About two dozen people attended the third community meeting on a recent rainy Tuesday night at George Wythe High School to hear about three color palette considerations for the interior of the building and suggestions for displaying memorabilia.

Dr. Erin Brown, director of family and community engagement for Richmond Public Schools, said “We want to build schools that are community spaces, where not only students feel welcome, but families feel welcome.”

Three different color palettes — one similar to the school’s existing colors, one slightly deviating from those colors and another very different color scheme were presented.

A number of alumni were in attendance and Jeff Harris, co-director of the K-12 Design Studio for RRMM Architects, presented suggestions for memorializing the history of the school. He showed work the company has done for other schools, asking the audience to consider one or more of the following: a statue/ sculpture of the school’s namesake, a display space with images from the past, a timeline and murals.

There was another issue to consider as well — the school’s name.

Dana Fox, director of construction for the school district who was recently promoted to chief operating officer, addressed the potential for a name change at the school. She said the school board has not yet to decide, but: “Our team is going to need to know and know quickly, if the name of the school will change,” she said, because the school’s name could appear on the floor and on the school marquee. Changing those, she said, will be expensive and difficult to change once completed.

To provide context regarding name changes for RPS schools, Dr. Brown explained that Barack Obama Elementary School was a recent name change from J.E.B. Stuart Elementary School. These name changes, she explained, are because as the former capital of the Confederacy, many of Richmond’s schools are named after Confederate soldiers, generals and slaveholders.

“RPS predominantly serves Black and Brown children,” she said. “We want the kids to have school names that support the children — we want the children to have pride in their schools.”

George Wythe principal Kevin Olds said he felt like a “kid in a candy store” watching the process of a new building unfold. “This is meeting the kids where we are,” he said. “This is our city, our town, our community investing in our kids and that’s what it’s about.”

Dr. Brown said her team is going to be engaging the community in a number of ways, beyond the meetings, to get feedback on this phase of the building’s design, over the next two weeks. Family liaisons will be “knocking on doors,” and making appearances at churches and community events. Members of the engagement team will be present at George Wythe during lunchtime and also visiting sixth- and seventh-graders at middle schools to get student feedback as well.

The information will be collected and given to the George Wythe Reimagined Committee who will tally results and make recommendations to the RPS School Board based on the outcomes.