By Linda Cicoira — The Eastern Shore Community College’s new building will not open in time for fall classes so staff will wait until early January to move from the current facility.
“This should work for us due to the adjusted academic calendar we adopted in order to align with Tidewater Community College,” Eve Belote, associate vice president of administration for ESCC, wrote to staff Thursday. “This calendar delayed the start of classes until January 13, instead of January 6.”
In April, the completion date was anticipated for late August or early September, which would have been in time for the fall semester. “Since that time, the contractor has pushed the completion date back to Oct. 8,” Belote reported. “Given that this is well into the fall semester, we will not be moving into the building during the semester. Cabinet discussed the possibility but determined that there are too many moving parts to try to move while classes are in session. Therefore, a tentative decision has been made to move in early January before spring classes start and after we return from our holiday break.”
Belote stated that the facilities and human resources committee, the construction manager, and the IT department are scheduled to meet with the moving company June 13.
“There will be a walk-through of this (current) building to determine what will most likely be moved and how we should go about packing,” Belote continued. “I will keep everyone posted on timelines and other information after that meeting and as we go forward. I also still have the various questions that were collected by the … committee and will work with the moving company to address those as well.”