SMITHFIELD - The Johnston County school board agreed to buy a 67.5 acre tract to build an elementary school that will ease overcrowding at East Clayton Elementary. The district will pay $1,188,000 for the tract, across Vinson Road from the Glen Laurel subdivision. The board will use $700,000 from the bond referendum that voters approved in 2005. That money was reserved when the district decided not to add on to East Clayton. The board agreed to ask commissioners to use lottery money to pay for the remaining $488,000. The tract is large enough to fit another school. Associate Superintendent Ann Williams said a new middle school will likely be needed in the area soon. The district will purchase it from a corporation representing Ernesdeen Blackmon, whose father had a farm there, and Linwood C. Thornton, II.
Usually when new schools are built it helps overcrowding at more than one school. The problem is in many cases the parents do not want to move their kids to a different school. The unknown is always a concern for parents when they are required to change schools.
based on the location of the land -- IF it were to pull from other schools it would most likely be wilson's mills and on the outside edges of west clayton -- but too you have to consider all the current growth taking place in the very area the school will be built so w/o moving too many kids it will be at capacity w/in a year or so of opening its doors ----that simply will be the reality of all the pending schools -- unless there is some moratorium on growth or a strong plan for growth put in place by the county commissioners and the local planning boards -- we are now playing catch up -- without getting ahead in the foreseeable future....
They just approved something like 350 building lots out near Glen Laurel so I don't think they will have trouble bringing that school to capacity, too.
