ARGS Hub At Holton

by Charles McGuigan 05.2026

In years past, a Richmond City school bus would pick up a number of students at a bus stop in Bellevue bound for Appomattox Regional Governor’s School for the Arts and Technology (ARGS) in Petersburg. Today parents have to take their children in the morning and pick them up in the afternoon at Thomas Jefferson High School or the Belmont Public Library. 

Northside parents and community members are formally urging Richmond Public Schools to reinstate a neighborhood bus stop at the Holton Hub for students attending ARGS beginning this fall. With 33 signatures already obtained in support of this request, families state that the need for safe, accessible, and reasonably available student transportation in the area is substantial.

More than 20 Northside students are expected to attend ARGS this fall and their families note that the Holton Hub is already used by Richmond Public School buses serving Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School, Franklin Military Academy, and other City schools. This existing use confirms that the Holton Hub is a logical location for a similar pickup location for Northside students attending ARGS.

“The current arrangement imposes unnecessary burdens on families and produces avoidable traffic and environmental consequences,” according to Amanda Huegerich, the mother of a student who will attend ARGS this fall. “In the absence of a nearby bus stop, more than twenty families must drive students approximately fifteen minutes each way for morning drop-off and afternoon pick-up, resulting in four separate vehicle trips per school day per family. Reestablishing the Holton Hub stop would reduce these repeated trips and yield meaningful reductions in unnecessary vehicle travel and associated emissions.”

Amanda also points out student safety concerns. “RPS students are being dropped off at an already overcrowded bus stop where the students have to ride overcrowded buses,” she says. “The number of high school students required to take the current bus stops exceeds appropriate safety parameters. Restoring a stop at the Holton Hub would reduce congestion, improve student safety, and create a more orderly and manageable transportation process.”

And then there is the problem of “educational access.” As Amanda puts it, “For many Richmond Public Schools students, the lack of reliable transportation to and from the existing bus stop locations constitutes a genuine barrier to attendance. Families state that a neighborhood stop at the Holton Hub would help ensure that more students who do not have access to consistent family transportation are nevertheless able to attend ARGS and fully participate in the educational opportunities the school offers.”

“Families are therefore calling upon Richmond Public Schools and district leadership to take prompt action so that transportation planning may be addressed in advance of the 2026–2027 school year and students may begin that school year with a bus stop location that is safe, accessible, and reasonable,” Amanda says.

Third School Board Representative Ali Faruk supports the new Hub for ARGS students. “I do support it,” he says. “I don’t know yet if we’ll be able to make it happen. I literally just emailed the superintendent about it this evening.”