County MTC motives elusive

We know how we got here; we don't know why

By Deb Fitzgerald

HCPS, RCPS and MTC: How did we get to this point?

The Harrisonburg and Rockingham County school boards are heading towards a decision that may dramatically alter – or even end – a decades-long ownership and operating partnership of Massanutten Technical Center, one that will determine the both future of that collaboration and the direction of CTE, career and technical education, for the city and the county.

It appears very probable that a new $70 million-plus MTC facility will be built with no public discussion of the process by the MTC Executive Board (which consists of the Rockingham County and Harrisonburg city school boards) and little input from the city in the decision.

Let’s pause:

Building a new center might be a smart, good choice, especially when faced with a pricey renovation and changing student needs. Families face a similar decision when choosing whether to keep putting money into an old car with many miles or coming up with the cash to buy a new(er) one. If you have joint title on that car with another person, though, it’s a good idea to bring them into the loop from the start.

Otherwise, they may not help you pay for the new car.

Again, how did we get to this point? A few factors to consider:

Perception of HCPS support of MTC in the past

During the tenure of former HCPS superintendent Dr. Scott Kizner, the idea of HCPS creating an independent CTE program was floated and was supported by a minority of then-SB members. This bespoke program would be tailored to the specific needs of city students, and the idea caused some consternation among many county and some city residents, who viewed this attitude as prioritizing college prep over workforce preparation to the detriment of students in both divisions. Not everyone needs or wants to go to college. The departure of Dr. Kizner for Stafford County and the hiring of current superintendent Dr. Michael Richards marked a distinct shift in HCPS attitude about the value of MTC, and resulted in a steady increase in HCPS student enrollment in the facility. Dr. Richards methodically dismantled obstacles that stood in the way of city students enrolling in the center. The perception in the county that HCPS doesn’t quite support MTC had real roots in the past, but has not been true for many years.

Hard feelings and the debate over the MTC attorney

HCPS was sued in 2022 over issues of gender identity by a group of teachers and parents (the parents' complaints were later dismissed from the suit.) The suit was financed by the Alliance Defending Freedom, with Virginia attorney Daniel Rose of Litten and Sipe serving as the local point person, working with ADF as the Virginia link to the case. In March, 2024, RCPS fired their decades-long attorneys at the BotkinRose law firm and hired Rose as the division lawyer.

HCPS contended that this caused a core conflict of interest, in that the attorney suing the Harrisonburg School Board would also be the attorney representing a part of Harrisonburg’s school system because the Rockingham school system attorney is also the attorney for MTC. After discussions that turned a bit contentious, the MTC executive board agreed to retain a separate lawyer for MTC in June 2024 on a 6-2 vote. During those discussions, some questions about the connection between the larger county financial stake and the control of MTC decisions surfaced. The ADF suit ended in December 2024, as the plaintiffs asked for the religious accommodations they were entitled to receive all along, according to state and federal constitutions.

Core disagreements over Governance

MTC operates according to an agreement outlined in an Memorandum of Understanding, (MOU) outlining roles and responsibilities of the city/county partnership. The current MOU was approved in 2022 and should be renewed every three years; it is still in force, though it has not been voted on this year. HCPS and RCPS are currently in a dispute over changes in this MOU. Along with other alterations, RCPS wants changes that would effectively cede control over all aspects of the facility to the county, violating a long-standing legal and ethical standard in Virginia: equal governance in joint regional schools.

Because none of these discussions have been happening in public meetings but rather in exchanges of texts and emails, HCPS created an MTC Dispute webpage that lets the public keep track of the disagreements and the ongoing discussions. The dispute has not been resolved. It is useful to know that virtually every MTC Executive Committee vote has been unanimous until this year.

HCPS participation in process for new MTC build

The December 2, 2024, MTC Executive Board meeting marked the first time any public city/county discussion occurred about replacing the current MTC facility instead of renovating it.

At that meeting, the board talked about moving forward with renovations to the current facility, estimated at around $28 million—a project that had been planned by both the city and county for a long time. Work with engineers and architects had begun, and construction was the next step.

At the end of the meeting, Rockingham superintendent Dr. Larry Shifflett unexpectedly informed the MTC Board that the county Board of Supervisors was interested in exploring other options, including potentially building a completely new facility, because the building was old and the estimated renovation costs were expensive. Note that the MTC Board never officially voted to explore these other options, nor did they agree to start a complex bidding process involving Requests for Qualifications (RFQ) and Requests for Proposals (RFP). In response, Dr. Richards explicitly requested updates on any new developments.

Into the new year, HCPS watched from the sidelines as the Board of Supervisors publicly released an RFQ in January 2025, detailing plans for a new MTC facility at Rockingham County’s tech park, now known as “Innovation Village,” a property on the corner of Route 11 and Research Drive. This area was informally floated to former City Manager Eric Campbell by county officials as a possible location for Rocktown High School some years ago, just before funding was approved for construction of RHS on its eventual location on East Kaylor Park Drive.

Neither the Rockingham County School Board nor the county Board of Supervisors provided advance notice to HCPS or the City Council about this RFQ. The city was not given any chance to contribute ideas or designs for the new facility. The MTC Executive Board never voted on issuing this RFQ. A timeline for the project was included in the RFQ, targeting a contract award date of June 2025, which was apparently met; during a June 2 county meeting after presentations by two construction companies, without notice to any city official, county senior leadership unsealed a bid and chose one company.

Why keep Harrisonburg out of the loop in constructing a new MTC?
And why push so hard for governance changes to give Rockingham County control, given that the vast majority of votes have been unanimous?

1. During the October 2024 County School Board meeting, Dr. Shifflett presented the Rockingham County Public Schools Capital Improvement Plan, and indicated that, “…..there is interest in acquiring a centrally located property in Rockingham County for an agriculture land lab to support the Agriculture Production Technology Program at MTC, creating a permanent lab space where students can gain agricultural literacy through hands-on learning experiences.” In a letter from the RCPS School Board to the HCPS board, read into the record by Sara Horst during the county’s Monday, June 23, meeting, Horst writes: “We want room for expansion and have visions of a farm school that can serve both of our communities.”

Would the city want to spend millions of dollars on a “farm school” for city students? Is the county unsure that, under the current governance structure, they would have the votes to change the curriculum in this and other unspecified ways? What other programmatic changes are under consideration? Under the current operating agreement, with five county and five city members, either locality would have to persuade at least one member from the other to vote their way. If the city cedes governance control to the county under a new MOU, the city becomes a bank account that the county can spend from as they wish.

2. The Innovation Village is in a prime location, but is by most accounts underused. If MTC is moved from Pleasant Valley Road in Harrisonburg, and the center is built on land the county already owns, in a good, well-located but underused spot, centered in an agricultural area – does the county solve two problems at once? Is that why the decision seems so final so fast?

3. Is the Harrisonburg/Rockingham MTC partnership a victim of the increasingly combative politics at the federal and the state level? Has that combativeness trickled down? Has the controversy over the MTC attorney added more residual dysfunction to strained relationships such that decisions about multi-million projects are affected?

That residual dysfunction and those strained relationships have changed the primary question about MTC very rapidly from will the city-county partnership continue to can the partnership continue.