Board Discusses High School Location

The school board met Thursday to discuss, among other issues, the placement of the high school and other options to deal with school overcrowding.

The new school is projected to be built by August 2005. Funding for the project will come from about $28 million in bonds.

The board is considering placing the school in the southern part of the county. A recently purchased site at Old N.C. 86 is a backup, but board members said they do not want to be forced to use it.

"We don't want a situation where we will have to capitulate later," said Valerie Foushee, board chairwoman.

The capacity for the new school is projected to be 1,000 students, but officials discussed setting the new facility's capacity at 1,500 if necessary.

Gloria Faley, board vice chairwoman, said she wants the system to leave its options open for the future. "I don't want to be pigeonholed," Faley said.

A sharp increase in the school population was a reason given for the need for a new high school.

"Our growth continues," Superintendent Neil Pedersen said. "High school growth surprised us this year."

Chapel Hall-Carrboro system high schools grew this year by more than 200 students. High school enrollment overall for the 2002-03 school year is 3,173 students and is expected to increase to 3,837 by 2005-06. The system capacity will remain at 3,035 students until the addition of the new high school.

Officials are also discussing converting the Lincoln Center, the system administration building, into a magnet high school able to accommodate 500 students.

Capital improvement funding allocates money for building a new administration building but not for renovating the Lincoln Center.

The majority of the discussion dealt with the question of what to do until the new high school was built, with two diverging opinions -- use of alternative spacing and mobile units.

The proposals for alternative spacing included using store spaces -- such as Belks and Food Lion, and portions of schools in nearby districts -- for classroom space.

"I think we should have investigated the Belk space in University Mall," said board member Nick Didow.

Board member Lisa Stuckey said she is hesitant to place students away from a school environment.

"I guess my anxiety about Food Lion is it might be difficult for students to participate in school life," Stuckey said.

Under proposed plans, mobile units would be placed at Chapel Hill High School and East Chapel Hill High School. The units would be distributed so the schools have more balanced populations.

"I too would like to see a population balance at both schools," Stuckey said.

The mobile units either would be purchased or relocated from local elementary schools.

"We've proposed here that it should be possible to relocate some of these elementary mobiles to the high schools," Pedersen said.

Steve Scroggs, assistant superintendent of support services, said the new facilities will restore the balance between enrollment and capacity in the schools.

"(They) should meet our needs for the next 10 years."

The City Editor can be reached

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