Arthur Richards To Begin School At John H. Woodson Monday

The Department of Education announced Tuesday that Arthur A. Richards Jr. High School students are to report to the John H. Woodson Jr. High School campus on Monday, September 24 to begin classes for the 2018-19 school year.

Classes were supposed to commence on Wednesday, but AARJHS teachers had complained about unfavorable conditions at Woodson, including mold.

Arthur A. Richards will operate from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., while John H. Woodson’s current start and end times will remain the same, D.O.E. said. School buses will transport students to and from their standard pick-up and drop-off locations. Arthur Richards’ students are to wear their regular school uniform.

According to D.O.E., Arthur Richards’ students and staff will be housed temporarily at Woodson until the modular classrooms and Sprung structures currently being constructed at the Richards campus are complete. Completion is expected this fall.

The Department of Education said the John H. Woodson campus can hold a capacity of 1,000 students. With the addition of Arthur Richards’ students, the campus is expected to have just over 600 students, D.O.E. said. The inclusion of AARJHS students and staff to the Woodson campus will not amount to a double-session school day. Specific classrooms have been designated for each school to occupy on the Woodson campus.

But John H. Woodson teachers, during a job action on Monday, said the school was not ready to house students for instruction, as some classes were without power, no internet, no fans, and some parts of the roof continued to leak.

Educators also complained about what they described as disregard and disrespect by the Department of Education, after D.O.E, without proper notification and no discussion with the John H. Woodson staff, decided to move Arthur Richards Junior High School to the upper rooms of John H. Woodson, where teachers had already prepared their classes for instruction.

“They’re moving our teachers downstairs,” said one Woodson educator. This educator said that John H. Woodson teachers had “already fixed their classrooms, they’re already setup, students have already been settled in school, and then they want to move the teachers from upstairs to downstairs.”

“It almost seems like someone woke up one morning and said, ‘hey, let’s do this.’ There is no organization,” this educator said.

D.O.E. said on Tuesday that the Eulalie Rivera Elementary School will also open on Monday for the 2018-19 school year at its regularly scheduled time.

For more information, contact the Office of Public Relations at (340) 774-0100, ext. 8136.