Sunday, Aug. 15, 2010

Design work can begin on new schools

North Raleigh would be home to two new campuses

Two North Raleigh sites and one in Apex have made the Wake County school system's short list for a potential share of a $59 million pot to build new schools.

The school board agreed last week to spend $2.4 million to start designing a new northwest Raleigh middle school, a new elementary school in Apex and another one in northeast Raleigh. The challenge facing the school board over the next year will be deciding which ones to build because they've only got money for two of the sites.

The 6-2 vote split the board majority, which has held together on most issues since taking office in December. Members of the board's usual four-member minority faction provided most of the votes to approve spending the money for the design work.

"The money is just sitting there so we can move forward with the design process," said school board member Keith Sutton, who typically is on the minority faction.

But some members of the majority coalition objected to the sites selected, saying other areas need the new schools more.

"If that money is sitting there, there doesn't need to be a compulsion to spend it," said school board Vice Chairwoman Debra Goldman, typically a member of the majority coalition.

The sites that got the go-ahead for the design work are :

A middle school near Leesville Road and Interstate 540 in northwest Raleigh

An elementary school near the closed North Wake Landfill in North Raleigh

An elementary school at the intersection of Scotts Ridge Trail and Apex Barbecue Road in Apex.

Wake County commissioners also must sign off on spending the money for the design work. They're expected to vote next month.

Wake has enough money to build both elementary schools or the middle school and one elementary school. The money comes from $59 million accumulated from projects coming in under budget from the district's ongoing $1.056 billion construction program..

Don Haydon, Wake's chief facilities and operations officer, said a decision on which two sites to build won't have to be made until this time next year. But he said starting the design work now means they could get the elementary schools open in 2013 and the middle school open in 2014.

But Goldman and board member John Tedesco, also normally part of the five-member majority, complained that none of the sites is in or near southeast Raleigh. They said new schools need to be built there if Wake is to have enough room to allow southeast Raleigh children to return to schools in their communities while still leaving open enough seats at area magnet schools.

Joe Desormeaux, Wake's assistant superintendent for facilities, said they had identified sites in areas where crowding will be a problem in a few years and where the distinct already owns land it can quickly build on.

Sutton, whose district includes southeast Raleigh, said they can't afford to slow down on the construction of new schools.

"We've still got kids coming into Wake County, and we have to find seats for them," Sutton said.

Board members did shoot down a last-minute effort by Chris Malone, normally a member of the majority, to add in spending for design work for a new elementary school off U.S. 1 in Wake Forest near the Franklin County border. Malone had introduced the motion after talking with Haydon shortly before the vote about the possibility of using savings from the Lacy Elementary School renovations to pay for the additional design work.

"On the fly, because you had a private conversation, a school has been added?" Goldman said.

Malone's motion to spend $3.1 million on designing four schools died by a 5-3 vote.