Earlier this month, the Richmond School Board voted to transfer ownership of the fields behind Westover Hills Elementary off Jahnke Road in Southside to the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation. It was the fourth time in less than a year that the board was considering giving school system property to Parks and Rec, and one board member wanted to know if there were more to come.

“Can the board get a list of all the school grounds that need to be transferred?” asked 2nd District representative Mariah White. “Because it’s starting to seem like quite a few.”

So far, properties conveyed to the parks department include the Westover Hills fields and Ethel Bailey Furman Park next to the new Henry L. Marsh Elementary in Church Hill. The board has also approved a site survey of Abner Clay Park in Jackson Ward with the intention of turning it over to the city afterward. 

So what’s behind all the transfers? 

First, for Parks and Rec, the acquisitions are part of an ongoing effort to ensure all Richmonders live within a 10-minute walk of a green space. 

“Citizens don't understand the difference between parks property and school property. They just know a park or a green space," said Parks and Recreation Director Christopher Frelke. "We're trying to determine what are the places that have served both well and figure out a path forward.” 

Another driver, said Frelke, is the 2021 Schools Building Schools resolution, after which the School Board took over control of school construction from the city. That shift led to a heightened attention to ownership of specific properties, which may traditionally have been operated or maintained by the city but owned by the schools — or vice versa.

“Probably things that were OK to have as a verbal agreement were fine when we did a lot of these things back in the ’40s or ’50s or ’60s,” said Frelke. “As society has changed and we’ve evolved, and rules and things have happened, so have we.” 

Confusion about who owns what has been evident. 

“I thought it was always the city’s,” said White during an April 2023 School Board discussion on Ethel Bailey Furman. “So I’m just not sure why they can’t have the park back.” 

In the case of Abner Clay, the property has been “functioning as a park” already, said Dana Fox, Richmond Public Schools’ chief operating officer, during the School Board’s Aug. 5 meeting. 

“There was some, we’ll call it, confusion among the city and us,” she said. “I think we thought that they owned it; I think they thought that they owned it. But technically, it is an RPS property. So they have already channeled funding to this property for some upgrades, and they want to continue that work.” 

Money, of course, also plays a role. As the School Board has considered transferring the Westover Hills fields, Abner Clay and Ethel Bailey Furman back to the city, members have repeatedly commented that taking the properties off school rolls would help relieve the division of maintenance obligations — and allow improvements the cash-strapped schools feel they cannot fund. 

In February, 7th District School Board member Cheryl Burke said transferring Ethel Bailey Furman Park “was because of the vision of what they could do financially that we’re not able to do.” Fox too has noted that in the case of the Westover Hills land, which has suffered from chronic drainage problems, “the facilities would likely look better faster with the resources Parks and Rec has.” 

That department has already made or is planning major investments into the parcels. At Westover Hills, it’s planning to add tennis, pickleball and basketball courts as well as a skate/BMX area and a dog park.

At Abner Clay, the city has already made $1.3 million of investments and intends to resurface the existing playground. And at Ethel Bailey Furman, parks officials are holding community meetings in response to what they say are resident requests to restore and spruce up the space. (A fourth parcel being considered for transfer, Ruger Field behind Lois Harrison-Jones Elementary just south of Carytown, is tied up in negotiations between Richmond Public Schools and the Richmond Tennis Revitalization Project.) 

Students at both Westover Hills and Richmond High School for the Arts will continue to get priority for usage of the Westover Hills fields. 

“The transfer is a win-win for students and city taxpayers, as it will allow the land to be developed into basketball courts, tennis courts, and pickleball courts as part of Parks and Rec's master plan,” said Fox in a statement to The Richmonder. “We're happy to partner with the city for the benefit of Southside residents and, particularly, RHSA and Westover Hills students."