The proposed career and technical education (CTE) center in Orange County is moving forward.
On Monday, the Orange County School Board held a public hearing on the interim agreement with Gilbane Construction. Last month, the board voted to enter into contract negotiations with Gilbane, a Richmond-based firm which is collaborating with RRMM Architects and Timmons Group on the CTE center project. In November, the board accepted a proposal from the firm as part of the Public-Private Education Facilities and Infrastructure Act of 2022 (PPEA). The act allows localities to work with the private sector to complete major projects such as the construction of new schools or education facilities. It’s an alternative to the typical procurement process and allows for more creative and innovative financing options. The school board implemented the act in August. The county already had a PPEA process in place though it hasn’t been utilized.
The 43-page PPEA proposal by Gilbane and RRMM that was released to the public provides little to no detail about what the actual facility would consist of, instead focusing mainly on Gilbane and RRMM’s record of achievement and that the building would fit into the already set $15.5 million budget. That number was initially included in the county’s capital improvement project budget with an annual debt service payment of $1.2 million, but was removed due to the county being unable to fund the debt service. The school board utilized $900,000 in leftover money from Gordon-Barbour Elementary School renovations to fund the center’s engineering and design. Proprietary information in Gilbane and RRMM’s proposal is included in a second, non-public document.
The proposal is supposed to take into account the school division’s needs including one nursing classroom and lab space; one culinary arts classroom and lab space with a teaching kitchen; two agricultural classrooms and two labs including an outdoor covered work area and a welding lab; a carpentry and masonry classroom with lab scape accommodating both programs and an outdoor covered work area; an HVAC and plumbing classroom with a lab space accommodating both programs with an outdoor covered work area; an electrical classroom with a lab space with an outdoor covered work area; an automotive classroom with an outdoor covered work area and at least two bays; one technical education classroom with a lab space; one cybersecurity lab space; one computer science classroom; one robotics lab space and areas for an administrative office, reception area and teacher work space. The building should be approximately 35,000 square feet.
When the school board voted to accept the proposal in November, it started the clock on a 45-day window to receive competing proposals from other companies as part of the PPEA process. Orange County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Daniel Hornick said no other proposals were received.
Hornick said the public hearing was the next step in the process. Once the board comes to a comprehensive agreement with Gilbane and funding is committed by the board of supervisors, the project would be able to get underway. Hornick said should the stars align, the new CTE center would be open at the beginning of the 2027-2028 school year.
“This is a project that has been talked about for years,” he said. “There are multiple studies that date back into the early 2000s. Quite a bit of money has been spent and time invested in talking about career and technical education which demonstrates everyone recognizes its a very valuable need.”
Despite not currently having a CTE center such as the ones in Louisa and Culpeper, Orange has a variety of CTE classes that utilize space in the high school. Those spaces, especially for nursing and carpentry, aren’t particularly adequate. Once completed, the center will allow for those programs to relocate, freeing up space in the high school for traditional classes or even new CTE programs such as criminal justice and television and media broadcasting.
“What this project does is gives us the programs we need and the kids deserve, moves existing programs into much more adequate spaces, opens up space at the high school and allows for restroom facilities near the softball fields,” Hornick said.
Hornick said the Orange County Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development Authority (EDA) are excited about the center and the opportunities to collaborate with local community colleges and retrain adults. Hornick said businesses and industries looking to locate in Orange County want to know what the workforce looks like and what mechanisms are available to train the workforce.
“Career and technical education is economic development,” he said. “You don’t have economic development without a workforce and you don’t have a workforce without proper training and education to get them there.”
Hornick said the CTE center will check a lot of boxes in moving the high school forward and providing needed opportunities.
No one spoke during the public hearing.
For more information about the project and to view the redacted proposal from Gilbane and RRMM, visit https://www.ocss-va.org/departments/facilities-maintenance/capital-projects/ctefacility.
