Richmond Public Schools Superintendent Dana T. Bedden will not be teaching a class at Virginia State University in the fall.

In response to a Free Press query, RPS spokesperson Richard Davis said last Friday that Dr. Bedden has “decided against pursuing the opportunity to teach in an adjunct capacity at Virginia State University.”

He did not give a reason for Dr. Bedden’s decision.

The Free Press reported in its May 21-23 edition that the School Board had voted 6-2 to allow Dr. Bedden to take a job in the fall as an adjunct professor after he lobbied for the right.

Two members of the board — Tichi Pinkney Eppes, 9th District, and Mamie L. Taylor, 5th District — strongly voiced their opposition to Dr. Bedden taking the part-time teaching post at VSU. They voiced concerns that teaching there would take time away from the daunting tasks he faces at RPS.

Dr. James Harris, chair of the Educational Leadership Department at VSU, had formally invited Dr. Bedden in a May 4 letter to teach a school law course that would meet once a week beginning in the fall.

He said Dr. Bedden would have to apply for the position in order to be hired.

Under terms of the School Board’s agreement, Dr. Bedden would have been limited to teaching one course per semester and the course would have to be “after business hours” and could not “infringe upon or otherwise compromise his ability to perform his (RPS) duties.” — JOEY MATTHEWS