Go Virginia board elects new officers, approves mixed slate of nine projects and declines a childcare planning grant

Emily O'Quinn was elected chair of the Go Virginia State Board on a voice vote at the board's meeting and the board also elected Jim Chang as vice chair for program performance and evaluation and John King as vice chair of regional councils. The board took up nine Go Virginia grant applications and voted to approve the staff recommendations as presented: five projects were approved, three were deferred for further work and one — a United Way childcare planning proposal — was denied.

The board's decisions steer roughly $5 million in Go Virginia requests and associated local and private matches toward workforce training, startup ecosystem building, manufacturing modernization and clean-energy training programs across multiple regions of the Commonwealth. Maggie Beal, director of the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD), presided over the officer elections. "I'm Maggie Beal. I'm the new director for the Department of Housing and Community Development," she said while opening the slate for votes.

The meeting opened the public-comment period with Allison Varner Denbigh reading a letter from the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Chamber of Commerce urging the board to "formally recognize early education and childcare as a critical industry that directly advances Virginia's stated goals of improving workforce readiness, recruitment, and retention," and asking for a coordinated, dedicated investment approach. The written correspondence — which the board placed in the meeting record — argued that inadequate child care access constrains employers across several traded sectors in the region.

Sarah [surname not provided], deputy director for DHCD staff presenting the funding packages, summarized the review process and evaluation criteria used by staff and work groups. "We're going to be presenting today nine applications, which are per capita funded," she said, outlining the four evaluation factors used: economic impact, regional collaboration, project readiness and sustainability. Sarah noted that state law establishes a 2-to-1 state match for Go Virginia awards and that the board maintains a local-match policy and a waiver process for…