Friends,

This week, our focus is on school reopenings in Senate District 10, the ongoing search for school bus drivers, a town hall with the Richmond-area delegation, and reminders to register to vote.

School Reopenings
The start of a new school year is officially upon us. A special thanks, as always, to the teachers, administrators, and staff members who work year-round to make our schools safe, welcoming spaces for learning.

Chesterfield County Public Schools reopened on August 23 and 24 (dependent on grade level)
Powhatan County Public Schools reopened on Monday, August 23
Richmond City Public Schools will initiate in-person learning on Wednesday, September 8, and RPS Virtual Academy (RVA) for PK-5 also begins on September 8
VDOE Virtual Virginia (grades 6-12) reopened on August 24
With the surge in Delta variant cases of COVID-19, our Superintendents and Virginia Department of Education have worked closely with the Department of Health, the Governor’s Office, and other agencies to ensure a safe return to classrooms. The health of students and teachers is of the utmost priority. You can find resources and guidelines from the Virginia Department of Education related to COVID-19 here.

School Bus Driver Shortage
This year, due to a national shortage of school bus drivers, we’re facing new and unforeseen transportation challenges throughout the Commonwealth, including those localities within Senate District 10.

Chesterfield County recently announced its efforts to address these concerns. Through a partnership with the Chesterfield County government, Chesterfield County Public Schools will increase pay and offer additional bonus incentives to help attract and retain school bus drivers and staff members who hold a commercial driver’s license (CDL). Starting pay for bus drivers will be raised from $17.21 to $20.21 per hour. Current transportation employees who hold a commercial driver's license will also see a pay increase and will be eligible for a bonus up to $3,000 during this school year, an increase from a previously planned $1,000 bonus. Drivers will continue to be eligible for existing monthly attendance incentives and quarterly safe-driving incentives.

For individuals interested in applying, the Country provides this information: Apply at [link removed] or call Human Resources at 804-748-1984. Applicants who need access to a computer can apply 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Monday-Friday in the School Board Central Office at 9900 Krause Road.

The Henry Marsh III Elementary School Ribbon-Cutting
This past week, I was honored to attend the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Henry Marsh III Elementary School.

On August 28, the new Henry Marsh III Elementary School was officially inaugurated. Built on the 800 block of North 28th Street in Church Hill, the new building and school name celebrates the accomplishments of The Honorable Henry Marsh III, who served as Richmond’s first African-American mayor and as a State Senator from 1991 to 2014.

Ghazala and others at the Henry Marsh Elementary ribbon cutting

We will also soon hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new River City Middle School. This brand new 183,000-square-foot building, with project-based learning areas, reflection rooms, and computer labs will offer our students a 21st-century learning environment.

Both of these new buildings are bright, safe spaces for learning, and I look forward to visiting when the classrooms are full of our young students.

Central Virginia Delegation Town Hall
On Thursday, August 19, my fellow Richmond Area representatives and I hosted a town hall with constituents. Held at the Workforce Development and Conference Center of Reynolds Community College, the town hall included Senator Jennifer McClellan, Delegate Dawn Adams, Delegate Betsy Carr, Delegate Schuylar Van Valkenburg, and Delegate Jeff Bourne. We discussed the legislative progress made during the 2021 Session, as well as the highlights of the Special Session held in August.

After time apart due to the pandemic, it was wonderful to see so many constituents in person again. We appreciated the thoughtful questions related to mental health services, voting rights protections, spending decisions made for our ARPA funds, and work on criminal justice reform. Our efforts in the General Assembly are driven by constituent engagement, and so your participation in these types of events truly enrich our democratic process.

Register to Vote
With early voting for the 2021 Virginia statewide elections beginning in just over two weeks, now is the time to make sure your voter registration is up to date.

Here are some useful dates for our upcoming November 2, 2021, Virginia General Election:

Offices on ballot: Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, House of Delegates, some local offices (varies by locality).
First day of in-person early voting at local voter registration office: Friday, September 17, 2021. www.elections.virginia.gov/localGR
Deadline to register to vote, or update an existing registration: Tuesday, October 12, 2021. vote.elections.virginia.gov/VoterInformation
Deadline to apply for a ballot to be mailed to you: Friday, October 22, 2021. Requests must be received by local voter registration office by 5:00 p.m.
Voter registration offices will be open on Saturday, October 23, 2021, and October 30, 2021, for early voting.
Last day of in-person early voting at local voter registration office: Saturday, October 30, 2021 at 5:00 p.m.
See who is on your ballot by viewing the candidate lists. www.elections.virginia.gov/casting-a-ballot/candidate-list/
Register to vote or apply for a ballot online using the Citizen Portal. www.elections.virginia.gov/citizen-portal/
As a reminder: the deadline to register to vote is Tuesday, October 12. (In last week’s email, a typographical error accidentally listed the deadline as October 17; we apologize for the error).

continue to have one-on-one meetings with constituents and organizations, both by Zoom and (now) in person. If you want to schedule a meeting, please don’t hesitate to reach out to my office. As a reminder, email is the best way to contact us. We can be reached at [email protected]. You can also schedule a meeting through our easy scheduling app.

— Ghazala

 

 








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| Paid for and authorized by Friends of Ghazala Hashmi |
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Friends of Ghazala Hashmi
PO Box 72923
Richmond VA 23235 United States

Senator Ghazala Hashmi was elected to office in 2019 and is honored to represent the 10th Senatorial District (parts of Richmond City and Chesterfield County, and all of Powhatan County). She chairs the Senate Subcommittee on Public Education and is committed to issues of education, healthcare, housing, the environment, and social justice.



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