New Hanover High School, first opened in 1922, is currently undergoing significant repairs that have shuttered over a dozen classrooms and required moving students into trailers. But that's just the tip of the iceberg.
Assistant Superintendent Eddie Anderson the estimated price stage could be around $90 million — and some advocates say it could be even higher.
The school district asked commissioners to fund a $300,000-dollar study which would map out all of the work needed on the New Hanover High School campus, and put an exact price tag on the project.
Commissioner Jonathan Barfield supported building a new school, instead of continuing to put what he called bandaids on the facility.
“I truly believe that the students that attend that school deserve the best facility possible. And when I say best facility, I mean, a new facility,” Barfield said.
Commissioner Dane Scalise supported doing the study first to compare the relative costs of repairing versus replacing the school — noting that some residents might want to preserve the facility.
"In my estimation that this is one of those gems of New Hanover, and there are quite a few people that I think would feel very strongly about us retaining it, if at all possible," he said.
Commissioner Rob Zapple also supported the study — but pushed to shift the cost to the district from the county. As proposed, the county would fund the study with interest it has raised on a "special purpose fund" (not the county's general fund). Zapple asked if the district had enough money left in its fund balance to fund the study, saying the county needed to "watch our dollars as carefully as we possibly can."
Barfield called the issue of the funding source "semantics."
Ultimately, commissioners unanimously agreed to a county-funded study. The next steps will be putting out a request for qualifications for a team to conduct the study, which district officials expect will take six to nine months to complete.
Disclosure notice: Commissioner Zapple is a member of the WHQR Board of Trustees, which has no role in editorial decisions.
