Support for our Neighborhood High School - by a church member

Regarding  Thomas Jefferson High School 

Athletic Field Improvements

I’m Steve Van Voorhees, semi-retired consultant and educator. I wasn’t born here, but I got to Virginia as soon as I could, and have lived in Richmond for 40 years. I started my first post-college career as a high school teacher and coach in Florida. 

My church home is Holy Comforter, in the neighborhood, just down the street at the corner of Staples Mill and Monument.  My church is working on a partnership with Tee Jay.  And, for the last two years, I have been part of a group, the Tee Jay Vikings Fund,  seeking sources of support and funding for Tee Jay’s academic programs and its athletic programs.

I’m sure I don’t need to give you all a detailed re-cap of the Richmond Public Schools history, a modern tale of two cities, the decades-long pattern of segregation, desegregation and re-segregation that continues to impact negatively public school education in this city today. 

My support for the Tee Jay Athletic Facilities Plan is based on two principles which I embrace. 

·        First, the children who come to this school belong to all of us in this community.  They are our children, they represent this city and us, they are our ambassadors to the world and to the future.

·        Second, the education these young men and women obtain here will shape them for the rest of their lives. They will thrive or suffer to a large extent based on what they will carry away in themselves when they leave here. 

For me, that is why ‘whole child’ education is so important—it’s not just academics and book-learning; it’s how to be a member of a team, to be part of a community; it’s how to work and play hard and still experience failure and move on. All of what they experience here will form the foundation of who they are as fully developed adults and citizens.  Research has shown that athletics have a hugely positive effect on overall achievement.  More importantly, as my own life attests, the values learned from team sports prepare students to function more effectively in most any endeavor.

Regarding Night Home Games and Lights—I could walk to my high school.  Our neighbor’s private lighted tennis court hosted unending tournaments, played day and night, which were more disruptive to our quiet cul-de-sac neighborhood than the five or six Friday night home football games each year.  My informal survey of Richmond area Schools shows most high schools are in residential neighborhoods for obvious reasons.

As a grandfather, I’m thinking a lot about “legacy”—what are my generation and I leaving behind that furthers the common good and builds peaceful and successful people and communities? I believe we need to move forward with these improvements and build an educational complex that makes all of us proud and which provides increased and improved opportunities for these students who are our legacy.