School Board says city is falling short in maintaining school grounds

The Richmond School Board says the city isn’t doing a good enough job mowing school properties and wants to revisit a 2011 agreement that put the Department of Public Works in charge of maintaining grounds.  

“When you get calls constantly from your constituency about the maintenance of school grounds, that’s a problem,” said Board Chair Dawn Page. “Just like we’re held accountable, we are held to a certain standard, the city has to be held to a certain standard as well.” 

On Monday, the board passed a resolution directing Superintendent Jason Kamras to renegotiate the 2011 memorandum of understanding to either include more specific language about what the city is required to do or transfer responsibility for grounds maintenance back to the division. 

“Since the implementation of this agreement, community members and families have raised repeated concerns regarding inadequate maintenance of school grounds, adversely affecting the appearance and usability of school properties,” the resolution states. 

The proposal came from 3rd District member Kenya Gibson, who described it as a “Schools Mowing Schools” resolution in a tongue-in-cheek nod to her controversial 2021 “Schools Building Schools” resolution that transferred control of school construction from the city to the division. 

While Kamras took pains to call the Department of Public Works “a very good partner” to the schools and suggested city resources may be stretched thin, he acknowledged that “there are concerns about our grounds.” 

DPW did not respond to questions about the criticisms and how frequently the department conducts maintenance at school properties. 

The 2011 agreement stemmed from a city auditor report that recommended RPS and the Department of Public Works consolidate their grounds maintenance divisions. The resulting MOU spelled out a list of maintenance tasks each one would be responsible for, with Public Works taking the lead on mowing, edging, most weed control, turf maintenance and leaf removal. 

In return, RPS agreed to transfer nine of its maintenance employees to the city, along with a long list of equipment and the $477,477 that had been budgeted for grounds work that year. 

On Monday, Kamras said that if the schools began maintaining their own grounds again, “we would very much seek not only the funding, the positions and the financial value of the equipment, but the depreciation on those and the inflationary increases over 14 years in an effort for us to be able to execute on the work.” 

Gibson said the consolidation of the two maintenance teams “make[s] sense as long as at the end the lawns are getting mowed on a regular basis.” 

But numerous board members said Monday that isn’t occurring. 

Mariah White, who represents the 2nd District, said she frequently has to call the school division and the city to address unkempt properties. At Carver Elementary, she said homeless people had on two occasions been detected in overgrown bushes and hedges, “one we found deceased.” 

Asked about the death of a homeless person at the school, Richmond Police Department spokesperson James Mercante said the most recent incident on record occurred in 2019, when police were called to the block where Carver Elementary sits and found an 82-year-old man who was dead in a wooded area near the Interstate 64/95 right of way. The man had been missing for nearly a month since walking away from an assisted living facility in Northside. 

Page said she had received “emails” and “constant calls” about school grounds conditions over the years. 

“Our young people deserve better and we have to demand better,” she said. 

But while all board members voiced concerns about inadequate grounds maintenance, three members did not back Monday’s resolution. 4th District member Garrett Sawyer abstained from the vote, while both 5th District member Stephanie Rizzi and 9th District member Shavonda Fernandez said they were concerned about the speed with which the proposal was pushed through. 

Because Gibson added the resolution to the agenda at the start of the Dec. 2 meeting, members of the public had no notice that it was coming up for discussion, Rizzi said. 

“I don’t know if there has been communication with the city about this or if the city has had a chance to respond,” she said. 

Fernandez similarly said that “I don’t think the ball would drop if we were to stew on it and sleep on it.” 

Gibson, however, argued that the resolution simply orders the superintendent to open up negotiations, and that any changes to the existing memorandum will have to come back before the School Board for consideration. 

“The public wants us to make sure that the grounds are being taken care of. This motion basically says that we’ll explore how we’re going to get that done,” she said.