Mayor Levar Stoney had introduced the funding legislation, despite misgivings over the size of the school. Clearly, the council shares them.
“It was really one of the last leverage points that we have to ensure that George Wythe does not get shortchanged,” says Richmond Councilwoman Stephanie Lynch, who disagreed with the School Board’s 5-4 vote to take over school construction — a move that required the school administration to build a school procurement and construction team on the fly.
The idea behind a bigger school is economy of scale. You don’t want to build a school that’s near or over capacity when its doors open. But a big school, like a huge ocean liner, does not guarantee smooth waters.
The argument to build a bigger school for efficiency’s sake is not a bad one, said Tom Shields, associate dean in the School of Professional and Continuing Studies at the University of Richmond. “But bigger doesn’t mean better, necessarily. It just means bigger.”
“What we’re realizing is that that kind of large-scale building doesn’t represent the best for everybody, and usually who gets left behind are the students that are marginalized,” he said.
“Marginalized” would to a large extent define Wythe’s enrollment, which includes numerous students from low-income areas and immigrant students. Half of the student body is Latino and more than 45% is Black, according to the latest enrollment figures from the state.
