Central Virginia partnership to collaborate on education

More than a dozen of the area's top educators and business and civic leaders met yesterday to begin work on a new approach to education in central Virginia: collaboration.

The members of the "Bridging Richmond" partnership pledged to work together to assimilate a wide variety of programs -- dealing with academics, social issues and health concerns, among other things -- already in place.

The program is one of four nationwide based on "Strive," a 3-year-old project in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky that combines education, business and community resources to support children from preschool through college graduation. It also is being set up in Hayward, Calif., Houston and Indianapolis.

The goal, program leaders said after a morning meeting on the Virginia Commonwealth University campus, is to pull together resources already in place, not to create new programs.

"The strength of this . . . is everyone in this room," said Beverly Warren, the dean of VCU's School of Education. "For such a lofty goal, you need strong leadership."

The participants include the presidents of VCU, the University of Richmond and Virginia Union University, the superintendents of the area's largest school systems, the chiefs of some of the area's top employers and leaders of local philanthropic groups.

"I think it's a great day for the Richmond region," said Marcus J. Newsome, the Chesterfield County superintendent. "As the world becomes more globalized, it's going to take more than a public school system to educate our children."

He said he was particularly eager to bring local universities into the fold of a program with a stated intent of providing "cradle to career" nurturing.

Yvonne W. Brandon, the Richmond superintendent, said the program will strengthen an already lengthy list of groups that help in and with city schools.

"It's pulling what we have together and making sure we support our children," she said. "It will allow us to put together all of the pieces of the puzzle."

The participants were quick to say the hard work was to come, with bimonthly meetings -- featuring institutional leaders, not subordinates -- and a plan to announce specific goals by October.

"I want to stress what our expectations are," said Jo Lynne DeMary, the former state superintendent of public instruction who is the director of VCU's Center for School Improvement. "We're going to get people who don't always work together, working together."

"My suggestion is they keep it simple," said Jeff Edmondson, a University of Richmond graduate who directs the Cincinnati program. "One of the mistakes we made was trying too much. We had 15 goals. We found that five worked better. They've already come to that conclusion on their own."

DeMary said action is the key, not discussion.

"This is not a short-term initiative," she said. "It's a long-term commitment on the part of the Richmond community.

"We're not going to sit around. Let's get to work."

Contact Zachary Reid at (804) 775-8179 or .