The recent devastating fire at Fox Elementary School has heightened public concerns about the safety of school buildings throughout Richmond and around the state — and rightly so.

Thousands of Richmond students are sent off to decrepit schoolhouses each week by parents and families to learn in buildings that pose serious health and safety risks. Chief among them is George Wythe High School in South Side. Built in 1960 and renovated in the early 1980s, the school should have been torn down and replaced years ago as students and parents have long pleaded.

While the post-fire focus has been on rebuilding Fox Elementary, city and school officials must stop the political foot-dragging and address the health threat George Wythe students toil under every day, along with students in other aged city school buildings such as Woodville, J.L. Francis and Fairfield Court elementary schools, to name a few.

Following the Fox fire, Richmond City Councilman Michael J. Jones tweeted: “I am glad that dollars were appropriated to assist Fox Elementary but what message is being sent to Southside residents? A school in a Black & Brown community has been in disrepair for decades and nothing has been done. Black communities need recovery as well.”

Currently, he is among the members of City Council who are blocking transfer of $7.3 million to Richmond Public Schools for the design of a new building. On Monday, he successfully pushed for a further 30-day delay on a vote on the funds transfer.

Money has been earmarked in the city’s capital budget since July 1, 2020, to replace George Wythe. The amount available for new school construction also was increased to $200 million in the city’s 2021-22 capital budget plan, with the funds to be available after July 1, 2023.

But the continuing power struggle between City Council and the School Board over who should be in charge of the construction (the School Board took back control of construction from the city last year) and how large a building should be built (City Council wants a 2,000-student capacity building while the School Board wants a 1,600-student capacity building) is jeopardizing the timetable to get a new high school open in 2024.

The student population at George Wythe, which is largely Black and Brown, should not be left to wonder if their promised new building, already tied-up by the political machinations of the School Board and City Council, will be shelved or derailed as the public spotlight swings to the needs of Fox students.

More and more, however, the public is getting a grasp on the political undertow. Last Saturday, about 100 people, including parents, students and people from around the region, marched from Fox Elementary to Monroe Park demanding an investment to modernize aging school buildings around the state. Many made special mention of George Wythe, calling for work to begin now.

“I’ve been speaking to fellow Virginia parents, and we agree that the fire at Fox Elementary is indicative of a larger problem with our public schools,” organizer Becca DuVal, who has two children at Fox Elementary, stated in announcing the March to Fund Safe Schools.

“While few are as old as Fox, we are placing our children in buildings with aging and deteriorating infrastructure, and what happened at Fox could happen at any school,” she stated.

A recent report by the state Commission on School Construction and Modernization found that nine of the 10 oldest school buildings in Virginia are located in Richmond and are still in use. Some of them haven’t been significantly renovated in 90 years, according to the report.

That’s a major disservice to our Richmond Public Schools students.

We call on Councilman Jones, the Richmond City Council, Mayor Stoney, the Richmond School Board and Richmond Schools Superintendent Jason Kamras to stop the shenanigans and live up to the lip service they pay about the priority they place on eliminating decrepit schools. Richmond’s students can’t wait.