CIP 2022 is the new school building program for Wake County that will help cover the costs of 7 major renovations and 5 new schools, new digital classroom technology, updated school safety and security measures and land acquisition. It also includes funds for Life-Cycle, Education Equipment, ADA improvements, Temporary Classrooms, Space Needs Analysis & Prioritization (SNAP) projects, Partial Renovation & Improvement (PRIMP) projects, and Program Management.

CIP 2022 will create additional classroom space with 5 new schools for students expected in the next several years and replace space lost due to class size restrictions in grades K-3. Meanwhile, renovations to WCPSS's older schools will ensure quality seats to serve the needs of our children.

All schools will be affected by the plan, even if they aren't listed. New schools and renovations will reduce crowding in other existing schools. Most schools will receive technology, furniture and equipment replacement and upgrades. Consider what nearby schools are receiving and what your school received from previous school bonds.

The sale of General Obligation Bonds by the county would provide the majority of funds to renovate and build schools. With voter approval on November 8, 2022, the county government would issue bonds over the next two years totaling $530.7 million for WCPSS capital projects.

In addition, County Commissioners have agreed to spend $130 million in “pay-as-you-go” cash funding to supplement the amount that is borrowed.

Bonds are like a home mortgage; they allow capital investments to be made as they are needed with repayment at a low interest rate over a period of years.

If voters approve this bond, the property tax impact would be $10 per $100,000 of assessed property value. For example, a home valued at $337,000 would see a $33.70 annual tax increase.

General obligation bonds allow the county to borrow money and repay it – with low interest – over a long period of time, typically 15-20 years. This is similar to someone taking out a mortgage to buy a house. Most people do not have enough money to pay cash for a house or a car, so they borrow money and repay it with interest while using the house or car. Because the schools will be used for decades to come, this is a fair and equitable way of sharing the cost with current and future residents as Wake County continues to grow.

If the county had a higher percentage of commercial growth than residential, growth might pay for itself (based on property taxes). But, Wake’s residential growth is a higher percentage than commercial growth. Adding residents does increase the tax base, but these residents also require additional services immediately, (such as schools), which cost money.

The needs won't go away. If the referendum doesn't pass, the Board of Commissioners must still determine how to pay for the needed space and renovations. General Obligation Bonds are the least expensive option to provide space for the rapidly growing number of students moving into Wake County and to replace inefficient school equipment that is at the end of its life expectancy.

At $0.60, Wake County has the lowest tax rate of the largest school districts in the state; Cumberland, Forsyth, Guilford and Mecklenburg all have higher property tax rates.

2020-21 Tax Rates

Cumberland: $0.7990
Forsyth: $0.7435
Guilford: $0.7305
Mecklenburg: $0.6169
Wake: $0.60

Source: North Carolina Association of County Commissioners: www.ncacc.org  

Yes, in addition to building new schools, the use of multi-track year-round schools and adding mobile/modular classroom units, WCPSS has taken advantage of adapting spaces that were not built as schools and creating ninth-grade centers to house more sophomores, juniors and seniors on traditional high school campuses.

Yes, a core team of school officials and county leaders meet regularly to review and adjust population growth, enrollment predictions and school facility needs. This team is assisted by planning units from the 12 municipalities, the Capital Area Municipal Planning Organization and outside contractors. A recent result of this process was the creation of a 7-year rolling construction plan. The plan provides a way for the county, school district and surrounding municipalities to better match the county’s financial capacity with the school district’s needs.

It is difficult to compare the cost of building construction in other counties for several reasons. There is limited information available from the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) on their website in recent years.  In addition, the cost of construction varies across the state based on the cost of doing business. Typically, it costs more in urban locations and “hot” markets. The Triangle is one of the higher cost markets in the state. Another reason is that WCPSS builds more multi-story schools than the average county due to a lack of buildable land. Multi-story schools are generally more expensive per square foot, (despite the efficiencies gained in roofing, footings and stacking), due primarily to higher structural and masonry costs for taller structures as well as other costs associated with elevated construction. Finally, not all counties include the same scope of construction in their costs (e.g. technology packages in separate contracts).

A list of recent school projects throughout the state can be found at this link:
https://www.dpi.nc.gov/districts-schools/district-operations/school-planning/school-construction 

Based on the 2022 CIP update to the school board by the WCPSS CIP Committee, a large elementary school operating on a  year-round multi-track calendar and seating about 915 students will cost $60 million at current prices. This includes building costs, special academic program needs, site development, infrastructure costs such as water, roads and sewers, as well as furniture and equipment. A middle school at today’s prices would cost $87.9 million and a high school about $170.5 million. The cost of the land itself is not part of the figures provided.

Wake’s site development costs are typically greater than many other parts of the state. The primary reasons include the following:

• Stringent local regulations (e.g. requiring a half-mile of onsite driveways to accommodate elementary parent drop-off/pick-up and restrictive tree protection and buffer requirements)
• Limited number of easy-to-develop sites
• High cost of offsite roadway improvements in a congested county

On average, it takes 16 months to construct an elementary school, 21 months for a middle school and 26 months for a high school. However, construction is only one part of the process. WCPSS must go through the following steps to open a new school: offer to purchase site, site access and survey, land acquisition, design, site plan and agency approvals, building permit approval, bid and award period, construction, and move-in. The permitting process alone can take nine months.

After including all the above steps, the average time it takes to open a school - from offer to purchase the site to construction completion is 34 months for an elementary school, 42 months for a middle school, and 50 months for a high school. 

WCPSS considers a number of factors in identifying a suitable school site for acquisition, including the school system’s needs; location, size and configuration of property; site conditions (i.e., topography, streams, wetlands, watersheds, excessive rock, unsuitable soils, or other features that tend to increase development costs);  public utilities availability and proximity (water, sewer, electricity, gas); adequate road access (public road frontage, likely required road improvements, traffic and transportation issues); opportunities for joint-use (shared field use, community center, library, park, etc. with Wake County or municipalities); environmental issues (soil or groundwater site contamination, proximity to dangerous activities, airport overlays, proximity to nuclear power plant, high voltage power lines, gas line easements); annexation and zoning,  proximity to other schools, length of time for acquisition, and costs (land costs, estimated site development costs and off-site development costs for utilities and roads).

Typically, WCPSS needs 20 acres for an elementary school, 30 acres for a middle school and 64 acres for a high school. Approximately 45 percent of the school acreage is needed for compliance with environmental regulations and local zoning ordinances. Multiple schools on a single site may require less than the sum of typical acreages and provide greater efficiencies in site usage and development costs.

Due to the scarcity of suitable land and competition with developers for suitable sites, the per acre land cost has skyrocketed. At the same time, the district has more aggressively pursued options that require less land. Less land, however, can also restrict the number of academic and non-academic programs a school can offer.

In 2021-22 11% of our WCPSS capacity teaching spaces were provided in 894 capacity mobile/modular/trailer classrooms across the county according to the Facility Utilization Report (FUR).  That percentage has declined slightly in recent years due to capacity gains at newly constructed schools, and capacity gains at some renovated schools.  An additional 111 non-capacity & formerly retired trailers are used to accommodate varying non-capacity programs.  The district’s ability to both reduce classroom trailers and keep up with the influx of new and migration of existing students is limited by several factors.  These include but are not limited to enrollment growth, area crowding, the relocation cost as impacted by market volatility and the number of renovation projects needed as they provide less new capacity per project than new school projects.

WCPSS building timelines are set so that all new elementary and middle schools may be built to be utilized on the traditional or year-round calendar.  Staff propose school calendars for Board approval based on the following factors: projected growth in the area, projected new schools in the area, existing calendar of a school occupying the same campus and projected calendar availability in an area.

Some existing schools have an insufficient number of classrooms to organize a multi-track calendar. Some schools have instructional programs that would be severely limited by a multi-track program.

Maintaining some schools on a traditional calendar, some schools on a modified calendar, and some schools on a multi-track year-round calendar also allow families to have calendar options, which is a strong preference regularly voiced by parents.