Henrico high school students build adult education classrooms at Regency Mall

Henrico County high-schoolers are transforming a 48,500-square-foot section of the Regency Square Mall into classrooms for the school division’s adult education program.

Construction started last week and should be finished by September, according to Mac Beaton, the director of Career and Technical Education at Henrico Schools.

The high school CTE students will design and construct the classrooms.

The section of the mall that the school division is leasing from Regency has 12 empty storefronts. Each will lead the way into different wings that will be dedicated to different programs, such as nursing, English as a Second Language, GED programs and apprenticeships. The space can fit up to 46 classrooms.

Jordan Moore, a senior CTE student in electric and cabling class, took electrical surveys of the existing conditions in the building on Friday afternoon.

“This project is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the people involved,” Moore said. “We’re working in a real mall with real, live panels… We can say, ‘Hey, we helped make the adult education center at Regency Mall.”

The students working on Friday afternoon were second year students. They’ve learned about and worked with the equipment in class, but most had never worked on a commercial project before.

“This is a real life situation. This is just like what they can expect when they go out into the field,” said Jason Wyne, who teaches electrical courses at the ACE Center at Hermitage. “Right now construction is booming. Even just taking this class knowing what a receptacle is, what a breaker is, different voltages and panels, it sets you apart from your competition.”

Several companies want to partner with the school division on the project to train and mentor students, while also recruiting them for jobs.

“It's a win-win for them,” Beaton said. “They like to give back to the community, so they're in here working with our kids. They're also interviewing kids; it's like a live interview for them the whole time.”

Many of the CTE students working at Regency on Friday said they plan to pursue a career in construction right after graduating high school this spring, while several said they plan to use their CTE experience to supplement their higher education in fields like electrical engineering.

In addition to the construction students, high-schoolers helping with the project are enrolled in classes like computer-aided drafting, carpentry and masonry. On Friday afternoon, CAD architecture students surveyed the area in preparation to draw maps and decide which walls will come down.

About 100 HCPS students will work on the project from start to finish. If the work was contracted out, it likely would cost about $1 million, according to Beaton. With the plan in place, it could cost about one-fourth of that.

“It’s so important to invest in our students and give them these opportunities that are beyond the four walls of the classroom,” Beaton said. “If we don’t teach students to do it today, who’s going to do it tomorrow?”

More than 6,000 students will use the classrooms that are being built – and the new space will likely attract more, Beaton said.

HCPS’ adult education program includes dozens of courses including nursing, language courses, computer skills, agriculture and GED classes.

In the entrance to the HCPS section of the mall building, advertisements will line the walls to promote different courses. The idea is that a person will go to take their GED classes, and see an apprenticeship program or nursing program that could be the next step in their education.

The environment will feel like a more professional setting than a school-based program, according to Beaton.

“If you're an adult going to get your GED at night, you really don't want to be sitting in a school,” Beaton said. “It's just a different mindset. [At Regency], I'm going to go to the mall, which is a school, but I'm at the mall and get something to eat on the way in.”

The foot traffic of 6,000 people a year also is a plus for Regency, which is undergoing redevelopment from a regional shopping mall into a "mixed-use community." Many of the storefronts in HCPS’ section of the building already were vacant. The other stores located in that section agreed to relocate to other areas of the mall to allow for the large block of contingent space to be available for HCPS.

A 320-unit apartment complex, Rise at Regency, is being built on the site of the former Sears and is expected to open to residents in April. At the site of the former Macy’s is an indoor aquatics center which is the result of a partnership between Henrico County and the nonprofit NOVA of Virginia Aquatics.

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Anna Bryson is the Henrico Citizen's education reporter and a Report for America corps member. Make a tax-deductible donation to support her work, and RFA will match it dollar for dollar.