Henrico School Board faces fierce opposition to redistricting proposal at town hall

The hallways of J.R. Tucker High School were filled with hundreds of parents Sept. 18, as well as all five Henrico School Board members – each accompanied at all times by at least one security guard – for a town hall meeting about potential school redistricting options.

After hearing a presentation from the school board on the redistricting proposal – which would change the boundaries of 16 schools – parents were led into 10 different classrooms to have discussions on the proposal with Henrico Schools staff members. Afterwards, parents crowded the main hallway to talk to individual school board members.

Some parents were frustrated by the format of the event, saying that while advertised as a town hall, the gathering included “no real dialogue” with school board members and did not allow passionate community members to speak out in front of everybody.

“I have to say, my impression tonight of the school board is that they are not terribly interested in actually talking to people,” said one parent, who has students at Ruby F. Carver Elementary School. “In fact, they seem to feel a little bit threatened. Every one of them is walking around here with an officer.”

“It’s not a real town hall,” said Molly Ratliff, a parent at Maybeury Elementary School. “Clearly, people are passionate, and they don’t want people fighting with them.”

Fairfield District representative Ryan Young said that the school board members were “only there to listen” at the town hall, and that increased security was just out of precaution, due to high tensions during the last redistricting proposal several years ago.

“They just wanted to be prepared. I don’t think there were any threats or anything,” he said. “I think last time they tried to redistrict, it was crazier, like the whole cafeteria was full, auditorium was full.”

Many parents came in groups together, representing school communities – most from Western Henrico – that would be impacted by the proposal. And most parents at the town hall spoke out against the proposed redistricting, citing concerns about decreasing socioeconomic diversity, separating families, and failing to solve school capacity issues in the county.

“The majority of people around the county are strongly opposed to the maps being offered, in all different areas,” said Carver Elementary parent Rebecca Thompson. “People are largely invested in their communities and feel this is an unthoughtful proposal.”

‘This is what redlining looks like’

Several groups of parents representing different elementary schools brought up concerns about a proposal that would shift more than 1,000 students among three different middle schools: Quioccasin, Tuckahoe, and Pocahontas. 

About 200 students from four different neighborhoods would be moved from Pocahontas’ district into Quioccasin’s district. Several parents in the affected area said that not only would the move push students to a school farther away from them, but also significantly decrease the socioeconomic diversity at Pocahontas.

“Pocahontas will become less diverse and Quioccasin’s diversity will be increased. What does this accomplish? I’ll tell you what – the West End upper class is further segregated from real-world diversity,” said Thompson. “This is what redlining looks like.”

“It seems relatively obvious that they are dividing some things along some more socioeconomic lines,” said another Carver Elementary parent. “What you’re doing is you’re consolidating lower income neighborhoods. It consolidates poverty.”

About 330 students – some who are also in the Maybeury Elementary district – would be moved from Tucakahoe Middle into Quioccasin Middle. Several parents from Maybeury Elementary noted that School Board Chair and Tuckahoe District representative Marcie Shea has children currently attending Quioccasin Middle, which could present a “conflict of interest.”

“Marcie Shea has children at Quioccasin Middle and she’s been trying to move Maybeury over to Quioccasin since 2019 when she was elected. So this is not a new issue,” said Ratliff. “But we have shut this down before. We do not want it. And it keeps coming up.”

The proposal would also push capacity at Tuckahoe Middle to 99%, increase Quioccasin Middle to around 86%, but decrease capacity significantly at Pocahontas Middle, down to 74%.

Proposal would 'dismantle the culture' at one school, parent says

Several parents from Ridge Elementary also came to speak out against a proposed shift of 72 students out of Ridge into Jackson Davis Elementary. Many of the affected families are currently involved in the Ridge Parent Teacher Association, meaning that the move would “wipe out” Ridge’s PTA while still not adequately addressing Ridge’s capacity issue, said parent Anna Hardin.

“This move would dismantle the culture entirely. It would eliminate Ridge’s current PTA board and most of its most active members,” she said. “It would significantly increase the poverty levels and ESL population at Ridge, placing even greater strain on teachers and further reducing test scores.”

Another group of parents, who would be affected by a proposal that seeks to move 76 students from the Holman Middle district into the Hungary Creek Middle district, said that the redistricting “doesn’t make sense,” as it would bring Holman’s capacity down to 72% and Hungary Creek’s capacity up to 92%. They also raised concerns about moving a diverse community of students to a “lower-ranked” school.

“Particularly in the community we live in, the elementary and high schools have lower rankings and only the middle school has a higher ranking. But if you switch to a middle school with a lower ranking, then all the schools you go to will have a low ranking,” said one parent. “It’s a diversified community. We are being impacted, and it’s probably racial in nature.”

Some parents also raised concerns about a “lack of transparency” when it comes to the school board and a “rushed process” of redistricting. The school board aims to make a decision on the proposal by this December, implementing any changes either in the fall of 2026 or the fall of 2027.

“I feel like all of the information is very vague and murky. It’s hard to follow, and it feels like it’s by design to confuse people, so that people don’t understand it, so they don’t show up.” said Ratliff. “I don't like feeling like this, I don't like not trusting people. But that's how it feels.”

The school board will hold two additional town halls on the proposed redistricting, with the first from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on Sept. 30 at Highland Springs High School, and the second from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on Oct. 7 at the ACE Center at Hermitage High School.

Liana Hardy is the Citizen’s government and education reporter. Support her work and articles like this one by making a contribution to the Citizen.