Motion emotion: School board chooses OCHS site for proposed CTE building
Darlene Dawson casts deciding vote in 3-2 decision
The Orange County School Board has finally moved forward on plans for a Career and Technical Education (CTE) building. In a 3-2 vote Friday morning (Dec. 20), the board decided to request bids on a proposed 30,000-square-foot, pre-engineered metal building on the grounds of Orange County High School.
The next step is to advertise a Request for Proposals (RFP) so contractors can bid on the project, which is expected to cost at least $14 million and has the support of the Orange County Board of Supervisors.
Darlene Dawson (District 2), Jack Rickett (District 3) and Sandy Harrington (District 5) voted in favor of pursuing construction of the CTE facility on the high school grounds. Board chair Melissa Anderson (District 1) and Chelsea Quintern (District 4) voted against it.
Quintern and Anderson: Will OCHS site be subject to flooding?
During previous board meetings, Anderson and Quintern argued that renovating the Taylor Education Administration Complex (TEAC) would be more practical and cost-effective than starting from scratch at the high school. On Friday morning, both Quintern and Anderson made that point again and also expressed concern that the land proposed for the site at the high school may be subject to flooding. They argued, further, that construction at OCHS would end up costing taxpayers more money than a substantial repurposing of TEAC. TEAC currently houses central office staff, the Boys & Girls Club, Head Start, Alternative Education and the OCHS cosmetology program.
During Friday’s meeting, after Rickett made the motion to issue an RFP for building the CTE structure at OCHS, Quintern interrupted the proceedings with a “substitute” motion. She moved that the board post two RFPs: one for construction at OCHS and another for construction at TEAC. Amid murmurings from the audience, Rickett questioned whether Quintern was allowed to interrupt his motion with one of her own. However, Anderson seconded Quintern’s motion and discussion began.
Each board member spoke at some length. It was shortly after 8 o’clock on a Friday morning, and about 100 citizens had found the time to show up, some of them standing along the walls. Everyone present knew a lot was at stake. There’s been talk of building a CTE facility for OCHS students for at least 15 years, and now Quintern’s alternate motion showed that the board was divided. School board theater was back in session.
Quintern: “Focus on modernizing the entire campus”
In her remarks, Quintern suggested that it’s time to plan for a completely new high school building, not just a CTE facility. She said that portable classrooms such as the trailers lined up along one side of OCHS, “are often indicative of deeper infrastructural deficiencies and can negatively impact the learning environment. Instead of investing in a new structure that will not alleviate existing issues, the school board should focus on modernizing the entire campus and providing all students with a stable and conducive learning environment.”
Quintern also said that a “credible whistleblower” had told her “that we have classrooms being flooded at the high school—which, to my understanding, is at a higher elevation than [the proposed construction site at OCHS]—to the point where teachers were displaced for multiple days.”
When Anderson took her turn to speak, she shared slides of the TEAC renovation plan that she wanted the board to pursue. Her views aligned with Quintern’s.
Rickett and Harrington: Time to get going with the project
Both Rickett and Harrington voiced their support for the OCHS site, which Superintendent Dr. Daniel Hornick and his staff have recommended.
Rickett, who has deep roots in Orange County, said he’s been involved in discussions about CTE for many years. As for crowding at the high school, he argued that building a CTE facility on the OCHS grounds would take pressure off the main building. He added that, in his view, it was time to move beyond all the master plans drafted and debated in recent years and make the CTE building a reality.
Rickett made it clear he wasn’t interested in repurposing TEAC. He told the audience (many of whom work in the building or have strong ties to programs housed there) that some displacement of TEAC’s current occupants would be inevitable, no matter what anyone claimed to the contrary.
“I am very disappointed that we would present a plan that impacts so many without letting you know where you would go,” Rickett said, referring to Anderson’s proposal.
Agreeing with Rickett, Harrington said, in part, “However many master plans and however many years later, it’s time. We need to make sure that we are supporting this process to provide this really necessary and long-needed program.”
Dawson: OCHS site is “an on-campus solution”
Dawson’s comments were noteworthy, since hers was the swing vote and she had indicated at the board’s Dec. 9 meeting that she was undecided. At that point, she had convinced her colleagues to postpone the vote until after their retreat because she wanted more time to consider location options.
On Friday morning, she said she had decided in favor of the high school location because it’s “an on-campus solution,” as opposed to the one that would require students to be bussed a mile and a half each way to TEAC. Dawson noted that school administrators and teachers told her they wanted CTE on the high school campus, not off-site. She said the OCHS site would be safer and more secure than TEAC while reducing crowding at the high school’s main building.
Dawson stressed that she had conferred with her constituents and many school employees before reaching the decision that she, as an educator, believed was in students’ best interests. “I’ve talked to a lot of taxpayers and they’re tired of this discussion. We have discussed and analyzed, and someone I talked to said, ‘You know, it’s like analysis paralysis.’ We just keep going down this road, and 15 years later, we do not have a concrete facility. And meanwhile, we have generations of students who have lost out on those [CTE] opportunities.”
Further distancing herself from Anderson and Quintern, Dawson said there has been “lots of talk about a second high school, but I just have to tell you, I think Orange for a long time is going to be a one high school county. It just is.”
Quintern’s motion to advertise RFPs for two distinct CTE building projects, one at OCHS and one at TEAC, failed, 2-3, with Anderson in favor and Dawson, Rickett and Harrington opposed. Per Robert’s Rules of Order, Rickett’s original motion was back on the floor. However, the indefatigable Quintern had another gambit ready.
She moved to amend Rickett’s motion to allow the board to review and approve the RFP. When Rickett asked Hornick for his thoughts on this, the superintendent’s characteristically neutral expression gave way to a flicker of irritation. He asked why this RFP should be handled differently from any other that the school division has advertised. To this, Quintern replied that she wanted to see exactly what the RFP covered.
Marty Pitts, the school division’s project specialist, was asked to weigh in on the matter. He indicated that he would follow standard procedure when writing the RFP and added that Quintern’s earlier motion to issue two RFPs for the sake of comparison “is not ethical nor, I believe, is it legal,” since contractors potentially would be spending their time and money preparing bids for a project that would not be built.
Rickett spoke out against Quintern’s secondary motion: “If I felt it was in good faith, there wouldn’t be a problem. What I see is another opportunity to delay the project.”
At last, with Anderson and Quintern opposing, the board passed Rickett’s original motion to post an RFP seeking bids for construction of the CTE facility on the high school grounds. The audience applauded the decision.
—
Gordonsville Mayor-Elect Ron Brooks: What about Gordon House?
In a surprising postscript, Gordonsville’s mayor-elect Ron Brooks told me in the TEAC parking lot after the meeting that he’d offered the school division the use of Gordon House, the former assisted living facility on Main Street in Gordonsville, for the CTE program. When had he done that? Why, that very morning.
Brooks said the owner of Gordon House, Paul Manning, contacted him to see whether the town would accept the former assisted living facility as a gift. Brooks told me Gordonsville could not afford upkeep of the building, which is 30,000 square feet—the same size as the proposed CTE facility. He said he thought Gordon House could accommodate the programs (such as nursing, auto mechanics, carpentry, masonry and robotics) that the school division seeks for CTE. He added that it would be only a 10-minute bus ride for students to get there from Orange.
Brooks said he made the following offer to Hornick and Anderson at 7:15 before the 8 a.m. school board meeting: Take over the upkeep of Gordon House, renovate as you see fit and pay rent of one dollar per year to the Town of Gordonsville. The response he got: “No, thank you.”
Singing Christmas Tree lights up the season at Orange Baptist
Nothing says—or sings—Christmastime quite like the Singing Christmas Tree at Orange Baptist Church. With four performances on Dec. 14-15, the 40th annual Singing Christmas Tree’s choir, handbell ringers, instrumentalists and children’s choir treated appreciative audiences to a mix of sacred music and familiar carols.
The Rev. Alan Miller, Orange Baptist’s pastor, directed the show. He told me via email, “Both the 5 p.m. performances were packed houses, and the 7:30 performances were about two-thirds full. While both the 5 p.m.’s were full, the Saturday 5 p.m. was totally full without any seats left open.”
Sarah Sydnor provided the program’s narration. Among the songs performed were “The Snow Lay on the Ground,” “Carol of the Bells,” “O Holy Night,” “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” and “The Work of Christmas.” Sarah Embry Miller sang a solo of “All Is Well,” and Martha Mikula played “O Come, All Ye Faithful” on the organ as the postlude.
The children’s choir, directed this year by Diana O’Connell, adds a special note to the annual show. The Rev. Miller said, “I love having the children’s choir sing with the Tree every year because it involves them in the effort, it puts on display the voices of young and old together, and their voices are so pure. By including them, they get to sing to this community about our savior’s birth, and what that means to the world. They did a wonderful job this year.”
This year, the singer right beneath the Singing Christmas Tree’s star was Dorothy Reed. When I asked the Rev. Miller how one gets selected for that prominent position, he replied, “It’s not the easiest spot to get up to, so we usually [choose] one of the younger youth singers. There is no special role to be at the very top. You do get a good view, though!”
Meanwhile, in Culpeper
Former Culpeper County Sheriff Scott Jenkins, 53, has been convicted on federal charges of bribery, fraud and conspiracy. On Wednesday, Dec. 18, a Charlottesville jury found Jenkins guilty of “accepting over $75,000 in bribes in exchange for appointments as auxiliary deputy sheriffs,” according to a release from the U.S. Department of Justice.
Prosecutors convinced the jury that Jenkins “accepted cash bribes and bribes in the form of campaign contributions” from at least eight people, including two undercover FBI agents, the Justice Department release states. “In return, Jenkins appointed each of the bribe payors as auxiliary deputy sheriffs, a sworn law-enforcement position, and issued them official Culpeper County Sheriff’s Office badges and credentials. The bribe payors were not trained or vetted and did not render any legitimate services to the Sheriff’s Office.”
Jenkins is set for sentencing in federal district court on March 31, 2025, and could face decades in prison.
Letter to the Editor from Glenn Minshall
I took this photograph of the Rapidan Dam recently, and it helped me clarify my thoughts as to the planned demolition of the dam sponsored by American Climate Partners (ACP). The evening light blessing this scene perfectly describes the sights/sounds of my daily interactions with the dam and its environs, and provokes me to ask why is it acceptable to demolish our observable living history? A dam has been on-site in one form or another for almost 250 years, has created its own environs/ecosystem and continues to tell its story today. It seems to me the Rapidan Fish Passage Project designed to encourage American shad access to the traditional spawning grounds above the dam should find a non-destructive solution that honors what we have today and what ACP plans for tomorrow.
Glenn Minshall, Rapidan
Dear Dr. Jennings
Dear Dr. Jennings, I was diagnosed with walking pneumonia right before Thanksgiving. Had a pretty easy time of it. But now I’m wondering how long to expect the coughing to linger? —Still Hacking
Dear Still Hacking, “Walking pneumonia” is a term generally used to describe a mild form of pneumonia, though it is often associated with the bacteria mycoplasma. As you have discovered, pneumonia presents a different problem than upper respiratory infections like colds and bronchitis. Pneumonia requires a longer period of recovery once treated. Unlike viral upper respiratory infections that last about a week, pneumonia can take longer to clear because it is an infection that lodges deep in the smallest airways of the lungs. Adequate antibiotics are required to treat bacterial pneumonia. Your physician can help you discover the most effective antibiotic after a few simple tests.
Once the bacteria has been addressed and you are no longer contagious (generally after a full course of antibiotics and no fever without fever reducers), you may continue to cough as you recover from the debris deep in your lungs from the pneumonia. It can take as long as a month for the cough to completely resolve. There are several ways to treat the cough: cough suppressant (natural and pharmaceutical), breathing treatments, inhalers, lifestyle changes and diet, as well as respiratory therapy. Ask your doctor for the most effective treatment for you.
If you have a medical or health-related question of general interest, submit it to Dr. Dena Jennings at drdenajennings@gmail.com and please select a pen name. Your real name will not appear in the column.
Merry Christmas and happy holidays from Byrd Street!
Byrd Street launched publication in June 2024, and I’m happy to report that Orange County’s email newsletter is going strong as we head into the new year. Thanks to all of you who subscribe and send me news tips and story ideas. Special thanks to my Byrd Street colleagues: photographer Joe Loftus, Orange County High School sports photographer Dillon Mills and medical columnist Dr. Dena Jennings.
Happy holidays to everyone, and I hope to hear from you early and often in 2025. —Hilary Holladay, author of Byrd Street
Orange County Animal Shelter sponsors “Deck the Paws” fundraiser
Through December 31, the Orange County Animal Shelter, directed by Gina Jenkins, is inviting donations to help support the care and feeding of the cats and dogs in residence. For more information on the “Deck the Paws” fundraiser, click here.
Good advice from Frank Walker
On another pet-friendly note, I received an email from Orange County historian and animal lover Frank Walker. Frank writes, “I suggest you remind your readers to make water available to their nearby furry and feathered friends. In this kind of weather, most of the usual water sources freeze over, and thirst can be a serious issue.”
Thanks for the suggestion, Frank. Let’s all keep a big bucket filled with fresh water for the wild, the stray and that mysterious kitty (or is it a possum?) rattling around on the porch late at night.
Coming up soon
Intro to Woodwork with Jim Fuller, The Arts Center in Orange (sign up in advance), 1:30-4:30 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 18
Drop-in classes in clay, The Arts Center in Orange (sign up in advance), 6-8 p.m., Wednesdays
Drop-in sessions in ceramics studio, The Arts Center in Orange (sign up in advance), 12-2 p.m. Fridays
Register for Spring 2025 classes at Germanna Community College
Recent issues of Byrd Street
Orange County School Board holds retreat at former “lunatic asylum” (Dec. 15)
Hillary, this is another fantastic edition of Byrd Street. I have concerns about the two dissenting voters on the school board. They impress me as the type of people who would name the new learning center after themselves.
Actually I have advocated a total new high school for Orange County, after following my daughter’s tennis team to other towns (Crozet, Palmyra, Mineral, Monticello, Powhatan). Also when other teams came to Orange to play, they laughed at our facilities. Each time I went to a parent/teachers conference, the interior of our high school was depressing. It seems that building has not changed since it was constructed 70 years ago.
I think Mr. Millburn’s comments about the Rapidan dam, coincide with my own opinion.
It was terrific to visit with you at Cary’s party. You are the consummate professional. Thanks, Jack
All interesting- thanks for you and your crew
I intended to come to the school board meeting and your article makes me feel like I was there!