County grants schools' request

ncmom · Nov 6, 2007

I am a little concerned about the math. When we moved here 6.5 years ago W. Johnston was under construction. The county knew then that the school would be over its 1600 student capacity within a few years. Based on info. from the article below, WJHS is already 600 students beyond capacity. The school board wants to buy 99 acres of land to build a school that will only house 1200 students. If that school were built today, it would already be 1/2 full with the excess from WJHS. Given the growth in this area and assuming it will be a few years until the school is buit ...I'm guess that school will be close to capacity on opening day. Does that make sense to anyone?

By Sarah Nagem, Staff Reporter
Smithfield — School leaders on Monday asked County Commissioners to buy land for a new high school, sell bonds for school buildings sooner and build a new gym at North Johnston High.
Commissioners evenutally agreed to spend $24,000 an acre for 99 acres near Polenta Road for a Cleveland-area high school.

The land is about 4.5 miles from the overcrowded West Johnston High School, said Associate Superintendent Ann Williams, who oversees school building in Johnston.

West Johnston has about 2,200 students, well over its capacity of 1,600, Williams said. A new school in Cleveland would ease the congestion, she said.

But the Board of Education has no plans for the new school to be as large as West Johnston. It’s being designed for 1,200 students, in keeping with school board policy, which calls for small, “community high schools,” Williams said.

“We believe we should have more of these schools — not fewer and bigger,” she said.

At the same time, the $30 million high school will be designed to easily accommodate add-on construction, Williams said.

Commissioner Allen Mims said he happily went to a large high school and would like to hear the school board’s pros and cons of small schools.

Williams said students at smaller schools are more than just numbers. Also, they have more opportunities to play sports and take part in activities like band, she said.

Some commissioners questioned the school’s price tag. “It sounds like the fixed costs are going to be the same whether you put 1,200 or 1,600 students there,” said Commissioner Jeff Carver.

The fixed costs are the same, Williams said, because the “core areas” of schools are the same, regardless of the number of students. The cafeteria and auditorium, for example, would be the same size, she said.

If the school board gets its way, the Cleveland school will open in 2010, a year earlier than planned. The board is asking commissioners for bond money sooner so construction can start at the same as construction of a high school in the Corinth-Holder community. That construction is slated to begin next summer.

Commissioners tabled that request too, but they agreed to earmark about $2.4 million in lottery proceeds for a new gym at North Johnston High School.

The money will come from the July 2007 and July 2008 proceeds, Williams said. Mims and Carver were the only commissioners who voted against a new gym at North Johnston.

“It hasn’t ever been what they said it’s going to be,” Mims said of lottery proceeds, which have yet to meet state projections. “Where are we going to get the money?”

If lottery dollars don’t come in as hoped, the money will come out of the county’s cash reserves, County Manager Rick Hester said.

Mims said that money was supposed to be used for emergencies only, and he was “not sure this is one of those emergencies.”

Commissioner Tony Braswell said North Johnston needed a new gym. “We have the opportunity to do what I think is the right thing to do,” he said.
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County grants schools' request

ncmom Well-Known Member

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County grants schools' request

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