By Bridget Manley, publisher
Rockingham County officials have agreed to move forward with plans to build a new Massanutten Technical Center. However, they are still ironing out who will build the facility and how.
Meanwhile, questions remain about how Harrisonburg City Public Schools pulling out of its partnership with the county to run Massanutten Technical Center will affect the vocational school’s funding and what losing the designation of a regional school will mean for state funding.
During a special meeting between the Rockingham County School Board and Rockingham County Supervisors on Wednesday afternoon, both groups agreed that although the Harrisonburg School Board decided to withdraw from MTC, county officials still remain committed to constructing a new facility at Innovation Village, on land the county already owns.
“We believe it makes the most financial sense to build brand new,” county school board chair Sara Horst said.
The county school system will need to make up several funding streams because of the separation, which led both entities to agree to come back to the table and take another look at the bids Rockingham County received for the facility.
The new facility has an estimated cost of $70 million. Two companies – Nielsen Builders and Lantz Construction Company — presented to the county advisory committee with bids to design and build the facility. That committee recommended Lantz to take on the project, but no final decisions were made.
Both the county’s administrator, Casey Armstrong, and Rockingham Schools Superintendent Larry Shifflett said that they need to reassess both bids and recalculate the budget. The two will meet this Friday to begin that process.
“I think we need to go back and look at the scope of the budget of the project and come up with a responsible budget,” Armstrong said. “I think we have to take into account Harrisonburg’s 20% not being there. What does that do to the budget… look at potential grant funds that might be available. Are they available still?”
RCPS attorney Daniel Rose briefed both entities about certain financial details that will require attention after the divorce between the county and city school systems is final, which is set to take effect on June 30, 2027.
Before the withdrawal, HCPS will need to convey its fractional share of interest of the career and technical school’s property, and in exchange, RCPS will pay HCPS the fair market value of its interest, which is 20% in capital improvements.
“The fair market value is to be determined by each school board appointing an appraiser, and the fair market value being the average of those two appraisals,” Rose said.
RCPS would make those payments to HCPS over seven years without interest, or, instead of cash payments, RCPS could “sell seats” back to HCPS until the debt is paid, at a set amount per seat.
The school will also lose state funding when it loses “regional status.” Regional status is given to schools that share governance. Massanutten Technical Center could lose an additional $500,000 in funding, but Shifflett hinted that there may be other options in the future.
“We are also exploring other options to retain regional status, if possible,” Shifflett said.
At one point near the end meeting, school board member Matt Cross said he wanted the school board to oversee the project.
“I believe it would save county taxpayers money, by us putting this out for a closed bid,” Cross said. “We would be able to get a better deal on what we are wanting to build, and we think we can save taxpayer money with that.”
That suggestion didn’t get traction.
“I think it’s safe to say that Larry and I can work together to manage this project going forward,” Armstrong replied. “I am not going to speak to any personnel decisions Larry might make, who he wants to include in the project, but the Board of Supervisors will retain control of the building itself that is built in the park.”
Shifflett said that conversations need to continue, but collaboration would benefit both parties. He said while supervisors should have input on the exterior appearance to ensure the area feels cohesive within the technology park, the inside should reflect the school system’s needs.
“Inside that building, I’ll say we are the experts,” Shifflett said. “That is our wheelhouse, that is what we do every day.”
Horst said she appreciated the county government’s support.
“We are immensely grateful for the board of supervisors’ work on this project,” Horst added. “MTC is viewed as a crown jewel; it’s looked at across the state as an amazing program. And that is something we need your help continuing, so I think there is a lot of conversation about how we move forward together because we all have a vested interest in the success of MTC.”
Shifflett told the supervisors that he felt confident that the county could fill the spots that will eventually be vacated by HCPS students quickly, with some programs continuing to have waitlists.
Both Horst and Shifflett reiterated their well wishes to the Harrisonburg City School Board, with Shifflett saying that before the decision by HCPS, he thought the discussions between the two boards were moving in a positive direction.
The RCPS board was willing to move to a 3-3 vote, with a sticking point being how a tiebreaking vote would be handled.
“We were willing to hold the tiebreaker vote, but in conversations with Mr. Rose, he explained that Virginia code is explicit about tiebreakers and how we handle them,” Shifflett said. “So, I asked him to come to [the RCPS] meeting on August 6 to talk about tiebreaker votes and what that looks like, but we decided not to have the conversation at that point because Harrisonburg City decided to leave. And again, I’m not going to talk about why or why not, I wish them all the best.”
County officials plan to hold conversations in September with business leaders and the community to see what programs would fit their businesses as students graduate and seek employment locally.
Armstrong said it was important for the county that the project move forward and be built at Innovation Village.
“For us it’s an economic development project, that’s how I look at it,” Armstrong said.
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