RPS won’t have facility spending plan in place before November election

Richmond Public Schools Superintendent Jason Kamras said the district won’t have a facilities plan in place before a November election asks voters to raise the sales tax by 1% to fund school construction.

At a press conference with members of City Council and Mayor Danny Avula, the mayor stressed that “every new dollar should come with accountability,” in an effort to hold the division accountable.

He asked for the city administration, City Council and public to participate in developing the master facilities plan. The plan would help dictate what school projects the revenue from the additional tax, estimated at $47 million a year, would pay for.

“If we're asking Richmond residents to approve a new tax, even for something as important as schools, we want you to be confident that those dollars will be stewarded well and invested thoughtfully,” he said.

But “the plan won’t be available in time” when residents vote in November, Kamras later said.

“I actually think it’s a good thing in a way that we have the opportunity for the city to weigh in and to share what they believe the priorities should be as we take the next step with this fund.”

The facilities plan has been a contentious issue for RPS over the last several years. A five-year plan is required under state law, and Sen. Lamont Bagby (D-Richmond) raised the issue at a meeting last year where he was asked to lobby for more state funding for RPS.

“I called Henrico, I called Chesterfield … they sent their capital improvement plans to me, like that,” he said at the time. “Right now, we don’t have anything before us.”

The first public reference to RPS developing such a plan came at a School Board meeting in Aug. 2024, with the goal being to produce a plan by Fall 2025.

In Nov. 2025, the administration presented to the Board again, this time proposing a planning process that would lead to a completed document in Fall 2026.

The superintendent said on Thursday that the plan is in the early stages and will go through a stakeholder engagement process this fall with the goal of presenting the School Board a first draft by the winter.

When asked about the reason for the delay, Kamras said that while the division has the facility assessment data collected from 2024, administrators still have to gather additional data, like enrollment projections, that it can present to the public before it can weigh in on what projects will be prioritized. He added that it is also hard to gather families and members of the community during the summer when school is out.

“There’s no plan that’s on the shelf that the public doesn’t see,” he said. “This will be a 100% transparent process.”

Already on the division’s radar is funding the second phase of the new career and technical building located on the city’s Southside, roughly costing $118 million, and constructing the new Woodville Elementary, at $53 million. The division was previously at risk of losing a state grant meant to help build the school because officials said there wasn’t enough money to get the project started.