My name is Kenya Gibson. I am a proud parent, a longtime public education advocate, and an active Democrat. This reelection campaign is a grassroots project of parents, students, and educators dedicated to the fight for public schools that put our children and community first.
The fight for public education matters now more than ever.
In 2017 our campaign team fought a hard battle to put an independent community voice on our public school board. We won because families across our community shared the core belief that public schools are community cornerstones, and that our school board has a duty to serve as uncompromising advocates for expanded resources for our students. We were demanding more transparent, democratic governance in a time of rapidly diminishing resources. That message resonated with parents across the 3rd District and education advocates citywide.
Three years ago I could not have imagined the challenges we face today: a reliance on distance learning, indefinite school closures, an unprecedented public health crisis, and the unthinkable ensuing pressure of our schools to meet the disparate needs of families and children across the city without direct, daily contact.
Now more than ever, we see what schools mean to their communities. Our schools are delivering food across the city, and yet both at the city and at the state level they face a looming budget crisis. Our schools have not yet rebounded after the last recession; we cannot subject them to another one.
We are not just fighting. We are winning.
In the three years since my election to Richmond’s School Board, we have seen some incredible wins for students, families, and educators:
- In a moment of intense scrutiny placed on educators engaged in public-education advocacy, we passed an amendment guaranteeing teachers free speech and advocated for the successful addition of teacher retention to our “Dreams For RPS” strategic plan.
- While our school facilities buckled under a decades-old crisis of disinvestment, we won the construction of two new schools — without closing or consolidating existing schools — through the passage of a facilities plan focused on the expansion of educational opportunity, not the shuttering of community resources.
- In a period when we had to fight for basic transparency in governance, we passed a proposal affirming basic precepts of democracy and good governance for our body and pushed back on lack of clarity on costs in school construction.
- As our mayor pushed for the redirection of 80 blocks of valuable downtown real estate tax revenue to fund the Dominion Coliseum redevelopment plan, we successfully lobbied for a resolution opting RPS out of any funding loss as a result of the “Navy Hill” proposal, and successfully lobbied against the deal in its entirety.
Our vision for a thriving public school district is not limited to decisions made at City Hall. We strongly believe that community advocates must see their work strategically — rooted in the community and leveraging people power up the political chain. For that reason over the last three years we’ve taken our fight beyond the board room to build power regionally and push for better outcomes in Virginia’s General Assembly.
To support the work to build a more progressive Virginia, we joined the movements to elect Abigail Spanberger to our US Congress and Ghazala Hashmi to our state Senate. Building off national momentum in public education advocacy, we participated in two consecutive statewide rallies at the General Assembly to advocate for increased school funding at the state level.
These wins level the playing field for parents and teachers who were fighting for a meaningful say in school governance. They’ve expanded the horizon of what is possible, and they’ve laid the foundation for our path forward.
The past three years have been a game changer. With four more years, we can transform our district.
Learn more about our work these last 3 years:
“The culture that people are talking about has been here for some time,” said School Board member Kenya Gibson, who represents the 3rd District. “We can’t fix these schools if we don’t know what’s wrong with them.” Gibson joined a group of current and former Richmond teachers at last week’s news conference calling for the resolution the board eventually passed, but also more actual policy surrounding free speech.
Richmond School Board approves free speech resolution as teachers call for more protections, 20/15/2018
“We missed an opportunity to build trust and show this city what good governance and transparency looks like,” said 3rd District representative Kenya Gibson, who voted against the budget, as did 5th District representative Patrick Sapini and 6th District representative Felicia Cosby. On Monday, Gibson prompted a conversation, including page references and specific information, on the full budget during the board meeting when she told members of the public that it existed and only board members received copies of it.”
“This process failed to best serve our students and city,” Gibson said. “These high costs leave me with a pit in my stomach.” Gibson renewed her calls for the school system to oversee the construction of new schools, something Larson — inspired by hiccups stemming from the construction of Huguenot High School in 2015 — proposed in April 2018.
School Board member Kenya Gibson, 3rd District, is spearheading a resolution that would call on Mayor Levar M. Stoney and Richmond City Council to maintain funding for public education if the controversial plan to finance a new Coliseum from the projected growth in Downtown property taxes wins approval. “Richmond Public Schools needs to share in the growth in taxable property values in order to have the money required to meet the educational needs of our children”, Ms. Gibson said.
School Board member seeks to protect school funding in costly Coliseum plan, 11/15/2020
