South Hampton Roads educators are considering whether to open a new school for gifted students in the region, and they have some well-heeled allies.
A group of business leaders is urging local school divisions to create a Governor's School for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, a full-time program that would graduate 350 to 400 students a year.
It would be the first governor's school of its kind in the state - and it stands as an example of a paradigm shift toward developing the region's talent rather than recruiting it from elsewhere.
"This is really a cry for help from the business community to help us re-engineer the economic climate here in Tidewater," said Charles McPhillips, president of Greater Norfolk Corp., a coalition of more than 100 business executives. "We have fallen behind - in some cases, badly behind - other regions."
There are 19 governor's schools in Virginia that instruct gifted students throughout the academic year on specialized topics, such as art, government, science and technology.
None of the schools specifically focuses on teaching students how to innovate through engineering or turn their ideas into successful companies.
All but three of the state's academic-year governor's schools are part-time programs, meaning students spend time each day at their "home school," taking standard courses they need to graduate. Downtown Norfolk is home to the Governor's School for the Arts, and the New Horizons Governor's School for Science and Technology is in Hampton.
The proposed governor's school would be the region's first full-day program.
Norfolk and Portsmouth public schools teamed up to get a $100,000 planning grant from the state two years ago. About $75,000 has been spent so far to study the feasibility of opening a governor's school focused on innovation and entrepreneurship, said Linda Sevigny, deputy superintendent of Norfolk Public Schools.
Superintendents from the five school divisions in South Hampton Roads already have discussed where the students' test scores will be reported, and in the next couple of weeks, they plan to continue hashing out other details before deciding whether to pursue the school, she said.
The school's funding and its location are issues about which the superintendents are "deep in conversation," Sevigny said.
Three possible locations have been discussed, including Norfolk's Lake Taylor High School; somewhere along the Norfolk-Virginia Beach border; and near Old Dominion University's Batten College of Engineering & Technology, said Oktay Baysal, dean of the college and a member of the Virginia Board of Education.
Each division would have to commit to paying for the school, said Baysal, who was involved in discussions about the school before becoming a member of the Board of Education.
"School districts really have to think twice about that," he said. "It's their money that will walk away with the student, but if we all believe that this is going to be good for all of us, then we shouldn't shy away."
He hopes 10 to 20 percent of the money needed to pay for the school can come from the private sector. McPhillips said he believes businesses would be willing to contribute.
If the divisions can agree to open the school - which likely wouldn't occur before the 2016-17 school year - the state board has to approve it. Donna Poland, specialist for governor's schools and gifted education for the Virginia Department of Education, said that to her knowledge, the state board hasn't denied an application for a governor's school.
Baysal has discussed the proposed school with other members of the board and doesn't expect it to be met with opposition.
He has a stake in the outcome as dean of ODU's college of engineering because local high school graduates often end up in his school. Communities that focus on educating students when they're younger build more productive workforces, he said.
"The more engineers you graduate, the more technology breakthroughs you do, the more economic development you have," Baysal said, adding that it can't stop there.
"We have to do entrepreneurship," he said. "If you want to do that without innovation, it's just hollow, and innovation without engineers involved is not possible, so it all has to be there."
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