Wake wants to cut back on new schools to do more renovations. Here’s the updated list.
The Wake County school system could up the number of major renovations over the next seven years by cutting back on the number of new schools that will be built.
The school board’s facilities committee backed a plan this week to include eight major school renovations and four new schools to the district’s rolling, seven-year building program. The new plan was presented after board members expressed concerns with prior options to fund seven new schools but only five major renovations in the next seven years.
“Whatever schools get on the list today are going to need renovations,” said board member Jim Martin, chair of the facilities committee. “The schools that don’t get on the list are going to need renovations. If we’re not doing four to five a year, we’re falling behind.”
Under the new plan, major renovations will be done at North Garner Middle; Lockhart Elementary in Knightdale; Briarcliff Elementary in Cary; Brentwood Elementary, Athens Drive High, Washington Elementary and Ligon Middle in Raleigh; and Zebulon Middle.
The plan’s four new schools are a small high school in West Cary or Morrisville, an elementary school in Wendell or Zebulon, an elementary school on Poole Road in eastern Raleigh and an elementary school in northeastern Raleigh. But the plan is to permanently relocate Wendell Elementary’s students and staff to the new eastern Wake elementary school.
The full school board will vote on the plan Tuesday to send to the Wake County Board of Commissioners.
County debt limit
Funding for the district’s building program comes from a combination of bonds approved by voters and others approved only by the commissioners.
Commissioners are expected to place the next school construction bond referendum on the Nov. 8 ballot.
The school district has to work within the limits of the county’s funding model. School facilities moved projects around to shift more dollars from new schools to renovations.
Wake has some flexibility because growth has sharply slowed down. The district’s enrollment is below where it was two years ago.
“We can talk about debt limit until we’re blue in the face, but I’ll tell you who’s going to win: aging, corrosion and all of that,” Martin said. “So what we do today is we’re doing our best working within the parameters we have to work with.”
Balancing the renovation list
One of the concerns raised by some board members was the lack of balance, with Raleigh appearing to have more renovations compared to the rest of the district. In particular, board member Heather Scott said eastern Wake seemed to not be getting enough renovations.
Douglas Congdon, the district’s program executive for facilities, design and construction, said they listened to that feedback. He pointed to the major renovation at Zebulon Middle and the new campus for Wendell Elementary.
“One of the key pieces of feedback that we heard from Miss Scott last week was the needs that are out there in the eastern part of the district,” Congdon told the committee.
Scott said she was grateful for the additional eastern Wake projects, as well as including North Garner Middle’s renovation. In the prior version where there were fewer renovation dollars, administrators had only recommended doing North Garner Middle or Zebulon Middle.
“North Garner Middle School absolutely needs love, and the community certainly deserves a major renovation at their school as well,” Scott said.
Athens Drive or Cary High
Another concern that board members raised earlier this month was that no major high school renovations were recommended in the next seven years. This led to the choice of Athens Drive High in Raleigh or Cary High on Wednesday.
Athens Drive and Cary had the two highest high school scores on the district’s renovation prioritization system. Schools were rated based on a system that looked at four criteria:
▪ campus building condition (40%).
▪ health and safety (30%).
▪ impact on school choice, planning and assignment (15%).
▪ education adequacy (10%).
Board member Karen Carter pointed to how Cary had higher scores on all but school choice. Congdon said Athens Drive had a higher overall score because it’s a magnet school and due to the projected growth in the area.
Despite not getting Cary High included, Carter said that the renovations list had more diversity than before.
This story was originally published April 15, 2022 at 9:00 AM with the headline "Wake wants to cut back on new schools to do more renovations. Here’s the updated list.."
