Facilities II

School	Bldg. SF	Capa-city	Enroll-ment	Spec. Ed	Faculty	02 SOL	% Capa-city	% Sp. Ed	Faculty per 13.6 Students	SF per Kid
Bellevue	55623	396	275	33	28	78.2	69%	12%	1.38	202
Blackwell + Annex	120763	1056	537	138	47	56.5	51%	26%	1.19	225
Broad Rock	43279	330	417	46	38	72.5	126%	11%	1.24	104
Carver	100000	946	638	85	68	46.0	67%	13%	1.45	157
Cary	46711	374	331	32	33	60.6	89%	10%	1.36	141
Chimborazo	75370	572	561	72	53	40.8	98%	13%	1.28	134
Clark Springs	50376	308	426	46	39	51.8	138%	11%	1.25	118
Fairfield Court	44398	440	388	46	39	32.3	88%	12%	1.37	114
Fisher	44222	396	366	53	39	89.0	92%	14%	1.45	121
Fox	58260	330	421	46	36	92.4	128%	11%	1.16	138
Francis	56954	462	544	62	45	50.0	118%	11%	1.13	105
Ginter Park/Mary Scott	107878	616	682	81	73	63.9	111%	12%	1.46	158
Greene	41490	330	470	38	35	70.4	142%	8%	1.01	88
Henry	44725	396	347	71	39	47.2	88%	20%	1.53	129
Holton	80548	594	563	82	51	67.0	95%	15%	1.23	143
Jones	80548	594	452	62	48	50.7	76%	14%	1.44	178
Mason	67048	528	402	65	44	33.0	76%	16%	1.49	167
Maymont	35959	286	248	55	33	52.2	87%	22%	1.81	145
Munford	64468	462	460	90	46	90.5	100%	20%	1.36	140
Norrell + Annex	60742	462	411	66	28	50.3	89%	16%	0.93	148
Oak Grove + Annex	70141	484	449	58	32	50.9	93%	13%	0.97	156
Overby-Sheppard	49300	418	409	66	43	43.5	98%	16%	1.43	121
Redd	74471	374	487	58	39	77.4	130%	12%	1.09	153
Reid	64964	594	667	104	51	58.3	112%	16%	1.04	97
Southampton	56521	506	421	70	41	76.7	83%	17%	1.32	134
Stuart	44408	396	494	50	44	79.4	125%	10%	1.21	90
Summer Hill/Ruffin Road	48672	418	509	49	50	39.1	122%	10%	1.34	96
Swansboro	48183	285	337	34	33	74.7	118%	10%	1.33	143
Westover Hills	50008	352	413	45	38	62.8	117%	11%	1.25	121
Whitcomb Court	44398	418	401	30	36	40.3	96%	7%	1.22	111
Woodville	76928	594	617	101	57	45.0	104%	16%	1.26	125
Total	1907356	14717	14143	1934	1326	59.2	96%	14%	1.28	135
State						77.3			1.36051

The first thing that jumps out of these data is that the Richmond elementary SOL scores are far (over 18 points) below the state average. But then, we already knew that.

As with the middle schools, there is slightly more unused capacity in the larger elementary schools.

Next we see a much smaller range of space per student than in the high and middle schools. In terms of enrollment there is no particular pattern to the data.

In terms of capacity, the larger schools have more room, as you would expect from the lower enrollments.

All told, 4% of our elementary capacity (592 seats) is being wasted. That is less than the 19% (2859 seats) in the middle and high schools but still an affront to the taxpayers (not to mention the parents of the kids in the thirteen overcrowded elementary schools).

Blackwell and Maymont have the largest percentages of special education students

The trend of the data suggests that the larger schools have larger shares of special ed. students but little Maymont, Henry, and Munford also have unusually large special ed. contingents.

Turning to the main issue: None of these factors seems to have much to do with performance on the SOL.

You'll recall that we have the one of the worst SOL performances in the state. In the elementary schools, the SOL performance ranges from suburban levels at Munford and Fox to Third World levels (below the 40 point division average in Petersburg) at Fairfield and Mason.

If we look for correlations between the SOL scores and the facility data we won't find much:

Those data do not suggest that crowds of kids are being admitted to the high-performing schools.

Likewise, there's not much correlation between SOL scores and the number of special ed. students or the number of faculty.

Perhaps this last graph is the most interesting: The slope of the fitted line says that, if anything, adding more teachers impairs the SOL scores. The very low R² probably tells us that there is no correlation at all. Thus, as with the high and middle schools, adding teachers, even very expensive teachers, does not correlate with improved SOL scores in our schools.

These data again suggest that the millions we are spending on extra teachers (notably in our elementary and middle schools), is wasted money as far as student performance on the SOL tests.

The next time you hear our School Board asking for more money, you might want to remind them that our problem is not money. Our problem is getting the kids educated. Our schools are spending too much money already but they are not getting the job done.