PVCC: Stimulus cash should prevent layoffs; school plans for ex-visitors center

PALMYRA — Piedmont Virginia Community College will benefit from federal stimulus money to the tune of $400,000 next fiscal year, money the college’s president said should prevent previously anticipated layoffs.

The school is still wrestling with having lost approximately $1 million in cuts over the last two years.

“We still have things in next year’s budget that we’ll have to cut,” PVCC President Frank Friedman warned. The cuts are not expected to include any layoffs.

That comment came Thursday night during a meeting of PVCC’s governing board at the Lake Monticello clubhouse. Once each year the board meets in a different locality the college serves.

In January, Friedman cautioned the board that if the college had to take an additional 5 percent cut in fiscal 2010, layoffs would be eminent.

It was during that meeting that Friedman said the college would eliminate a degree and two certificate programs with low enrollment, estimated to save $100,000 annually.

The latest news that PVCC will not suffer an additional cut next year will be confirmed once Gov. Timothy M. Kaine signs the budget bill recently passed by the General Assembly.

New building

PVCC likely will take ownership by May of the former Monticello Visitors Center at the entrance to the college’s main campus, officials said Thursday.

The center, vacant since June, is jointly owned by Charlottesville and Albemarle County and will be given to the college at no cost.

Once it takes ownership, the college plans to use the building to house its Workforce Services Division, although Bill Jackameit, vice president of finance and administrative services, said the building will need renovating.

In anticipation of taking ownership, the college had set aside $400,000 for renovations but instead used that money for other purposes in light of Kaine’s 5 percent cut to PVCC’s budget last fall.

Jackameit said the college is looking to raise privately the estimated $400,000 for renovations, and said the building could be ready for classes by this fall.

The building, constructed in the mid-1970s, is approximately 11,000 square feet and was renovated once in the 1980s.

Graduation speaker

U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello D-Ivy will deliver the commencement speech at PVCC’s graduation on May 15.

Perriello took office in January after narrowly defeating longtime inclumbent Republican Virgil H. Goode Jr. in November.

Kaine gave the commencement address during last year’s graduation. The college, experiencing record enrollment numbers over the last two years, expects to graduate between 350 and 400 students.