Verified profile

Winchester's Emil and Grace Shihadeh Innovation Center: A Verified Profile

In review Last checked October 3, 2026

Career-Connected Education Research, Topic 1 of 6. CareerConnectedSchools.org. Last checked Oct. 3, 2026.

What the Innovation Center is and why it matters for your planning

The Emil and Grace Shihadeh Innovation Center (EGSIC) is a career and technical education (CTE) facility run by Winchester Public Schools (WPS), the city school division in Winchester, Virginia. It sits at 536 Jefferson St. and opened to students in August 2021, at the start of the 2021-22 school year. The official grand opening was Oct. 13, 2021.

The center is an extension of John Handley High School (JHHS), the division’s only high school. It is not a separate school. Handley students travel to the center for part of their day and remain Handley students.

You can use Winchester as an existence proof. It shows that a whole-school, career-immersion model can be built and run inside current Virginia policy through district action, without a change in state law. It is not evidence about student outcomes. No independent evaluation of the center’s effect on students has been published (see “What the evidence does and does not show”).

How the course model and daily schedule work

While at the center, a student takes one CTE course and one core academic class. CTE and academic teachers work together on shared, project-based units. This is the school’s own current description (Innovative Learning Model).

Students take career and core academic classes together at the center for part of their school day:

Most students spend a morning or an afternoon block at the center.
Some students spend the full day there, depending on their course schedule.
The center serves more than 400 students each semester. In 2021-22 that was 200 in the morning and 200 in the afternoon (Winchester Star, Aug. 2021).
Individual CTE courses may run a semester or a full year.

WPS states a goal that every JHHS student will attend the center at least once during high school. This is a goal, not a graduation requirement. The Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond (2024) wrote that the center “provides all 9th through 12th graders” with career and technical training; that is the Richmond Fed’s wording, not WPS policy. At the 2021 opening, local press reported that about 60% of Handley students were expected to use the facility.

The school also describes its culture as interdisciplinary and project-based, with no bells, flexible use of time and space, and student voice and choice. Treat this as the school’s self-description.

Academies and programs

The center houses three academies. Program lists are from the EGSIC home page unless noted.

Academy	Programs listed by the school
Professional Skills Academy	Carpentry, welding, electricity
Health Sciences Academy (named the Valley Health System Health Sciences Academy in 2021)	EMT, firefighting, physical and occupational therapy; nursing and clinical work per the architect and 2021 press
Advanced Technologies Academy	Cybersecurity, technical drawing and architecture, video and media production

Coverage from 2019 called the third academy “information technology.” The current name is Advanced Technologies Academy. The 2019 state grant also equipped welding, 3D print, CAD, robotics and cyber labs.

The school reports more than 70 industry partners supporting projects and work-based learning. In 2019 the GO Virginia award described one work-based learning coordinator per academy; current WPS staff listings show a Work-Based Learning Coach.

If you are planning a similar model, note that EMT, firefighting and clinical programs carry age, licensing and worksite rules. The project’s state modules and the Working with Minors guide cover these.

The building, its cost and how it was funded

The center cost about $17 million, most of it paid by Winchester City Council. It is a renovation of, and addition to, the former John Kerr Elementary School building, an open-concept school built in 1972. WPS still runs a John Kerr Elementary School in a newer building at a different site, so “former John Kerr Elementary” refers to the old building.

Item	Verified figure	Source and note
Size	About 54,000 square feet	VMDO Architects (architect of record), completed 2021 renovation and addition. 46,400 sq ft is the size reported at construction start in 2019 (Shockey); GO Virginia rounds to 50,000.
Design and construction	VMDO Architects with Reader and Swartz Architects; Howard Shockey and Sons, general contractor	VMDO; EGSIC
Schedule	Demolition October 2019, construction kickoff November 2019, about two years of work	Winchester Star via Shockey
Total cost	About $17 million (renovation, furniture, equipment)	EGSIC; Winchester Star, July 2021. Earlier estimates: $13.8 million (2017), $13.7 million (2019).
Main funder	Winchester City Council	EGSIC; Winchester Star (2021)

Documented outside funding:

Funder	Amount	When and for what
Karen and Fred Schaufeld	$1 million	Announced Oct. 9, 2017 by Gov. Terry McAuliffe; naming gift in honor of Karen Schaufeld’s parents (Winchester Star, 2017)
GO Virginia State Board (state grant)	$499,781	Announced March 12, 2019; welding, print, CAD, robotics and cyber lab equipment and an expanded work-based learning initiative
Valley Health System	$125,000	Health Sciences Academy, which carries Valley Health’s name
Claude Moore Charitable Foundation	$153,000 for a simulation ambulance; about $1 million in total gifts	The $1 million total is as reported by the WPS CTE coordinator to the Winchester Star in July 2021

The $4 million figure. The Richmond Fed’s July 2024 community profile says the center “was seeded by a private $4 million investment.” No WPS, funder or news source found in this review gives a $4 million private total or itemizes it. The documented private gifts above add up to about $2.1 million, and the GO Virginia grant is public money. If you cite $4 million, attribute it to the Richmond Fed and do not present it as a confirmed amount. Confirm with WPS.

For most districts, the funding pattern is the most transferable part of the story. A small city division paid most of a roughly $17 million project from local funds and reused a vacant school building. Philanthropy and a state grant added equipment and naming support.

Partners and current leadership

The Shihadeh family gift. The center is named for Emil and Grace Shihadeh, the parents of donor Karen Schaufeld. Emil worked as a welder and taught welding and metal fabrication; Grace was a nurse. Karen and Fred Schaufeld of Loudoun County made the $1 million naming gift in 2017.

Laurel Ridge Community College. The center was planned as a joint venture with Lord Fairfax Community College and local industry. In July 2021 the Virginia State Board for Community Colleges renamed the college Laurel Ridge Community College; older press uses the old name for the same institution. At opening, the college taught evening electrical classes at the center and planned certification programs there. Dr. Kim Blosser is Laurel Ridge’s president; the college reports she began in February 2018.

The Richmond Fed describes Laurel Ridge as running the largest dual enrollment program in Virginia, with about 320 high school students finishing a one-year certificate or two-year degree in 2024. Those figures are region-wide, not specific to the center. Which Laurel Ridge dual enrollment courses run at the center today is not listed on WPS pages. Confirm with WPS and Laurel Ridge.

Current leaders, last checked Oct. 3, 2026:

Role	Name	Status
WPS superintendent	Dr. Jason Van Heukelum	as superintendent in August 2026 coverage; 2025-26 Google GSV Education Innovation Fellow
Center building leader	Bobbie Jo Hawkins, Assistant Principal, EGSIC	on WPS pages. WPS lists no “director” title for the center.
WPS CTE coordinator	Katie Lockhart	Listed on the WPS CTE page (page undated). Confirm with WPS.
JHHS principal	Susan Braithwaite	; principal after serving as interim from June 2022
Work-based learning	Sara Weinstein, Work-Based Learning Coach	Listed on the WPS CTE page

The July draft listed Jimmy Robertson as Director of Athletics and Coordinator of Innovation, CTE and Business Partnership. The architect’s undated project page quotes him with that full title, and in October 2025 the division dedicated the center’s carpentry lab in his name, describing him as a longtime Handley carpentry teacher and coach. His current title could not be confirmed, so it is left out here. Confirm with WPS.

The documentary. Multiple Choice (2025, about 75 minutes) features the center. Charles Haine directed it, Ted Dintersmith executive-produced it, Roco Films distributes it, and the nonprofit What School Could Be supports its impact campaign. It premiered Sept. 18, 2025 at Salve Regina University in Newport, Rhode Island (newportFILM), with more than 300 attending, and screened at the Virginia Film Festival on Oct. 23, 2025. It is a different film from Dintersmith’s earlier Most Likely to Succeed (2015).

What the evidence does and does not show

No randomized, quasi-experimental or independent evaluation of the center’s effect on students has been published. That means you should not cite any Winchester outcome figure as evidence that the model works.

What exists falls into two groups:

District reports. In an October 2024 school board presentation, WPS reported favorable credential and CTE-completer results compared with a group of similar Virginia divisions. These were reported by the district, not independently evaluated, and they do not isolate the center’s effect.
Advocacy and design material. The documentary’s impact campaign describes “rising graduation rates” and “thriving graduates” without figures. The Richmond Fed profile is a community-development narrative. Architect and product case studies (VMDO reports a Virginia School Boards Association Platinum Design Award) speak to design quality, not student outcomes.

What Winchester does show is feasibility. A small city division with one high school built a shared CTE hub, paired every CTE course with a core academic class, set a goal of reaching every student, and drew in a community college and dozens of employers, all under existing Virginia rules.

A future outcomes study is possible. Virginia’s longitudinal data system can link a Handley cohort to college and in-state wage records, but the first cohorts that used the center graduated between 2022 and 2025. Five-year results will not be available until about 2027-2030. The project’s Winchester longitudinal study feasibility memo describes a staged design.

Review status and sources

Status: Verified Oct. 3, 2026 against WPS, EGSIC, GO Virginia, Richmond Fed, Laurel Ridge, VDOE, NCES, film festival and architect pages, plus Winchester Star coverage. Several Winchester Star articles were blocked to automated access; claims that depended only on those articles were removed or marked. A claim-by-claim log (56 claims) is kept with the S4IS research files (W41).

Open question	Who to ask	Status
What the Richmond Fed’s “$4 million private investment” includes	Confirm with WPS (and the Richmond Fed community development team)	; last checked Oct. 3, 2026
Which Laurel Ridge dual enrollment and certification courses run at the center now	Confirm with WPS and Laurel Ridge Community College	Last checked Oct. 3, 2026
Current title of Jimmy Robertson and whether WPS has an innovation or business partnership coordinator	Confirm with WPS	Last checked Oct. 3, 2026
Whether Katie Lockhart remains CTE coordinator in 2026-27	Confirm with WPS	Last checked Oct. 3, 2026
Exact square footage if needed for a facility comparison	Confirm with WPS or VMDO	54,000 sq ft per architect
Current number of industry partners and work-based learning staffing	Confirm with WPS	70+ per school site

Sources:

See something out of date? Tell us.