School Construction Program Presented To Board Of Education

April 13, 2006 - A less expensive school construction proposal that shaves costs with a shift to multi-track schools and a change in the school calendar was presented by staff to the Wake County Board of Education in its committee of the whole meeting today.

Draft Capital
Improvement Plan

WCPSS Assistant Superintendent Chuck Dulaney said the addition of 40,000 new students in the next five years means the school system must change from the way it has addressed school construction needs in the past.

The board has a $994 million school construction proposal from staff that's been slimmed down from the $1.3 billion to $1.9 billion proposals discussed several months ago.

Dulaney told the board the proposal serves the instructional needs of students by providing adequate classroom space for teaching and learning. He said it also addresses capacity needs as the school population grows by 35 percent over the next five years; provides major renovation at existing schools to maintain adequate instructional environment; and begins to provide adequate space for central support functions.

Board members and Dulaney noted the school construction proposal is a working draft that the board will revise and modify over the next few weeks.

Converting schools to multi-track calendar
The proposal would convert 59 non-magnet, single-track elementary schools to a 45/15 multi-track calendar for 2007-08,which would maximize the student capacity of each school and provide space for an additional 6,141 students. The 45/15 multi-track calendar is currently used by WCPSS year-round schools providing four sessions where students receive 45 days of instruction and 15 days on break.

Dulaney said converting the 59 schools would avoid the construction of an additional seven elementary schools. Each new elementary school would cost more than $20 million to build.

Dulaney recommended the board consider maintaining single-track calendars for magnet elementary schools, most middle schools and all high schools. He suggested this single-track calendar be made more family friendly by aligning to the extent possible with multi-track year round calendar.

Dulaney argued against converting all middle schools to multi-track. Middle schools provide instruction with teams of four teachers. Each of the teachers is certified in Language Arts, Math, Science or Social Studies. He said the change to multi-track would require more teams of two teachers rather than the preferred teams of four teachers.

New schools
The school construction proposal would provide $676 million for new schools. It would build 16 new schools including nine multi-track elementary, three multi-track middle and two high schools, all opening between July 2008 and July 2010. Another new elementary school would be built to serve as swing space to open in 2011. It would allow the renovation of existing elementary schools in a future school construction program. One new middle school would open in 2011.

Critical major renovation projects
The school construction proposal would provide $318 million for critical major renovation projects. The proposals would include East Millbrook Middle, Lynn Road Elementary, Aversboro Elementary, Martin Middle Phase II, East Wake High as priority one projects and Lacy Elementary, Root Elementary, Poe Elementary, Wilburn Elementary, Bugg Elementary as Priority two projects. Additional major renovation projects would be deferred for consideration in the next school construction program

Crowding solutions
Crowding at the high school level would be addressed by establishing six ninth grade centers in 2007 and 2008 to serve the most overcrowded high schools for a 5-10 year period. Crowding at the middle school level would be addressed by relocating at least 75 mobile classrooms from elementary schools to middle schools in 2008-09 and relocating up to 100 mobile classrooms each year to the most crowded schools.

Districtwide needs
As school enrollment increases, so do the demands on central services. The school construction proposal would provide additional warehouse space for Child Nutrition Services and two regional bus transportation centers. An administration building and two additional regional bus transportation centers would be deferred for consideration in the next school construction program.

Impact of changes in program models
Associate Superintendent Don Haydon talked with the board about the impact of the changes in school program models. The board had asked staff to include changes to the capacity and to middle and elementary classroom space. Haydon said changes to the 800 capacity year round elementary school model would change the cost from $22.06 million to $20.40 million. Changes to the 981 capacity middle school model would change the cost from $31.52 million to $29.58 million. Changes to the 1,663 capacity high school model would change the cost from $55.58 million to $52.22 million.

Football stadiums
Board members asked staff to put high school stadiums back into the proposal. In a committee meeting earlier this week, the board took a straw vote to remove stadiums from the high school model to save about $2.5 million in the construction of each new school. The change would affect two high schools in this construction program.

Timeline for approval
Haydon presented the board an updated timeline that includes four additional board discussions on the school construction proposal before the board votes May 16. The board meets April 27 and 28 in a planning session. They have discussions in facility committee May 9 and meet as a committee of the whole May 2 and 16. Once approved by the Board of Education, the construction program will go to the County Commissioners for placing a referendum on school construction bonds on the November 7 ballot.

Draft Capital Improvement Plan

-wcpss-