How Much Did the Richmond School Board Really Know?

Harry Kollatz, over at The Blue Raccoon, has some interesting ponderings about the state of politics in Richmond. Of particular interest is the saga of how much the Richmond City School Board knew of the planned eviction from City Hall and when they knew it. Did they in fact participate in the planning of their own eviction and then plead ignorance? Or is Wilder just orchestrating another dirty trick? Only time will tell.
Don’t we have something better to be spending our resources on?

The January 2, 2008 issue of Style carries the article headlined, “Did schools help plan attempted move?”
Chris Dovi writes, “Schools administration officials, who have maintained their ignorance about why the move was carried out so suddenly — under the cover of night and with the aid of Richmond Police — were far more involved in the planning of that move than previously disclosed, according to internal documents obtained by Style Weekly.

City documents and interoffice communications obtained through multiple Freedom of Information Act requests indicate that schools officials not only knew about the planned move, but also were initially involved in negotiating the lease for the 3600 W. Broad St. building where Wilder tried to move them. They also helped develop the timeline to move schools offices out of City Hall by Sept. 30.”

I refer you to the article linked above; suffice to say, the school administration doesn’t come across as more sinned against than sinning but more confused and willful than smart. And the Governor-Mayor is, well, his intransigent self. The immovable object and the irresistible force paradox comes to mind…

By Saturday, January 5, matters had proceeded further, as described by the Times-Dispatch’s Michael Martz, as “members of a special committee of Richmond City Council are demanding a full accounting of a botched attempt to evict the school administration from City Hall.”