Late last year, New Hanover County School (NHCS) administrators made the controversial decision to close the high school career readiness program at Mosley — catching students, families, and even some Board of Education members off guard.
In related conversations, a 'newcomer school' was put forward as one possible new purpose for the existing Mosley facility (which will still have an operation pre-K program even after the high school program shutters).
On Monday, Commissioner Dane Scalise spoke about the importance of Mosley for the community, and said commissioners should use the power of the purse to push the Board of Education to prevent the closure of the high school program.
Scalise was also critical of a potential newcomer school. He described newcomer schools as being "not really a school in the traditional sense," but "more akin to migrant resettlement or assimilation facility.” In similar language, other conservatives have framed the newcomer school as a “refugee” school — including at the public comment segment of recent New Hanover County Board of Education meetings.
Newcomer schools, however, are not new across the country. Studies dating back to 2012 show best practices in schools with newcomer programs. The programs would, however, be new to the southeastern region of North Carolina.
Scalise cited a WUNC article, which he said reported Guilford County had become a hub for refugee resettlement due to the success of their newcomer school.
The article reports that Guilford County is a "hub for refugee resettlement," but doesn't directly tie that to the county's first newcomer school, which opened in 2008. It does note that, due to ongoing immigration, the county opened a second school in 2023.
Guilford County has a long history of serving as a new home for resettled migrants, refugees, and immigrants long predating the newcomer school — and the county's population of over a half-million includes over 60,000 members of immigrant communities speaking over 100 different languages. According to a 2012 report from the UNC Greensboro Center for New North Carolinians, federal grants and programs, along with faith-based organizations, helped Vietnamese, Cambodians, and Laotians settle in the area during the 1970s and 1980s. In the mid-90s, Somali and Sudanese immigrants settled in the area.
Scalise defended his reading of the WUNC article, saying, "respectfully, I read it the way I said it. People can draw their own conclusions about whether there is a causal connection or not."
The article also doesn't support Scalise's claim that newcomer schools are "not really a school." According to WUNC's reporting, "the school’s goal is to acclimate students to U.S. school culture. Teachers here teach grade-level classes, such as in science or math, but are also trained to teach English as a second language."
However, there is evidence to Scalise's point that members of the public are concerned about the possibility of this type of school. In emails obtained by WHQR, local residents describing themselves as “legal American tax-paying citizens” have harshly criticized NHCS Superintendent Dr. Charles Foust for suggesting a "refugee" or "migrant" school.
Others tied the potential school to the broader issue of immigration. At the Board of Education public hearing held in January about the closing of CRA at Mosley, some community members pushed back on the board, saying that “North Carolina is not a sanctuary state.”
Scalise also noted that a decision to implement a program like this directly affects the county board when it comes to decisions around the region's housing shortage.
He told WHQR, "the public is rightly concerned with the rate and speed of growth in NHC — how it impacts our schools, roads, and general infrastructure. We also have, as WHAC explained yesterday, a gap in housing affordability for existing citizens," referencing a presentation from the City of Wilmington and New Hanover County's joint Workforce Housing Advisory Committee on Monday thatpointed out the increasing lack of affordable housing.
"It is my opinion, in part based on NPR's past reporting, that bringing a newcomers school would exacerbate those issues," Scalise told WHQR.
Scalise argued that the county had a stake in the decision because it provides a significant portion of the school district's funding.
“We're going to close the school for existing citizens and students of New Hanover County and we're even considering putting a newcomer school into New Hanover County? We control the purse strings whenever it comes to items like this," Scalise said.
Commissioner Jonathan Barfield noted that county allocates funding for the schools, but does not dictate how they spend that money. Chairman Bill Rivenbark also noted the Board of Commissioners cannot "tell them what to do with the money."
Scalise said that, while the Board of Education had to make its own decisions, the commissioners could certainly indicate "what we want." He compared it to the resolution, introduced by Barfield earlier in the meeting, signaling opposition to a toll bridge to replace the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge, which is a decision for the Wilmington Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization — not the county.
Some of the other commissioners like Rob Zapple expressed frustration and concern with bringing motions last minute to meetings; Zapple also suggested waiting until a concrete decision had been made about the future of the Mosley facility. Commissioner LeAnn Pierce noted that bringing forth motions that are not on the agenda can lack transparency and does not allow the community to contact commissioners and express concerns.
[Disclosure notice: Commissioner Zapple is a member of the WHQR Board of Directors, which has no role in editorial decisions.]
