Our story
A school Richmond families helped imagine — and will help build.
Village & Valor Academy began with a conviction shaped over eighteen years in classrooms: children thrive when adults expect great things from them and provide the teaching, relationships, and opportunities to get there.
Why she started this school
Dr. Nia Carter is a Black educator and Richmond native with 18 years of experience as an elementary teacher, literacy coach, and school leader. She founded Village & Valor Academy around a conviction shaped by years in classrooms: children thrive when adults expect great things from them and provide the teaching, relationships, and opportunities to get there.
She wanted to build a school where excellent instruction, cultural affirmation, and community involvement are part of daily life — where a kindergartner hears her name spoken with care, a third grader defends his answer to a hard math problem, and a fifth grader learns Richmond's history from the people who lived it.
A letter from our founder
I started Village & Valor because I believe children deserve a school that sees who they are and takes seriously who they can become.
In every classroom I have taught in, the children who flourished had three things at once: work worth doing, adults who believed in them without apology, and a community that showed up. Too often, families are asked to choose among the three. I have spent my career refusing that choice, and this school is my promise to keep refusing it.
We will be a school of strong readers — children who fall into books, argue about characters, and see their own lives and histories on the page. We will be a school of confident mathematicians who can show their work, explain their reasoning, and try again when an answer doesn't hold. And we will protect curiosity with the same seriousness we give to phonics and fractions, because the questions children ask at seven become the problems they solve at twenty-seven.
Just as important, we will be adults who keep our promises to children. If we say we will call, we call. If a child is struggling, we do not wait. If a family entrusts us with their child, we treat that trust as the most serious work we have.
I cannot wait to meet your family — and to build this village together.
With gratitude and high hopes,
Dr. Nia Carter
What we stand for
Five values every student will know by heart
Scholarship
Do thoughtful, challenging work.
Courage
Ask questions and try unfamiliar things.
Belonging
Know yourself and respect others.
Responsibility
Care for your work and your community.
Joy
Make room for play, discovery, and celebration.
Serious learning, room for joy
Our core belief is simple: every child deserves challenging work, teachers who believe in them, and a community that helps them grow. We welcome families of all backgrounds, and we intentionally affirm the identities, histories, and possibilities of children of color.