001Good evening everyone. All right, we would like to call the school board special meeting for the sixth district candidate interviews into order on January 20th, 2026. Madame clerk, Mr. PLAL. >> Yes, >> Mr. K >> here. >> Mr. Farooq >> here. >> Mr. Hedgepath >> here. >> Miss Rizzy >> here. >> Miss Burke >> here. >> Mr. Jafari >> here. Miss Fernandez here. You have a call. Thank you. Okay. Sorry, this is my part. As a reminder, only the following persons will be called forward tonight and interviewed tonight for the district 6 uh school board representative vacancy appointment in the order in which their application was submitted. Uh number one, Dr. Jacqueline Mcdana. Number two, Miss Anne Holton. Number three, Mr. Richard Walker. Number four, Miss Kina Harris. And number five, Mr. Victor McKenzie Jr.
002Each candidate will be asked a series of five questions by the board during 15minute increments. The board will deliberate during a closed session during this meeting as well as on the Monday, February 2nd, 2026 schoolboard meeting. Immediately following a recommendation will be made and open session and action taken on the appointment of the interim school board representative for district 6. This the appointed candidate will be sworn in prior to the Monday, March 2nd, 2026 schoolboard meeting at which time they will be formally seated as the interim representative of the sixth district of the school board of the city of Richmond. And now we are prepared to receive our candidates. She's on her way. Thank you. Colleagues, if you could refer to the question rotation. Good evening. Thank you for being here tonight. As it's been
003previously shared, we will ask a series of five questions. You'll have 15 minutes to respond total for the questions. The first question is, what data, antidotes, or experiences have most shaped your understanding of this district's needs? I'm going to repeat the question to you. It's all also referred at this at the podium there. What data, anecdotes, or experiences have most shaped your understanding of this district's needs? >> Well, thank you for this opportunity and um before I go directly to that that question, let me take a minute to introduce myself. I'm a resident of the sixth district. I've been there for 38 years. Both of my children and my grandchildren have attended elementary schools, the middle school, Henderson, Overby Shepard, and John Marshall. I've served my neighborhood in multiple areas. I was on the inaugural
004board of the Highland Park Restoration and Preservation Program. Um, I'm also on was on the advis I am on the advisory board of the Highland Park Quality of Life Civic Association. I started a club, a garden club in Highland Park to connect legacy residents and the new residents. I served on the Henriiko, the Richmond Henriiko Health District Community Health Equity Committee where we made allocations of funds to small nonprofits in Richmond. In my role as the VCU science education associate professor, I secured more than $ 38 million in funding to from federal and state sources, including the National Science Foundation. First time school of education actually got a National Science Foundation grant to improve recruitment and retention of secondary science and math teachers. I was part of the team that helped start Richmond Teacher Residency
005Program and we're still producing folks and putting them out there and many of my students are now in the Richmond schools and doing amazing things. I've also worked with ELLL students and designing strategies for their um success in the science classroom. As an immigrant, I understand what those needs are. The data I think that most um have impacted me over the years has been where our students are in terms of their literacy and numeracy skills and I think in terms of the research I've done about how what are the factors that make kids that help kids in their achievements in math and science. Um, I think that's a place that I could bring some resources to and some understanding. Okay. >> Thank you. >> Good evening, Dr. Mad. Question number two. How do you balance
006fiscal responsibility with moral responsibility when resources are limited? I think the school system, Richmond public schools have always operated in a place where resources have been limited. And for the most part, they've made amazing strides with not having enough, but continually over the years increasing achievement. We all can't have everything we want every time. And I think we need to look at what's most important. We have to have resources to teach our children. Could we look at reducing spending in some ways that would we would still have the curriculum materials we need but look at other sources and for um for co to control cost. We could also look at partnerships because if the school system doesn't have all of the money it needs, there are several nonprofits in the new in the Richmond area
007that could that their goals are to work with young children or to work with teachers and we could look at partnerships to to supplement what we have in our budgets. But I think we should always be pushing for better funding from the state because we know our state is not fully funding the schools at the level that they're supposed to be. >> 10 minutes remaining. >> Good evening. >> As public officials, we are often faced with challenging situations that do not have immediate solutions. Please discuss your experience with a complex problem or conflict and how you addressed it. >> Okay. Well, as a science educ as a professor at VCU, um I've been confronted with multiple issues and some of at times funding was one of them. um having too many students in uh one
008of the the big issues I had when we first started doing um put bringing in students for who were funded by noise and who were funded by um the RTR program was the size of the the class. It had never been that large. So, one of the things I did was I went out and I looked for exceptional in inservice science teachers and I brought in some of those teachers to work with me in my university class. What that did was allow them to understand kind of the back they brought the experiences that they had, the immediate experiences they had in their classrooms to bear with what we were trying to to to mel the theory and the practice with. So the problem was a large number of students that I just couldn't handle on
009my own. But it was solved by pulling in teachers from the field who could bring in the day-to-day experiences for my uh pre-ervice teachers. >> Thank you. >> All right. So, question number four. RPS serves families from many economic backgrounds. How have your life and work experiences prepared you to understand, represent, and advocate for families with a wide range of needs? >> Well, as the child of immigrants, I was I was brought to this country when I was nine years old. All my parents said was, "You're supposed to come first in class, but there was no road map. Teachers and counselors in the schools were part of the road map for me." So, um, that's one experience. I understand what it means to be to don't to not have all of the resources to give
010your child but at the same time wanting achievement wanting that child to get the best education. So just going in with that mindset know helps me to see that we have to fill in some of the gaps for our students. I've also lived in the community where um my kids friends who would my house was one of the houses that they came to when we had our block parties or we had cookouts. It was at Auntie Jackie that people came to. So those young people showed me kind a different a different set of circumstances. Our children were fine. They got everything they needed. But these were kids who needed additional support. Even as a teacher at most at um when I was at Mace and Chambla, my kids didn't have they couldn't get to the
011libraries all the time to do their projects. I brought the books from the library into my classroom. I allowed kids to come to my house on the weekend to work on their science fair projects and they were produced. Thank you, Dr. McDonald, for being here. I have the last question. The Richmond City School Board values good governance that keeps student outcomes at the center. How would you balance the following? One, fiscal responsibility. Two, the board as a body. Three, you as an individual member. And four, community expectations. I think the first part of that balance is professional development. There is a lot to learn about how a board functions and even though you know could go online and read about what the responsibilities of a board is but actually understanding how to fulfill that I
012I'll need professional development. Um, I'd like to go back to some other folks who have served on the board and get feedback from them. I think that's always a good thing. And, um, knowing what the community wants is paramount to me. And the way we do that is to have those rel to call I'll be calling on relationships that I already have in place in my community through the civic association through you know I know many of the principles that are in the schools in the community and um and keeping your h my hand on the pulse of what the needs are but learning [clears throat] in detail how to fulfill those responsibilities through professional development. >> Thank you for your time this evening. >> Thank you. Good evening. >> Good evening. So for the
013format as shared previously, you'll have 15 minutes to answer five questions. Uh a copy of the questions are before you if you'd like to reference them. We'll start off with Miss Rizzy asking the first question. >> Good evening, Miss Holton. >> Good evening. >> The first question is, what data, anecdotes, or experiences have most shaped your understanding of this district's needs? >> Wow. Uh that's a great question. And first, I'll just thank you all all for the opportunity to uh speak with you tonight. I'm very very excited about the opportunity potentially to help you do the great work you're already doing together with Richmond on the rise. Um um experiences that most shaped my understanding of the district's needs. Well, I just have I have many experiences of working with RPS over many many years.
014I guess u uh first as a student uh later as a parent of three RPS graduates. Uh, but I've had I I I think I'll answer with some professional opportunities when I've had chances to see uh good things going on in RPS, but also the challenges that uh we've tried to address. And one that comes to mind is visiting the uh Richmond Teacher Residency Program, which I've had the chance to visit both at TJ and at uh what I call Mosby still from uh my days there, but Martin Luther King uh Middle School. and knowing just how hard it is to attract and retain highquality teachers uh for our students who are farthest from opportunity, but also knowing how important it is that those students are the ones who most need top quality teachers uh
015um uh to help them on their on their pathway to success in life. And that re Richmond teacher residency program is one that I think is a great example. I know you've got other great programs in the city uh uh that are working to u uh grow your own in various ways in the teacher programming uh in the developing great teachers and you're doing great work to attract and retain uh great teachers in all kinds of ways. But I I would say that would be one. Um also just so many opportunities to see our our students potential and yet how the potential is impacted by poverty. Um, and as we all know, we have a lot of students in in Richmond who um u don't necessarily have all the uh family support because families are
016busy and juggling u many many needs. Um, but also uh who have so much opportunity if only we can get them the support they need through the schools. Good evening, Mrs. Halton. All right. My question is, how do you balance fiscal responsibility with moral responsibility when resources are limited? >> Great. Another great question and something you all have to do all the time when you're making tough decisions about budgeting and and when you have competing needs. Uh um well, but I would say that I don't really know that the two are in conflict because you have to be fiscally responsible in order to be able to have funds to spend on behalf of the things that uh the demand the moral demand of meeting the needs of each and every one of our students. So
017you have to be uh uh uh uh you have to have a balanced budget obviously every year. You have to be a good partner to the city. you have to work hard to develop resources u for the city. I uh one of the reasons I uh uh applied uh to for this position is that I would love to be able to help you all make the case to the state. As you know, the city has stepped up to the plate and has helped fund u of some of the great work that you all have been doing together here in the city. Um but the city the state hasn't done its share yet. And so that is part of fiscal responsibility is arguing for more resources and the state uh uh the state piece of that
018is is a gap. So I would say that's being fiscally responsible to be advocating for more resources, but it's also being fiscally responsible to have to excuse me make tough choices and and manage budgets. In terms of your moral responsibility, I think that uh you know I think that's probably pretty clear too really. I know all of you all embrace the uh the the motto that we've got to keep the children at the center. The children are are are first and what's going to help our children be successful. Uh and if that's your moral uh compass as embodied and and how do we serve the children? We serve them through all the the pillars that you all have put so well together in the dreams for RPS that we we have to have great uh
019uh uh supports. We have to have great teachers. We have to have a great infrastructure all so that we can serve the children well. But once you have a clear moral uh once once you have a clear goal then that helps uh govern your u your moral decisions and your uh fiscal decisions. >> Good evening Miss Holden. >> Good evening Mr. >> Great to see you again. >> Thank you. And I have question number three, which is as public officials, we are often faced with challenging situations that do not have immediate solutions. Please discuss your experience with a complex problem or conflict and how you address it. Uh yes, you have uh challenging situations that you address every single uh time you are together. I know. U well here's one example. Um uh one one
020experience um I u had the um the honor to serve as a judge in the juvenile domestic relations court here in the city of Richmond. And during that time at some point got um designated by my colleagues. I was the junior person on the team and got pointed to go work with these foster care folks. Um, and it became for me really a a longtime passion of how to help serve better our young people in uh in foster care, our our students and our children who didn't have uh effective families of their own. And uh we started a group that was focused on how could we serve those kids better. At that time, Richmond City had almost a thousand kids in foster care. I used to tease my friend Mike Evans, who was the director
021of social services at that time. How are your thousand kids doing? And it's not a good, it's never the ideal situation for a parent, for a child to have the state or the city as their parent. Everybody, every child needs permanent family. And we weren't doing that well by our kids in the city of Richmond. Way too many of our kids in foster care aged out without permanent family. Uh way too many of them were uh with meaning never achieving a a permanent family connection. Uh way too many of them were not being placed with families at all. They were in foster care, what we called foster care, but they were really in group homes or in uh residential treatment facilities, often locked facilities that looked a whole lot like detention. uh but we called
022it foster care. Uh so we pulled this group together and it was a disperate group. One of the the nature of the business in in the foster care world not unlike many things you do is that there are many different agencies and many different independent u sources of authority that deal with these kids. So the courts were involved. We had lawyers appointed to represent uh the children, lawyers appointed to represent the parents. We had the social workers from the city. We had behavioral health folks. We had the clerk's office, probation, and many others. And uh we I was uh designated to lead this group and pulled us all together. And uh and we we u well we agreed first that we would wanted to make sure we all agreed on our goal and we all
023agreed that we needed to serve these kids better. And we all agreed that every child needs permanent family. And agreeing on a goal got got us off to a great start. uh we then all agreed that we had different pots of information and we didn't have we didn't often have the same information. We didn't have great data then generally this was in the year 2000 or thereabouts and our data systems were um I'm sure your data systems frustrate you on occasion but this was green screens we're talking it was very um well even just finding out how many kids we we used to say almost a thousand kids in care because we didn't actually know exactly how many kids we had. So uh so we did a we started out with data sharing and information
024sharing with each others and these were you know meetings monthly sometimes more often. Um and then we started on small wins. What are some little things we can fix together and there were little tiny things just communications between the lawyers and the social workers that needed fixing. We fixed small things first and then we tackled bigger things. And the bigger things included trying to uh to and succeeding in getting more resources to support families so that children could be maybe be able to stay with their biological family if we wrapped enough supports around or that we could enlist extended family members um to uh support uh children again with wrapping around enough supports. or if those wouldn't work, then we could quickly move these children forward and recruit families for them. And this was a
025very much a collaborative effort that worked collaboratively because we had clear goals. >> Say it again. >> Thank you. Clear goals, clear metrics, um information sharing, and we got results. We cut the number of kids in care in half. Next question. RPS serves families from many economic backgrounds. How have your life and work experience prepared you to understand, represent, and advocate for families with a wide range of needs? >> So, um, thank you for that question. I, um, a a really transformative experience. my my really life-changing experience when I was a 12-year-old in the Richmond City Schools. I I will start with that because uh uh because it was such an important um u moment in my life, which was I had the opportunity when I was 12 to help desegregate what was then Mosby
026Middle School. And this was um um in an era when you know massive resistance was still a dominant theme and there there weren't a whole lot of white kids going to Mosby. Let's just put it that way. My background, my personal background was uh very upper middle class. All of my friends and associates were people who looked like me and came from my economic um background. And at Mosby, I had an opportunity to be with people of different races, but also people from different um income backgrounds. And we were all learning together. We all got a great education from terrific teachers, but we also learned a lot from each other. Um we learned how to get along across our differences. And and we also learned we had a lot really more similarities than differences. We
027all cared more about the math homework and the the little play we were putting on in the auditorium and the little um u uh cheerleading squad we built for our for our basketball team. We had so much more in common and and that was a life lesson for me uh that we had a lot in common but that a lot of the folks that I was going to school with did not have the same level of opportunity that I had. And that's really become a life passion for me throughout everything I've done to help uh to help uh make sure that people from all walks of life have um u more experience. And with that, I'll close. I see your eye. Thank you. [laughter] >> Good. Good. Good. >> Good evening, Miss Holton. Question number
028five. The Richmond City School Board values good governance that keeps student outcomes at the center. How would you balance the following? one, fiscal responsibility. Two, the board as a body, three, you as an individual member, and four, community expectations. Thank you uh uh Mr. Peral for that question. The um um well, I'll start with the board as a body does have a responsibility for um uh uh fiscal management of the system. you have the the the responsibility to do your best in partnership with the superintendent to ensure all of our students get an excellent education. The uh uh and managing the budget is certainly a crucial part of that. You do that you do that collectively. You do that through effect how many you do that through effective collaboration with each other. uh and I
029would be uh so honored and uh to have the opportunity to be a junior partner with you all and collaborate. I do understand that working together is a crucial part of what you do and the strong work you all have done working with each other and with the superintendent uh has really um u contributed in huge ways to the the results we're seeing with Richmond on the rise. And uh I I get that that how does a board work together to achieve effective results would be a a crucial part of what you'd be looking for in any new board member. Um as an individual board member, my my responsibility would be to help support your work, but also absolutely to make sure that my community is represented. And the the sixth district is an interesting
030one. I'm I'm sure everybody thinks their district is unique, but the six sixth district does have more geographic communities in it than almost any other. You know, from North Highland Park to the western part of Church Hill, um picking up my alma mater, Martin Luther King Middle School, um my church in in North Side, but then all of downtown, all of Southside, all the way over to Hillside Court in the Church Hill Park, Mosby Court, Wickham Court. It's got incredibly diverse communities. Um and uh uh that is absolutely a responsibility of the board member to reach out and actively engage with all of those communities. All students from the sixth district go to the schools all across the common all across the city. Um so uh helping those communities connect and have their input to
031the board through the board the individual board member is a crucial part of the job. I would love to have the opportunity to serve with you. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> You'll have a lot of great candidates. I wish you luck. Good evening. >> Good evening. >> As a reminder, you have uh 15 minutes to answer five questions that will be asked by the board today. You'll see a copy of those questions before you should you need to reference them after the question is asked. >> Okay. We will have Miss Ricard ask your first question. >> Good evening, Mr. Walker. >> Good evening, Mr. Ricard. >> What data, anecdotes, or experiences have most shaped your understanding of this district's >> um h there's only three schools, four schools in this district. You know, it's
032not as deep as the rest of the school uh entire district. So, I see that uh there's a lot of growth that can happen. I'm right around the corner from over B Shepard uh and I can see that that could use an expansion uh that it could uh have with the new housing that's being developed there. I'm sure that will bring more children in uh that will need there'll be a need for uh expansion at that point. Question number two, how do you balance fiscal responsibility with moral responsibility when resources are limited? you would have to smartly utilize the financial or limited resources that you have and spread them over a wide array of areas. So that would take more of a succinct uh rationale in order to be able to assist the bulk or
033the most. You know, um the fiscal responsibility would be able to see the priorities as opposed to those that uh will not give direct contribution to the education of the children. >> Hi, Mr. Walker. >> Um I have question number three. As public officials, we are often faced with challenging situations that do not have immediate solutions. Please discuss your experience with a complex problem or conflict and how you addressed it. >> I I operate a nonprofit organization. I have been for the past 16 years. Uh I've had those situations on a regular basis where I would have to um make some sacrifices. I would have to uh burn the candle at both ends in order to uh seek out additional funding to cover the cost that I will have on on an ongoing basis. Um,
034I I think I'm pretty good at doing intrinsic uh attachment to creating something that will bring in what I need to accomplish and responsibility. >> Good evening, Mr. Walker. >> Good evening, ma'am. >> I have question number four. RPS serves families from many economic backgrounds. How have your life and work experiences prepared you to understand, represent, and advocate for families with a wide range of needs? >> Uh, well, I'm a qualified mental health profession as designated by the Department of Health Professions by the state of Virginia. So I've worked in the mental health field uh for over 10 years as well. Um so I've had numerous situations with uh intensive and home young folk as well as adult. I'm very big on addressing family needs that starting from the head to the child. So if
035that child sees that the mother and the dad or the the father and mother are are excelling and taking care of them, then that would give them that much more motivation while they're in the classroom to do better because they'll have someone that they can emulate, someone they can be proud of, someone that can, you know, um they can look up to. I grew up in a single parent home, but I knew the history of my father. That's what propelled me while in school where I I I attended the college prep school. And that motivation in itself led me to move further on to uh where I'm at today. >> Good evening, Mr. Walker. Question five. >> 10 minutes remaining. The Richmond City School Board values good governance that keeps students student outcomes at the
036center. How would you balance the following? Fiscal responsibility, the board as a body, you as an individual member, and community expectations. >> Community expectations. I'm going to start from the bottom up. Um, they're looking for these children to be educated. They're looking for these children to be have social engagement. They're looking for these children to be able to mature into young adults as they move forward or metriculate through the school system. Fiscal responsibility is needed with good governance. At the same time, if it's not being governed correctly, the fiscal responsibility is out the window because you wouldn't be able to put together what is necessary for these schools to be able to educate these children. Somewhere down the line, uh the system is going to fail if they're not working in in partnership handinand with
037each other. Uh, I think that is essential in order for the resources to be available for these children to thrive, you know. Um, while I was teaching in Petersburg school system, you know, I had a big issue with the SOS. I really did. Um, but however, I knew it was it was mandated by the state of Virginia. So, we gave them an incentive, you know, for all those young people. We raised over $100,000 for those young people that successfully passed the standards of [snorts] learning test and sent them to uh to Disney World. You know, so that is a part of good governance. That is a part of fiscal management. That is a part of being able to support the school system by seeking outside funding, outside resources. You know, my nonprofit, I've been uh
038uh operating for 16 years. I continuously seek funding in order to keep it going. I continuously work with my team in order for us to be successful. We have not had to uh reach out or fold or fail because it's continuous work and that's what's essential in this school system of Richmond public school. Continuous. >> Thank you. Thank you. Good evening. Uh, as it's been shared with you previously, you have 15 minutes to answer five questions. Okay, your first question. Oh, and also there is a copy of the question stated there for you to reference if you um just want to reference it as they ask the question. Your first question will be from Mr. Jafari. >> Good evening, Miss Harris >> and thanks for your interest in serving the people and the students of
039the city of Richmond. First question is, what data, anecdotes, or experiences have most shaped your understanding of this district's needs? >> What data, anecdotes, and experiences have shaped my understanding of district's needs? I think the district district's needs vary um depending on the students needs in the building. I think weekly data meetings help our administration and teachers see the vision that we have set up for our students and if we follow through with those goals that are set the children will succeed. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. >> Thank you. How do you balance fiscal responsibility with moral responsibility where resources are limited? you focus on the areas of the most need. Um, you focus on the areas that impact the students or staff. You have to have integrity and make sure that you are doing
040what's best for our students and staff. catch up with you. >> Good evening, Miss Harris. Question number three. >> As public officials, we are often faced with challenging situations that do not have immediate solutions. Please discuss your experience with a complex problem or conflict and how you addressed it. I think as a leader um in many capacities in RBS and across Virginia um I'm faced with decisions that have to be made that not only impact the district but they also impact my own family members who are an array of RBS schools. And so I have to make a decision sometimes where I can't think just about how is this going to impact those six schools that my family members are in, but how will this impact every last school that we have in Richmond schools?
041And we have to make the decision that's best for our district. >> Good evening, Miss Harris. Hi. RPS serves families from many economic backgrounds. How have your life and work experiences prepared you to understand, represent, and advocate for families with a wide range of needs? I think being born in Richmond, Virginia, growing up in the projects, um, seeing that there are many dynam dynamics, going to school with students whose parents served in many capacities, worked in city hall, and had way larger income bases than us. Um, but we were all in school together and so I would have a lot of guidance and experience being that the families that I grew up with in Richmond, um, we can relate to the children that are now growing up in Richmond. Question number five. The Richmond City
042School Board values good governance that keeps student outcomes at the center. How would you balance the following: fiscal responsibility, the board as a body, you as an individual member, and the community's expectations? I think again going back to the question, we have to think about the district while in ourselves collaborating as a group of individuals to work together to do what's best for the district to put things in place that would benefit our students in our district and continue to grow. >> Thank you for your time this evening. Thank you. Good evening. As a reminder, you have 15 minutes to answer five questions. Those questions are before you on the podium to reference after the question is asked. Your first question will be asked by Mr. Hesh. >> Good evening, Mr. McKenzie. Thanks for being
043here. Uh, what data, anecdotes or experiences have most shaped your understanding of this district's needs? >> Sure. >> Uh, firstly, once again, thank you for having us. Um, for me, what has really shaped my understanding is getting out in the community and talking to parents and educators and community members on what they're seeing, what they're hearing. A combination of reviewing the new state quality framework, reviewing uh the dreams for RPS strategic plan, and having conversations with members about what's happening. Also, I'm an RPS parent, so I live and breathe these policy decisions every day. >> Thank you. >> Um, and and good evening. I have question number two. How do you balance fiscal responsibility with moral responsibility when resources are limited? In moments like that, I try to focus on what our objectives are. Uh,
044in my professional role, I am an executive of a statewide organization. And so, I'm constantly balancing our mission, our values, what we are attempting to accomplish with real budget constraints. And so what we try to do is get down to the root causes and balance that with policy, balance that with what actually brings real results and attempt to balance future investments with what's needed right now to get us to that point. >> Good evening. >> Thank you for being here. >> I have question number three. As public officials, we are often faced with challenging situations that do not have immediate s solutions. Please discuss your experience with a complex problem or conflict and how you addressed it. >> Sure. Uh I'll take a step back a little bit. As I mentioned in my professional role,
045I'm the chief executive of an organization. Um, I also have the pleasure of serving on another public body for the city right downstairs on Richmond public, excuse me, Richmond Planning Commission. And so we are constantly balancing complex problems with limited resources and no clear direction on what those immediate solutions might be. So the framework I attempt and I try to pride myself in doing is once again looking at the root cause balancing that against our objectives at work that might be our bylaws right which really sets the guard rails between how we operate on Richmond planning commission that's our Richmond 300 plan and here for RPS that is the dreams for RPS plan and I am no stranger to um once again serving on a public body that oftent times has really spirited debates um
046has really passionate stakeholders and constantly balanced in that with whether it's public comment um whether it is weighing against not just what's in that body for instance planning commission or work but what's happening around and so my goal is always to take thoughtful steps and approaching that constantly comparing what our objectives are and what we are attempting to do to meet that and leaning on our guiding documents. >> Thank you. And I have question number four. Sure. Good evening to you. Good evening. Good to see you. Number four, RPS serves families from many economic backgrounds. How have your life and work experience prepared you to understand, represent, and advocate for families with a wide range of needs? My entire life has prepared me for this. I grew up in a really challenging environment in New
047York City uh NYC housing authority aka the projects and oftent times it was a underresourced underinvested community and if it wasn't for strong mentors out of school time programs like the boys and girls club I wouldn't be here today and because of those mentors because of that experience I've really dedicated my life to service throughout my career I have worked and engaged in nonprofit organizations uh from Richmond's East End to operating statewide organizations right now and always referring back to being out in the community um talking to diverse sets of people taking in those experiences listening to parents and you know really aligning with those experiences as well. I would also say that in previous roles, I've specifically worked with economically disadvantaged communities, whether serving as chair of an regional organization called Kapp, working in
048a small neighborhood resource center in the east end of Richmond, and right now running a public health organization that focuses on public health equity. >> Thank you. And I have the final question. The Richmond School Board values good governance that keeps student outcomes at the center. Mhm. >> How would you balance the following? Fiscal responsibility, the board as a body, >> you as an individual member, and community expectations. >> First off, I'll start with uh community expectations. being out listening um to community members and parents and utilizing my own experience as a parent. There are some common themes that I know are important to the community but also important to our goals. In fact, you've listed nine goals that we need to um stay on track with to really meet not only the accreditation but
049the new statewide quality report. One of them for me, what I've heard and what I know to be important is attendance, right? And so making sure that we are investing in attendance officers, making sure that we are getting to the baseline of why kids are not showing up because if kids are not in school, they can't learn, right? Um, balancing that with long-term investments. We know we have a career and technical education center we need to get online. We know that we have facilities across the school district that needs investment. And I think we need to be very smart and intentional on balancing those needs, but ensuring that those communities across the city that may not have had have the resources or have had the recent upgrades are getting a fair shake in that equity
050agenda. As a member of the board, I fully respect uh and believe in good governance. I've done it my whole career. I walk the line of an executive reporting to a governing board. I sit on sever several public bodies and I understand the difference between governance setting policies in a guide rail and handing it off to our administration or our operations to implement that strategic plan. And lastly, as an individual member, I believe I am uh to be a good advocate and conduit for the community to bring those concerns to this board and to work collectively towards not what just advances that one district, but advances the entire city's public school system because at the end of the day, that's what it's about, right? It's for the kids. >> Thank you for your time this
051evening. >> Thank you. Mr. Card, Madame Chair, pursuant to section 2.2-3711A1 2-3711A1 of the code of Virginia 1950 as amended. I move that the school board of the city of Richmond convene in close session to discuss the appointment of a school board member for the sixth district vacancy. >> Second. >> It's been moved by Miss Ricard and seconded by Mr. Hedgepath. Madam clerk, >> Mr. Pible. >> Yes. >> Miss Ricard. >> Yes. >> Mr. Faru. >> Yes. >> Mr. Hedgepath. >> Yes. Miss Rzzy, >> Miss Burke, >> Mr. Jafari, >> yes. >> Miss Fernandez, >> yes. >> Motion passes. Thank you, colleagues. We are now in close session.