Piedmont preps for satellite campuses

Piedmont Virginia Community College is moving forward with plans to open at least two satellite campuses in the Charlottesville region.
One would serve as a culinary arts education program. It is to be located in the historic Jefferson School in downtown Charlottesville that is slated for a major renovation and redevelopment.
The other would be in Greene County, though its exact location and other details have yet to be disclosed.
PVCC President Frank Friedman mentioned the two planned satellite campus projects at a recent meeting of the college’s advisory board. Friedman would not speak with The Daily Progress about the two projects, saying through a spokeswoman that it was premature to discuss details.

PVCC spokeswoman Anita Showers said, however, that the college has long wanted to establish a presence in downtown Charlottesville and Greene County.
“Increasing accessibility to education is what these initiatives are all about,” she said.
At the PVCC board meeting May 10, Friedman said the college was expected within a week or so to finalize its plans to open a culinary institute in the Jefferson School. The project, he said, would be launched in cooperation with the Charlottes-ville-Albemarle Technical Education Center.

The Jefferson School was built in 1926 and served as an all-black high school until 1951, when it was converted into an elementary school. It was shuttered 13 years later, re-opening as a preschool and home to several Piedmont programs. The facility closed its doors permanently in 2002.
After the redevelopment of the facility is completed, it will be home to a 9,368-square-foot African-American Heritage Center and a refurbished 20,979-square-foot Carver Recreation Center.
All told, the project is expected to cost $17 million, with $5.8 million coming from Charlottesville taxpayers.
No tenants have signed leases yet, project officials said, but several letters of intent are expected to be signed in the coming days and weeks.
Details on PVCC’s plan to open a satellite campus in Greene County are similarly vague, though Friedman said at the meeting it would be located in Stanardsville and would likely open in the next year or year-and-a-half.

Mike Skeens, a member of Greene’s Board of Supervisors and a Stanardsville resident, said he knows PVCC has been “looking at” a building in Stanardsville but could not provide details.
“I know they want to be out there, but I have not heard any updates,” he said. “It’s still on hold, as far as I know.”
Friedman would have likely faced questions about the project last week when he was scheduled to give his annual report to the Greene County Board of Supervisors. Friedman canceled the appearance because of a conflict, Skeens said.

Expanding access is Piedmont’s No. 1 priority in its strategic plan.
“While PVCC currently takes full advantage of available space on the main campus, the college must also respond to the community’s needs and recommendations for programs and/or services to be made available at other locations,” the plan says. “Expanding access means taking education ‘off the hill’ geographically, technologically and pedagogically.”

The plan states that Piedmont will meet this goal through several strategies, including opening satellite campuses around the Charlottesville region and by securing space in the Jefferson School or an equivalent facility.
Moreover, the plan shows, PVCC aims to expand access by offering more distance learning courses, more education to such underserved populations as adults and first generation students, and by meeting student needs through flexible course scheduling.