Six new college partnership lab schools have been approved to launch in Virginia, Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s office announced Thursday, including two in Southwest Virginia.
The six schools, each sponsored by a higher education institution, aim to provide new learning opportunities for students around the commonwealth.
“These schools are establishing innovative pathways for students to explore potential careers and be better prepared for the future, with a specific focus on addressing the needs and demands of their regions,” Youngkin said in a statement Thursday. “These Lab Schools are not just shaping the future of our students, they’re also shaping the future of Virginia.”
Emory & Henry College and Roanoke College were among the schools whose projects were approved.
Emory & Henry’s Southwest Virginia Healthcare Excellence Academy Lab School will focus on training students for health care careers. The college is working with the public school divisions in Smyth, Wythe and Washington counties and Bristol, along with the A. Linwood Holton Governor’s School. Higher education partners include Virginia Highlands and Wytheville community colleges and the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center.
Louise Fincher, senior vice president and dean of Emory & Henry’s School of Health Sciences, said the school’s goal is to increase the number of area graduates who go into health care fields in the region. She said the opportunity to see various aspects of health care careers firsthand and receive mentorship from local professionals will allow students to explore career paths that are both patient-facing and behind-the-scenes.
A class of up to 50 high school juniors will start in August, and the school eventually will have up to 150 students in grades 10 through 12. Half-day instruction will take place at Emory & Henry’s Health Sciences Campus and at the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center, both in Marion. Students will participate in extracurricular activities at their home schools.
Fincher said there’s been high interest in applying for the upcoming student lottery for spots, and the directors of the lab school have spoken to high school students throughout the school’s partnership region.
Roanoke College’s Explore@RC plans to work with Salem City Schools to offer tracks for education/global studies, STEM/health care and communications/civic engagement. Participating Salem High School students will be dual enrolled in college-level courses on Roanoke College’s campus.
“Our team is so excited to launch Explore@RC,” Lisa Stoneman, chair of Roanoke’s Education Department, said in a statement Thursday. “These initial dual-enrollment courses are just the beginning of our community outreach vision. Growing into our 150-student capacity and extending on-campus learning opportunities to middle and elementary students is part of our dream for a lab school that will positively impact the region as well as the students and faculty at Roanoke.”
Explore@RC will accept up to 40 students for its first year, with classes beginning in August. Enrollment is open now, and a lottery system will be used if the number of applications exceeds capacity, according to Stoneman and Natasha Watts, executive director of Explore@RC.
Four other lab schools also were approved Thursday:
George Mason University’s Accelerated College and Employability Skills Academy Lab School will work with Northern Virginia Community College and Fairfax County Public Schools to serve at-risk youth working primarily toward careers in information technology.
Old Dominion University will host two lab schools. In Newport News, it will operate the Maritime Engineering and Environmental Studies Academy, partnering with Newport News Public Schools. In Chesapeake, ODU will launch the Computer Science Lab School, which will work with students from Chesapeake Public Schools’ Oscar Smith Middle School.
Paul D. Camp Community College will launch the Isle of Maritime Trades Academy and plans to work with Isle of Wight County Public Schools and Huntington Ingalls Industries-Newport News Shipbuilding to train students in maritime trades.
Emory & Henry and Roanoke College are the only private schools to receive full approval out of the 12 proposals the Board of Education has signed off on to date.
Higher education institutions that wanted to host a lab school first applied for an introductory grant of up to $200,000 to allow for planning of a full-fledged proposal. A state education department committee that reviews applications currently has 10 applications in the pipeline for approval on a rolling basis.
Each proposal includes a request for startup operational costs from the state, though each school is supposed to be financially sustainable within five years of launch. Roanoke College will receive $2.38 million in startup costs over four years from the state, and Emory & Henry will receive $3.85 million over the same period.
The General Assembly appropriated $100 million in 2022 to launch lab schools, but with the state budget in limbo, it’s unclear whether further funding will be provided for the development and launch of additional lab schools.