Fighting a Double Pandemic

In the summer of 2020, against the backdrop of a global pandemic, nationwide protests following the murder of George Floyd, and a renewal of the country’s Black Lives Matter movement, Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School found itself in its own racial reckoning, forced to come to terms with a long history of segregation and exclusion. Over the past two years, the school has drawn criticism from students, parents, and alumni, for its lack of diversity and equity for its students—something not lost on the school’s leadership.

On June 18th, 2020, Maggie Walker’s Regional School Board, made up of representatives from each of the school’s 14 different contributing districts, issued a public resolution condemning racism and pledging to foster greater inclusivity and diversity at the school. The resolution wrote, “We, members of the Regional School Board, stand steadfast in our commitment to foster an inclusive educational environment where every student, teacher, support professional, parent and community member is treated with dignity and respect, as well as our commitment to continue fighting for racial justice and human and civil rights for all.” 

The pledge marked the beginning of a years-long process by MLWGS administration and the board to attempt to resolve the school’s historical challenges with diversity, equity, and inclusion, a slow but sure process that Director Dr. Robert Lowerre acknowledges as essential to building a better future for Maggie Walker’s students. “We have to make sure everyone who gets here wants to stay,” he said. 

The sad truth is that many things go on behind the scenes with administration which the MLWGS community is not aware of because of a lack of communication, and this seemed to be one of the first times MLWGS administration referenced its diversity issues to the student body. 

5-Year Strategic Plan

One of the most significant aspects of the school’s overall push for greater equity and diversity is the 2020-2025 Strategic Plan. Development for the Strategic Plan began in August 2019 with a 15-member representative group led by Lowerre, and the plan was ultimately passed at the August 2020 Regional School Board meeting. The plan covers everything from creating a more welcoming environment at MLWGS to developing curriculum and ensuring a safe school during the pandemic. It also, for the first time in MLWGS history, includes language on inclusive environments and underserved populations.

Many alumni responded positively to efforts for greater diversity and inclusion, including Tejas Muthusamy, who graduated from the governor’s school in 2021. “Intercultural learning is what makes a school with as broad of a geographic pull as Maggie Walker so special, and we need to foster it more. By continuing to center the voices of people of color in these discussions and ensuring that all people find MLWGS as a safe space to learn, we can help improve our school community as a whole.”

However, other alumni have criticized the plan for a lack of benchmarks and metrics, specifically for the plan’s first goal to “create a welcoming and responsive environment that celebrates and reflects the diversity of the school districts we serve and fosters a sense of belonging for all.” The plan also does not mention racism or Black or brown students, another point of contention.

“I would like to see real, intentional, concrete steps to move towards a more diverse and culturally responsive, more diverse teaching staff, culturally responsive curriculum,” said Carrie Kahwajy, the Chesterfield NAACP’s education chair and a Maggie Walker alumna.

The Antiracist Alumni of MLWGS, a group formed in 2020 following protests after the murder of George Floyd and renewed attention over the governor’s school’s challenges with diversity, also criticized the Strategic Plan. The group offered revisions, including the addition of statements in the plan such as “Both students and staff will, at least once per semester, participate in mandatory anti-racist and anti-bias training” and “The Social Studies department will, in partnership with Black scholars, create, offer, and promote a course teaching the history and experience of Black Americans.” These recommendations were not ultimately implemented into the plan, primarily due to the fact that its development was ongoing prior to the formation of the alumni group in 2020.

Admissions Changes

Changes were also made to the admissions testing at MLWGS by the Regional School Board and the Planning Committee, a group of representatives from contributing counties that provide input on school policies like admissions. In previous years, the admissions test has consisted of a 10th-grade social studies achievement test, a math aptitude test, and a timed essay (with the exception of 2021, when the admissions test was waived due to the pandemic). However, the Planning Committee decided to reevaluate admissions practices a year and a half ago, particularly the social studies assessment component, which tests on material students will learn at MLWGS in 10th grade. Lowerre and the Planning Committee found the assessment test to not be an adequate indicator of which students will do well at Maggie Walker, especially because students will learn the material once accepted into the school. “We came to the conclusion that the achievement test needed some work—why would we give you a test on something we're going to teach you when you get here?” Lowerre said about the change. “That’s like taking the bar exam before you go to law school.”

The change to remove the test faced pushback by some members of the school board, with John Axselle, the chair of the Hanover County School Board, initially opposing the policy and expressing concerns about Maggie Walker lowering its standards with a drop in part of its admissions test. Some parents and alumni also expressed concern, with one Richmond parent stating at a school board meeting, “Maggie Walker is not and should never be a school that accommodates the lowest common denominator. Maggie Walker is a gifted school for gifted students, and its legacy will most certainly be destroyed if admission decisions become based on not much more than a coin toss.”

Lowerre, however, stated that the change would not lower the school’s standards and would instead better open up the admissions process to allow a wider breadth of students to access and apply to Maggie Walker, something widely supported by alumni who had been pushing for greater action by the school to address historical disparities in MLWGS applications. Ultimately, the policy passed unanimously at the regional school board meeting in October 2021, replacing the weighting of the social studies test with a personal essay that asks students to write about their interest in attending MLWGS. “With a lot of work—and it was tough getting all 14 districts on board—we were able to eliminate that test as part of the admissions process,” Lowerre said. “Now, we’re asking them to tell us about their journey to get here, which allows us to get a broader look at potential students that catch our eye.” 

Chesterfield County, one of Maggie Walker’s largest contributing districts, also changed their admissions process in 2020, giving a designated number of slots for admission to the governor’s school to every middle school in the county, a change that resulted in the county sending more Black students to Maggie Walker than it had in the previous four years combined, and contributed to the most diverse freshman class the school has seen in 20 years.

Lowerre has also made clear that he and other school leaders are focusing on diversifying the MLWGS faculty, which is majority white and has historically been unrepresentative. “We are going to actively try to find teachers that look like our kids. We really want to diversify the faculty to make it look like the student body. That requires intentional work on our part.” No substantial progress in this area has been made so far; however, Lowerre cites challenges within the hiring process and a need for more intentional effort. “It’s not something that’s necessarily easy to do—not everyone posts a picture or puts a race on their application when we put out a job posting—so we’ve got to intentionally recruit, we need to look at some of the teaching colleges in the area.”

The School Advisory Council

Furthermore, to identify student opinions about racial inclusivity and school culture at Maggie Walker, the Student Advisory Council (SAC) implemented an anonymous, optional Racial Climate Survey in January 2021, which was made available to 10th-12th grade students. The SAC is a group of students, parents, faculty, and administrators at Maggie Walker and aims to provide feedback to MLWGS administration and stakeholders about the quality of educational opportunities, as well as support the effective components of existing programs at MLWGS. The SAC is comprised of several different committees responsible for overseeing relevant challenges and opportunities at MLWGS; the committee “Removing Structural Barriers to Student Engagement,” led by senior counselor Dr. Rachel Loving and a group of senior students, released the survey and worked on its recommendations over the 2021 school year. 

“It was immediately obvious from talking to students that they felt that we needed to not just be looking at logistical limitation such as rides and how to help meet financial needs, but more about actually what would be in the way of students choosing to engage and be involved with the school,” Loving explained about choosing to conduct the survey. “We acknowledge that there’s growth needed here. The purpose of our survey was to dig deeper into the details in asking some specific questions about microaggressions, staff comments, and things like that, to hear the experiences of the student body.” Dr. Lisa Williams, Maggie Walker’s Assistant Director, stated that one of the largest takeaways from the survey was to make teachers “more available to students and more aware of their environment.”

Out of a possible 558 students, 110 responses in the Racial Climate Survey were submitted and summarized by the SAC committee. Four key findings of the survey were highlighted: students desire increased racial inclusivity and accountability, share the need for more diverse school events, indicate areas of need for staff development, and find their friend groups to be supportive, racially sensitive, and aware.

The results of the survey found that students, for the most part, “appreciate the educational opportunity” they receive at Maggie Walker, including the “quality of teachers, extracurricular activities, and peer relationships.” Students responded positively to questions about friend groups and school events such as Fall Fest, with 95% of students agreeing or strongly agreeing that their friend groups were “racially sensitive, accepting, and aware.” However, many students noted the need for greater diversity in the student body and staff population. Students also differed in their feelings about racial inclusivity, with some students reporting negative experiences in the classroom and in social environments. 29% of respondents indicated that they had been made uncomfortable at one point because of their race, 35% responded that they had experienced microaggressions (indirect, subtle, or unintentional discrimination) at the school, and 16% reported that a teacher had said something insensitive to them.

Students also expressed support for the return of assemblies such as the Asian Assembly and a need for the curriculum to be more inclusive of different cultures. Numerous students asked for more transparency and accountability for the actions of students and teachers, and many students expressed their anger about how it “seems no actions are being taken when it comes to racial issues, such as when teachers or students repeatedly say insensitive comments.” 

Transparency and Equity

The Racial Climate Survey also provided several recommendations for MLWGS administration based on the collected data. The first recommended the hiring of a Diversity and Inclusion Advancement Part-Time Position for the 2022-2023 school year to specifically address DEI challenges. This position would spearhead outreach to the student body on diversity, aid in planning activities to emphasize diversity and inclusivity, sponsor cultural clubs and assemblies, and provide community updates to provide transparency in the school community. 

This position was not implemented for the 2021-2022 school year because the survey was released after the school’s budget had already been approved, but MLWGS administration remains supportive of the effort and emphasizes discussions for the possibility of the role in this year’s budget negotiations. “I would love to see a position for that,” said Assistant Director Max Smith. “The only way to move an organization significantly is having someone that is dedicated to changing that cultural inclusivity. If no one is working on it as their sole job, no one can dedicate significant amounts of time. It needs to have authority; it needs to have follow-up.” 

Another recommendation by the SAC survey was to “provide transparency statements for MLWGS stakeholders,” which would include updates to the student body and alumni on changes occurring at the school, such as teacher training on diversity and inclusion, the process and response protocol on reporting students and teachers, transparency about factors that account for admissions, and information on efforts to recruit students of different backgrounds. Maintaining a clear line of communication with the student body about developments in diversity and inclusion has shown to be one of the largest weaknesses for administration, which never properly communicated changes to the admissions policy, updates to professional development, or the adoption of the Strategic Plan. 

The development of an anonymous reporting mechanism for students was also another recommendation, highlighting an issue raised primarily by the emergence of the Instagram account @POCatMLWGS in 2020, a page that aimed to give students and alumni of color an outlet to share their experiences with diversity and inclusion at the governor’s school. The page is flooded with anonymous posts with stories of racially insensitive comments students have experienced or witnessed, with students citing the lack of diversity in Maggie Walker’s English and Global Studies classes, instances of microaggressions by other students or teachers, and criticisms of the seeming lack of action by the school’s administration and school board.

One student on the account mentions how one teacher and their “fetishization of Black people and Black culture led to so many racist and ignorant comments.” Other students cite instances of racism that were not properly handled.

The recommendation for an anonymous report would therefore be crucial to ensuring that instances of racism and microaggressions are properly handled by administrations, instead of submitted anonymously to the Instagram page, something that administration acknowledges but has found challenges with implementing.

Smith remarked on logistical issues over the potential system, emphasizing that discussions had been brought up, but that a final decision had not been reached. “The debate over having an anonymous reporting system was what to do with it once we got an anonymous report in,” he said. “With its anonymous nature, there would be no one to be able to follow up to give contacts, to give context, to give more detail. How it is that this would be used was a cause for concern, if it could be used to retaliate against other people or carry out grudges.” 

Lowerre similarly commented on the progress of the report, stating, “It needs to be done in a way where everyone’s privacy is protected. I need to find another district that does this and find out how they do it, because we know we need it. We’ve got to find a way to do it in a way that works.” 

Discussions are ongoing, but until a system is implemented, students are largely unsure what they should do if they do experience an instance of racism from a staff member or fellow student; a direct message on this has yet to communicated to the student body, and was never brought up in 2020 when the Instagram page was created. “I hope their anonymous reporting system will be enforced sooner rather than later,” commented alumna Emmy Li, who graduated in 2021 and was part of the SAC committee that released the Racial Climate Survey. “Specifically, I would like to see more transparency with what consequences are if teachers say insensitive comments repeatedly.”

For his part, Lowerre says that he was saddened and surprised by the submissions on the account. “No teacher would ever want one of their students to ever feel that way,” he said. “I don’t think we have anybody here that would intentionally try to make a child feel bad, but I do think that because of history and the way we’re raised, we say and do things we don’t realize. That’s part of this cultural competency journey.”

Lowerre also added that several teachers who were named on the account came to him over the summer, expressing regret and disbelief with how their actions were perceived. “I don’t know if shocking is the right word, but it hurt,” he said, referring to the experiences that were documented on the account. “To a certain extent, shame. I thought, Oh my God, what are we doing? It’s not something to be proud of. It’s a cultural issue that we all have to work on.”

History Gone Untaught

Other recommendations by the Racial Climate Survey include highlighting Maggie Walker’s history, instituting changes to make Fall Fest more accessible for students who lack transportation after school hours (accomplished in 2021, with the start time for Fall Fest being pushed earlier into the school day), examining new club policies, expanding the Peer Mentors program, considering curriculum modifications, hosting activities to increase cultural awareness, and implementing a survey for the LGBTQ+ community.  

Regarding the survey’s recommendation to better highlight MLWGS history, the SAC committee mentioned better lighting and featuring the artifacts from Maggie L. Walker High School on the third floor of the school, something that some students have criticized as not going far enough. “Putting more lights on the MLWHS trophies?” junior Carolyn Zhuang said, when informed about the survey’s recommendation. “That’s it? Lighting the memorabilia doesn’t do anything if they don’t teach us the decades of history that we continually miss out on learning.”

The governor’s school’s disconnect with the original Maggie L. Walker High School and its overall history is something that has been continually criticized by students and alumni. Aside from one-off assemblies or lectures that students participate in that provide information about the school’s namesake, Maggie Lena Walker, the school employs no long-term or substantive curriculum about its history, which has roots in the segregated school system in Richmond and stretches back more than 80 years. Alumni of Maggie L. Walker High School have also criticized the governor’s school for a lack of outreach and communication, something that the MLWGS administration acknowledges. “We haven’t made enough efforts to bridge the gap between Maggie Walker High School alumni and MLWGS students,” says Smith, something that was brought center stage after the murder of George Floyd in May of 2020.

“It’s pretty sad to see that MLWGS is basically only valued now for its academic prestige, and the history of the school is lost,” Zhuang added. The MLWGS Antiracist Alumni group has also highlighted this need for students to learn more about the history of the school, providing recommendations for the formation of some type of mandatory course or series of presentations, such as integrating curriculum with the year-long FIRC class that all freshmen are currently required to take. 

Students themselves have indicated interest in learning more about the history of the school and about Maggie Lena Walker. “Maggie L. Walker’s legacy is something that is long-lasting and shall be for years to come,” added sophomore Jaliyah Hairston. “I do believe we should incorporate more of her into teaching at Maggie Walker because she has had many impacts on the world we know today.”

Curriculum and Professional Development

The SAC survey’s recommendation for considering curriculum modifications was also communicated to Maggie Walker’s English and History departments, which students have long criticized for teaching material that is too Eurocentric. Specifically, the SAC committee recommended “summer reading that promotes cultural awareness” and the inclusion of “more positive information and contributions of historically marginalized groups.” Dr. Brenda Ericson and Ms. Kerry Sheppard, Maggie Walker’s respective History and English department chairs, have noted discussions that their departments have had in the last year regarding expanding the curriculum, but have also cited challenges and the need for greater time and resources to make a firm change. Neither the World Literature or Global Studies curriculum have made any substantive curriculum changes to date, but both department heads mention ongoing conversations for the coming school year.

Another substantial development for faculty and staff at the governor’s school has been the implementation of a new system for professional development that emphasizes awareness and cultural competency in the classroom. Over the summer, MLWGS administration partnered with Dr. Joshua Cole and Dr. Cassandra Stanley at the Office of Strategic Engagement at VCU for small group sessions, and plans to do the same in the second semester with more targeted work. Smith, Williams, and Maggie Walker’s librarian Wendy DeGroat have also created a staff development bank for teachers with cultural competency activities. For Williams, this bank is also important to preserve Maggie Lena Walker’s legacy. “Like Maggie Lena Walker’s bank, we want to make a bank of resources and activities to enhance cultural awareness,” she said.

Smith added, “Teachers, staff, and administration are engaged in book studies, discussing films, going to ethnic restaurants, visiting exhibitions, watching TEDtalks, and reading articles.” Over the summer, Maggie Walker’s Counseling Department read and held discussions over Ibram X. Kendi’s How to Be an Antiracist, and the Leadership Team over Zaretta Hammond’s Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain.

“A lot of the time, staff development for teachers is a one-off deal,” Lowerre said about the new changes. “But this is sustainable—it’s a two-year program that we’re running through—so we’re going to cycle through different cultures and give money for staff to go to museums like the Black History Museum. We’re really trying to find a way to increase cultural competency in our community.”

Smith also added that he and Williams would be organizing walking tours of Jackson Ward, Carver, and Newtowne for professional development in the spring, as well as bringing in local business owners to speak about their experiences. “Professional development is one of those things that students might not see, but is a long process toward creating the culture we want to have,” Loving added. (The SAC survey recommended some kind of staff development). “One of the major takeaways of the survey was that all of us here at the school who are not people of color have a lot to learn and continue to learn, and continue to be as educated as we can be.”

Cultural Assemblies

The SAC Survey also recommended the continuation of a Black History Month Assembly at MLWGS (it is planned to be held again in 2022), as well as the implementation of other multicultural assemblies for Hispanic Heritage Month and Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, the latter of which is currently being planned as an “International Assembly” by a group of students and faculty for March of 2022.

The SAC Committee “Removing Structural Barriers to Student Engagement” that conducted the survey also utilized the results to implement Maggie Walker’s first Black History Month Assembly in February of 2021. “We created it with the intention that it would start a legacy of gatherings highlighting the contributions of Richmonders and individuals from a variety of different backgrounds,” said Tejas Muthusamy, who played a role in developing the assembly. The assembly included a “Maggie Walker House” video, African American poetry performed by the Slam Poetry Club, and a keynote presentation from Faithe Norrell, a Maggie Walker family member.

The assembly was the first of its kind and marked an intention for progress on diversity and inclusion by the governor’s school, but received mixed feedback from students. “It felt so random and kind of like a pop up,” said junior Mariam Jafari-Nassali. They went on to say it felt like administration was telling the student body, “We’re doing this, appreciate it.” Dr. Williams acknowledged this sentiment, stating that in the future, “We’d like to start a continuum of several activities, not just one singular presentation. We’re aiming to start long-term discussions, after all.” Additionally, in a survey in November 2021 conducted by The Jabberwock with 175 respondents, 68% of returning students felt that the assembly did not do an adequate job of addressing concerns of diversity and inclusion.

As for the Student Advisory Council’s work for 2022, Loving says that the committee entitled “School Culture and Student Engagement,” which will be led by junior Sean Fang, will plan the second iteration of the Black History Month Assembly for late February as a series of interactive events, with the help of a student planning committee. Additionally, the committee will conduct research on a few of the Racial Climate Survey’s recommendations along with Maggie Walker’s Strategic Planning Committee—responsible for many admissions and administrative changes—on best methods for implementation of the survey’s recommendations.

Administration’s Critical Failure

What undercuts many of the efforts by administration and the school board, however, is the fact that MLWGS administrators have largely failed to communicate any of these changes to the student body, parents, or alumni. In a survey conducted by The Jabberwock, 60% of 170 student respondents indicated that they did not believe administrative actions were sufficient to address issues of diversity and inclusion.

“I feel like administration’s motivation is to look better, not to actually change or improve Maggie Walker,” says junior Carolyn Zhuang. “They need to be more transparent about the actions that they’re taking with regards to diversity and inclusion. I don’t know what they’re doing because that’s never been communicated to us. I want to know that something is being done.”

One of the only direct messages from administration to the governor’s school community about its efforts for diversity and inclusion was from Lowerre in June of 2020, in the thick of Black Lives Matter protests in Richmond and around the country. In his message, titled “An Open Letter to the MLWGS Community,” Lowerre underscored the grief and anger many protestors felt after the murder of George Floyd and a reawakening of histories of police brutality against people of color.

“At this critical moment in our community’s and our nation’s history, we have the responsibility to engage in Maggie Walker’s legacy of leadership,” Lowerre wrote. “As the Director, I accept full responsibility for leading this effort.” Lowerre went on to introduce efforts being undertaken at the time by the MLWGS Regional School Board to address inclusion and equity at the school, through the proposed 5-Year Strategic Plan. “As we develop an action plan to achieve this goal, we commit to taking meaningful actions that would make Maggie L. Walker proud, ones that ensure every student, no matter race or ethnicity, especially those who have been marginalized in the past, can be recognized as a unique and gifted individual,” he concluded.

Since June of 2020, there have been no other direct messages from Lowerre or the school board on MLWGS’s commitment to diversity. Efforts on professional development, changes to the admissions policy, updates on the recommendations of the SAC racial climate survey, and nearly all other developments have been subject to insufficient communicative efforts. Even the adoption of the 5-Year Strategic Plan in August 2020, arguably one of the most significant aspects of the school’s pledge for diversity and equity, was never clearly communicated to the student body. 

“Administration has failed to create an open environment where students are able to openly speak about their concerns,” Zhuang added. “Everyone knows that we have issues of diversity and inclusion, but no one talks about it. There needs to be better communication.” 

Lowerre has communicated intentions to diversify the faculty population, something that students and alumni have long pushed for, but has not specified any concrete goals or established a timeline for the school towards achieving that objective. Interviews demonstrate that the student body is almost entirely unaware of professional development that staff are undergoing, something that administrators cite as one of their main efforts in the past year and a half, especially in response to the numerous accounts of microaggressions and inappropriate comments made toward students of color by faculty members documented on the @POCatMLWGS Instagram page. Specific guidelines were never created or communicated for consequences for students and staff who engage in racist or inappropriate behavior, something cited on the page itself as one of the school’s deepest flaws and a clear area of concern that administrators recognize.

Administration’s miscommunications were most notable in the summer of 2020 with the rise of the @POCatMLWGS Instagram page, as well as in October of 2021 after the publication of a three-part series in the Richmond Times-Dispatch about Maggie Walker’s historical challenges with diversity and inclusion, both things that the majority of the student body—and administration—were critically aware of. Lowerre did not issue a formal response to either incident, reaffirm the school’s commitment to diversity, or give any updates on what administration had accomplished with regards to staff development or creating a more culturally aware environment. There have also been no direct updates on recommendations provided by the Student Advisory Council, including the development of an anonymous reporting mechanism for instances of racism students experience or a part-time Diversity and Inclusion position for the school. Students themselves know the least about the efforts that are supposed to benefit them; the student body is largely unaware of Maggie Walker’s changes to its admissions policy, and both the current freshmen and sophomore classes were not adequately made aware of the Regional School Board’s commitment to anti-racism, as it was adopted in the summer of 2020, prior to both classes becoming students of MLWGS, and has not since been reaffirmed. 

The MLWGS website does have a page dedicated to its commitment to diversity, but the page lacks all of the school’s tangible efforts for diversity and communicates none of administration’s goals; the only item included is the school board’s 2020 resolution condemning racism.

Administrators acknowledge that there could be improvement in this area, with Smith saying, “We could have improved our communication to better promote what we were doing in response [to the @POCatMLWGS Instagram account] in order for our students and parents to realize that we were aware of it and we were acting upon some feedback that we were getting.” For administration’s part, they cite the school board’s anti-racism resolution, email blasts, and communication through the MLWGS Facebook page, but acknowledge that they need to do further work in communicating through social media, something that the school has historically lacked in despite the majority of the student body using on a daily basis.

Such an issue of communication would seemingly be easy to solve through a direct message from Lowerre, an update of the school website, and further involvement on social media platforms. Until that happens, student awareness of many of these efforts serves as a major hindrance to an otherwise significant amount of progress towards a more diverse and inclusive school. “We shouldn’t have to resort to Instagram accounts and outside news sources to hear about what’s happening in our own school,” Zhuang added.

What Next?

Today, what you find is an administration and faculty that has substantially worked to better Maggie Walker’s cultural environment but a student body that is largely unaware of those very efforts that it is supposed to benefit from. Diversity, equity, and inclusion at Maggie Walker are issues that are complex, and for a school that has stakeholders from 14 different districts and 85 years of history inextricably linked to race, there is no easy solution that can come without time and substantive effort. Some students and parents have criticized the school for not doing enough; others have criticized it for going too far.

Much of the information about Maggie Walker’s long history of underrepresentation, both in its faculty population and student body, was revealed in October in the three-part series published by the Richmond Times-Dispatch that detailed a great deal of shocking information about the environment and demographics of the school. What many students don’t know, though, is that nearly all of the quantitative information about the governor’s school’s two-decade struggle with its disproportionate demographics was provided by Lowerre himself. “I’ll tell you the straight truth on everything; I’ll work with you, and you report what you want to report,” Lowerre said, describing a conversation he had with the reporter of the series, Kenya Hunter. “But, when we start fixing these things, you report that too.”

It raises the question of how many directors before Lowerre, who came to the school in 2017, knew about that information and chose instead to ignore it.

The school’s struggle with equity has long been recognized. A 2009 study of Maggie Walker conducted by researchers at the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia found eerily similar circumstances to those now. The more than 100-page document outlined flaws the school had with inclusion and outreach to its students, along with dozens of detailed recommendations, nearly all of which ultimately did not go properly addressed by the school’s administration at the time.

In many ways, this is the first time the needle on cultural inclusion and competency has ever been moved in the governor school’s nearly 30-year history, something that has also occurred in the midst of a global pandemic and Lowerre’s diagnosis with lymphoma. Targeted professional development, changes to the admissions process, implementation of the strategic plan, the list goes on—all efforts implemented in the past two years, attempting to fill a hole in the school left by decade after decade of systemic racism in Richmond and the larger school system. 

From the interview with Lowerre, it’s difficult not to feel a little saddened by what you hear in his voice—the regret of mistakes of the past and a desire to do better. “There is something wrong, and we need to fix it,” Lowerre said. “We want every one of our kids to feel that this is home.”

For his part, Lowerre tells a story of a racial reckoning of his own, describing a comment he regrets saying to an African American student when he taught high school three decades ago. “That was simply an insensitive thing that I said because I didn’t know any better,” he said. “I grew up in a white middle-class neighborhood outside of Washington, D.C. There were very few people of color at my high school. I never thought that what I said could be insensitive, and I look back on it now and think, “Oh God, what else have I done?”

“That’s something that a lot of people are coming to terms with now,” he continued. “How we’ve reacted and how we've benefited from this system—that’s something we need to be aware of. We can’t change that, but we can try to move forward and do better.”

And Lowerre’s words are true—for the most part, Maggie Walker is doing better. This year’s freshman class is the most diverse one in the school’s more than 20-year history. The school successfully reopened—and stayed open—amidst a global pandemic. Fall Fest came back, homecoming came back, life came back. 

The past two years have not been a story of failure. There is a lot this school has yet to do, to come to terms with its history and its present, in order to make the future better. That is something that won’t come without time and deliberate effort; there is no easy way to reverse the damage that has been done through Maggie Walker’s long history. But we have a start.

“It’s going to get better,” Lowerre concluded. “You have to own what you have to own. You have to look in the mirror and make those changes. We can’t just hide behind test scores and achievement, because you guys do magnificent and marvelous and wonderful things. But that doesn’t mean it’s being done in a happy place. The reality is, there are things we need to do better, and I’ll be here to see this through. I’m not running away from it.”