At the Jan. 3 work session, the Moore County School Board passed a motion presented by board member Pauline Bruno to include a K-8 build option at the public hearing directly following the work session about replacing Carthage Elementary School.
During the work session, Assistant Superintendent Jenny Purvis reviewed the school replacement data and options from a business perspective.
Highfalls Elementary School has 250 students, and Westmore Elementary School has 260. Both are in areas with rural and sparse populations that are not increasing, which is ideal for small K-8 schools.
Other schools in the state have combined K-8 old schools with decreased enrollment.
Purvis said a K-8 replacement for Carthage Elementary School would be large, and the capacity needed for 10 years would require 800 students.
Purvis said the recommendation should not be to build a K-8 school because the land cost would double to 40-45 acres for athletic fields, parking, and structures.
“If we were to open Carthage Elementary School as a K-8, then Carthage Elementary School would no longer feed into New Century Middle School. If that happens, then we’d have three hundred empty seats sitting left at New Century Middle School,” Purvis said about wasting taxpayer money with another 150 seats empty at Crain’s Creek Middle School for a total of 450 empty seats.
Board member David Hensley said he wanted small community schools, not just physically smaller ones.
Bruno said every option should be on the table for the public’s consideration.
Board member Ken Benway said middle schools were created to lessen overcrowding, and Harvard studies show that recovery rates from the transition from elementary to middle school require up to a year.
“I’m on the appeals committee and see how many parents are struggling to try to maintain their family life and trying to get the kids to the school at the right time,” Benway said about logistics and transportation with children from the same family attending a variety of schools.
Board members expressed concerns about keeping cohorts together during reassignment plans, cultural differences in grade transitions, and young girls riding buses with older boys.
“At the opening of Carthage Elementary, we would be opening with four hundred fifty seats available, and we have about three hundred forty students there, so we can move them over and still have a few extra seats,” Purvis said.
Superintendent Dr. Tim Locklair said he was not against a K-8 build, but it was not right for this situation.
Public hearing speakers were allowed six minutes each instead of the three-minute limit.
Purvis briefly reviewed the Carthage Elementary School replacement before the public spoke.
Read about plans to renovate or replace the 1950 Carthage Elementary School at the Jan. 6 work session and at the regular business meeting on Jan. 13 here.
Carthage Elementary School (CES) staff participated in an in-house survey and shared results at the public hearing.
CES Administrative Assistant Rayona Cash reported that 87.9% opposed the smaller 450-capacity school because it did not allow growth.
CES Teacher Lisa Moore said 97% of the Carthage staff were against two schools in Carthage. One reason was that students may feel a sense of segregation over who attended the old and the new schools.
“It’s important to keep little kids, kindergartners, away from much older kids like eighth graders to avoid accidents and ensure safety. We feel students in K-5 have similar needs and behaviors, which makes it easier for teachers to help them. Teachers and staff can know all the students and their families, making the school feel like a home like it already is. Scheduling and transportation wise, having all K-5 students together allows for a simpler schedule,” CES Exceptional Teacher Christina Harrison said about staff preference for a 600-capacity K-5.
The majority of public speakers supported a small, traditional K-5 school, citing too many entrances on consolidated schools, long bus rides with discipline problems, the impact on neighborhoods, and the need for community.
Carthage Century Committee member Tommy Phillips said smaller community schools promote learning. He said too many students today cannot read and write due to their excessive reliance on computer learning.
Stacy Caldwell, a former school board member, said she brought a realtor’s perspective, and she does not support a K-8 build in Carthage because the town’s growth is rapidly increasing.
In a phone call with Sandhills Sentinel, Chair Dr. Robin Calcutt said the next steps begin Feb. 4 with the Construction Committee and the Moore County Schools Team meeting. They will analyze the data and make a recommendation or confirm Locklair’s recommendation to build a K-5 on new grounds.
~Written by Sandhills Sentinel journalist Stephanie M. Sellers. Stephanie is also an English instructor at Central Carolina Community College. She is the author of young adult fiction, including When the Yellow Slugs Sing and Sky’s River Stone, and a suspense, GUTTERSNIPE: Shakespearean English Stage Play with Translation.
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