Richmond’s New Mayor Makes Education a Priority

Iremain very grateful for the incredible privilege to serve as Richmond's next mayor. Since Election Day, my staff and I have been working very hard to implement plans that will bring our great city to a better quality of life for all citizens -- plans that will make all who live here proud to say, "I live in Richmond, Virginia," regardless of who they are or their background.

During my campaign, I emphasized the importance of public education in uplifting our community. Thus, public education is an important part of my plan to achieve this vision.

However, for our plan to work for public education, we must put aside the wasteful and petty bickering that has consumed literally all branches of our city government in the past.

We must now focus on our common goals and build upon the things that are working well in our public school system. One such program I am particularly interested in is the Capital City Program (CCP) because of its remarkable success with our students.

The CCP is an alternative school for students in middle school and high school who have issues with behavior, discipline, and low academic achievement. The program is not a "warehouse" to place troubled students aside and to leave them, forgotten. Quite to the contrary, the CCP takes students for the sole purpose of getting them critical help and then getting them back into their regular schools. In addition to teaching them behavioral skills, CCP emphasizes academic achievement.

UNLIKE SOME alternative schools in Virginia that seek to substitute minimum employment skills in lieu of success in the classroom, the CCP measures its success by how many of it students return back to their regular schools and then remain academically on track to graduate from high school.

And the results speak for themselves. Last year, the CCP was Virginia's only disciplinary alternative school to achieve state accreditation under the SOL program -- and it has done so again in 2008.

A recent longitudinal study of the CCP revealed that 1,257 students were served during the first three years of the program and almost 90 percent of those students either have graduated, are currently enrolled in Richmond Public Schools, or are enrolled in a school outside of Richmond. Many of those students are now in higher education -- something that many of them thought was never possible when they first walked through CCP's doors. The program's presence in Richmond has had a significant and positive impact on the overall dropout rate and disciplinary reports in our overall school system. I am pleased that such a program was created right here in Richmond and that the school system had the willingness to reach out into the private sector to work with Community Education Partners to make this unique program a reality.

FOR MANY years since its inception, the CCP has remained in a temporary building despite promises from schools officials to get it into a better and more permanent facility to serve more students. Although a private-public partnership proposal to finance a new CCP school facility was made several years ago to city officials, it has largely been lost in the overall debate regarding public education.

There is no question that this program can be expanded to serve more students in need, but we as stewards of the schools must assist in this process. When I become mayor I will make it a priority to house this important program in a better and permanent facility to serve more students. I hope the new council and new School Board will join me in this goal. Together we can find the means to make this happen.

As Richmond's new mayor, I think there are more success stories in our schools that become lost from time to time from public acknowledgment, like the CCP. I want to work with the superintendent, Yvonne Brandon, and our new School Board to enhance such programs and to focus on other critical needs.

Working together to build upon our strengths in our public school system is only one part of my plan to improve public education. It is an important first step in setting a positive and constructive environment for all stakeholders to work together and move away from the past.

That's the kind of mayor I want to be: someone who sets the tone so that all can work together for our students and for our city.
Dwight C. Jones takes office as Richmond's mayor on Thursday.