It was bright and sunny Monday morning when Angela Swafford brought her sons, Zarkarin and Zionyah, back to school.

While other Richmond students and parents are still in the middle of the summer break, Ms. Swafford was one of the first of many parents escorting their children to Fairfield Court Elementary School this week as part of a pilot program extending the school’s semester from 180 to 200 days.

The new school schedule is part of an effort to improve student performance.

And while she initially saw the prospect of losing 20 days of summer break as a “bummer,” Ms. Swafford and her children were happy to return to Fairfield Court for the new initiative.

“I got excited about it because the more that kids are at school, the more they learn,” Ms. Swafford said.

Richmond’s Fairfield Court and Cardinal Elementary schools are the first to participate in the RPS 200 program, which is intended to address learning loss experience among students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

RPS officials, Mayor Levar M. Stoney, Richmond City Council President Michael Jones, and other Richmond school officials and leaders also were on hand to welcome students. The air was filled with casual conversation, music and honks of support from passing vehicles as staff and teachers guided children and their parents, providing them with registration information, breakfast and hugs of support.

“This is a great day for RPS,” Superintendent Jason Kamras said during a press conference on the school grounds. “We’ve gone through a very difficult time as a result of the pandemic, and so in this once-in-a-century moment, we need once-in-a- century responses, and that is what we have here today.

“We could not be more thrilled to take this bold step for our kids.”

Fairfield Court was approved for the pilot program in early March, followed later that month by Cardinal. Students at the schools will still share the same semester breaks, holidays and last day as other schools in the RPS system.

Fairfield Court’s status as an accredited school was a sticking point for some School Board members who said it didn’t need to be a part of the pilot program. However, Fairfield Court Principal Angela Right sees the addition of 20 more days to the semester as a valuable resource for the school and its goals for students.

Ms. Right and her staff plan to employ several strategies to bolster student performance. More personalized instruction, with a focus on improving proficiency, is one strategy.

That will be used to ensure students’ learning progression and their ability to better demonstrate their progress. Better outcomes in students’ school assignments, SOL test scores and other areas in need of improvement is the objective.

“Our goal is growth and proficiency,” Ms. Right said.

Rasul Semper and his son, Elijah, a kindergartner at Fairfield Court, were excited to be at Monday’s school opening.

“I think it’s a good thing to give them more time to get the pieces together,” Mr. Semper said. “An early jump on meeting their teacher, getting comfortable — everything that they need is going to happen a little faster.”

In addition to added instructional support and resources, principals and assistant principals in the RPS 200 program will receive $15,000 in bonuses for each year of the pilot, while contracted teachers and staff will see a $10,000 and $5,000 bonus, respectively, for every year of the pilot, as part of an adjusted, 11-month contract.

All participating staff also will receive an additional $5,000 bonus if their school meets established and approved student outcome goals.

As part of the program, students and staff at Fairfield Court had the option to transfer to other schools, while parents with students in other RPS schools could transfer to Fairfield to participate in the pilot program.

According to Ms. Right, most parents and staff at Fairfield Court opted to be a part of the program.

“We had over 90 percent support of our parents who wanted this to happen,” Ms. Right said. “I’m just elated, I’m excited about today.”

RPS 200 begins as other, similar initiatives in Virginia have been as successful.

Chesterfield school officials recently recommended ending a year-round education program that began with Bellwood Elementary School in 2018 and now includes Falling Creek Elementary School as of last week.

Results presented during the Chesterfield School Board meeting in January showed small to no academic improvement for students in the program compared to other students.

Ms. Right, however, was confident that the pilot program will bring dividends for Richmond schools, and would provide a model for education that could be expanded to other schools in the city.

“Our goal here and also at Cardinal is for this model to work so we continue to do this at other elementary schools,” she said.

“That is the ultimate goal, because I really think it’s going to benefit, as you see all the participation we have this morning.”