Richmond Free Press
VOL. 28 NO. 22
© 2019 Paradigm Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
RICHMOND, VIRGINIA
www.richmondfreepress.com
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Meet Diana H. Garland, Richmond ambassador for USA Pickleball Assoc. B1
MAY 30-JUNE 1, 2019
‘Senseless’
Police, community leaders seek leads in shooting death of 9-year-old Markiya Dickson on Memorial Weekend By Ronald E. Carrington
Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press
A flier bearing 9-year-old Markiya Dickson’s picture is posted near an entrance to Carter Jones Park at 28th and Perry streets in South Side. The Chesterfield County third-grader was shot and killed at the park on Sunday. An 11-year-old was wounded.
Energy numbers shed light on RPS spending, savings By Jeremy M. Lazarus
Richmond expects to spend $8 million to $10 million to ensure three new schools meet the standard of a national energy conservation program, according to the Joint Construction Team that is overseeing the work. But there is no evidence the expenditure will generate the kind of significant savings to justify the cost of meeting the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, standards, according to data on energy spending from Richmond Public Schools. The issue is raising serious questions as to whether the Joint Construction Team is paying a premium price for a meaningless label, thus investing extra money in the three schools and reducing the money available for other projects. The findings on LEED are emerging as the Richmond School Board prepares to meet Monday, June 3, to review recom-
mendations to reduce the overall cost of constructing a new middle school and two elementary schools. Their collective price tag could run $148 million, or $38 million more than the original $110 million estimate from 2017. According to school energy data obtained by the Richmond Free Press, RPS is paying bigger total bills for electricity and heat for its newest buildings comMr. Young pared with the bills for similar-sized older buildings. For example, RPS spent $305,805 on electricity and natural gas for Huguenot High School between July 1, 2017, and June 30, 2018. The school, which has space for around 1,400 students, opened in 2015. By comparison, the energy bill at Armstrong High School, which dates to
Dr. Roy A. West, former Richmond mayor, educator, dies at 89 By Jeremy M. Lazarus
Dr. Roy A. West, a decisive and outspoken man known for his strong opinions and who exercised power at City Hall as mayor while playing an influential role in public education in Richmond, has died. A controversial figure as the city’s second African-American mayor and a longtime high school and middle school principal who sought to use education to change the lives of city children growing up in poverty as he did, Dr. West succumbed to complications from pneumonia Saturday, May 25, 2019, in Gloucester where he moved to be near his son. He was 89. His life in public service and education will be celebrated 11 a.m. Tuesday, June 4, in Coburn Hall at his alma mater, Virginia Union University, according to Dr. West Scott’s Funeral Home. A wake will be held 6 to 7 pm. Monday, June 3, at Scott’s Funeral Home Chapel, 116 E. Brookland Park Blvd. in North Side, a few miles from the Washington Park community where Dr. West grew up and lived most of his life. An outsized personality who ruled his schools with an iron fist, Dr. West made his biggest public splash in 1982 when he defeated three-term veteran City Councilwoman Willie J. Dell in the 3rd District. It was Dr. West’s first run for Richmond City Council. At a time when the mayor was elected by the vote of council instead of by Please turn to A4
the late 1960s and is nearly 50 years older, totaled $264,574, or about $41,000 less for the same period. And the energy bill for John Marshall High School, which is 55 years older than Huguenot, ran $247,630, or nearly $60,000 less. Armstrong and John Marshall are a bit smaller than Huguenot, but have close to the same number of students as Huguenot — 1,255 for Armstrong and 1,391 for John Marshall. Unlike those schools, Huguenot was awarded the LEED gold standard from the U.S. Green Building Council, which created LEED to encourage the design and construction of more energy-efficient buildings. A similar check of middle schools finds that RPS’ total spending on energy for the newest middle school, Martin Luther King Jr., outstrips energy spending at two older middle school buildings, Lucille Brown and Thomas Boushall, that have similar enrollments. Martin Luther King Middle has space for 876 students, compared with 779 for Brown and 885 for Boushall. RPS spent $198,671 in the 2017-18 fiscal year on energy for Martin Luther King, which opened in 2014. The energy bill for Lucille Brown was $172,424, or about $26,000 less, even though Brown Middle School is 15 years older and was not LEED certified. And the energy bill for electricity and natural gas for Boushall, which dates to 1986, totaled $129,552, or about $68,000 less. Similar findings appear with the city’s elementary schools. Energy costs to heat, cool and light the newest buildings, Oak Grove-Bellemeade and Broad Rock, are similar to the energy costs at Linwood Holton, which was built in the late 1990s. School Board member Jonathan Young, 4th District, is raising questions about the need for LEED certification for the three new schools. He said RPS officials told him that the LEED-certified buildings are not only energy hogs, but also cost more to operate and maintain. According to the minutes of the Joint Construction Team, whose members include city Chief Administrative Officer Selena Cuffee-Glenn and Richmond Public Schools Superintendent Jason Kamras, the cost of gaining LEED Silver certification is projected to add about 8 percent to the buildings’ construction cost — or more than $8 million based on current projections and possibly as much as $10 million given rising costs. The Joint Construction Team does not explain why it is using LEED. Instead, in its minutes, the JCT points the finger of blame at City Council for requiring LEED certification for new public buildings, Please turn to A4
Police are still searching for the person or people who turned a Memorial Weekend community cookout into a tragedy Sunday when gunfire broke out at Carter Jones Park in South Side, killing 9-year-old Markiya Dickson and wounding 11-year-old Jaquez Moses. The park on Bainbridge Street was crowded with children and families enjoying the food and weather when shots rang out near the basketball court just before 7:23 p.m. “My baby (started running) and was trying to make it back to safety,” said Ciara Dickson, the mother of the third-grader who lives in Chesterfield County. “She was socializing at the community cookout. Someone — or a group of people — started shooting in another part of the park.” Organizers of the event quickly put Markiya and the wounded boy in a car and rushed them to VCU Medical Center in Downtown, where Markiya later died. With bandages visible on his arm and under his shirt, Jaquez was released from the hospital to his father on Tuesday afternoon. “I leave the house with three kids and I come back with two. This is not right,” said a tearful Mrs. Dickson during an emotional television interview. “She was my everything. A part of my heart is missing.” Charles Willis, executive director of United Communities Against Crime, said Tuesday evening that the two men who transported the bleeding youngsters were handcuffed by Virginia Commonwealth UniPlease turn to A4
Lonnie G. Bunch III named to head entire Smithsonian Institution Free Press wire, staff report
WASHINGTON When Lonnie G. Bunch III started working on the Smithsonian’s first African-American museum, he had no collection, no building and one employee. The Smithsonian Institution rewarded the founding director of the wildly popular museum on Tuesday by putting him in charge of all 19 of its museums, making Mr. Bunch Mr. Bunch the 14th secretary and first African-American to head the Smithsonian Institution. Mr. Bunch, in an interview with The Associated Press, said his time leading the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture will serve him well. “The Smithsonian is the most amazing place, and sometimes it forgets to act like it. I want it to act like the best institution in the world,” he said. Mr. Bunch, 66, replaces Dr. David Skorton, who will become president and chief executive officer of the Association of American Medical Colleges. His success with the Smithsonian’s African-American history Please turn to A4
Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press
Splashing into the season Evan Mayfield, 10, whipped down the water slide Saturday at the 3rd Annual Cookout for a Cause at Westover Hills Elementary School in South Side. The free event, sponsored by Feed the Streets RVA, featured games, arts and crafts, bounce houses, food, music and other activities and vendors for youngsters and families to enjoy. Organizers asked only that each person bring a nonperishable food item to support FeedMore, Central Virginia’s hunger relief organization. Evan, who enjoyed the cool water on a hot day with other young people, attended the event with his mother, Deborah Perry, and his sister, Kaelyn Davis, and her friend, Anna Zohore.