Virginia Secretary of Education Aimee Guidera says the commonwealth’s model for funding schools is “crazy.”
She said as much during a recent visit to Charlottesville, where she toured the new Innovation Hub at Charlottesville Middle School, a laboratory school partnership between the University of Virginia and the city’s school division.
During the Oct. 16 tour, Guidera asked Charlottesville Schools Superintendent Royal Gurley what more the state could do to support the lab school. Gurley responded simply, “Money.”
The state Board of Education approved the funding for the Innovation Hub in March 2024.
“We are doing this through a grant. But what’s going to happen in a few years? We’re going to have to sustain it,” Gurley told Guidera. “We don’t want to have to decide one thing or the other. And we do think that all children should get to continue to experience this, but it does come at a price tag … just help with sustaining it.”
The Innovation Hub has largely relied on a $3.78 million state grant administered by UVa. The state grant covers the salaries of five Innovation Hub staff members, the stipend of seven fellows, professional development events for both staff and fellows, and the acquisition of materials, equipment and any other resources necessary to operate. About $1.5 million of the state grant was spent in 2024, according to Innovation Hub Director Conner Brew. The money is expected to last the lab school through the 2027-28 school year.
While the Innovation Hub is currently teaching seventh and eighth graders, it will open to sixth graders starting next August.
Lab schools are partnerships between higher and lower institutes of education meant to not only teach students but train teachers and research new approaches to education.
They are fairly new to Virginia. The state’s first lab school, a partnership between Virginia Commonwealth University and CodeRVA Regional High School, opened in January 2024.
In Charlottesville, the Innovation Hub is focused on developing science, technology, engineering and mathematics — popularly known as STEM — curricula. Stephanie Rowley, a professor of education at UVa who sits on the Innovation Hub’s board, said the school allows for UVa student teachers to “think about how they could add computational thinking to the way that they teach in the future.”
Lab schools, which now number 15 across Virginia, have been embraced by both the Youngkin administration and local school divisions, which is why local and state officials are so concerned about sustaining them past their initial grants.
“This shouldn’t be special,” Guidera said. “My goal is that this is the future of education.”
Brew said the costs of keeping the lab schools open will fluctuate over time.
“While some of the program’s initial costs will diminish with time, we know that there will be extra costs associated with sustaining this new approach,” Brew told The Daily Progress in a prepared statement after Guidera’s visit. ”We would love to see continued state support for innovation beyond the grant. Having said that, we’re mindful of the costs as we consider future local budgets.”
Guidera told Gurley that Charlottesville City Schools could do a handful of things to keep funding for the local lab school stable: primarily, advocating for a policy in which the “local share should follow the child” or inviting more partners to help carry the financial burden.
Virginia legislators have been weighing plans to overhaul the over-50-year-old funding formula that divides school costs based on how much individual localities can pay.
“I have never seen anything across the nation like how Virginia does budgeting for schools. It’s crazy, and we need sanity,” Guidera said.
But changing the policy is a state-level decision, one which Gurley can only lobby for or against.
More locally, Guidera said Charlottesville City Schools could bring in more partners than just UVa to help keep the Innovation Hub afloat.
“We are optimistic about future funding from federal sources, philanthropy, and other state sources. We also work closely with the UVA School of Education and Human Development Foundation to pursue philanthropic support,” Brew said after Guidera’s visit.
Source: www.dailyprogress.com
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