Cityscape // Overby-Sheppard Elementary School on North Side is nearly ready to reopen after a six-month, $4.4 million facelift. Students are expected to return on Wednesday, Jan. 3, after spending the fall at Clark Springs Elementary School. They will find a changed school, with traditional walls in their classrooms, new lighting, upgraded bathrooms and fresh paint. Overby-Sheppard, like Francis Elementary and Henderson Middle schools, was built with an open school concept that sought to educate without walls. Overby-Sheppard is the first to be transformed, said interim Superintendent Thomas E. “Tommy” Kranz. A small amount of work will be finished either in the spring or this summer, he said, and additional money is needed to replace the furniture and outdated computers at a later date. But the students should feel “like they are in a brand new building,” Mr. Kranz said.

Health disparities forum // Dr. Pamela Hamilton-Stubbs, a physician who specializes in sleep disorders and chair of the Henrico Branch NAACP health committee, raises concerns about the decreasing number of African-American physicians and the treatment of patients during a health disparities forum Dec. 7 in Downtown. The forum, which drew nearly 100 people, was co-sponsored by the Richmond Free Press and U.S. biopharmaceutical companies.

Wintry scene in Byrd Park