RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — Infrastructure improvements are coming to multiple Richmond Public Schools (RPS) facilities over the next year.
The school district announced the upgrades at a press conference on Thursday, Aug. 22 at John Marshall High School in Richmond’s Northside, where a project to replace a damaged wall in the school’s courtyard is ongoing.
“With the construction going on, I’m very happy for the underclassmen after me, you know, they get to see these changes,” said Kaileigh Wilson-Porter, a senior at John Marshall who spoke at the press conference. “I’ll be gone by then, but they get to see the school flourish, and they get to see all the new things.”
School officials said the $3 million project to replace the wall is expected to be finished in October.
“What you’ll see is the project to rebuild that wall to make sure that it’s safe for kids and that J.M. is able to use the beautiful courtyard that they have,” RPS Superintendent Jason Kamras said.
RPS said that new interior walls with doors were installed at Francis Elementary School and Henderson Middle School this summer, as well as a new storm pipe at Reid Elementary School.
Meanwhile, the new roof, walls and windows have been completed at Fox Elementary, which was damaged in a fire more than two years ago, and the Head Start rooms have been renovated at John Marshall and the Richmond Alternative School.
“Buildings don’t make education happen, but they are foundational,” Kamras said.
The district also recently won a 15.3-million-dollar federal grant to upgrade HVAC systems across 22 Title I schools . The average age of those schools is 86 years old, according to the district.
RPS also announced that the following schools will be getting upgrades to their heating, air conditioning and ventilation systems:
- Albert Hill MS
- Amelia Street School
- Armstrong HS
- Bellevue ES
- Binford MS
- Carver ES
- Community HS
- Fairfield Court ES
- Franklin Military Academy
- Francis ES
- John Marshall HS
- Maymont PS
- McClenney ES
- Obama ES
- Redd ES
- Reid ES
- Richmond Alternative School
- Southampton ES
- Summer Hill PS
- Swansboro ES
- Thomas Jefferson HS
- Westover Hills ES
However, even though the school district is taking a step in the right direction with these upgrades, Kamras said there’s still plenty of work to be done.
“We’re very grateful for all the investments that the city and the state have made, but we certainly need a lot more,” said Kamras. “Over $1 billion of investment is needed to bring all of our facilities up to speed.”
Some of the other projects on the horizon for RPS include roof upgrades at Summer Hill Preschool, Maymont Preschool, Boushall Middle School and Redd Elementary School. Officials also say they plan to expand the bus loop at Reid Elementary School and begin a design process for a new Woodville Elementary School.
Kamras explained the school district is working on an assessment of all of its facilities in an effort to determine what every building needs and which improvements are of the highest priority.
“We are doing everything we can with every penny we’ve got,” said Kamras. “We are out there hustling to get every dime we can from the federal government, state government [and] local government to fix our buildings as fast as we can.”
Construction for most of these projects is set to be done in 2025, according to the school district.
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