Be there: Bouncing, bubbly, beers, barbecue, blues, and Boar’s Head Resort meet in a family-friendly event around the lake behind the hotel. On the docket for Bubbles, Brews and Barbecue? Nearly 30 craft beers, a selection of sparkling wines, and a smoker full of slow-cooked meat (started the day before). Just ease back with a full plate and a pint or a flute, while the kids jump for joy.
Saturday 3/7. $10-30, Boar’s Head Resort, 200 Ednam Dr. boarsheadresort.com.
Mixed-media artist Diana Hale remembers the first time she entered a voting booth. She had just learned how to drive, but wasn’t yet old enough to vote, and transported an elderly relative who’d voted in every election for the past 75 years to the polls.
“There was a lot of effort involved in the trip,” says Hale. “It was a physically difficult thing to do, but it was so important for my family member. It’s easy for us to say, ‘Oh, I have a lot of work to do,’ or ‘I don’t have time to vote,’ but this experience gave me an appreciation for how important voting is.”
A note from Beryl Solla in PVCC’s North Gallery speaks to that familial responsibility to vote. Solla curated “Bloom: In Honor of the Centennial Anniversary of Women’s Suffrage,” which explores the notion that people bloom when they have a voice. The show features paintings, sculpture, photographs, and mixed-media work from Bolanle Adeboye, Stacey Evans, Aaron Eichorst, Lara Call Gastinger, John Grant, Sam Gray, Diana Hale, Lou Haney, Barbara Shenefield, and Annie Temmink, as well as a collaborative crayon drawing from Johnson Elementary School first grade students.
“Women were arrested, beaten, and tortured in an effort to stop this movement,” Solla’s welcome note reads. “In their honor, in our mothers’ and grandmothers’ and great-grandmothers’ honor, let’s all remember to vote.”
Of the past three presidential elections, 2016 marked the lowest voter turnout in the City of Charlottesville, with about two-thirds of total registered voters casting ballots. In the City’s 2017 non-November special elections and primaries, 27 percent of registered Democratic voters and 2 percent of registered Republican voters cast ballots.
“We forget that people died for these rights,” Hale says. “It’s embarrassing to think that this is how we respond, given that people sacrificed their lives for this.”
Temmink, whose “Temper” sculpture explores materiality and process, says she finds it easy to lose track of her place within the complex history of women’s suffrage and modern feminism. Two prints by Barbara Shenefield speak to that history and highlight well- and lesser-known female activists and cross-party politicians. “Bloom 1” boldly illustrates names of women fighting for equality prior to the ratification of the 19th Amendment in August 1920. “Bloom 2,” is a transparent version of her sister, with the names of contemporary feminists fading into bright florals reminiscent of Marimekko textiles and Pop Art silkscreens.
“We’re still working on equal rights,” says Shenefield. “It helps to know that good things take a lot of hard work and a lot of hands. It’s easy to get discouraged, especially when you’re young and can conceptualize a better future, but that’s a long, hard-fought fight.”
Evans’ “Fading Poppies” reflects on that passage of time and loss. Her print documents dying poppies in cold white light that casts dark shadows across the crinkled plant-life. The decaying petals become shapes, textures, and colors, vestiges of the once-living thing they adorned. In “Remembrance,” Eichorst meditates on what might have been, and commemorates the struggle, tears, and loss of the suffrage movement.
“Progress is not only in the fresh beginning of a new idea,” Evans says. “It’s about taking notice at every phase of life, whether it be growth or decay.”
Grant’s “Chalis” similarly removes the living aspect of its photographed flower petals, silhouetted against a black background. Although viewers see luscious oranges, pinks, and yellows, the roots and the green are gone.
Bolanle Adeboye’s illuminated diptych “Sink and Swim” offers a different exploration of struggle and suffrage, progress and choice. The image mimics the experience of peering into an aquarium, as neon, anemone-like shapes mingle with bubbles, scratch patterns, and creeping florals. Adeboye created the piece in opposition to the idea that one’s success depends entirely on a solitary effort.
“It’s a comfort during overwhelming times to remind myself that movement and progress can occur in many directions and along different planes,” Adeboye says. “And perhaps most important, [to remember] none of us are really ever alone in our efforts. There is life and beauty and diversity blooming all around, all the time, even at the very bottom of the ocean.”
Blooming along the gallery’s windows are vibrant painted florals by Lou Haney, whose gouache panels “Floral A” and “Floral B” are also featured in the show. Haney’s window installation blurs the outside environment, and bounces lively reflections across the glass frames of artworks on the opposite wall. Haney calls her painting “psychedelic,” and influenced by the Pattern and Decoration feminist art movement.
Like Haney, Gray and Hale seek to reclaim practices stereotyped as trivial or unartistic. Gray’s “Women’s Work” honors the domestic work that ultimately nourishes society. And Hale’s postcards incorporate collaged embroidered elements that nearly escape the viewer’s eye. As with the minute, controlled, and elaborate details of Gastinger’s botanical watercolors, both artists carefully consider each element of their artworks. Every brushstroke or stitch has a purpose.
“With my embroidery, I think of my grandmother, who will be 101 in November,” says Hale. “She is very progressive and was a big force in the workplace.” Hale says her grandmother “harasses” her about embroidery as art. “My grandmother asks me, ‘What are you doing? I tried to get away from the domestic realm!’ Now, I get to create art of that realm on my own terms.”
New territory: Men on Boats tells the story of four explorers’ heroic quest to chart the whitewater rivers that make up the Grand Canyon. Set in 1869, the play calls itself the “true(ish)” story of Civil War Captain John Wesley Powell and his brave crew’s attempt to map out one of our most magnificent national parks. From this description you might expect a serious, Ken Burns-style celebration of manifest destiny, possibly an all-male lineup. Probably all white men. This play turns those expectations upside down in an adventure-comedy with a diverse cast. The rollicking tale takes you through the unknown American West, but it doesn’t leave you feeling stuck in the past.
Through 3/28. $22-26, Live Arts, 123 E. Water St. 977-4177.
Through dexterous utilization of non-traditional lighting techniques such as lasers, LED wands, programmed projections, and various other homemade light sources, photographer Billy Hunt creates transcendent images for his new portrait series. And he does it all without the use of digital editing techniques. Hunt is known for his photographs of the Charlottesville Lady Arm Wrestlers, and as the inventor of the Screamotron 3000, which takes a picture when the person in front of the camera screams, and his latest series is just as interactive as his previous ones. When “Laser Portraits” opens at 5:30 Friday evening at Studio IX, Hunt will be there to demonstrate for anyone who wants to play with light—or strike a pose. —Erin O’Hare
Artful Living Popup The Shops at Stonefield. An exhibition of acrylic paintings, ceramics, found art, and photography by Susannah Wagner, Linda Hollett, Noah Hughey-Commers, Keith Ramsey, Susan Patrick, Alex Solmssen, Keith Ramsey, and Diana Eichles. 5-7:30pm.
The Bridge Progressive Arts Initiative 209 Monticello Rd. “Americans Who Tell The Truth: Youth Speaking Truth,” an exhibit of 120 portraits made by Charlottesville High School students alongside some of the portraits from Robert Shetterly’s “Americans Who Tell the Truth” series. 5:30-8:30pm.
Chroma Projects Inside Vault Virginia, Third St. SE. “FIGMENTS,” featuring mostly constructions and collage work by Bill Atwood, all demonstrating the artist’s signature expressions of joyful, chaotic eccentricity. 5-7pm.
CitySpace 100 Fifth St. NE. An exhibit of student art from Albemarle County Public Schools. 5-7pm.
C’ville Arts Cooperative Gallery 118 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. “Storytelling with Paint,” a show of dreamlike works by Milenko Katic. 6-8pm.
IX Art Park 522 Second St. SE. “ECSTASIS,” a series of surrealist figure paintings in oil by Kathryn Wingate. 4-6pm.
McGuffey Art Center 201 Second St. NW. In the Sarah B. Smith Gallery, works by Renee Balfour; in the Lower Hall Gallery, a show by Fred Crist; and in the Upper North Hall Gallery, an exhibition related to the Virginia Festival of the Book. 5:30-7:30pm.
Milli Coffee Roasters 400 Preston Ave. #150. “Busker,” photographic prints by Eze Amos. 5-7pm.
Second Street Gallery 115 Second St. SE. In the Main Gallery, “By the Strength of Their Skin,” paintings by Regina Pilawuk Wilson, Mabel Juli, and Nonggirrnga Marawili, three of Australia’s most acclaimed women artists. In the Dové Gallery, “Nature Tells Its Own Story,” featuring paintings by Pakistani artist Tanya Minhas. 5:30-7:30pm
Studio IX 969 Second St. SE. “Laser Portraits,” a photography exhibition and demonstration (everyone is welcome to model) by Billy Hunt. 5:30-7:30pm.
Welcome Gallery 114 Third St. NE. “Sin & Salvation in Baptist Town,” an exhibition of archival pigment prints from photographer Matt Eich. 5-7:30pm.
WVTF Radio IQ 216 W. Water St. “Book Art,” featuring Eugene Provenzo’s eclectic collages, assemblages, and sculpture that compliment the Virginia Festival of the Book. 5-7pm.
VMDO Architects 200 E. Market St. “What,” an exhibition of paintings by Ryan Trott. 5:30-7:30pm.
Albemarle County Circuit Court 501 E. Jefferson St. An exhibition of work by members of the Central Virginia Watercolor Guild.
ALC Copies 156 Carlton Rd. #104. “Favorite Places: Home and Abroad,” recent oil paintings by Randy Baskerville.
Annie Gould Gallery 109 S. Main St., Gordonsville. A show featuring work by Cecelia Schultz, Annie Waldrop, and Chuxin Zhang closes March 8; a show of works by Jeannine Barton Regan and Kathy Kuhlmann opens March 14, 4-6pm..
Charlottesville Tango 208 E. Water St. “Stillness,” a show of pencil sketches by David Currier.
City Clay 700 Harris St. #104. “Recent Work by Faculty and Members of City Clay,” featuring ceramics by Randy Bill, Sam Deering, Sophie Gibson, Judd Jarvis, Julie Madden, and others; and “Visual Investigations,” featuring the work of South Carolina-based ceramic artist Virginia Scotchie. Opens March 24, 5-7pm.
Crozet Artisan Depot 5791 Three Notch’d Rd., Crozet. A show and sale of ceramic bowls, jars, plates, teapots, and other functional items by Stephen Palmer.
The Fralin Museum of Art at UVA 155 Rugby Rd. “Select Works from the Alan Groh-Buzz Miller Collection”; “The Inside World: Contemporary Aboriginal Australian Memorial Poles,” and “Figures of Memory.”
Jefferson School African American Heritage Center 233 Fourth St. NW. “A Place Fit for Women,” part of Robert Shetterly’s “Americans Who Tell The Truth” portrait series.
The Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection 400 Worrell Dr. “Tithuyil (Moving with the Rhythm of the Stars),” featuring linocut prints and sculptural works by Brian Robinson, a Torres Strait Islander artist who combines Torres Strait cultural motifs with references to Western Classical art and popular culture; and “With Her Hands: Women’s Fiber Art from Gapuwiyak.”
Les Yeux du Monde 841 Wolf Trap Rd. “Same Difference,” featuring paintings by Dorothy Robinson and sculpture by Kurt Steger. Opens March 14.
Live Arts 123 E. Water St. “Reimagined,” a show of Polaroids as well as a few lightboxes, prints on wood and mixed media pieces by Cary Oliva.
Mudhouse Coffee 213 W. Main St. “Du Temps Perdu,” featuring paintings by Brian Geiger.
New Dominion Bookshop 404 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. “A Tribute to Eloise,” an exhibition of works by the e salon watercolorists.
Northside Library 705 Rio Rd. W. “Bold,” featuring acrylic paintings by Novi Beerens and collages by Karen Whitehill.
PVCC Gallery 501 College Dr. “Bloom: In Honor of the Centennial Anniversary of Women’s Suffrage,” a group show with paintings, sculpture, photography, and more by a roster of notable local artists.
Quirk Hotel Charlottesville 499 W. Main St. “Hello There,” a show of work by a variety of artists intended to introduce the community to the new hotel. Opens March 5, 5-8pm.
The Rotunda UVA. “Munguyhmunguyh (Forever),” an exhibition celebrating the 30th anniversary of the John W. Kluge Injalak commission and featuring both new and older works commissioned from the Aboriginal community of Kunbarlanja in western Arnhem Land, Australia.
Sentara Martha Jefferson Hospital 500 Martha Jefferson Way. “In Another World,” featuring works by members of the BozART Fine Art Collective, including Carol Barber, Frank Feigert, Craig Lineburger, Juliette Swenson, and others.
Shenandoah Valley Art Center 122 S. Wayne Ave., Waynesboro. “40 Under 40,” featuring the work of 40 Virginia artists under age 40; and “Orange,” a themed show by SVAC members. Opens March 7, 5-7pm.
Thomas Jefferson Memorial Church Unitarian-Universalist 717 Rugby Rd. “Umbrellas,” an exhibition of paintings and drawings by Donna Redmond.
Vitae Spirits Distillery 715 Henry Ave. “Go Wahoos,” a show of UVA-themed acrylic works by Matalie Deane.
First Fridays is a monthly art event featuring exhibit openings at many area art galleries and exhibition venues. Several spaces offer receptions. To list an exhibit, email arts@c-ville.com.
Down at the narrow end of East Market street, past the eclectic, slanting houses of the Woolen Mills neighborhood, there’s a little white chapel. It’s been there since Christmas of 1887, perched on the bank of the Rivanna River at the very edge of the City of Charlottesville.
The history shows: the white paint is peeling off the clapboard siding. There’s a splintered green shutter dangling off the front of the building. The wooden foundations have been melted away by rainwater, and the stones on the back are loose. The gothic, octagonal bell tower has started to lean precariously towards the road.
According to the city’s records, the building is currently owned by the Woolen Mills Chapel Board of Trustees. But if you want to get in touch with them, it’s going to be difficult: Every official member of the board is long dead. (No wonder they haven’t done any painting.)
Over the years, neighbors have stepped up to make minor repairs on their street’s signature building, though it’s been hard to keep the decay at bay. Five years ago, a group of volunteers created a nonprofit to take control of the building and fundraise for more serious restoration work. They’ve been wrestling with ghosts for control of the chapel ever since.
The situation is complicated because, as chapel neighbor Laura Covert explains, “There’s no procedure to follow to get dead people to sign stuff.”
‘Tragedy of the commons’
The neighborhood’s titular woolen mill was built in the 1840s, and the mill soon became one of Charlottesville’s most productive industries, specializing in cloth for uniforms. The neighborhood grew with the mill. In the old days, Woolen Mills residents would go to different churches around town for morning service, but gather in the Woolen Mills chapel in the afternoon for Sunday school, announcements, hymns, and Bible readings. In the 1950s, there were 40 or 50 regular congregants.
The mill shut its doors in 1961, and the chapel’s period of limbo began.
“After the mill closed, fewer people that were part of that original community were here,” Covert says. “They were getting older, and so eventually, the congregation was breaking up.”
The aging board of the chapel informally enlisted new trustees, a selection of neighbors who were interested in maintaining the chapel. When the chapel needed a new coat of paint, or the roof reshingled, “people have gone around with a can and said, ‘hey can you make a donation,’” says Fred Wolf, an architect and neighbor who sits on the nonprofit board with Covert.
The new trustees never bothered to officially register themselves, instead just chipping in to help with the chapel when they could. In both a legal and a functional sense, the chapel came to be owned by everyone and no one; a community center with no official manager or patron.
Services are still held in the chapel on Sundays: The Rivanna Baptist Church has rented the building for more than 20 years. The congregation declined to speak on the record for this story; Covert says the group is elderly and small but that its members care deeply for the building, even though most do not live in Woolen Mills. Inside the chapel, the red carpets are clean, there are flowers on the tables, and the hymnals are stowed neatly among the pews. The congregation pays the electricity bill each month, but there’s plenty it can’t do, like fix the huge, visible crack running down the length of one interior wall.
Covert says she’s had a front door key for 20 years, long before any notion of a nonprofit ever existed. “Being next door, it’s a neighborhood thing,” she says. “If the light gets left on, who’s going to go over there and turn it off? Me, right? Gotta have the key.”
For years, her stepfather, Pete Syme, also a neighbor, had the chapel checkbook. He would deposit the congregation’s small rent and use the money to cover an insurance policy that Covert calls “insufficient.”
Another neighbor comes by periodically to tend to the plants in the flowerbed outside the chapel’s entrance.
The chapel “does church-related things on Sunday,” says Louis Schultz, Covert’s husband, who has lived in Woolen Mills for 35 years. “Other than that, people park there, people turn around in the parking lot, people have sex in the parking lot, people drink beer and throw it over the hillside, and all the other sort of stuff you do in a church parking lot.”
“I love the building,” says Covert. “I’ve lived here since I was in high school, and it’s always been a community center and I think it’s important that it remains that way. What you get, though, is the tragedy of the commons.”
Repairing the chain
“It was probably imagined that this would go on in perpetuity in some limbo,” says Wolf, but the building’s worsening physical condition means that informal arrangement has become untenable.
The chapel’s well-documented historic value isn’t enough to save it from ownership purgatory. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the Virginia Landmarks Register, and is designated an Individual Protected Property by the city, but none of those essentially ceremonial listings allow or require the government to carry out maintenance.
Preserving the building, then, falls to the neighborhood. This is tricky because Virginia has specific laws governing religious buildings, and none of the chapel’s original trustees are around to sign the building over to Covert and Wolf’s nonprofit.
Covert, Wolf, and their lawyers have had to provide affidavits from the church’s few living original congregants and show evidence that the community has had input in the decision-making process in order to convince the city’s courts to allow the transfer. Wolf says he expects the process to be finalized any day now, after years of back-and-forth.
The chapel nonprofit has existed since 2015, but it hasn’t continued the informal fundraising that long kept the place afloat—the group hopes to set up a more official system.
There’s serious work to be done. An exterior paint job can run up to $15,000 or $20,0000, says Covert, and that’s not to mention that the bell tower is leaning and the foundation is sinking. A previous renovation gone awry has sent years of rainwater trickling down into the building’s bones.
“I could walk into that building with my bare hands by tearing the stone foundation out,” says Schultz.
The group hopes to give the chapel new life, return it to the thriving community center it once was, and keep the building in stable hands for its next century and beyond.
“Obviously, there’s been a broken chain,” Covert says. “The question is how do you repair that for the future.”
Since last week, when health officials warned that Americans should prepare for the inevitable spread of the coronavirus here in the U.S., at least 12 Americans have died and new cases have been emerging almost daily.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned that Americans should be prepared for the spread of the virus in local communities, as well as the possible disruptions to daily life it could cause, such as school and daycare closings.
So how is Charlottesville preparing?
While the risk in Virginia “is still low” (there have not yet been any confirmed cases in the state), the Thomas Jefferson Health District is monitoring the situation and is prepared for any potential outbreak, says Jessica Salah, TJHD’s health emergency coordinator.
“We have been working with our central office since 2004 for pandemic influenza. We regularly meet with our community partners, local service providers, and health care partners to plan how we handle pandemic flu,” Salah says. “If you take pandemic flu out of the equation and insert a different communicable disease, the planning process and preparedness is very similar.”
At UVA Health System, spokesman Eric Swensen says the system also “has a team in place that meets regularly…and makes updates to our plan as we need to,” based on guidance from the CDC and Virginia Department of Health.
According to Dr. William Petri, chief of UVA’s Infectious Diseases and International Health division, UVA hospital has numerous isolation rooms available for those infected with contagious diseases like COVID-19 (the disease caused by the new coronavirus). It also has plenty of face masks on hand, since the virus is primarily spread by coughing and sneezing (or by touching a contaminated surface).
“And if a physician needs to go into isolation for 14 days because they potentially may have COVID-19 or are being treated for COVID-19…we are establishing a backup system, so that there’s another physician that can take their place, and we don’t get shorthanded,” Petri says.
Petri, along with UVA virologist Peter Kasson, is currently applying for a research grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop a vaccine for COVID-19. Though the grant could take months to be awarded, he believes that, with support from UVA, they should be able to start working on the vaccine soon. And with pharmaceutical companies like Gilead Sciences already conducting clinical trials for COVID-19 vaccines, there could be a treatment available within a year, Petri predicts.
Meanwhile, the university itself is also making plans. Since January, “a UVA team has been meeting regularly to prepare for the potential impacts of [COVID-19] on the university,” according to an update issued to parents by Patricia Lampkin, vice president and chief student affairs officer. The university has made arrangements to quarantine potentially infected students, if necessary.
UVA has not canceled any of its study abroad programs, but says it will do so if any countries where it is hosting programs receive Level 3 warnings or higher from the State Department. (Currently, China, South Korea, Iran, and Italy have such warnings, and UVA is not hosting any programs there this semester.) The university also strongly recommends students not travel to these countries during the upcoming spring break.
According to UVA spokesman Brian Coy, there is a small group of students studying abroad in Italy with a non-UVA program. The university has advised those students to return to the United States, where they may undergo screening for the virus.
Student travel organization WorldStrides, which has its headquarters in Charlottesville, has canceled or relocated programs scheduled for China, South Korea, and Italy this spring, but there are currently no students in those countries, according to Beth Campbell, vice president of content and communications.
Though TJHD recommends Charlottesville residents stay updated on the COVID-19 outbreak, it ultimately encourages them not to panic, and take simple precautions to keep themselves (and others) healthy, Salah says.
“Monitor CDC travel recommendations and avoid nonessential travel to [Level 3 countries],” Salah says. “We are also recommending that folks older than 65 get the pneumonia vaccine, and that everybody over the age of 6 months get the flu vaccine.”
TJHD does not recommend buying a face mask, but, as with every cold and flu season, advises people to wash their hands regularly, minimize touching their face and commonly used surfaces (like railings and door knobs), and stay home when sick.
“And if you suspect you might have [COVID-19]—and the biggest reason to suspect that is that you have been to a country where COVID-19 is spreading person-to-person, and now have a fever, cough, and shortness of breath—call in first,” Petri adds. “Don’t just walk into the emergency room or doctor’s office, because then you run the risk of spreading the infection to other people.”
Charlottesville City Schools’ page on coronavirus: charlottesvilleschools.org/coronavirus/
Updates from UVA Health: uvahealth.com/services/infectious-disease/coronavirus-faqs
Updated 3/4 and 3/5 to reflect the increasing number of American deaths. As of 3/10 there are now five confirmed cases in Virginia, more than 720 in the U.S., and 26 deaths.
On February 10, local conservative radio host Rob Schilling posted a photo of a Black History Month poster from Cale Elementary School on his blog, with the headline “Fomenting dissension at Cale Elementary.” Three days later, Albemarle County Public Schools Superintendent Matt Haas left a comment agreeing that the poster was causing dissension among students, and said it was coming down that afternoon.
That decision—and the response to Schilling before the school community was officially notified—angered many Cale parents, teachers, and staff, along with other local residents, several of whom came to the February 27 school board meeting to express their concerns.
Cale teachers Lori Ann Stoddart and Katie Morgans read a collective statement signed by 33 teachers and staff at the school, some choosing to sign “X” instead of their names out of fear of being fired.
“Matt Haas’ actions have done harm to the teachers, students, and families of the Mountain View/Cale Elementary community,” Stoddart said. “People of color within our staff, student body, and families feel demeaned and disrespected by the removal of a poster that contained nothing but historical fact and was used as instructional material for teachers in our school.”
The poster, written in colorful letters on yellow laminated paper, read: “Dear Students, They didn’t steal slaves. They stole scientists, doctors, architects, teachers, entrepreneurs, astronomers, fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, etc. and made them slaves. Sincerely, your ancestors.” It was based on a poster Jovan Bradshaw, a teacher at Magnolia Middle School in Mississippi, created for her classroom for Black History Month last year.
Both in his comments on Schilling’s blog and at the meeting, Haas agreed that the poster’s message was “true and compelling.” But he said because the school’s Black History Month committee did not plan an academic program for the poster, it “spawned destructive confrontations between students who obviously lacked the mature perspective to understand the intent of the message.”
Although the same poster was put up in the school’s cafeteria last year, and didn’t cause any issues, Haas said at the meeting that this year’s poster was bigger, and placed outside the school’s main office, where it was much more visible.
He said about a dozen staff members reported to Cale Principal Cyndi Wells that the poster was “divisive,” and caused disagreements among students. Wells called him, he said, to discuss the issue and, after conferring with the school board’s legal counsel and Phil Giaramita, ACPS’ strategic communications officer, they decided to take the poster down.
In addition to not providing an “age-appropriate context” for the poster, Cale’s Black History Month committee, which includes about a dozen teachers, did not receive approval to put up the poster from Wells, who became principal last July, Haas explained. Stoddart and Morgans believe that Haas unfairly blamed Cale’s teachers.
“By abruptly removing the poster and falsely claiming that Mountain View/Cale teachers were not using the poster instructionally, Matt Haas robbed our school community of the opportunity for learning about and understanding each other,” Stoddard said during the meeting. “When Matt Haas could have led our school and our county in a bold conversation of our shared past, he chose instead to pander to those who did not want our community to evolve.”
Cale parent Tannis Fuller was particularly displeased with Haas’ communication about the poster’s removal. She said that on February 13, several hours after Haas left his comment on Schilling’s blog, she received a vague email from Wells about the poster, but nothing from Haas.
“Am I to understand that Haas found it more important to assure a community not affected by the poster that the poster was coming down, than to assure the faculty, staff, and students of Cale that he had their backs?” Fuller asked. “To whom is Matt Haas accountable? The readers of the blog or the faculty, staff, and students of Cale?”
Haas, however, did not view his comments on Schilling’s blog as problematic.
“If I’m made aware that someone has posted something about the school system on their site, whatever I communicate I’m going to put it on that site. I also did it on the Hate-Free Schools [Coalition of Albemarle County] Facebook page,” he said. “That’s just what I do.”
Hate-Free Schools member Amanda Moxham emphasized that the poster needed to be put back up, and encouraged the school to have a discussion with students about the controversy surrounding it.
“These are the conversations that need to be held at a young age so that when our students get to high school, they’re not combating each other over these ideologies,” Moxham said.
Following public comment, Haas admitted he “often makes mistakes, especially in terms of my communication style,” and offered a formal apology. But he added that “we all need to take ownership,” and said “there was more that the school staff could have done prior to using the poster to set the stage for a positive dialogue and outcome.”
Cale’s Black History Month committee is currently working with the school’s administration, as well as with Dr. Bernard Hairston, assistant superintendent for school community empowerment, to determine what to do next. Hairston has also met with some African American parents at Cale, who suggested that “with the proper support and context and information, the poster could be [put] back on display,” Haas said.
“I support that…and I think that would be a great next step,” he said. “Someone might say, ‘Well, it’s too late because it was a part of African American History Month.’ But I would also say that it’s not one month out of the year…that’s part of reframing the narrative.”
Correction 3/6: the Hate-Free Schools member who spoke at ACPS’s School Board meeting on 2/27 is named Amanda Moxham, not Maxhom.
City Manager Tarron Richardson presented his proposed budget for fiscal year 2021 at the City Council meeting on March 2. If that sentence made you yawn, we understand—but the tail end of the hours-long council meeting represents the beginning of the end of the budget cycle, some of the more important city business of the year. Richardson’s office has been working with City Council on the budget since September, and will finalize the plan in April.
Around 20 firefighters attended the meeting in yellow T-shirts reading “staffing matters,” as a protest against Richardson’s decision not to fund nine new positions for the department. Richardson says the fire department’s hiring program was developed before he arrived, and that new hiring has to be done strategically.
The new budget includes significant appropriations for affordable housing, with $4.1 million for housing in FY21 and $31.2 million in the five-year capital improvement plan, though it doesn’t include the roughly $400,000 requested by the Charlottesville Housing Affordability Grant Program. Community activism around housing “elevated it as a priority for City Council,” Richardson told us in a rare interview February 28. “And as city manager, I try to follow through with their defined priorities.”
Richardson also defended his decision to give the school district a $2.1 million budget increase instead of the $3.8 million it requested. He says the $2.1 million is in accordance with the 40 percent of new property taxes that has historically been given to schools. The school board presented a breakdown of its request at the meeting, emphasizing teacher compensation as a critical component that could be jeopardized by lack of funding.
Then there’s the Market Street parking garage, a $10 million expenditure that Richardson has explained away as “basically signed off on with the county” before he arrived. Councilor Michael Payne criticized the garage at the meeting, saying “it could be very easy for us to spend 10 million on this to meet a need that’s not exactly there.”
C-VILLE asked Richardson if declining requests from citizens all day long takes a toll on him. “It takes a toll, yes,” he said. “Do I say no all the time? I would say no. But what I try to do is make sure that we take things and look at it from a holistic approach.”
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Quote of the Week
“I want teachers to be able to afford to live in our city.”
—Charlottesville School Board chair Jennifer McKeever, addressing City Council about the school district’s unmet funding request
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Bikers on Barracks?
On March 2, City Council voted unanimously to approve a state-funded project that will add a shared-use pedestrian and bike path to a stretch of Barracks Road. But some nearby residents objected—one speaker at the council meeting suggested that installing sidewalks and bike paths was unnecessary because there were never any walkers or bikers on the road. Perhaps that’s because there are no sidewalks or bike paths? Impossible to say for sure.
Baby steps
During the same meeting, council expressed support for a requested special use permit from developer Woodard Properties for a new apartment complex on Harris Street. The permit would allow Woodard to build 105 units; the developer indicated that 10 of those would be designated affordable housing. Without the permit, Woodard could build 50 units and wouldn’t have to keep any affordable. Mayor Nikuyah Walker wanted to push Woodard to include more cheap units, but Councilor Michael Payne backed the permit, saying blocking developments like these won’t address the deep-lying issues that have created the local housing crisis.
Honoring our ancestors
Dozens of people gathered in Court Square March 1 for a candlelight vigil in remembrance of the thousands of enslaved people, including children as young as 2, who were bought and sold there. The event, which included prayer, singing, and readings, kicked off the city’s Liberation and Freedom Day celebrations, which continue through March 9 and commemorate the arrival of Union troops in Charlottesville.
Still standing still
Nothing has changed with the Dewberry/Laramore, our local eyesore on the Downtown Mall, but apparently that’s not for lack of trying. According to documents obtained recently by The Daily Progress, the city initiated a process to conduct a structural integrity study of the building last November, a potential step toward demolishing the long-neglected property under its blight ordinance. The catch? Dewberry Capital, whose Dewberry Group website declares the half-completed wreck is “poised to become the city’s premier luxury multi-use property,” hasn’t given the city permission to enter the site.