On Thursday, when shovels met dirt, construction officially began on a brand new Stege Elementary.
It's a fenced patch of dirt at the moment, but in time, it will become the school that Lakisha Mitchell and many others in Richmond fought for. 'If you don't have a learning environment where you can feel safe, where you can thrive from the beginning, then what happens when you get to junior high? What happens when you get to high school?' said Mitchell, a Stege Elementary advocate.
Two years ago, Mitchell began hearing the same concerns over and over from her mother, a daycare owner who regularly picks up children from Stege Elementary in Richmond.'She kept telling me that every time she'd be sitting in the pick-up line, it smelled like sewage. Or how the same windows were the same as when she went to school 60 years ago. Or how the floor inside was the same as when she was there,' Mitchell said.That's when Mitchell stepped in, beginning volunteer work at the school. What she saw was a campus in serious disrepair.'The windows weren't working, it was 90 degrees inside, there was a whole wall of dry rot,' she said.After months of advocacy from Mitchell and many others, the school was shut down.Students were relocated for this school year so the old campus could be torn down and replaced by a new school, a process made more complicated by the need to safely remove asbestos and lead paint from the site.But finally, on Thursday, when shovels met dirt, construction officially began on a brand new Stege Elementary.The district says more than $50 million has been committed to the project, which will once again serve students in grades TK through sixth when completed.First-year Superintendent Cheryl Cotton credited the community with making the project possible.'What I know is the community came together as one and demanded what our students needed, and I appreciate their voice,' Cotton said.For Mitchell, this was never about being right or winning a battle. It was about safety.'The thing that was missing was communication. The thing that was missing was awareness. If more people knew this was going on ten years ago. It would have happened ten years ago,' she said.The new Stege Elementary is expected to open in the fall of 2027.Until then, students will continue attending classes at DeJean Middle School.
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