Southside Virginia Community College welding instructor John Evans (left) stood near Gov. Glenn Youngkin on Friday as the governor tried his hand at welding during a tour of SVCC’s Lake Country Advanced Knowledge Center in South Hill.

The Richmond area’s two historically Black universities intend to build college partnership laboratory schools, seizing an opportunity Gov. Glenn Youngkin introduced this year and backed with $100 million in startup funding for the statewide effort.

Details are scant. Leaders for Virginia State University in Ettrick and Virginia Union University in Richmond’s North Side can’t say where the schools will be built, how many students will populate them or who will teach the classes.

A spokesperson for Virginia Union declined to speak in detail about the university’s plan.

But a VSU dean said opening a lab school brings the university closer to its community, delivers real-life experience and innovation to K-12 students, and helps education leaders learn more about what works and what doesn’t between a teacher and the classroom.

“We’re definitely interested in partnering with our surrounding community to effect change in education,” said Willis Walter, dean of the College of Education at Virginia State.

The two universities are among the first colleges in the state to announce such plans.

Gov. Glenn Youngkin launched a new campaign Tuesday to get everything he wanted but didn’t g…

In June, the General Assembly allocated $100 million of the state budget toward seed funding for the establishment of lab schools. Youngkin had sought $150 million for the initiative by taking funds from existing K-12 coffers. But legislators resisted and approved the lesser amount.

The law allows for colleges and universities with teacher education programs to open lab schools. Public and private four-year universities plus community colleges are eligible.

Lab schools can have specific focuses, such as STEM, at-risk students, special education or career and technical education, according to Virginia law. They can begin in preschool and last through the 12th grade. The schools, which can offer alternative instruction, scheduling, management and structure, award spots through a lottery based on availability, and students pay no tuition.

They will be funded through the College Partnership Laboratory School Fund, and the Board of Education will decide how much of the pot each school receives. Individual schools will manage their own budgets.

To begin the process, a college must apply for a lab school by detailing 31 separate items, including its vision, targeted student population, proposed location, estimated enrollment, names of proposed founding governing board members, a calendar and daily schedule, an academic program and more.

Once a school receives approval from the Board of Education, it must reapply every five years.

At the time of his announcement, Youngkin specifically mentioned historically Black colleges and universities, known as HBCUs, expressing hope they would participate. VSU and VUU are among the first to throw their hats in the ring.

The Richmond area’s other four-year schools — Virginia Commonwealth University, the University of Richmond and Randolph-Macon College — haven’t indicated their plans. A spokesperson for the State Council of Higher Education said she did not know which colleges in the state plan to apply.

Macaulay Porter, a spokesperson for the governor, said there is “great interest across the commonwealth” to launch lab schools, which will expand opportunities for students “in need of a different approach to learning.”

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One such example might be found at Southside Virginia Community College, which has seven campuses across the southern end of the state. The college is planning a collaboration between Microsoft and the school’s Center for Information Technology Excellence to mold eventual data center technicians.

Lab schools would take a step beyond the college’s program, Youngkin said, because they have the ability to reach younger students.

“I heard a lot of the word ‘partnership,’ ” the governor said in South Hill on Friday during a roundtable of Southside school officials and SVCC staff and students. “I heard a lot about ninth and 10th grade. A lot about licensure. And I keep hearing ‘hands on’ and that’s so important to get students of all ages, 6 to 60, to engage with the future.”

It’s a challenge keeping students focused on math classes when they can meet the Standards of Learning requirement by grade nine or 10, Mecklenburg County school Superintendent Paul Nichols told Youngkin during the roundtable.

The city of Petersburg has expressed interest in partnering with VSU, university leaders said. It’s unclear if the school would be in Petersburg or on VSU’s campus, which sits across the Appomattox River from downtown.

Julius Hamlin, Petersburg schools’ interim superintendent, did not respond to a request for comment.

But VSU also predominantly serves Chesterfield, Dinwiddie and Prince George counties and the city of Colonial Heights, Walter said, and VSU could partner with all five localities. Lab school partnerships aren’t limited to a single school division.

VSU’s lab school could focus on agriculture, engineering or computer science, Walter said, three fields the university already prioritizes. In the past three years, VSU has introduced students to augmented reality, virtual reality, three-dimensional printing and computer coding — all of which could find a place in a K-12 setting.

Virginia State professors and students already conduct robotics activities with nearby children and visit preschools across the street in Ettrick. A lab school would be a continuation of some of these efforts, Walter said.

It remains to be seen if teachers, professors or both would teach the classes.

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Not only would a VSU lab school give students and families a new educational opportunity, it would present VSU professors and students with living, breathing research subjects for the field of education. The school would literally become an education lab.

That’s why they’re called lab schools, Walter said. There are numerous examples of lab schools across the country that VSU can look to as models.

Supporters of lab and charter schools say such initiatives give parents in struggling school districts a new option for educating their children. But critics say they can become yet another way to separate the haves from the have-nots or segregate white students from Black students.

Virginia’s K-12 school performance is backsliding due to reduced expectations for students a…

This is where location and transportation are critical. If a school doesn’t provide free transportation, families without cars may not be able to access it.

Walter said it’s a priority for VSU’s lab school to benefit the vast majority of students. How that’ll happen, he doesn’t know yet.

Starting a lab school is a “great opportunity to reconnect with one or more school divisions or communities in a much stronger way,” he said.

In July 1976, a crowd filled The Pass, a restaurant and music venue at 803 W. Broad St. in Richmond. The Pass opened in 1975 and was in business for about four years. In its short time, notable artists performed there, including John Mayall, Stanley Turrentine, Lydia Pense, the Atlanta Rhythm Section, Earl Scruggs, Nicolette Larsen and Robert Palmer.

In February 1989, an exerciser made her way around the new outdoor track at the YMCA fitness center on Franklin Street in downtown Richmond. “Eighteen laps to the mile,” a Y official said.

In June 1977, Virginia State Penitentiary conducted a 12-hour shakedown and uncovered an array of items hidden throughout the prison, including about 100 “sharpened instruments.” The facility was located along Spring Street in Richmond.

In January 1978, Bill Heindl, a co-founder of the Heindl-Evans Inc. construction firm, oversaw progress on building a footbridge in James River Park at Texas Avenue in Richmond.

In July 1980, Matthew J. Robinson Jr., president of Imperial Broom Co., stood in his shop off Jennings Road in Henrico County. He was the fourth generation to run the family operation, which started making brooms in 1900.

In June 1960, Harry L. Donovan (dark suit), his handcuffs covered by a jacket, was escorted from the U.S. Marshal’s Office in downtown Richmond, en route to a four-year term in federal prison in Atlanta. For decades, Richmond was the center of Donovan’s numbers operation; he pleaded guilty to multiple counts of failing to pay wagering taxes.

In July 1959, cars were parked along 17th Street in Richmond looking toward Main Street.

In November 1961, Gov.-elect Albertis S. Harrison Jr. sat with wife Lacey (right) and daughter Toni. In a profile about the rising first family of Virginia, the three shared that they enjoyed playing bridge together, and Toni said she liked playing golf with her father while quizzing him about political affairs.

In June 1981, Neville D. McNerney led his granddaughter Christi on a ride in Prince George County. The retired Army infantry officer raised, trained and showed mules and donkeys as a hobby. And while the agricultural need had declined, McNerney’s miniature animals were popular for recreational use such as riding and show-ring competitions.

In April 1973, the annual dredging of the James River channel in Richmond was underway. The previous year’s flooding had deposited a great amount of silt, so Atkerson Dredging Co. would be busy. The project, which usually took a week, was expected to require more than a month.

In December 1957, firefighters battled a blaze at L.R. Brown & Co., a furniture store on Hull Street in South Richmond. The warehouse blaze destroyed many pieces intended for Christmas gifts.

In October 1976, architect Robert Winthrop held a brick believed to be from the 1811 Richmond Theatre fire. Winthrop was working on the restoration of historic Monumental Church on East Broad Street, which was built on the theater site as a memorial to those who died in the fire. The restoration work uncovered burned bricks and traces of the original theater wall.

In September 1954, presidents of four upper classes at Collegiate School in Henrico County gathered at the entrance to discuss school matters. From left were senior Bernice Spathey, junior Jane Durham, sophomore Dorothy Ewing and freshman Terry Bunnell.

In April 1963, Laura Vietor was recognized for her longtime nursing work at Sheltering Arms Hospital in Richmond. She was awarded the Elizabeth D. Gibble Volunteer of the Year Award for her many years of service, which included full-time volunteer nursing even after retiring at age 65.

In August 1966, Boy Scouts from Troop 644, sponsored by the Henry Fire Department in Mechanicsville, began a 58-mile James River voyage from Richmond to Jamestown aboard homemade rafts. Eleven boys and four adult supervisors participated in the five-day journey, with only paddles and tide to propel them. The 50-mile trip badge the boys earned would move them one step closer to becoming first-class Scouts.

In April 1971, Newton Ancarrow paused during a trek through Richmond’s new James River Park to examine a blossoming wildflower. Ancarrow, a crusader for cleaning the river, had started studying and photographing wildflowers five years earlier, seeing them as a tool to tell the story of pollution’s threat to the James. Passion and hobby intersected, and he had made more than 35,000 color slides of local wildflowers.

This March 1959 image shows the Richmond skyline from the south bank of the James River.

In June 1952, motorcyclists raced in the 10-Mile National Motorcycle Championship at the Atlantic Rural Exposition grounds in Henrico County. More than 4,000 spectators saw Bobby Hill of Columbus, Ohio, the nation’s top racer, ride bike No. 1 to victory in the 20-lap championship race.

In September 1952, Mrs. John Garland Pollard (center), associate director of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, discussed plans for the museum’s membership campaign with Junior League volunteers Mrs. Edward Epps (left) and Mrs. Richmond Gray.

This November 1955 image shows the iconic Hofheimer building at 2816 W. Broad St. in the Scott’s Addition area of Richmond. The building, with a distinctive Mediterranean-style roof and minaret, was built in 1928 by Herold R. Hofheimer to house his business, Hofheimer Rug Cleaning & Storage Co.

In August 1967, morning commuters driving along Monument Avenue near the Henrico County and Richmond border welcomed a break in the clouds and some sunshine after a week of continuous rain.

This July 1964 image shows the James River from an overlook along the Blue Ridge Parkway. At the time, Lynchburg engineer W. Martin Johnson, a proponent of river development who was president of the James River Basin Association, was urging exploration of how industries could benefit from the river’s watershed of roughly 10,000 square miles in the state.

In June 1972, a farm in Columbia, a James River town in Fluvanna County, was largely submerged after the remnants of Hurricane Agnes brought some of the worst flooding in decades to many parts of the state. In Richmond, the swollen James peaked at 36.5 feet.

In July 1987, the Arby’s restaurant at 2311 W. Broad St. in Richmond was preparing to move next door into a new, larger building (left). The old space was to be converted into a Dairy Queen that would be owned by the same family that owned the Arby’s. Together, the restaurants would employ about 50 people

In July 1947, “The Soldier,” as many people called the patient of Central State Hospital near Petersburg, sat outside a sentry box he had built on the grounds. The psychiatric hospital dates to 1869, when a former Confederate facility known as Howard’s Grove Hospital was designated as a mental health facility for African-Americans.

In August 1963, June Hudnall (left), head nurse of the Medical College of Virginia Hospital’s Clinical Research Center, connected an artificial kidney to a patient who was a transplant candidate. Dr. John Bower and Barbara Hale are at back. The research center focused on patients warranting intensive study, including those slated to undergo rare operations.

In July 1941, children took a homemade cart for a spin along North 19th Street in Richmond. They built the toy in the spirit of “Gasless Sundays,” a means of conserving resources in a national defense drive ahead of U.S. entry into World War II. The cart was fashioned from an orange crate, old baby carriage wheels and scrap lumber.

In October 1970, the Richmond Scenic James Council led canoe and walking tours for about 200 people to highlight the natural beauty of the river. Here, Tom Brooks (front) and son Tom Jr. (rear) handled the paddling while Mrs. John Demitri and children Johnny and Lisa enjoyed the view.

In September 1962, Frederic S. Bocock of the Historic Richmond Foundation and Mrs. Cornelius F. Florman stood in front of one of four new plaques honoring patrons of Church Hill renovations in Richmond. Florman was the granddaughter of Mrs. Richard S. Reynolds; the plaque pictured cited Reynolds’ role in restoring Hardgrove Cottage on North 24th Street.

In July 1959, DuPont scientist Meredith Miller checked experimental cellophane coatings at the plant in Chesterfield County. The factory was developed in the late 1920s to produce rayon and began making cellophane in 1930, a material that used a similar production process.

In July 1965, employees of M&B Headwear Co. Inc. picketed outside the Richmond factory, one of the country’s largest suppliers of military caps. The strike involved about 300 members of the United Hatters, Cap and Millinery Workers International Union, which was seeking a roughly 15-cent-per-hour raise over two years for some workers. The union said the average hourly wage for the employees, most of whom were women, was $1.35.

Staff writer Dave Ress contributed to this report.

Eric Kolenich writes about higher education, health systems and more for the Richmond Times-Dispatch. He joined the newspaper in 2009 and spent 11 years in the Sports section. (804) 649-6109

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Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s goal to expand the number of publicly funded, independently run schools now hinges on a proposal to entice colleges and …

Southside Virginia Community College welding instructor John Evans (left) stood near Gov. Glenn Youngkin on Friday as the governor tried his hand at welding during a tour of SVCC’s Lake Country Advanced Knowledge Center in South Hill.

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