Rev. Benjamin P. Campbell serves as the pastoral director of Richmond Hill. He also serves the entire city at times as a voice of reason in the midst of a cacophony of bluster. Accordingly, when Campbell occasionally weighs in on a problem the community faces with a piece on the Richmond Times-Dispatch’s OpEd page, he does so with the calming voice of a peacemaker and a problem-solver.

This time is Campbell focuses on a brouhaha that has been much in the local news lately — the ongoing City Hall (assisted by its letter-writing 26 business leaders) vs. School Board, City Council, et al, game. Contrary to some others who have voiced opinions on this matter, Campbell’s latest opinion piece features no grandstanding. There’s no quick fix. No demagoguery.

The city administration has taken a hostile posture toward the School Board. It has withheld funds, made arbitrary and destructive budget cuts, and attempted to expel the school administration from City Hall. The administration has made it clear it wishes to fire our superintendent, who has given us the most sustained and dramatic period of school improvement in 35 years.

…It has been difficult for me, while putting four children through Richmond’s public schools, to listen to the perennial attacks on the system for the past 30 years — often coming from people who have no personal experience with the schools, do not send their own children to the schools, and do not wish to share responsibility.

Click here to read Campbell on “Here Is How We Can Better Richmond’s Schools.”
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