Best kept secret

 

Sometimes it’s interesting to look for what’s not there. A case in point is the promotional material for Reed Marsh, the new housing development under construction opposite the county administration building in Courthouse Village. The brochure touts the location of the new residential enclave as being close to the Goochland YMCA, library, local restaurants, Tucker Park, and within walking distance of the farmers market. The latter might be a death-defying exercise given that sidewalks do not extend to the market site. It also contends that Courthouse Creek Cidery and Lickinghole Creek Craft Brewery are within biking distance. Reed Marsh’s definition of “local” includes West View on the James, the Richmond Country Club, and the Goochland Drive-In Theater, all of which are at least a 15-mile drive on two lane roads.

One striking omission of nearby amenities, however, is the Goochland Campus of Reynolds—it dropped “J. Sargeant” a few years ago—Community College. In recent years, this facility seems to have become the orphan child of the Virginia Community College system.

Exquisite landscaping courtesy of the horticulture program

Goochland High School has a dual enrollment program with RCC that allows students to complete an associate’s degree in tandem with high school studies. This program, however, does not use the campus.

During a business roundtable sponsored by our school division in March, Dr. Paula Pando, president of RCC, spoke about the underutilization of the Goochland Campus. At that time, she indicated that “community conversations” were planned about the future of the facility.

GOMM contacted Pando in March and asked to be part of those conversations. Last week, a follow up email to Pando got no response. Days later, groundbreaking ceremonies were held at the RCC Parham Road campus for a building to house a new automotive technology program in partnership with Toyota. That program had been located at the Goochland campus.

The automotive program will move to Parham Road campus.

Last week, GOMM visited the campus, located on about ninety acres “behind” the YMCA. Visitors are greeted by exquisite landscaping at the main entrance and throughout the campus, highlighting its excellent horticulture program.

Before Covid, the campus hosted the annual plant sale and garden fest event produced by Goochland/Powhatan Master Gardeners.  The horticulture program conducted classes virtually during Covid. The outside nature of “labs” had in person instruction while observing social distancing.

The horticulture program, which prepares graduates to work in agriculture related fields, has great promise. According to the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VADACS), agriculture is the largest private industry in the Commonwealth with an economic impact of $70 billion employing more than 300 thousand people. (See https://www.vdacs.virginia.gov/markets-and-finance-agriculture-facts-and-figures.shtml for details.)

Landscaping skills are in demand.

While you would expect classrooms to be dark and deserted in mid-summer, especially after the long lockdown, those at the Goochland campus seem forlorn and abandoned.

Biology/zoology lab ready for students. 

Enrollment in classes here was lackluster even before Covid. Perhaps it is the location—Goochland is considered distant and hard to reach from the population centers of other RCC “members” Henrico County and the City of Richmond. Indeed, the population of Hanover, Goochland, Louisa, and Powhatan combined is less than that of Henrico.

Perhaps it has something to do with the dearth of advertising, at least in Central Virginia, of RCC as a whole. Ads for the Virginia lottery pop up all over the place. When was the last time you saw an ad touting the opportunities to obtain valuable job skills at RCC?

Display touting auto tech program.

There are indications that this might be changing. The RCC strategic priorities see http://www.reynolds.edu/who_we_are/about/strategic_priorities.aspx include increasing the number of degrees, certifications, and credentials to provide a pipeline of qualified workers to existing and emerging industries.

Where does that leave the Goochland Campus? Aside from the commercial driver’s license (CDL) training program, so few classes are offered locally, that there is speculation that the campus will be closed.

Hallway ready for students. Will they return?

According to Dr. Steve Geyer, Assistant Superintendent of Instruction for the Goochland School Division and the county’s representative on the RCC board, no decisions about the future of the local campus have been made. In fact, Geyer contended, Pando wants to add programs that would thrive in Goochland and put the local campus to good use.

The tricky part is identifying those programs. Geyer believes that Pando has not yet begun to have those community conversations and wants community input to determine the highest and best use for this first-rate facility.

Perhaps a partnership with the highly regarded Career and Technical Education (CTE) program offered at the high school could result in a regional training center to teach people the technical skills needed to fill high paying jobs in a wide range of industries from solar power to plumbing.

If the Community College system has no good use for the Goochland Campus, maybe it should be sold, preferably to a tax eligible entity. The county could put the revenue generated by the approximately $11.6 million assessed valuation of the campus to good use.

The Goochland Campus of RCC could and should be a vital part of the community. Stay tuned.