Kennedy High art teacher finalist for The Ed Fund

kennedy high art steve mainini

Dozens of palm-sized faces hang from the ceiling in Steve Mainini’s art classroom at Kennedy High School. The ceramic reflections of former students dangle in wire cages and defy gravity as if trapped in some sort of bad dream. But for the hundreds of students that have enrolled in Mainini’s art classes the past eight…

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Cafeterias digest lunch regulations

In Richmond, a city in which 51 percent of students in grades 5, 7 and 9 were obese or overweight in 2010 and where two-thirds of students are from families near and below the national poverty line, how to feed the children, what to feed the children — and if the children choose to eat what they’re fed — has created a world of dietary perplexity.

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A gathering to celebrate women, community

“We are family, I’ve got all my sisters with me,” blasted out the speakers in the multipurpose room of Lovonya DeJean Middle School Saturday. The popular ‘70s song by Sister Sledge got a crowd of more than 200 women up on their feet, a few dancing and others clapping and singing to the popular party…

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Richmond Explorers set bar high at state competition

Generally, when you sit a 19-year-old at a table with a reporter, it’s a classic recipe for one-word answers and evasive glances at the ground. Yet, Francisco Rodriguez stands to shake my hand. He looks me directly in the eye, and speaks clearly, in full sentences. “That’s everything they teach you in the post,” Rodriguez…

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