January 29, 2009 Richmond Times Dispatch (Virginia)

HEADLINE: Richmond middle school is likely to close; Chandler has been unable to meet the requirements of No Child Left Behind

By Zachary Reid

Richmond's Chandler Middle School almost certainly will close at the end of the school year because of failure to meet federal academic standards, a small group of parents learned during a meeting last night at the North Side school.

The school is in the seventh and final year of improvement efforts prescribed in No Child Left Behind guidelines. Under that plan, if a school fails to reach a sufficient level of academic success, the school district has to close the school or turn it over to the state.

Based on testing earlier in the school year and ongoing biweekly work sessions at the school, administrators are projecting that Chandler will fail to achieve test scores necessary to pass.

Several school administrators and School Board members on hand said turning the school over to the state is not a viable option. Barring a challenge to the federal law, closing the school is a formality.

"The good news is, students are making progress," said Dionne Ward, the school system's executive director of secondary education. She, Assistant Superintendent Ronald L. Carey and several other administrators shared the bad news. "But the time has come for the school system to make some hard choices."

The school has about 300 students. Where they will go next year has not been decided, Carey said. Staff reassignments are still undecided, though Carey did pledge that no one would lose a job because of the closing.

School Superintendent Yvonne W. Brandon, who will officially make the recommendation to close Chandler at Monday night's School Board meeting, was out of town attending to a family illness.

The few parents on hand took the news quietly, though PTA President Wendell Sams questioned the wisdom of shuttering the school.

"None of those ideas benefit the children in this community," he said. "Once you close a school, you lose some kids."

School Board Chairwoman Chandra Smith, who lives near Chandler, said the board would do what it could to save the school. However, it might be too late, she said.

Principal Derek Mason showed little emotion over the news but said he wasn't happy. Breaking it to his students and staff, he said, was particularly tough.

"We just have to tell them to stay on task and to stay on track," he said. "Our goal is to go out accredited."

What will become of Chandler - in 1960, it became the first school in the city to be integrated - also was left undecided. Former board member Carol A.O. Wolf suggested it as a new home for Richmond Community High School, a 200-student school for the academically gifted.

Carey would neither deny nor confirm that as a possibility.

"It's all on the table," he said.

Community's current home on Patterson Avenue is in need of millions of dollars of improvements to make it handicap accessible.

School closing?

The Richmond School Board will hold at least two public forums to discuss the fate of Chandler Middle School, which likely will close after this school year because of failure to meet federal academic standards.