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UVA Community Health names interim CEO

Erik Shannon will become the interim of University of Virginia Community Health on Nov. 5, the network announced Thursday.

Community Health is a network of outpatient services across Culpeper and , with UVA Culpeper Medical Center, UVA Haymarket Medical Center and UVA Prince William Medical Center.

Shannon was most recently a partner at Chicago-based auditing and accounting firm Grant Thornton LLP, where he helped lead the integration of UVA Community Health into after UVA Health became the full owner of the in July. Shannon will continue to work on the transition over the next few months.

“During his extensive career, Erik has led significant strategic initiatives across more than 75 health care systems across the country, in addition to having vast experience in community hospital leadership roles,” UVA Health CEO Dr. K. Craig Kent said in a statement. “Through his transition leadership role, Erik has accumulated deep knowledge of all of UVA Community Health’s operations, making him a clear candidate for the role.”

Shannon succeeds Al Pilong, who will be the president and CEO of Garnet Health in New York. UVA Health will conduct a national search to select a permanent CEO for UVA Community Health.

Va. new jobless claims rise slightly

Virginia’s new claims rose by about 30% last week, the reported Thursday, but remained about 8,000 lower than the number filed two weeks ago.

For the filing week ending Oct. 23, Virginians filed 2,570 initial claims, an increase of 603 claims from the week before. Continued claims totaled 44,840, a decrease of 13,581 from the previous week.

Compared to the same week last year, initial claims were about 79% lower than the 12,352 recorded then. Continued claims were 65% lower than the 127,621 from the comparable week last year.

receiving unemployment benefits through the must file weekly in order to continue receiving benefits.

The majority of claimants who filed for benefits last week reported being in these industries: and social assistance; retail; accommodation/food service; and administrative and waste services.

The VEC has been under scrutiny this year for backlogs of claims and, most recently, for delaying the launch of its updated claims system from Oct. 1 to November. VEC is shutting down the current system at 5 p.m. on Monday to implement the new system, a process that it expects to take several days, WDVM reported.

Nationwide, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims last week was 281,000, a decrease of 10,000 from the previous week’s revised level and the lowest level for initial claims since the 256,000 reported on March 14, 2020. There were 732,533 initial claims in the comparable week in 2020.

VF Corp. to create 82 jobs in Henry County

Denver-based apparel and footwear company . will create 82 jobs with a $10.2 million expansion within , Gov. Ralph Northam announced Thursday.

The company will make upgrades within its 500,000-square-foot facility in to increase distribution capacity and speed.

“VF Corp. has thrived in Henry County for nearly 20 years, and we are thrilled to see the company continue to invest in the commonwealth,” Northam said in a statement. “Virginia’s strong outdoor recreation economy supports the growth of companies like VF Corp. We look forward to the company’s continued success here in the commonwealth as our ecotourism industry grows.”

VF Corp. owns a family of outdoor, active and workwear brands including Vans, The North Face, Timberland and Dickies. The company, which has operated in Henry County since 2003, reported $9.2 billion in revenue for fiscal year 2021, sells products in more than 170 countries and produces 300 million units of apparel, footwear and accessories each year.

“We’ve proudly operated our distribution center in Martinsville for 18 years, and we know that continuing to invest in Martinsville is the right choice given its location and committed employees,” Cameron Bailey, VF Corp. executive vice president of global supply chain, said in a statement. “The planned investments in this facility, from enhanced technology to improved distribution equipment, as well as the 82 new full-time positions, will help deliver our products to our consumers in a more efficient and prompt manner.”

The Virginia Partnership worked with the Martinsville-Henry County Economic Development Corp. and the Virginia Office of Outdoor Recreation to secure the project, for which Virginia competed with California and Pennsylvania. Northam approved a $225,000 grant from the Commonwealth’s Opportunity Fund to assist Henry County. The company is eligible to receive benefits from the Virginia Enterprise Zone Program, which is administered by the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development. The VEDP’s Virginia Jobs Investment Program will provide funding to support employee recruitment and training activities.

FOR THE RECORD November 2021

Roanoke/ New River Valley

One of the largest rooftop solar energy projects in the Roanoke region is now operating at Goodwill Industries of the Valleys. In mid-October, the installed solar panels at its Support Center/Jobs Campus building on Melrose Avenue. About 90% of the building’s electricity will be generated by renewable energy, reducing annual carbon dioxide emissions equal to that produced by burning 581,000 pounds of coal. The solar panels will have a maximum capacity of 548 kilowatts at any given time, and over a year will produce up to 742 megawatt-hours of electricity. (The Roanoke Times)

Two counties in the Roanoke and New River valleys are separately seeking state funding to help with major broadband internet access expansion projects. Montgomery County leaders put support behind a grant application that, if approved, would help pave the way for far greater availability of broadband in much of the county outside of Blacksburg and Christiansburg. Montgomery is seeking another grant through the Virginia Telecommunications Initiative. In the Roanoke Valley, Botetourt County applied for nearly $3.1 million through VATI toward a $7.9 million project to bring universal broadband coverage to the county by 2023. (The Roanoke Times)

Virginia Tech has launched a research institute focused on national security with presences in Blacksburg and the Washington, D.C., metro area, the university announced in September. The Virginia Tech National Security Institute aspires to become “the nation’s preeminent academic organization at the nexus of interdisciplinary research, technology, policy and talent development to advance national security.” Tech has long had ties to the Department of Defense, which contributed $50 million in federal funding to the university in fiscal year 2020.The institute will bring together researchers, programs and resources from across the university and industry leaders. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Bailey
Bailey

Virginia Tech leaders, key partners and government officials formally opened the $90 million, 139,000-square-foot Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC in mid-October. Already equipped with research instrumentation and new laboratories for up to 25 research teams, the building has been operational for a year. The LEED Silver-certified building designed by AECOM has features, including a meadow garden roof that prevents flooding. Set in the heart of the Roanoke Innovation Corridor, the institute is a major economic driver in the region, currently employing more than 400 researchers, staff, and trainees.
(Virginia Tech news release)

Pam Bailey will be the new Bedford County economic development director after serving as the interim director. Since February 2018, Bailey has served as the county economic development office’s marketing and business development coordinator, leading marketing, managing the departmental and EDA budgets and assisting with securing grants. She has worked with Lynchburg-based firm Blair Marketing, Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson and United Way of . She holds a bachelor’s degree in interior design with a minor in marketing from Meredith College. Bailey succeeds Traci Blido, who is now the director of the Central Virginia Workforce Development Board. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Maxey
Maxey

Michael C. Maxey, the 11th president of Roanoke College, announced in September that he will retire at the end of the academic year. Maxey has been with Roanoke College, located in Salem, since 1985 and has served as president since 2007. He has served the longest of any of the college’s presidents. “The decision has been most difficult, but it is right for Terri [Maxey] and me, and for Roanoke College,” Maxey said in a statement. “I will always treasure the opportunity to have served Roanoke College as president.”
(VirginiaBusiness.com)

 

 

Shenandoah Valley

The American Shakespeare Center in Staunton has canceled its fall slate of in-person productions. In an email sent in September offering refund information, the troupe notified ticket holders that it was eliminating the season. Along with the runs of “Macbeth,” “Henry V” and “All’s Well That Ends Well,” and the world premiere of “Keene” by Anchuli Felicia King, it canceled the 2021 Blackfriars Conference, a three-day gathering of classical scholars originally scheduled for October. Company members say the cancellations were caused by internal strife over how the company is run, and its treatment of women and people of color. (The Washington Post)

Williamsport, Maryland-based developer Elevate Homes has proposed a high-end 74-home subdivision for active seniors in Winchester that would occupy a 28-acre parcel of land adjacent to the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley and the Emil and Grace Shihadeh Innovation Center. Each house would include a two-car garage and be priced at least $500,000. Taxes from the development, The Preserve at Meadow Branch, are projected to add approximately $425,580 to the city’s coffers each year. A public hearing on the development was set to be held on Oct. 19. (The Winchester Star)

The Shenandoah Community Capital Fund (SCCF) has received $1.5 million in federal grant funding to support innovation in the region, Director Debbie Irwin said on Oct. 7. The fund will use a three-pronged approach to spend the grant money: expanding the Startup Shenandoah Valley program to support entrepreneurs with scalable tech ideas in , cybersecurity and software from this October to September 2024; creating a digital platform connecting investors, business resource groups and higher education institutions; and centralizing and expanding the storytelling of the valley to draw new businesses. (Daily News-Record)

Italian cured meats manufacturer Veronesi Holding S.p.A., a Gruppo Veronesi company, will invest approximately $100 million to establish its first
U.S. production facility in Rockingham County, creating an estimated 150 jobs over the next four years, Gov. Ralph Northam announced Sept. 30. The facility will sit on 75.8 acres in the Innovation Village @ Rockingham and will be used to age, process and package the company’s products. A privately traded company, Veronesi Holding S.p.A. reported more than €3.1 billion in sales in 2020. The company is headquartered in Verona and has 9,000 employees. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Plastic thermoforming and fabrication company Virginia Industrial Plastics Inc. will invest more than $6.5 million to expand its manufacturing facility in Rockingham County, Gov. Ralph Northam announced Sept. 23. The expansion is expected to add 92 jobs and allow the company to increase capacity for its product lines, Cabinet Savers and VIP Golf Cars. Virginia Industrial Plastics makes products designed to serve markets such as meat processing, leisure, medical, commercial, transportation, industrial, heavy equipment and agriculture. The company’s services include tooling and mold creation using wood, synthetics, composites, or aluminum, thermoforming and vacuum forming, CNC operations, value-add assembly, and just-in-time inventory. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

People

Charlie King, the senior vice president of administration and finance for James Madison University for the past 25 years, has announced that he will retire in December. King’s tenure included assisting with capital projects on campus, including building out the school’s East Campus and growing JMU’s athletic programs. In 2019, the university’s endowment grew to $111 million, a 42% increase over the past five years, and JMU’s $200 million fundraising campaign launched in 2018 reached its goal more than a year early. King will work on a temporary, part-time basis with JMU’s government relations staff through the next General Assembly session. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

 

 

Southwestern Virginia

Gov. Ralph Northam, first lady Pamela Northam, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan and other government officials attended a three-day annual conference for Appalachian leaders beginning Oct. 6. The 2021 Appalachian Regional Commission conference was held in St. Paul, a town on the Wise-Russell county line, and received about 800 online and 100 in-person registrations. The commission’s representatives talked about the challenges facing their states’ Appalachian communities — high poverty rates, lagging infrastructure, lack of access to early childhood education and high-speed broadband struggles — and touted strides they’d made in those areas. Northam and Hogan visited sites in St. Paul and rode ATVs on trails. (Cardinal Press)

Ballad Health Chief Operating Officer Eric Deaton announced on Sept. 29 that the system would resume some elective surgeries that have been on hold since late August, as the number of new cases in Southwest Virginia and Northeast Tennessee dropped by about 40% over the two weeks preceding the announcement. The hospital system was treating 324 patients at the time, down from 413 a few weeks prior. The testing positivity rate in the region, however, has remained around 21%, and the vaccination rate is trailing the two statewide averages. (WVTF)

Connecticut-based Blue Star NBR LLC and Delaware-based American Glove Innovations Inc. will invest $714 million to build a manufacturing facility in Wythe County for producing nitrile medical gloves — a joint venture expected to create 2,500 jobs, Gov. Ralph Northam announced Oct. 4. The operation is expected to produce up to 60 billion medical gloves each year from nitrile butadiene rubber — an oil-resistant, synthetic rubber — at the manufacturing plant in Progress Park, the county’s industrial park. It is anticipated to occupy more than 200 acres and will have the potential to triple in size in future phases. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Facebook Inc., Appalachian Power and GigaBeam Networks are partnering to bring faster internet to Grayson County residents, the social media giant announced Sept. 23. The trio of companies will bring fiber-to-the-home and wireless internet to about 6,000 households in the county. Facebook is building long-haul fiber routes, which will connect Virginia, Ohio and North Carolina data centers. Facebook’s network will connect with Appalachian Power’s middle-mile fiber network along its electric infrastructure grid, which GigaBeam Networks built on, extending broadband access to residences. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Norton-based firm SolarBiotech and Mountain Empire Community College announced a partnership on Sept. 29 to help prepare residents for expected new jobs. The company, which is currently focused on using cellular agriculture to create food ingredients, relocated from North Carolina in March 2020 and employs 35 people. It expects to grow to more than 100 employees next year and to add a 200,000-square-foot facility to its operations by the end of 2023. The college will work with SolarBiotech to create a six-month bioprocessing operator certificate program for high school graduates. (The Coalfield Progress)

On Sept. 20, Salt Lake City-based Traeger Pellet Grill and Musser Biomass and Wood Products held a ribbon cutting at Musser Lumber Co. in the town of Rural Retreat to celebrate their partnership, which will create jobs in Wythe County while fueling barbecues across the country. Musser Biomass and Wood Products is a division of Musser Lumber Co. Inc. focused on the pellet and composite decking markets. The facility created approximately 25 jobs with its grand opening. The plant has a new form of wood dryer that can evaporate more than 2,000 gallons of water per hour from the green wood. (SWVAToday)

 

 

Southern Virginia

Demolition began in September to make way for the Caesars Virginia casino at the former Dan River Inc. Schoolfield site. It will take several months to completely demolish structures at the site. “Full demolition will take seven to nine months based on knowledge of current conditions,” said Mark Schlang, senior director of design and construction with Caesars Entertainment. As for the former finishing building, officials are still determining how to approach taking it down, Schlang said. “The finishing building will be later in the schedule,” he said. “The contractor and engineers are still evaluating the best methods for removal.” (Danville Register & Bee)

A groundbreaking ceremony took place in late September in Patrick County to widen a 7.4-mile stretch of U.S. Route 58 in Patrick County, the first phase of a project to create a continuous four-lane highway between Virginia Beach and Interstate 77. The project, part of the U.S. Route 58 Corridor Development Program enacted by state lawmakers in 1989, will cost approximately $300 million. The two-lane section of the highway over Lovers Leap Mountain is restricted to tractor-trailers, but that will change once improvements are completed under a November 2020 agreement between the Virginia Department of Transportation and Roanoke-based Branch Civil Inc. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

A Martinsville-based company announced its plans to hire nearly 1,000 workers during the holiday season. Radial is accepting applications for entry-level warehouse positions in its fulfillment center. Duties include processing online orders, as well as picking, sorting, packing and shipping them. The goal is to combat the holiday demand surge and help workers make some extra cash. “We are one of the largest employers in the area. This is a good opportunity for people to get their foot in the door during peak season,” JMH Campus Site Leader Tammy Elder said. (WSLS)

Schock GmbH, a German quartz composite sink manufacturer, plans to build an $85 million manufacturing facility in Henry County, creating 355 jobs, Gov. Ralph Northam announced in late September. Virginia competed with Florida,
Georgia and North Carolina for the project, which will occupy a 95,500-square-foot shell building on 14.7 acres in Patriot Centre Industrial Park. The new facility will be completed in phases, with the first phase — establishing the capability to produce quartz composite kitchen sinks — finished in five years. Schock invented the material in 1979 and manufactures more than 200 sink models. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Vegetable Packing LLC has partnered with Brunswick County Industrial Development Authority, with plans to build a 45,000-square-foot, $4.2 million produce processing and packing facility that is expected to create 40 jobs over three years, Gov. Ralph Northam announced in late September. Old Dominion Organic Farms, a member of Southern Virginia Vegetable Packing, will operate the facility, which is expected to process nearly 24 million Virginia-grown vegetables. It will support more than 22 farmers across Amelia, Brunswick, Dinwiddie, Lunenburg, Mecklenburg, Prince George and Surry counties. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

The Virginia Supreme Court refused in early October to hear Virginia Uranium‘s latest legal bid to overturn the state’s ban on uranium mining. The case involved Virginia Uranium’s claim that the mining ban unconstitutionally deprives the company of use of its Coles Hill mining site in Pittsylvania County and therefore amounts to an unlawful taking of private property. After reviewing the case record and arguments by both sides, “the Court is of the opinion there is no reversible error in the judgment complained of. Accordingly, the Court refuses the petition for appeal,” its order read. (SoVaNow)

 

 

Central Virginia

Henrico County-based tobacco giant Altria Group Inc. was hit with a legal ruling that could crash the rollout of its IQOS device, an alternative to conventional cigarettes. The U.S. International Trade Commission ruled in late September that Altria and its former subsidiary, Philip Morris International, must halt imports and sales of the IQOS device because it infringes two patents held by their top competitor, Winston-Salem, North Carolina-based R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. The IQOS is a battery-powered device that heats tobacco instead of burning it, part of a larger strategy by Altria to expand its product portfolio and introduce alternatives to conventional cigarettes.
(Richmond Times-Dispatch)

The director of Chesterfield County‘s economic development office says a “major midtown development” could result from the sale of nearly 250 acres of undeveloped property in the county and the city of Richmond. The two pieces of land went on the market for $30 million and $49 million in early October, according to S.L. Nusbaum Realty, which is handling the sale. The 82.5 acres in the city was the proposed location of a $650 million Bally’s Corp. casino rejected this spring by a city advisory panel, and the 166.44 acres in Bon Air in Chesterfield is zoned to accommodate more than 1 million feet of office, retail and hospitality space. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Richmond-based Dominion Energy Inc. reached an agreement in October to sell its Questar Pipeline subsidiary to Las Vegas-based Southwest Gas Holdings Inc. for $1.975 billion. The all-cash deal includes the assumption of $430 million of debt and is expected to close in the fourth quarter. Questar Pipeline provides natural gas transportation and underground storage services in Utah, Wyoming and Colorado, and it owns and operates 1,867 miles of pipeline. Questar transports gas for delivery to markets in the West and Midwest.
(VirginiaBusiness.com)

About a year after unions raised public concerns, a grand jury indicted two General Assembly Building construction subcontractors on felony counts alleging they improperly classified workers to avoid paying state income taxes on them. A multijurisdictional grand jury indicted GTO Drywall LLC and Richmond Drywall Installers Constructors Inc. in Richmond Circuit Court on 10 counts each of embezzlement in early October. The Virginia Attorney General’s Office and the Office of the State Inspector General worked on the investigation after allegations of illegalities were made. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

Henrico County-based Fortune 500 insurer Genworth Financial Inc. completed the once-delayed initial public offering of its mortgage insurance subsidiary, Enact Holdings Inc., headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina, in September. Between the IPO and a private sale of shares, Genworth received aggregate net proceeds of about $535 million after underwriters’ fees but before other expenses. Genworth Holdings Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Genworth Financial, sold 15.3 million shares of Enact common stock at a price of $19 per share. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

The University of Virginia announced in September that it has received a $50 million lead gift to build a performing arts center, a donation by Tessa Ader, a prominent Charlottesville-area philanthropist who serves on the Fralin Museum of Art advisory board at U.Va. Her late husband, Richard Ader, was an attorney who represented artists including Joseph Cornell, for whom he was estate executor. The new center will include a 1,100-seat concert hall, a 150-seat recital hall and practice space in the Emmet-Ivy corridor near other facilities being built, including the School of Data Science and the Karsh Institute of Democracy. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

 

 

Northern Virginia

Capital One Financial Corp. has pushed back the reopening of its corporate offices to 2022, citing “uncertainty about the direction of this pandemic and the timing of a sustained improvement in health conditions across the country.” The McLean-based financial giant opted not to reopen its office in a hybrid format as planned for Nov. 2, after two delays earlier this year. Hybrid remains the plan, but the company will no longer attempt to forecast a date as to when that might be implemented. (Washington Business Journal)

Fortune 500 IT services company
DXC Technology is leaving Tysons for a smaller headquarters in Ashburn in November, the company announced in late September. The new corporate office, located at One Loudoun, will reflect the shift to a virtual-first mentality. Employees can work from anywhere and use the office as more of a place to come together, executives say. It’s almost entirely meeting and conference space, with offices for key executive officers. DXC has several hundred employees in the greater Washington, D.C., area. Some will work on-site and others will have access when needed. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

George Mason University has finished the master planning process for its three main campuses, moving forward with the final designs for a $1 billion capital and academic overhaul. The university’s design team in October outlined the final vision for its original, flagship campus in Fairfax, its science and technology campus in Manassas and its Virginia Square campus in a public engagement session. The final report will be released within a few months. GMU plans to break ground on the nearly $250 million expansion of its campus in January. The primary addition is the 360,500-square-foot home for the Institute for Digital Innovation and the coming School of Computing. (Washington Business Journal)

Fairfax-based Peterson Cos. is building a 1.9 million-square-foot development in a 270-acre industrial park in Stafford County, and JLL will oversee the leasing, the companies announced in September. Gateway, Peterson’s first industrial project in the Washington, D.C., area, is off Interstate 95 and is expected to be built out within a year. Construction on the first 630,000-square-foot building is underway, and the entire site is being cleared and graded. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Tysons-based broadcast and digital media corporation Tegna Inc. received acquisition bids of more than $8 billion from Apollo Global Inc. and media mogul Byron Allen, according to media reports. Allen, owner of The Weather Channel and chairman and CEO of Los Angeles-based Allen Media Group, teamed up with Ares Management Corp. to offer $23 per share for Tegna, Bloomberg reported. Apollo Global and New York hedge fund Standard General made an all-cash offer of $22 per share. Tegna owns 64 television stations and was created in 2015 as a publicly traded company after McLean-based Gannett Co. Inc. spun off its broadcast and digital media divisions. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Tremaglio
Tremaglio

PEOPLE

Tamika L. Tremaglio is leaving her post as Deloitte‘s Greater Washington managing principal to be the executive director of the National Basketball Players Association union at the end of this year. She has served as an adviser and consultant to the NBPA since 2012, and as principal of the Washington, D.C., area for Deloitte, she oversees 14,000 employees across 23 offices. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Fluctuating fortunes

The Steward School campus in Henrico County looks a bit different this year. With five mobile classrooms, a tent on the patio and masked faces, the school has noticeably adapted to the demands of teaching students amid a .

“In a lot of ways, we’ve gotten somewhat back to normal,” Head of School Dan Frank says, “but we do have some limitations about buses [and] we continue to need the learning cottages [mobile classrooms] because of class size limits and, of course, we’re masked, per the mandate.”

Like other in Virginia, Steward incurred steep costs installing Plexiglas and other infrastructure to combat the spread of but says it has comfortably covered expenses due to recent increases.

School administrators attribute the enrollment increases to families seeking more stability for children who have had their disrupted by remote and hybrid learning over the past 20 months.

Despite state law requiring public schools to offer in-person instruction to the fullest extent possible since March, private schools have been more likely to hold in-person classes since fall 2020, although state health officials have recorded coronavirus outbreaks at schools since then. In March, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reduced the recommended distance between students from six feet to three feet, which allowed private schools to increase enrollment.

Pandemic infrastructure expenses such as installing Plexiglass barriers are “the price of doing business,” says Ginny Colwell, head of school for St. Paul VI Catholic High School in Chantilly. Photo by Will Schermerhorn
Pandemic infrastructure expenses such as installing Plexiglass barriers are “the price of doing business,” says Ginny Colwell, head of school for St. Paul VI Catholic High School in Chantilly. Photo by Will Schermerhorn

As of early October, only children ages 12 and older were eligible to receive vaccines, and the Virginia Department of Health recorded outbreaks in progress — meaning at least two positive cases — at schools in 20 counties at both private and public institutions since the start of the 2021-22 school year.

Nationally and in Virginia, applications to private schools have increased since the pandemic, and more students are on waitlists. In an August 2020 of National Association of (NAIS) members, 58% of respondents reported that a larger than average number of families from non-private schools were making admissions inquiries. By late March, another NAIS survey reported that admission numbers had stayed steady or improved from the previous year at more than two-thirds of responding private schools, and 57% of responding NAIS-member schools said they had received more applications compared with the same time during the previous year.

The Steward School, Morrison School in Bristol, Fredericksburg Christian School (FCS) and St. Paul VI Catholic High School in Chantilly have waitlists for some — if not most — grades.

While St. Paul VI Head of School Ginny Colwell says her school’s waitlists are the result of intentional growth control rather than space constraints, other schools attribute their waitlists to their schools’ good reputations and families seeking alternatives to remote learning.

Steward School had a roughly 20% to 30% increase in student applications, and it has 650 students enrolled this fall, Frank says. Last year, distancing requirements meant that FCS had to turn down around 50 applicants, a loss of roughly $500,000 in tuition. This year, it had 991 students enrolled as of early October, up from 859 students last year, when social distancing measures were in place. Morrison School has 62 students enrolled, nine more than the previous year, but the school has provided about $9,000 more than the $120,000 budgeted for tuition assistance.

At the Catholic Diocese of ‘s schools, enrollment this school year increased more than 6% from the prior year, bringing total enrollment to almost 17,000 students.
St. Paul VI jumped from 964 to 1,090.

Private schools have largely borne the costs of distancing and safety measures, although some, like Morrison School, have received help from their communities. Morrison received air purifiers from Aerus, which has a facility in Bristol, and masks from local companies Westfall Orthodontics and Universal Cos. In April, Gov. Ralph Northam invited state private schools to apply for $46.6 million
in federal funding to assist with pandemic-
related operating costs.

Extra costs

According to NAIS, 65% of responding members in October 2020 had purchased tents, trailers or added building space to allow for social distancing. Nearly all reported buying masks or face shields, 84% invested in plastic or Plexiglas dividers, and 64% said they had upgraded their heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems or purchased new systems.

The Steward School upgraded its HVAC system, bought more sanitizing supplies and provided students and employees with personal protective equipment. The school also hired more nurses and counselors, invested in five mobile classrooms and purchased technology, including livestreaming equipment. Regular, randomized COVID testing among students and staff members has also proved expensive.

Fredericksburg Christian School Superintendent Rick Yost says that, not counting extra janitorial costs, his school spent an average of $2,428 a month on sanitizing treatments and $2,722 on extra surface cleaning for high-touch areas like door knobs. He estimates that his school spent around $30,000 to $40,000 just installing Plexiglas dividers in the elementary school. St. Paul VI’s Colwell estimates her school spent roughly $30,000 on Plexiglas barriers between students who sit facing forward at instruction tables, two to a table. Gallons of hand sanitizer have been deployed, and the school uses air purifiers throughout its buildings.

“We’re not really surprised by the costs that we have,” Colwell says. “The CDC has been very good with what they feel [is needed] and what they recommend, so we have spent money [to comply with the CDC’s COVID recommendations]. … It’s the price of doing business, really.” St. Paul VI’s donors helped offset expenses, she says.

Morrison School in Bristol took revenue hits from pandemic-related enrollment restrictions and increased tuition needs, says Head of School Jami Verderosa. Photo by Earl Niekirk
Morrison School in Bristol took revenue hits from pandemic-related enrollment restrictions and increased tuition needs, says Head of School Jami Verderosa. Photo by Earl Niekirk

Also, a well-timed move from Fairfax city to Chantilly in summer 2020, in which St. Paul VI’s campus grew from 16 to 68 acres, provided for more outdoor space, including a large patio. It’s equipped with restaurant-quality outdoor heaters, and students can eat at picnic tables mask-free when the weather cooperates.

Morrison School pieced together federal funding and private donations to cover its expenses. It was also able to receive Paycheck Protection Program loans.

Although the school, which has small class sizes and is dedicated to children with different learning needs, wasn’t able to hold its annual golf tournament fundraiser last year due to the pandemic, most of its usual participants still donated, says Head of School Jami Verderosa, and the school will hold this year’s tournament in April.

“It’s because of the great staff and the supporters and donors that we have that we have been able to continue to grow,” she says.

Because of a partnership with a public school, Morrison received $26,283 in federal CARES Act funding money, which it used to hire additional personnel to clean daily. This year, two high school students volunteer after school on a rotating basis to assist the school’s custodian with cleaning. The school also added and replaced some Chromebooks in case the school had to go virtual again.

Because the school was built in 2015, the administration hasn’t upgraded its HVAC, but it did install Plexiglas dividers.

The biggest pandemic-related hits to the school’s revenue came from limited enrollment and increased tuition assistance needs, Verderosa says. Morrison was not able to hold a summer program in 2020. “That’s a lot of income that comes in …  and that’s a big recruitment [tool] for us for the fall, so that was a big setback because then we didn’t have families that could try our program [before] the school year,” she says. Also, the school did not offer a pre-K and kindergarten program in the ’20-’21 school year because additional classrooms were needed to physically distance students in other grades, although those programs returned this fall.

Similarly, The Steward School had to increase the number of buses it uses for athletic teams to accommodate distancing measures, meaning it sometimes has to charter buses to use in addition to its own, or to charter double the number of buses for longer trips.

And like public schools, independent schools are also encountering labor problems. Fredericksburg Christian School has been having trouble finding bus drivers. Along with transporting athletic teams to games, the school runs five bus routes to outlying counties daily.

Hiring difficulties

Labor shortages in private schools vary across the state. Despite struggling to find bus drivers, FCS was able to hire an admissions director and more teachers. The school raised its pay rate in order to attract extended care workers, and principals and teachers filled in during the interim.

School administrators say their schools have encountered some teacher turnover, but they attribute it to teachers leaving the industry due to increased stress and workloads, rather than an inability to compete for talent with public schools, which can offer higher pay but also have larger classes. “We asked a lot of our faculty last year,” Colwell says, “and they did not disappoint. I’m just impressed with the resilience and the positive outlook that many of our faculty [had] last year.”

Morrison School has been searching for a high school teacher with a math or special education certification since mid-August. For now, other staff members cover the class and duties.

St. Paul VI Catholic High School hired 18 teachers this year, some because teachers retired and some due to enrollment growth, as well as eight staff members, ranging from security and custodial employees to administrative assistants and teachers’ aides.

In recent years, independent schools in Virginia fared slightly better than independent schools nationally, according to National Association of Independent Schools data. In Virginia, the total number of students enrolled in independent schools dipped 0.46% between 2019 and 2021, but 52.5% of schools reported enrollment growth in that period. Nationally, independent schools saw a 1.7% decrease in enrollment for the 2020-2021 school year, but 44.9% reported increased enrollment.

Despite the unexpected expenses brought by the pandemic, most private schools have seen high enough increases in enrollment numbers to offset the new needs, or in some cases, even see a net gain. “I spent 20 years in the business world before I came to do this, and our saying was, ‘Volume cures all ills,’” Yost says. “It’s true also in private education: Enrollment takes care of those things.”

After a year of learning how to operate in a pandemic, schools are glad to be fully in-person. Steward’s campus is full of “happy noise,” Frank says, with students and teachers chatting and engaging each other in-person.

“We are still offering full athletics, full fine arts,” he says. “We were able to bring back our lunch program this year. … We have not scaled back on faculty and staff. We have not cut any classes or other types of programming. We are robust as we were pre-pandemic.”

 

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Va. CEOs expect sales, employment to increase

Almost 70% of expect sales to increase over the next six months, and about 60% expect to increase, according to a third quarter conducted by the ‘s Robins School of Business and the Virginia Council of CEOs (VACEOs).

Compared to answers from the Survey conducted at the end of the second quarter, more CEOs expected sales, capital spending and employment to increase in the next six months.

“These CEOs are expressing a pre- level of optimism,” VACEOs Executive Director Scot McRoberts said in a statement. “That is in spite of the significant headwinds of workforce challenges and supply chain disruptions. That’s good news for all of us.”

Sixty-eight percent of CEOs responded that they expected sales to increase over the next six months, with most of those (55%) saying they expected sales to be “higher” and 13% choosing “significantly higher.” Twenty-three percent expect no change in sales.

About 47% expect capital spending to increase over the next half-year, up from 36% last quarter, but 45% expect it to remain flat. More than 8% expect a decrease in capital spending.

About 60% of respondents indicated that they expected employment to increase over the next six months, but 38% expect it to remain flat. Only 2% anticipate employment falling.

Forty-five percent of CEOs polled said they would not require a return to in-person work yet, while 24% said they would, and 31% weren’t sure.

The survey also asked CEOs what percentage of their workforce would be working remotely relative to pre- times. Almost half (47%) said that there would not be a change in the percentage working remotely. Thirty-two percent said a higher percentage of employees would be working remotely compared to the pre-COVID distribution, and 21% said a lower percentage would be working remotely.

The survey was administered from Oct. 5 to Oct. 11, and 53 CEOs responded. Services, retail and construction represent the majority of respondents. The average company whose CEO responded had about $16 million in revenue for the most recent 12-month period and an average of 80 employees.

The Robins School adapted the survey from Business Roundtable, a Washington, D.C.-based lobbyist association of CEOs of U.S. companies, and has administered it since 2010. Rich Boulger, associate dean at the Robins School, administers the survey and collects the responses.

Va. governor’s race coming down to the wire

One week out from Election Day, the ‘s race remains very close, according to two released this week. Former , the Democratic nominee, has small leads over Republican challenger that are within the surveys’ margins of error.

Released Wednesday morning, ‘s Wason Center for Civic Leadership’s poll has McAuliffe with 49% of support among likely voters, compared with Youngkin’s 48%, meaning that third-party progressive candidate Princess Blanding’s 1% among voters could potentially impact the race. The CNU poll’s margin of error is 3.5%. According to Tuesday’s poll from ‘s L. Douglas Wilder School of Government, McAuliffe has a 41% lead against Youngkin’s 38%, within the poll’s 5.03% margin of error.

Down-ticket Democrats — Attorney General Mark Herring and lieutenant governor candidate Del. Hala Ayala — also have one-point leads over their Republican counterparts, Del. Jason Miyares and Winsome Sears, reports the CNU poll, which has 5% of respondents undecided between Miyares and Herring, and 4% undecided between Ayala and Sears. Similarly, VCU reports only a one point difference between Ayala and Sears, with the Democrat carrying 36% of support. VCU shows Herring with a four-point lead over Miyares, at 39% to 35%.

VCU’s shows more voters who are unhappy with either candidate in all three races, as well as a lowering of support for Gov. Ralph Northam. Only 46% approve of the job he is doing, a five-point drop.

“The poll reflects a tightening of the race for the three top offices. The number of voters unhappy with either candidate for governor and the decrease in Northam’s approval rating is noteworthy,” former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder said in a statement.

“McAuliffe is facing strong headwinds in a state that has historically selected governors from the party not in the White House and with a Democratic president whose approval rating is underwater,” Wason Center Research Director Rebecca Bromley-Trujillo said in a statement. “Republican voters also appear hungrier for a win and increasingly see a chance to take a statewide race for the first time since 2009.”

CNU’s poll shows that 80% of Republican likely voters are “very enthusiastic” about the election, compared with 65% of Democratic likely voters. That enthusiasm gap is a GOP advantage that has surged nine points since the Wason Center’s Oct. 8 survey.

VCU’s poll surveyed 808 adults in Virginia from Oct. 9 to Oct. 21, and when considering likely voters only, the margin of error was 6.44%. CNU polled 944 likely Virginia voters from Oct. 17 through Oct. 25.

This year’s far exceeded previous campaign spending. According to the latest campaign finance reports, Youngkin and McAuliffe collectively raised $117 million through Oct. 21, compared to $64.7 million raised by Northam and Republican Ed Gillespie at this stage four years ago, the Virginia Public Access Project reported. A former of The Carlyle Group, Youngkin has spent $20 million so far on his campaign, including $3.5 million in October, bringing his total fundraising to $58.8 million. McAuliffe, a prodigious Democratic Party fundraiser, raised $28 million in campaign contributions this month and has brought in a total of $58.2 million.

McAuliffe has also pulled in several marquee names to support his campaign in recent days, including President Joe Biden, former President Barack Obama, first lady Jill Biden and voting rights advocate Stacey Abrams. Music superstar Pharrell Williams, a Virginia Beach native, and Vice President Kamala Harris are scheduled to appear at a campaign event for McAuliffe on Friday in Norfolk.

Arlington agriculture nonprofit names first president and CEO

Arlington-based Leading Harvest announced Friday that it has named Kenny Fahey as its first president and .

Fahey, who works remotely from Seattle, has been Leading Harvest’s executive director since its launch 18 months ago. He has enrolled more than 1.3 million acres across 29 states in the organization’s Farmland Standard for sustainable agriculture, and he is overseeing a pilot program in Australia.

“Kenny has led us through our early months with a strong and sure hand, and the full board is thrilled that he will continue to drive Leading Harvest’s efforts as we build on our successes in the U.S., engage with the supply chain and expand our reach in international markets,” Oliver Williams IV, Leading Harvest chair and global head of agricultural investments for Hancock Natural Resource Group, said in a statement.

Fahey came to Leading Harvest on loan from The Conservation Fund, where he had served as its working lands principal. The Conservation Fund convened a group of farmers, investors, NGOs and farm managers to create a universal third-party certification program for farmland management, and Larry Selzer, the fund’s president and CEO, appointed him to staff the group. The group became Leading Harvest.

“This is a bittersweet moment for The Conservation Fund, where Kenny has been a highly respected and valued colleague,” Selzer, who is also vice chair of Leading Harvest board, said in a statement. “But we know that Leading Harvest — and the future of agriculture — will be well-served by this terrific, committed leader in our conservation and sustainability movement.”

Fahey holds an undergraduate degree from Bowdoin College and an MBA and master’s degree from the University of Michigan.

Started in 2020, Leading Harvest is a nonprofit organization committed to increasing the adoption of sustainability practices in agriculture. The organization provides assurance programs composed of standards, audit procedures, training and and reporting and claim offerings.

Downtown Richmond Marriott gets new GM

The downtown has a new general manager.

Lars Friedriszik has been named general manager of the 410-room hotel, which is managed by White and owned by Apple Hospitality REIT Inc.

Friedriszik was previously the assistant general manager at the hotel in 2018, but left to serve in other roles at White Lodge properties. He served as the assistant general manager at the Teaneck Marriott at Glenpointe in Teaneck, New Jersey, before arriving at the Marriott as assistant general manager in 2018. Friedriszik served as the general manager of the Courtyard & Residence Inn Richmond downtown since 2019 before returning to the Richmond Marriott, which completed an extensive multimillion-dollar renovation in December. The hotel also opened a comfort food restaurant in September.

Friedriszik earned his degree in hospitality operations management from George Brown College in Toronto and a certificate in culinary arts from Yukon College, in Yukon, Canada. He also holds certificates in hotel management, restaurant review management and leadership for the hospitality profession from the Galway Mayo Institute of Technology in Ireland and eCornell, the online program of Cornell University.

The 18-story hotel is connected to the Greater Richmond Convention Center via skywalk and has more than 26,000 square feet of event space.

Petersburg retail centers sell for $10.25M

Two neighborhood retail centers in sold for $10.25 million on Oct. 15.

The two properties total 192,510 square feet and occupy 24.9 acres. Located at 3330 S. Crater Road, South Crater Square is 82.7% leased and anchored by Rose’s, with Walmart Supercenter as a shadow anchor. Pinehill Plaza, located across the street at 3333 S. Crater Road, is 29.1% leased.

Pikesville, Maryland-based America’s Realty LLC bought the portfolio from South Crater Square Associates LLC. Catharine Spangler with ‘s Capital Markets Group represented the seller, with assistance from Alicia Brown, who handles leasing at the properties.

Marc Tropp, a senior managing director with Bethesda, Maryland-based brokerage Eastern Union Funding, arranged a loan of more than $8 million for Carl Verstandig, president and of America’s Realty. The loan provided about $7.69 million for the purchase — a 75% loan-to-cost ratio — and the remaining $500,000 the bank is holding for future improvements for tenants.