September 07 feature focus

The window unit blows a stream of cold air throughout the basement of the Berryman Center. Plastic yellow tablecloths cast the otherwise dreary room in a blanket of cheerfulness.
It’s 8 p.m. on a Tuesday night. An eclectic group of about 15 people sits around a table. Most of them are tired. They’ve already put in a full day, yet here they are. Although they’re from different walks of life, one bond keeps them going strong: the love of an 85-year-old school.
Patrick Henry Elementary, a storybook-looking building, has been a cornerstone of this quiet area just south of the James River. It sits between Forest Hill Park and the Woodland Heights neighborhood, its halls now quiet. In a move to meet budget restrictions, the Richmond school board closed it after the 2005-06 school year.
(A.V. Norrell Elementary, after severe flooding in its Battery Park neighborhood, moved operations to the Patrick Henry building in September 2006, where it remained. In May, the school board voted to close Norrell, for various reasons, at the end of the school year.)
Those gathered here on this hot summer evening are members of the Patrick Henry School Initiative. They’re neighbors whose purpose is to keep the school open for their community by turning it into a charter school.

What is a Charter School?
As defined by uscharterschools.org, a charter school is: “a nonsectarian public school of choice that operates with freedom from many of the regulations that apply to traditional public schools. Charter schools are accountable to …the sponsor that grants them, the parents who choose them, and the public that funds them.”
Currently, there are only three charter schools in the state of Virginia. To open a charter school in the city of Richmond, the Richmond school board must approve the charter.

Why a Charter School?
With her pixie-like hair and soft voice, you might underestimate Gina Wojtysiak. Gina loved the idea of sending her child to a neighborhood school. When she discovered that the Patrick Henry school was closing, Wojtysiak decided to speak at a Woodland Heights community meeting.
She wasn’t the only one who wanted to keep Patrick Henry Elementary School in the community. There was an overwhelmingly positive response to Wojtysiak’s plea.
She met with school board members Betsy Carr and George Braxton to discuss their options. Carr and Braxton both agreed that starting a charter school was their best bet to get an elementary school back in the Patrick Henry building. Thus the Patrick Henry School Initiative was born, with Wojtysiak leading the way as the group’s president.

Why a Charter School Here?
The students who live in former Patrick Henry school zone were reassigned to other schools and are being bussed there. In addition to re-establishing a neighborhood school, the PHSI would like to regain the student residents who go to private schools, are homeschooled, or who move to attend county schools.
The group believes that this racially and economically diverse neighborhood would benefit from a school that is run by the people in the community. Its members want to create a school that represents everyone and empowers parents to take an active role in their children’s education. They feel that parents, neighbors and teachers can design a program with a rigorous curriculum and high academic standards.

What’s Different About It?
The PHSI will use an interdisciplinary approach to teaching. The curriculum will be strongly tied to the arts and sciences and will make full use of the adjacent Forest Hill Park.
Forest Hill Park is the third largest park in the city and contains a natural watershed. Many parents think it’s the perfect outdoor classroom for hands-on lessons in environmental science, history and more.
Gregory Stallings, a former teacher at Patrick Henry Elementary, is on the PHSI’s curriculum committee. Stallings used to take his students to the park daily, where they would monitor the effects of the weather and the seasons on the environment around them. Because his students were actively engaged, discipline problems were rare.
Not only did his innovative approach to teaching win him a Teacher of the Year award, but his students also showed a dramatic increase in achievement levels.
The school will follow a progressive quarter calendar, similar to the one that State Superintendent of Public Instruction Billy Cannaday, Jr. enacted while superintendent of Hampton City Schools.
With this “year-round” calendar, students start school at the beginning of August, attend school for nine weeks and then have a two-week break. This cycle repeats throughout the year, with a longer break in the summer. Among other benefits, a progressive quarter calendar allows students to get added remediation or enrichment during their breaks at the end of each quarter.

How are Charter Schools Funded?
Common misconceptions are that charter schools cost taxpayers additional money and that they take money away from existing public schools. While it is still considered a public school, a charter school gets a smaller percentage of the per-pupil allotment than a typical public school receives. Therefore, charter schools must look elsewhere for funding.
Usually, additional money comes from grants and corporate or private donations. The PHSI has also applied for non-profit status from the IRS so they may pursue other avenues of funding.
Krista Simmerman, treasurer of the PHSI, and her finance committee are currently working on information packets to pass out to the community. These packets will be given to local businesses to gain pledges for the Patrick Henry Charter School.

A Neighborhood United
As I sit in on a PHSI meeting, I marvel at how dedicated and committed this group of people is. I can’t help but feel that if I were on a sinking ship, not only would this community find a way to save everyone, but they would also rebuild the ship.
I leave the meeting with a feeling that someday soon there will be a fourth charter school in Virginia—the Patrick Henry School of Science and Arts.

Colleen R. Lee is a writer and a sixth grade English teacher. She lives in the Richmond area with her husband and three children.

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