Kennedy High School students may start the school year in another location because of toxic chemical plume

A baseball team in red jerseys are lined up on a bench with their backs to the camera, all looking at the wide open baseball diamond.

Kennedy High School students will begin their school year on schedule, with several backup locations under consideration while further testing for a toxic chemical on campus is conducted. Richmond’s Kennedy High School was closed on Monday after preliminary test results indicated levels of tetrachloroethylene, also known as PCE, underground. At a town hall meeting Thursday…

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Update: Kennedy High students may start school year in temporary location after toxic chemical was found on campus

JOHN F. KENNEDY HIGH SCHOOL sign, steel on pebbles.

West Contra Costa Unified School District is considering temporarily relocating Kennedy High School students after closing the campus Monday because a toxic chemical was detected in “underground vapors,” Superintendent Cheryl Cotton said Tuesday. School is on summer break and set to restart on Aug. 18. WCCUS will hold a town hall meeting with Richmond and…

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‘We’re not learning anything’: Kennedy High students frustrated with software that subs for a Spanish teacher

JOHN F. KENNEDY HIGH SCHOOL sign, steel on pebbles.

For students at John F. Kennedy High School in Richmond, a teacherless classroom is nothing new. Many kids start their day in the library, huddled over a calendar that shows teacher absences for the day. Teacher vacancies impact various subjects, but Spanish classes have been particularly difficult to fill. In response, the school has turned…

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Easter Hill United Methodist Church in Richmond

The sidewalk in front of Easter Hill United Methodist Church in Richmond was all but empty on Monday at 11 am. A cyclist slowly meandered by on Cutting Boulevard, the clinking of his bike chain breaking up the white noise created by a constant stream of passing cars. The doors of the church were locked,…

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Family remembers Xavier McClanahan

The first thing Xavier McClanahan’s family says is that everyone loved him. As they gathered in a meeting room at the Praise Fellowship Bible Church in Richmond after Sunday services, his mother Ligé spoke of his magnetic personality—people just wanted to be around him. His cousin Daniel, wearing an “R.I.P Xavier” t-shirt, said that he…

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Friends, family mourn Richmond woman killed in Oakland

Things were looking up for Rusamie Ashly Phongphoumy, who had long dreamed of a better life. On the night of Nov. 29, her boyfriend proposed to her. She accepted. The couple made plans for the future. But all that ended the next day, when she was killed in a West Oakland market, allegedly by a…

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