Election 2019: GOP state senator declares opposition to rezoning for Richmond's whitest schools
tate Sen. Glen Sturtevant, R-Chesterfield, said Tuesday that he’ll push to “save” two high-performing, majority-white Richmond elementary schools that might be merged with majority-black schools.
Facing a tough re-election fight this fall, Sturtevant, a former Richmond School Board member, used the first day of school to wade into an intense neighborhood debate over the future of the two schools and the city’s racial divides.
Mary Munford Elementary in the West End and the Fan District’s William Fox Elementary are both under consideration to be combined with schools a few miles away, an idea pitched by school leaders as a way to create more racially balanced student bodies in the city’s whitest schools.
Declaring his opposition to rezoning plans that could affect the two schools, Sturtevant circulated a petition titled “Save our neighborhood schools” that calls the proposals “wrong for our community.” He promised to draft legislation that would require school boards across Virginia to hold a new election or a voter referendum before redrawing school attendance zones to allow the public to render a verdict before changes are made.
https://www.richmond.com/news/local/education/facing-tough-re-election-bid-sturtevant-declares-opposition-to-rezoning/article_2c95c197-076e-52fa-9198-911c1f956e28.html