RCPS seeks tighter MTC control
County wants majority vote as it explores going it alone
Rockingham County is exploring options that could end its 60-year partnership with Harrisonburg in the Massanutten Technical Center (MTC). County officials are investigating costs of building a new technical center, without formally consulting city officials, and are attempting to change the MTC operating agreement in ways that would give them full control with only nominal input from city school officials.
As part of the normal course of annual government business, the Harrisonburg City Council, City School Board and Planning Commission have passed various Capital Improvement Plans (CIP) over the years. Included in the CIP is a roughly $6 million contribution from Harrisonburg for a long planned renovation of MTC. This amount, 20 percent of the renovation estimate, aligns with the RCPS ownership of 80 percent of the land and facility, while HCPS owns 20 percent.
However, theRockingham County Board of Supervisors recently issued a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) in order to:
“….. solicit information that will enable the County to determine which Offerors: (a) are best qualified to successfully execute the design and construction of the project and (b) will be invited to submit proposals in response to the County’s Request for Proposals (RFP).”
The project described in the RFQ::
“Renovating MTC has been on the County's Capital Improvement Project list for a few years, but now the County is exploring the possibility of constructing a new building instead.”
This RFQ closed on 2/14/2025. This possible new MTC appears to be driven by the county Board of Supervisors, not the School board, which is unusual given that schools in Virginia are built by a process driven by school boards. There is no indication from Harrisonburg city officials that Rockingham County has initiated any discussion of building a whole new facility. Harrisonburg’s CIP, including planned dollars for MTC renovation, will go up again to the School Board soon, and for a final vote by City Council sometime in April or May.
While Rockingham County is exploring this option, the MTC operating agreement is about to come up for renewal. MTC is governed by an agreement between Harrisonburg city and Rockingham County schools. The last significant update to the MTC operating agreement occurred in 2001, approved by both city and county boards, and submitted to the Virginia Department of Education for regulatory review as required by law. The current operating agreement, which took effect July 1, 2022, needs to be renewed every 3 years. A new agreement should take effect on July 1, 2025. The next MTC executive board board meeting is scheduled for Monday, March 17, at 7PM at MTC.
Emails obtained through a Freedom of Information request between RCPS School Board chair Sara Horst and HCPS School Board chair Emma Phillips show that RCPS intends to propose significant changes to the operating agreement. HCPS would like to maintain the agreement (a memorandum of understanding or MOU) largely as is, while RCPS will propose revisions that would fundamentally change the way the center operates and eliminate any ability of HCPS to influence use of funding, curriculum and programs for HCPS students that attend MTC.
The city and county are not the same localities they were when they agreed in the late 1960s to build MTC. When the center opened in 1972, the city had 15,000 residents and the county had 40,000. The county has more than doubled, to 84,000, and the city has more than tripled, to at least 52,000 (the 2020 census undercounted the city during the Covid-19 pandemic.) Both localities were more than 90 percent white, and voted the same in 1970. The county is 85 percent white now, and the city is 60 percent or so, allowing for some uncounted immigrants from Central America and uncounted students from Northern Virginia. The county votes 70 percent one way, and the city votes 65 percent the other way. Neither race nor politics is a factor in technical education, but both are factors that show how much the localities have grown differently.
The introduction of elected school boards in Virginia has also occurred over the past 30 years. Elected boards give voters more say in how their schools are run, but introduce an X factor into cooperative agreements like the MTC operating agreement. If a locality elects a school board with a religious or political agenda, or both, instead of an educational agenda, that locality can quickly become out of sync with its partner locality. An example of this growing incompatibility which garnered nationwide attention is the “temporary” banning of 57 books in Rockingham county schools without notice or review in January 2024. More than a year later, about 26 books are unreviewed and remain “temporarily” banned for no known reason.
According to the emails obtained by TSA, Rockingham County School Board member concerns fall in three areas: voting and governance, financial responsibility, and student seats.
Voting
Currently, RCPS and HCPS have equal votes on the executive board. From the MTC operating agreement
RCPS board members want 80 percent of the vote. HCPS maintains that both school divisions should have the opportunity for equal representation when it comes to decisions that affect the district's students within the shared school, and declines to give up all control of curriculum and budget to RCPS. With 20 percent of the vote, the MTC operating agreement becomes a partnership in name only.
Like MTC, many Virginia regional technical centers have equal voting percentages and disparate funding streams. For example, the Valley Technical Center, serving Augusta County, Staunton, and Waynesboro, has 2 members from each school division with equal votes, together with a funding formula that includes an even split for 15 percent of the operating budgets for secondary and adult education, and an 85 percent split of operating budget based on enrollment from the divisions. Bridging Regional Technical Center, located east of Richmond and serving 6 divisions, sets funding proportional to enrollment, with a 6-member executive board, and one member and one vote from each division.
Financial responsibility and student seats
Currently the districts share some MTC costs equally, some based on enrollment, and others split 80/20. The RCPS Board wants to simplify the financial responsibility with a straight 80/20 split between RCPS/HCPS.
Seats are currently allocated evenly among schools, with additional seats going to RCPS with the first right of refusal. The RCPS Board appears to want this simplified to a straight 80/20 split on a class-by-class basis, not on overall enrollment. A class of 20 students, for example, would allocate 16 to RCPS and 4 to Harrisonburg.
HCPS appears willing to put seats, finances, and some governance matters on the table for negotiation. Rockingham County sends roughly 1,000 students to MTC, while HCPS sends just over 260. HCPS enrollment in MTC has been increasing, and if HCPS students are filling more MTC seats, HCPS appears to agree that funding shares can be renegotiated.
The current controversy about the MTC operating agreement may have roots in the conflict between the localities that erupted in March 2024, after RCPS board decided, without a public vote, to fire its attorneys and to end its decades-long relationship with the BotkinRose law firm. The RCPS school attorney serves as the lawyer for MTC. The attorney RCPS hired to replace Botkin Rose is Daniel Rose, an associate at Litten Sipe. Rose served as a local attorney for the group of teachers suing Harrisonburg City Public Schools, a suit funded by the Alliance Defending Freedom, which ended after more than 2 years, in December, 2024.
The MTC executive committee followed the voting guidelines in the current operating agreement and voted to change attorneys. In June 2024, the joint MTC executive board members agreed to hire a new attorney for MTC in a split 6-2 vote.
If the boards cannot agree on the terms of the new operating agreement, the process for dissolution of the partnership could begin. MTC would cease to be a state regional technical center and lose some state funding. Each locality would be responsible for career and technical education (CTE) for their individual student populations. Currently, Blue Ridge Community College, for instance, is constrained from competing with regional technical centers in certain programs offered to local high school students. If MTC loses regional status, those constraints dissolve and local school divisions would be free to negotiate programs centering on CTE.
Thus far, 2025 is the year where established federal government institutions are being dismantled or hollowed out in preparation for closure or extreme modification. It remains to be seen whether local institutions are subject to the same forces.
link to CIP
https://drive.google.com/file/d/10rAJ3gyc6FGW4_1Ra0byJJTtdiw1qFFS/view?usp=sharing)
Link to RFQ on county site: https://www.rockinghamcountyva.gov/bids.aspx?bidID=224
Link to RFQ doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/15PLRYn1Kq4Yup3NdHDvNMig9r107m8g1/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=108131931467484020099&rtpof=true&sd=true
Link to MTC OA https://drive.google.com/file/d/1it97xk2fvvB-cpLYy6pziDCsdXzWqbfb/view?usp=sharing
Link to book bans: https://www.dnronline.com/news/rockingham-county-school-board-votes-to-temporarily-remove-list-of-57-books/article_2c60d75f-7022-5ec9-8ecd-201afec3939b.html
Link to Rose: https://www.littensipe.com/legal-team/local-government-law-daniel-p-rose
Link to ADF: https://adflegal.org/press-release/virginia-teachers-sue-school-board-compelling-pronoun-usage-violation-their-faith/
Link to split vote: https://www.dnronline.com/dnronline/mtc-board-retains-lawyer/article_7798eafd-9c9a-5e8f-80da-b3739a08dabd.html
Link to firing: https://www.dnronline.com/news/rcps-board-hires-new-legal-counsel-in-closed-door-decision/article_b62fdb66-b28f-53d9-ad21-c01c5bf0f3da.html
Of course RCPS is taking this move. Their board is ruled by extreme radicals who wish they lived in the 1800s.