Richmond Education Association

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Richmond Education Association We are a Labor Union representing Richmond Public School Employees

October is one of the most challenging months of the year for school staff. Join your fellow REA members at the Veil | F...
10/17/2026

October is one of the most challenging months of the year for school staff. Join your fellow REA members at the Veil | Forest Hill to unwind, build community, share your concerns, and receive support!

This Friday, Oct. 23rd, we will have a few tables reserved from 5-7pm for REA members. Look for folks wearing their red REA t-shirts and wear yours if you have one! There will be members there starting around 4:15pm if you’d like to get there earlier.

Bring your coworkers! Not a member yet? You can sign up at the social. Arm in arm, we are stronger TOGETHER!

UPDATED: Calling all REA members for our first All Member Assembly of the year! Join us virtually on Wednesday, October ...
09/28/2026

UPDATED: Calling all REA members for our first All Member Assembly of the year! Join us virtually on Wednesday, October 14 at 5:30 pm. Our union strength relies on our active membership. Come out and discuss the issues and working conditions that you have with your fellow union members. Together, we can fight for the schools we deserve.

The Black Child Book Fair debuts in RICHMOND, VA!! They are continuing their nationwide initiative of promoting positive...
09/28/2026

The Black Child Book Fair debuts in RICHMOND, VA!! They are continuing their nationwide initiative of promoting positive African-American stories and images! African-American authors from across the country are coming with stories to empower our children starring characters that look like them! In collaboration with the Mocha Moms’ Richmond Chapter and the Richmond Public Library. Their flyer is attached.

09/26/2026

The Richmond City School Board has the 6th District Seat open and up for election on November 3rd!

Take the time to research these candidates before making a decision on who to vote for!

09/25/2026

Stu Berg, parent at Barack Obama, shared a public comment at the School Board meeting on September 9th. Quotes from his comment are below.

“What we see, of course, is a lot of references to the funding issues that we’ve had, but as an engineer, as a facilities director, as an operations manager, I look to audits, inspections into the evaluations that RPS themselves had conducted on their buildings.

These are some direct quotes from those audits on reflections not of the assets or the infrastructure of the building, but of the process management and the leadership within them. “Extreme neglect… complete lack of effort… neglected and ignored… Gross abuse of authority… Significant systematic vulnerabilities… Not a very good picture… Zero preventative maintenance activities… Complete lack of effort ensuring that schools are safe for occupancy… Lack of process, procedure, and oversight… ongoing roadblock… lack of necessary oversight to prevent unauthorized, undocumented spending… gross conflict of interest… not knowing is dangerous…”

These are not the words of angry parents or teachers. These are the words of the auditors and the inspectors that RPS themselves have sent into the facility. There are also things that don’t require money to fix. This is very basic process adherence. It’s using the tools we’re already paying for, basic accountability, basic leadership. These are the things the schools need.

Of course, funding would help. Of course, funding is needed, but these are things that will provide immediate relief and will provide relief from the systematic problems that we’re seeing that are closing our schools.

I’m going to run out of time here, of course, but just to review what’s behind some of these words, in the most recent audit, we found that the maintenance management system that RPS is already paying for is not being used. We found one auditor in 2026 found zero preventative maintenance activities. Again, these are not funding issues, right? The reason why our schools are having fire issues, the reason why our schools are having mold issues, is not funding; it’s because we have failed to…” (He was cut off because he was at time and could not finish his statement.)

Last year, our Rep Assembly voted unanimously to endorse a Trust Policy for Richmond. This Monday, September 28, the Ric...
09/25/2026

Last year, our Rep Assembly voted unanimously to endorse a Trust Policy for Richmond. This Monday, September 28, the Richmond community will gather to call on the City Council to adopt a Trust Policy. This would be an important step toward supporting and protecting our immigrant community from ICE violence. Our students and their families have been living in fear. We’ve seen families brutally torn apart, parents unlawfully detained and deported, and students traumatized. We stand in solidarity with our immigrant students, staff, and their families!

09/22/2026

Nicole Zowakowski, parent at Barack Obama, provided a public comment at the September 9th School Board meeting where she addressed the handling of Obama’s re-occupancy, lack of transparency, and lack of accountability. Has the School Board or RPS administration provided a professional basis for Obama’s re-occupancy or a detailed plan? You can read some quotes from the public comment below.

“Our first real interaction with RPS was the mold and rodent announcement describing a recent HVAC outage, and this was far from the whole picture. So, instead of helping my child begin kindergarten, I found myself hunting for answers in environmental reports, facilities assessments, work orders, and audits. What I found raised far more questions than answers.

Families should not have to investigate, consult outside experts, and submit FOIA requests. While I have asked the board to help me find answers to basic questions regarding Obama’s clearance for reoccupancy, the response I received this afternoon was incomplete.

I also want to address the temporary measures being used, as a teacher recently just texted this evening, reporting the overstimulating noise and leaky dehumidifiers, and my own child said she’s been wearing ear protection all day long. Temporary measures may be necessary, but they require a complete and published plan, careful monitoring, and never treated as a substitute for permanent repairs. RPS needs additional funding, we know, but it also needs transparency, accountability, oversight, and working systems. So, please provide the written professional basis for Obama’s reoccupancy, deadlines, specific triggers. I hope that the actions following this meeting will begin to rebuild the trust.”

09/16/2026

Desarae Wisnoski, parent of two at Barack Obama, shared experiences dealing with her children’s school closure due to toxic mold levels, in addition to a rodent infestation that was never properly addressed, 23 work orders for leaks that were never fully resolved which led to the presence of mold, lack of air circulation, and extremely hot classrooms. You can see quotes from her public comment below.

“I’m standing here tonight as a parent who is angry, frustrated, and honestly to the point of disgusted by what we, our children, teachers, and staff have been expected to tolerate. This is about a pattern. Leaks, mold, microbial growth, moisture, rodents, HVAC issues, electrical concerns. Parents or teachers didn’t suddenly invent these because we’re upset. They’ve been documented and been a pattern. 23 work orders for leaks alone were filed at Obama Elementary since the beginning of 2025.

The remediation contractor himself specifically warned that remediation is not a permanent solution if the underlining sources of moisture are not addressed. How many work orders does it take for a leak to become a priority?

Our children saw mice in their classrooms so often last year that they started naming them and we thought they had class pets. Teachers and parents complained about heat and the lack of adequate air circulation. Classrooms became unbearably hot.

My own children struggled with respiratory and allergy issues during the school year that improve when they’re away from the building. I’m not stating that I can claim that that’s what’s the problem, but I shouldn’t have to worry if the building is a problem to their symptoms.

If preventative maintenance had been done when these problems were smaller, perhaps we would not be standing here now talking about remediation, displacement, damaged materials, and hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars needed in repairs. “We don’t have the money” cannot be the end of the conversation because our children have been paying the price.” (The school Board cut her off because she was at time. She proceeded to finish her sentence, and they interrupted her again, saying she was at time.)

IMPORTANT UPDATE ON NEGOTIATIONS! Contact your School Board representatives and ask them these questions that we have fo...
09/15/2026

IMPORTANT UPDATE ON NEGOTIATIONS!
Contact your School Board representatives and ask them these questions that we have for them. We need community support around negotiations.

During negotiations, RPS has outright rejected proposals on topics such as leave, unencumbered planning, and raises. RPS refuses to go above a 2% raise for the next three years, which does not even keep up with current inflation rates. Instead of engaging in good faith negotiations, RPS has chosen to pay their lawyer $43,450 as of August 28 to negotiate for them, per a FOIA request an REA member submitted.
Does keeping highly qualified teachers and support staff matter to RPS when they refuse to pay their own workers a fair wage and meet their needs to perform their duties?

During negotiations, RPS has chosen to waste time. Rather than engage in good faith bargaining with their own workers, RPS has wasted most of the 3 hour negotiation sessions by going into private caucus meetings for up to an hour while our Negotiations Team has had to sit and wait. REA members have been advocating for working conditions and students’ learning conditions, yet they are being met with resistance from RPS every step of the way.
According to School Board comments, several School Board members advocated for policies around a fair wage for contractors.
Will they hold RPS administration responsible for ensuring fair wages for their own workers when RPS refuses to do so?

09/13/2026

Lakeisha Williams, an RPS parent and educator as well as an REA member, has always advocated for our schools. Here is her public comment with some quotes from her comment, especially regarding the issue of our building conditions and the former facilities director.
“When teachers do things that they’re not supposed to do and they’re not performing their job duties, they’re reprimanded. There has been articles and I’ve spoken about it on social media of the state of our facilities department, the person who could be responsible for the negligence that we are experiencing. But the most important part that I’ve pointed out is that the HVAC company that comes and repairs our units is associated with our past facility director. I don’t feel it’s reasonable for that company to still be servicing our buildings… You don’t come and fix a HVAC unit and three months later that same unit broke again, and it’d been checked off that it was fixed.

…Ms. Dana Fox did her due diligence of this district to put things in place and to find that she was disrespected and those things were not looked upon. “Lack of work orders”? She put a work order system that was a vote amongst this body and to know that it was disregarded is very disrespectful. I also don’t like that the past facilities director was hired with the company that comes and services our air condition units. Is there something in place that he is not going to return to our property for what we’re dealing with? …

I feel sorry for the people at Boushall because I was the face of that parent that was advocating for the mold in that building that came home on my child’s clothes.”

Address

3615 Saunders Avenue
Richmond, VA
23227

Opening Hours

Monday 8:30am - 5pm
Tuesday 8:30am - 5pm
Wednesday 8:30am - 5pm
Thursday 8:30am - 5pm
Friday 8:30am - 5pm

Telephone

+18046483100

Website

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