Facility Overview and Purpose
Laurel Ridge Community College is building the Corron Community Development Center on its Middletown Campus. This 30,000-gross-square-foot building will be a multi-purpose facility that supports workforce services, continuing education, small business development, college advancement and community events. The facility will provide additional training opportunities for area residents and the ever-increasing business community in the Laurel Ridge service region. In addition, the Old Dominion University (ODU) Teletechnet program is partnering with Laurel Ridge to occupy a portion of the building, allowing expanded distance learning opportunities.
The two-story facility will include classrooms, office space and a 500-seat multi-purpose room. Configurable classrooms can be used for workforce training programs, professional development course offerings, meetings or breakout spaces for larger gatherings. When configured to form one large area, this classroom space will support a variety of activities and functions, including conferences, meetings and other special events.
The Corron Community Development Center is scheduled to be completed in the spring 2010. Once constructed, the facility will help fulfill the educational needs of the students in the College’s service region and enhance the skills of the region’s current and future workforce. This, in turn, will help Laurel Ridge position itself as the premier provider of educational programs and workforce and customized training in the area.
Benefits to Community
This facility will benefit the community by:
- Providing resources necessary to respond to the training needs of business and industry
- Allowing more workforce training and distance education opportunities by providing classrooms dedicated to this purpose
- Providing conference facilities with adjacent breakout and training space
Departments to be Housed
The College currently leases space in Middletown for the Laurel Ridge Small Business Development Center and the Development Office. These units – as well as the Laurel Ridge Office of Workforce Solutions and Continuing Education, the Laurel Ridge Educational Foundation and the ODU Teletechnet program – will occupy office space in the Corron Community Development Center.
Workforce Solutions and Continuing Education
Laurel Ridge’s Office of Workforce Solutions and Continuing Education assists businesses and entrepreneurs and addresses their training and educational needs. Annually, the office serves more than 10,450 individuals in professional development and business and industry courses.
The Office of Workforce Solutions and Continuing Education faces a critical shortage of both classroom and office space. As the number of students and businesses served by Laurel Ridge continues to grow, and with it the requisite staffing, this problem will increase. By eliminating scheduling conflicts with the College’s credit offerings, the construction of the Corron Community Development Center will allow for more continuing education and training opportunities.
Laurel Ridge Small Business Development Center (SBDC)
The Lord Fairfax SBDC helps to create and retain jobs in the private sector by providing business counseling and related services at no charge to new and established small businesses.
Development Office and Laurel Ridge Educational Foundation
The Laurel Ridge Development Office manages the following functions for the College and Laurel Ridge Educational Foundation:
- Advertising
- Alumni affairs
- Community relations
- Foundation activities
- Fundraising
- Grants
- Legislative affairs
- Marketing
- Media relations
- Public relations
- Publications
- Special events
- Web site
Old Dominion University Teletechnet
ODU offers an interactive distance education program, called Teletechnet, that enables students to earn bachelor’s and master’s degrees from a fully-accredited public university by attending classes on the Fauquier and Middletown Campuses of Laurel Ridge. Methods of delivery include live satellite transmission to the Laurel Ridge campus from ODU’s main campus in Norfolk, online courses and video streamed courses. Among the programs of study are business, education, engineering, health science and nursing and human services. With more than 50 locations at community colleges and military bases in Arizona, Georgia, Illinois, Virginia, Washington and the Bahamas, ODU’s satellite delivery network is the largest distance learning network of its kind in the nation.
Courses and Activities to Use Facility
- Workforce Solutions and Continuing Education courses:
- Career training, including customer service, human resources, leadership and professional training and licensing
- Computers, including database software, hardware, Internet, presentation software, word processing software and servers
- Engineering, construction, and industrial, including electrician, HVAC, industrial design and industrial maintenance
- Security training
- College meetings
- Community meetings
- Special events
Funding Options
- Laurel Ridge Educational Foundation – $3,000,000
- General Obligation Bond – $2,340,000
- Localities – $1,264,000
- Old Dominion University – $958,900
- Other – $1,698,825
- Total Cost – $9,261,725.00