The Virginia Board of Education approved contracts Friday that will allow Old Dominion University to serve as the fiscal agent and public partner for five lab schools that received earlier state approval but were later deemed ineligible for funding.
Officials with the colleges learned in mid-May that the state’s newly approved budget changed the eligibility definition for receiving public funds to operate a lab school so that private schools and community colleges were not eligible. However, the projects could move forward if they could find a four-year public institution to serve as fiscal agent by June 30.
Officials with ODU, a four-year university in Norfolk, offered to act as fiscal agent for all five schools, which means it will operate a network of nine lab schools, including four of its own.
The affected colleges with approved lab schools were Emory & Henry College in Washington County and Roanoke College in Salem, which are both private, as well as Germanna Community College in Locust Grove, Mountain Gateway Community College in Clifton Forge and Paul D. Camp Community College in Franklin.
Lab schools are meant to be an “innovative, high-quality education experience,” and train students in career paths such as health care or aerospace. They are partnerships among higher education, employers, school divisions and communities.
During the board’s morning session, board member Anne Holton asked for specific numbers on how much ODU will receive for its services. After much discussion, those numbers were provided later in the afternoon.
For its fiscal services and support, each college will pay ODU 5% of its operating funding, which will total $748,800 over the years they are funded. The Germanna lab school is funded for three years, while the other lab schools are funded over four years.
To help meet the new requirements passed in May by the General Assembly, the education board also approved awarding additional startup money to each of the five lab schools — not to exceed the amount that remains in the state fund, which currently totals $2.56 million — so they can pay ODU additional money depending on factors including the proposed lab school opening date, travel expenses and the number of students served. Those amendments will be negotiated by board President Grace Turner Creasey and Superintendent of Public Instruction Lisa Coons.
Board member Amber Northern said she thinks “we’re getting a bargain” with ODU, which will oversee nine schools, share data, operate the Center for Education, Innovation and Opportunity, and provide more than just the services of a fiscal agent.
“They’re actually trying to serve as a think tank for education and a hub in the state where we can really begin to get the best thinking across these schools, use what we’re learning and leverage it in the larger sector. So, when I look at the money … the way it looks to me is that they’re really a partner and not just a fiscal agent with all that they’re proposing to do. And I just don’t want us to lose sight of that as we keep staring at the spreadsheet,” she said.
Three of the five lab schools are in Southwest Virginia, including Emory & Henry’s, which will open this fall and focus on health care careers. It is set to receive $3.85 million in operating funding.
E&H’s School of Health Sciences will work with four public school systems along the Interstate 81 corridor — the city of Bristol and Washington, Smyth and Wythe counties — and its partners will include Virginia Highlands and Wytheville community colleges, the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center and the A. Linwood Holton Governor’s School.
Roanoke College’s lab school, slated to receive $2.37 million in operating funds from the state, will work with Salem City Schools to offer tracks for education/global studies, STEM/health care and communications/civic engagement. It’s scheduled to open in fall 2025.
Mountain Gateway Community College is slated to receive $1.98 million in operating money from the state. It will focus on information technology and open in fall 2025.
Also on Friday, the board approved the state’s 15th lab school, Old Dominion University’s Aerospace Academy of the Eastern Shore.