Before dozens of students, parents and teachers began pleading, berating and challenging Richmond City Council to beef up funding for city schools, the nine members of the governing body had already taken the first step.

In a 9-0 vote Monday night, in front of a packed council chamber of school supporters, the council approved an ordinance requiring the city administration to give to the schools real estate tax money collected from surplus property previously owned by the school system.

For example, the city is on the verge of completing the sale of a former school warehouse near The Diamond baseball stadium to a furniture maker. Once the furniture maker owns it, all real estate taxes the city collects from the property will go to the school system.

Councilman Parker C. Agelasto, 5th District, came up with the idea in 2013 of creating a new stream of revenue for schools, but was unable to gain support.

He said he revived the idea after the furor over school funding erupted. Three weeks ago, his proposal gained steam even as others sought to return it to the scrap heap. Mayoral candidate and Councilman Jonathan T. Baliles, 1st District, and Councilman Charles R. Samuels, 2nd District, stepped in to restore the plan to the council agenda.

Mr. Agelasto praised his colleagues Monday for their now unanimous support.

He said the legislation will only apply to future sales and is not retroactive. Still, he estimated that the ordinance could yield $1 million or more in new revenue for schools, depending on the development that takes place on former school sites that move into private hands.

Several school properties remain vacant, but have yet to be sold, such as the former REAL School at Azalea and Chamberlayne avenues on North Side.

And the Arthur Ashe Jr. Athletic Center likely would be sold as part of the brewing plan to have a private company create apartments, offices and retail stores on the city’s 60-acre property on the Boulevard. If that happens, real estate taxes from the site where the center now stands also would be steered to schools.

At the same time as more than 70 people lined up to speak in support of school funding, all nine of the council members were submitting amendments to Mayor Dwight C. Jones’ 2016-17 budget plan that would boost funding for the school system. Monday was the deadline for submitting amendments.

The amendments, which the council will consider at a noon work session Monday, April 18, at City Hall, call for boosting the city’s contributions to the public schools between $5 million and $18 million, the full amount school Superintendent Dana T. Bedden and the School Board are seeking to implement his academic improvement plan.

The mayor’s budget calls for providing $145 million for schools operations — the same amount as provided during the current budget year. Last spring, council endorsed the flat spending proposal in approving the mayor’s two-year budget.

However, the standstill approach has begun to fade fast after months of hearing from school supporters, with most council members convinced they must find some way to add more money for schools. As yet, council members have not identified cuts they would impose on city departments for the schools increase to happen.

Expectations are high that the city’s separate capital budget also could be amended to shift more money to school construction.

Still, council members are worried about whether boosting the money for schools will result in a better school system. As yet, the school system has yet to provide a detailed report to the council on how the $9 million increase that council provided this year was spent.

And during the public hearing, as speaker after speaker called for more spending, the council heard stories that raise questions about the management of existing funds.

One example came from Andrea S. Hamilton, who teaches theater at John Marshall High and Lucille Brown Middle schools.

She nearly broke down as she spoke of having to teach in a room at John Marshall that leaks when it rains and where floor tiles that have pulled up have to be piled out of the way.

She also became emotional in describing how she has had to run the program without money for supplies. She told the council she has to purchase the scissors, paper and costumes because the principals of her schools have failed to provide financial support.

“I work so hard,” she said, in overcoming obstacles for her students, including having to clean up the defecation that a student left on the floor.

Even more shocking was the tale of Emily Walker, who teaches in the new Martin Luther King Jr. preschool program. She, too, said, she has to pay for supplies out of her own pocket because no money was allocated for supplies in the school’s budget.

Neither School Board members nor school administration officials offered any refutation to such statements.

Other teachers spoke of having to work in classrooms where mold is a threat to health, leaky ceilings could come down at any time and where cleanliness has deteriorated because their schools’ janitorial staff has been reduced to one person.

Vera Small, who has taught gifted students for 38 years, said she sees veteran teachers leaving for better opportunities. She cited one teacher who left to work full-time at the Jefferson Hotel because the wait staff makes more money from tips than teachers make in salary.

Many of the other speakers also urged more funding to prevent the School Board from going through with a plan to close Armstrong High, four elementary schools and consolidate three specialty schools to raise $3 million to fill the $18 million hole.

More than 100 Richmond Public Schools students purposefully waved signs and banners and chanted in unity as they marched outside City Hall early Monday afternoon.

“Who are we?” they chanted.

“RPS!”

“What do we want?”

“More money!”

“How are we going to get it?”

“Protest!”

Curious onlookers pulled out cellphones and recorded the protest to post on social media. Others posed with marchers for selfies.

Later, the group of protesters grew to about 500 as more RPS students, teachers, parents, activists and community members joined them in front of City Hall.

Passers-by in vehicles on Broad Street honked their car horns, revved their motorcycle engines and waved from car windows in a show of support for their cause — more money for Richmond’s public school system.

The demonstration was organized by six students from Open High School, who led a student walkout and march to City Hall to back the school district’s request for about $18 million in additional spending from the city for fiscal year 2017 to fund pay raises for teachers and to fully implement RPS’ academic improvement plan.

Mayor Dwight C. Jones has proposed flat funding for the school district in his budget proposal.

The Open High students’ efforts kicked into high gear after school leaders last week proposed closing Armstrong High School and four elementary schools — John B. Cary in the West End, Overby-Sheppard in North Side and Swansboro and Southampton in South Side — as well as consolidating three unidentified alternative schools if Richmond City Council does not approve a budget by the May 15 deadline that includes a substantial increase for RPS to meet its current needs.

“We recognize that Open High is going to be affected,” said sophomore Naomi Thompson, who led chants through a bullhorn as students walked about two miles from the school in Oregon Hill to City Hall shortly after 2 p.m.

“We are trying to draw greater attention to getting more money in Richmond Public Schools to help teachers get funded and the students to get funded and to help everybody out who’s in the RPS system so they have a great RPS experience.”

Standing at a nearby bus stop, 52-year-old Ray Payne of Church Hill encouraged the student marchers to “stand up for what you believe in.”

James Andrews, a seventh-grader at Binford Middle School and rapper who performs under the stage name “804Chubbybaby,” was among a dozen people who stepped up to a microphone to address the huge crowd outside City Hall.

He said he had attended Cary Elementary and “had to speak up” against closing it and other schools.

“That’s our stability,” he said of attending neighborhood schools. “That’s where we go to learn, then get jobs and keep the world moving.”

Micah Lee, an Armstrong High School graduate who now teaches band at Lucille Brown Middle School, told the demonstrators that the city’s reticence to provide the additional funding shows that the “primary form of government we have is not representing the people.”

Imiyah Bell joined about 30 other Armstrong High students at the rally.

“I feel like we proved our point — that Armstrong students do care,” she said. “We want to keep our school and others open and support students and teachers at other schools.”

School Board Vice Chairman Donald Coleman, whose 7th District contains Armstrong, marveled at the huge turnout. A woman rolled down her car window as she drove past the demonstration and yelled to him, “Don’t let them close Armstrong, Donald!”

Mr. Coleman gave an affirmative nod, then told the Free Press that the “number of people who showed up will speak volumes to every member of City Council.”

“This really represents the new Richmond, where all the people are showing up to make a difference,” he added. “The old Richmond does not understand this.”

As the rush hour slowed and the sun began to set, most of the demonstrators began filing into City Hall where many of them passionately addressed City Council. They filled the 450-person capacity City Council Chamber and three overflow rooms.

Seventy-six people spoke on the school funding issue at the meeting, all in favor of providing what the school district is seeking.

RPS Superintendent Dana T. Bedden was not in town to witness the big rally. He was attending the National School Board Association Conference in Boston, where he was a presenter, RPS spokesperson Kenita Bowers told the Free Press.

She provided a district response to the student walkout and rally in a statement:

“While we applaud our students for being courageous in taking a stance for something they believe in, they are encouraged to send an even stronger message by not allowing the distractions of our budget challenges to deter them from continuing to focus on their academics and advocate in other ways that do not put them in a position to violate the Student Code of Responsible Ethics.”