Joe Morrissey spoke as other mayoral candidates Jack Berry (from left), Bobby Junes, Levar Stoney, Bruce Tyler and Lawrence Williams listened during the city Democratic Committee mayoral forum at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School on Tuesday (Credit: Alexa Welch Edlund/RTD)

CITY OF RICHMOND

Dana T. Bedden starts his third full school year under cloud of uncertainty
As Dana T. Bedden begins his third full school year as chief of Richmond Public Schools, he finds himself trying to fix a broken school system while also uncertain if he will be given the time to do it. The school district he took over January 2014 still faces a mountain of issues. Buildings are in disrepair and the fairness of its disciplinary policies has come under scrutiny after the NAACP filed an anti-discrimination complaint two weeks ago with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. That doesn’t include the financial issues the city’s school district faces or its high rates of poverty and teacher turnover.

HANOVER

Connecting Ashland to Richmond
A few minor steps that could see the greater Richmond area take major strides towards public accessibility took place last week, in both downtown Richmond and the Town of Ashland. Ben Campbell, a representative from RVA Rapid Transit — an organization that advocates for a rapid transit system in Richmond — presented the Aug. 16 Town Council meeting with plans to connect metropolitan Richmond via a bus rapid transit system (BRT). In his presentation, Campbell presented a BRT outline that would see the transit system stretch from as far south as Petersburg, to as far north as Ashland. Meanwhile, ground was broken in downtown Richmond to make way for the “Pulse,” a $65 million BRT system that will link Rockett’s Landing in Richmond’s east, to Willow Lawn in the west of the city.

HENRICO

Q&A Patrick C. Kinlaw Henrico County school superintendent
QUESTION: What are the district’s biggest challenges heading into this year, and how are you addressing them?

ANSWER: Of course, we’re continuing to work with getting all of our schools accredited. … We still have some work to do, so that will be one of our areas of focus. Another area of focus will be K-12 literacy and reading and writing across all content areas.

QUESTION: Every year, technology becomes a bigger part of what schools do. How are you using technology in schools, and what are you doing to make sure kids whose families don’t have access to technology don’t fall behind?

O’Bannon meeting will be first virtual town hall in Henrico
This evening, Henrico County residents will have a town hall meeting at their fingertips. Tuckahoe District Supervisor Patricia S. O’Bannon plans to hold the county’s first virtual meeting at 7 p.m. In the meeting, O’Bannon and county officials plan to talk about how residents receive emergency information and how technology changes are affecting the process.

STATE

Virginia schools served 4.88 million more breakfasts to neediest students last school year than year prior
Virginia schools served nearly 5 million more breakfasts last school year as a result of a statewide effort to cut down on the number of children going hungry. The increase was due largely to an additional $537,000 in funding this past school year that went toward expanding programs geared toward making breakfast available to students, particularly those from low-income households. With the additional meals, 59 percent of the state’s 408,000 low-income students who receive a free or reduced-price lunch were provided breakfast at school. That’s up about 8 percent from the number of student who did three school years ago.

Stafford supervisors vote against high-speed rail
A potential bypass for a proposed high-speed rail line that cuts through part of southern Stafford County can add the Stafford Board of Supervisors to its list of opponents. Supervisors voted 5–2 Tuesday, with Supervisors Meg Bohmke and Paul Milde dissenting, to formally oppose the eastern bypass option of the proposed project. It’s one of three options being studied by the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation as part of a proposed 123-mile Richmond-to-Washington segment of the Southeast High Speed Rail project.

NATIONAL

Judge, citing inequality, orders Connecticut to overhaul its schools sytem
In a decision that could fundamentally reshape public education in Connecticut, the state was ordered on Wednesday to make changes in everything from how schools are financed to which students are eligible to graduate from high school to how teachers are paid and evaluated. Reading his ruling from the bench for more than two hours, Judge Thomas Moukawsher of State Superior Court in Hartford said that “Connecticut is defaulting on its constitutional duty” to give all children an adequate education. Judge Moukawsher’s decision was a response to a lawsuit filed more than a decade ago that claimed the state was shortchanging the poorest districts when it came to school funding. What separates the decision from those in dozens of similar suits around the country is that rather than addressing money only, it requires the state to rethink nearly every major aspect of its system.

ELECTIONS

Richmond’s mayoral Democratic hopefuls get personal in debate
Former Richmond City Councilwoman Willie J. Dell warned the candidates for mayor not to get personal in their responses to questions at a mayoral debate sponsored by the city Democratic Committee on Tuesday. But it was too late. Former Del. Joseph D. Morrissey lashed out at former Secretary of the Commonwealth Levar Stoney for calling for a Richmond mayor who shows “good judgment, good character” and doesn’t show up in unflattering stories on newspaper front pages and television screens.

Governor-hopeful Corey Stewart breaks with party over primary
Corey Stewart says he doesn’t agree with the Republican Party of Virginia’s recent decision to participate in the primary next June because it amounts to “a broken promise” to grassroots GOP activists, who were promised a closed convention in 2017 in exchange for picking their presidential candidate via a statewide vote last spring. Still, Stewart, 48, says he’s convinced the decision will work to his favor, especially now that he’s been crisscrossing the state to campaign for Donald J. Trump. “I stand apart as Trump’s guy,” said Stewart, who is chairman of both the Prince William County Board of Supervisors and Trump’s campaign in the commonwealth.