It’s time to build a brand new Jordan High School, Durham officials say
With over a half-billion dollars of bonds on Durham County voters’ ballots next week, Durham Public Schools has updated its to-do list.
In the next decade, the school district plans to rebuild Jordan High School, an updated 10-year-plan shows.
The school opened in 1963 as the first desegregated school in the county. Today, over 2,000 students attend the school, making it the district’s largest.
Jordan could be rebuilt on the same 99-acre property. DPS Chief Operating Office Julius Monk said they’re reviewing the site to make the determination.
The Durham County Board of Commissioners voted to put three bond referendums totaling over $550 million on the 2022 ballot:
- $423,505,000 for Durham Public Schools
- $112,740,000 for Durham Technical Community College
- $13,995,000 for the Museum of Life and Science
If the bonds pass, property taxes would increase next year by 2.5 cents per $100 of assessed property value. For a $400,000 house — slightly below the current median — annual tax bills would go up $100.
Another school bond will be needed this decade
In its latest 10-year plan, DPS estimates it needs $944.5 million for capital projects, like school replacements and major construction projects.
That means another education bond to cover the remaining $521 million will likely be put to voters in the coming years.
“Durham Public Schools is growing,” Superintendent Pascal Mubenga said. “We have buildings that have been around for 50 and some even 100 years. It’s about time for us to fix our buildings.”
Plans to replace two other Durham public high schools are already underway.
A new Northern High School has been under construction since 2020 and is on track to open next school year. It’s being built about 3 miles south of today’s campus, a $96 million project funded largely by the 2016 education bond.
The old campus, which was first built in 1953 and has many maintenance concerns, has about 1,500 students.
“Jordan is, as far as its age and condition, like right behind Northern,” Monk said.
Durham School of the Arts is slated to move to a new campus on Duke Homestead Road in northern Durham by 2025, leaving its longtime home downtown.
DSA, a 1,835-student magnet school for grades 6 to 12, has been on the century-old campus on North Duke Street since opening in the 1990s.
It’s surrounded by developed land, leaving no room for expansion. Facilities are crowded, the car line blocks traffic and there are security concerns associated with its many entrances.
“It’s not a school where it will have all the space necessary to do the performing arts at the level that we’re trying to accomplish with our students,” Monk said.
The new high school’s estimated $108.7 million price tag will be financed with the current bond, should it pass.
Monk said the old Northern and DSA campuses will eventually be refitted for career-technical education programs, the Durham School of Technology, the staff running Ignite Online Academy and district staff.
Then, there’s the elementary schools. DPS needs more classrooms for pre-K to 5th grade to meet state requirements.
Six schools are prioritized for comprehensive renovations under the 2022 bond:
- Bethesda Elementary
- Club Boulevard Elementary
- Glenn Elementary
- Holt Elementary
- Mangum Elementary
- Morehead Elementary
“Those are the ones that will likely get done in the first five years,” Monk said. “If there’s funding left over then we will do like we’ve done in the past and start to decide on the next set of projects.”
Durham got its first new elementary school in 10 years this year when Lyons Farm Elementary opened near the south county line. Murray-Massenburg Elementary is scheduled to open in August near Hope Valley Farms.
Community college bond supports health care, sciences
Durham Tech’s goals largely center on expanding and modernizing its health care and life sciences facilities.
Here’s how the college would spend its $112.7 million:
- Constructing an 86,000-square-foot Allied Health Programs building. This includes upgraded labs and classrooms for nurses, pharmacy technicians, medical assistants and more.
- Building a 36,000-square-foot training facility to educate those entering the booming life sciences and biotechnology industries.
- About $3.5 million would pay for land on Bacon and Cooper streets where the main campus could eventually expand.
Museum operates on ‘razor-thin margin’
The Museum of Life and Science plans to reinvent and modernize with the $14 million it’s requested.
“All the scientific and technological advancements that are taking place here, we’d really like to see those reflected in in our exhibits,” said president and CEO Carrie Heinonen.
New exhibits would focus on climate change, health science and tech and innovation.
They’d upgrade the main building’s meeting room, incorporate sustainability practices to reduce the museum’s environmental footprint, and add a food truck hook-up and restrooms to the north side of the complex, near the exhibits of bears, wolves and lemurs.
“We’re a nonprofit. We run at a razor-thin margin from an operations perspective,” Heinonen said. “Capital projects are often hard to fund, and it’s hard to raise those big dollars to invest in the way that we need to invest.”
This story was originally published November 2, 2022 at 12:01 PM with the headline "It’s time to build a brand new Jordan High School, Durham officials say."
