New Washington Elementary School planning delay | Eastern North Carolina Now

Background-

In early 2024 the NC Department of Public Instruction awarded a grant of $42 million to construct a new elementary school to consolidate John Cotton Tayloe and Eastern Elementary schools. Beaufort County would be required to match the grant with $10 million. The county commissioners approved this match mid-2024.

The school board selected the site for the new school on the existing Eastern Elementary site. Site surveys and architectural designs were performed by Hite Associates.

Sometime on or around July 2024, after surveying the property boundaries, it was determined that the City of Washington owns approximately four acres of the site.  Negotiations with the City of Washington were undertaken to purchase this section of the property and the parties agreed in principle to convey the approximately four acres to the Beaufort County Schools.

A ceremonial groundbreaking took place in late December 2024 with construction to start in January 2025.

Current Situation - January 7, 2025

The City of Washington requested a meeting with BCS Superintendent Dr. Matthew Cheeseman, School Board Chairman, Vice Chairman, and the school board attorney. The City of Washingtons mayor and the city attorney were present at this meeting on January 7, 2025. The mayor and city attorney apprised the BCS representatives that the subject land is not for sale.

The BCS board met on the evening of January 7, 2025. The entire board membership was told by Charman TW Allen that the city has reneged on the sale of the approximately four acres of land required for the construction to move forward in a timely manner. This came as a surprise to the school board members which were not invited to the earlier meeting with the city officials and attorneys.

After consulting with Hite Associates, the school officials were told the project could still move forward. However, the orientation of the new school structure would have to be changed and some structures on the property would have to be demolished to accommodate a rainwater collection pond which would have to be relocated from the originally planned layout.

Hite Associates indicated this would necessitate an eight to nine months delay. One board member questioned if the grant would be impacted by a delay. The vice chairman assured the board that there would be no impact as long as the construction begins within two years of the grant issuance date which was February 2024.

The new school was originally scheduled for occupancy in the Fall of 2026.

More meetings are scheduled over the next few days to determine the path forward.

A portion of this discussion from the January 7, 2025 is presented in the video below.

Commentary-

There has been opposition to this project from the local community. Some points of contention revolve around the initial site selection. This site is bordered by two major throughfares, Pennsylvania Avenue, north-south and Highway 264, east-west. Not only will commuter and business traffic be impacted during the pickup and drop off of students, the congestion created by vehicles in the drop off and pickup areas will be less than ideal. These traffic areas will be further comprised by reorienting the main structure, as this site is too small and confined to accommodate the traffic, vehicle parking, bus parking, pickup and drop off, and the school.

Another issue of concern to some, but not to a majority of the school board or the county commission, is the cross-town bussing of students from the western end of Beaufort County. Some argued the new school should have been situated west of Washington, NC.

Another issue is the way the grant was structured. The grant funds can only be used for one school if that is what is requested when the grant application is submitted. The grant request could have been submitted to upgrade the schools in Beaufort County. One of the considerations for receiving the grant was consolidation of two or more schools. There are six more considerations for receiving the grants, but Beaufort County did not pursue these.

(1) Counties designated as development tier one areas.

(2) Counties with greater need and less ability to generate sales tax and property tax revenue.

(3) Counties with a high debt‑to‑tax revenue ratio.

(4) The extent to which a project will address critical deficiencies in adequately serving the current and future student population.

(5) Projects with new construction or complete renovation of existing facilities.

(6) Projects that will consolidate two or more schools into one new facility.

(7) Counties that have not received a grant under this Article in the previous three years. (2021‑180, s. 4.4(a).)

Many believe some of the funding should have been earmarked for expanding the Chocowinity Primary and Middle schools.

This is where we must go back to the $40 million school referendum about 12 years ago. The funding for the Chocowinity local schools was left out in this bond referendum. Schools were built everywhere but Chocowinity, NC. The then current superintendent attended the Chocowinity PTO and assured them at the next funding opportunity, Chocowinity schools would be funded to improve the Chocowinity elementary and middle schools. The Chocowinity citizens voted for the bond referendum based upon this assurance. The issue failed elsewhere in the county, including the Washington Attendance Area.  That referendum passed with a narrow majority based upon that assurance. The school funding opportunity came to pass in 2024, but again, with no leadership, this funding was assigned to the Washington school district. That superintendent (Anthony Parker) is long gone along with the commitment to fund improvements for the local Chocowinity schools.

There are three schools in Beaufort County that are underutilized, meaning they have more capacity than students. The remedy for this is to change the grade structure in these schools. According to a school utilization study performed by Numerix in 2023, Southside High School, Northside High School, and Washington High School are ~50% occupied. Changing the grade structure in these schools and modifying the bussing could relieve the overcrowding in other schools. Why the BCS board is ignoring this is incomprehensible.

The voters in Beaufort County changed five of the nine board members of the school board during the last two elections. It is too early to determine if issues as outlined here will be remedied by this board.