom here.

In other news

• Richmond's Westham train station was built in 1911. They're trying to save a part of history. (CBS 6)
• 25th Monument Avenue 10K will take place this weekend (Richmond Magazine)
• Roanoke College unveils monument honoring enslaved people, created by a Richmond artist (WDBJ)

The editor's desk

The best rain of the year is the one that washes away all the pollen. It should have its own festival and parade.

Michael Phillips, founding editor
mphillips@richmonder.org

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