GCS addresses facility needs from most to least critical

Spending of $300 million school bond to be a ‘several-years process’

No immediate plans are in the works to upgrade or replace school facilities in northwest/northern Guilford County, but school board members say they will ‘work up to the schools with the least need’

by CHRIS BURRITT

NW GUILFORD/GREENSBORO – A familiar distinction awaits the return of students to Northwest Guilford High School – the largest number of mobile classrooms in the county.

Twenty-seven trailers populate the high school’s campus, followed by a village of 19 mobile units at adjacent Northwest Guilford Middle School, according to Guilford County Schools (GCS). The number of trailers is far fewer at other schools in the northwestern and northern areas – four at Stokesdale Elementary, two at Pearce Elementary and three each at Northern Guilford Elementary and Kernodle Middle.

The district currently has more than 500 mobile or temporary classrooms in use, according to a recommended $2 billion facilities master plan that Cooperative Strategies, a school facility planning firm, presented to GCS in November 2019. The trailers aren’t going anywhere any time soon, according to GCS’ plan for spending $300 million from the sale of bonds for repair and upgrades. Schools in northwestern and northern Guilford County didn’t make the list of facilities slated for improvements planned for schools elsewhere in the county that were determined to have more serious renovation needs.

Longer term, the plan does address easing student overcrowding in northwestern and northern schools with a commitment to spend $10.66 million for the acquisition of land for several new schools. They include sites for the replacement of Northwest Middle School, a northwestern Guilford-area aviation high school and a northern Guilford-area elementary school, according to GCS.

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“We are starting with the schools in the worst shape and working up to the schools with the least need,” school board member Deborah Napper said in an interview in May. She represents District 5, which includes Summerfi eld Elementary School and Northern Guilford middle and high schools.

Guilford County voters approved the bond sale in last November’s general election. Actual spending of the $300 million “is going to be a several-years process,” Napper said.

“No matter where you are located in Guilford County, it may be years before you see the benefit” of spending.

Spending on other projects – such as the replacement of Northwest Middle School and the construction of a new northwest-area aviation high school – is going to take even longer because of their dependence upon future bond sales.

Nora Carr, GCS’ chief of staff, told the school board in March that the district’s staff is talking to county commissioners, community leaders and others about putting another bond issue on the ballot.

The district’s plan recommends eventually replacing all mobile classrooms. For now, the deteriorating condition of the units is a problem across the county, according to District 5 county commissioner Carly Cooke, who represents Summerfield.

“We can all agree there is a need,” Cooke said in an interview in May. “I wish we were doing more in the fi rst phase, but with the dollars that we have, I think it was a fair way to allocate them. I appreciate the process we used to pick the projects. It is based upon the need.”

The spending plan resulted from a 2019 countywide study that proposed a mix of new construction, renova-

tions and demolition of schools in Oak Ridge, Summerfield and Stokesdale. The recommendations were aimed at relieving overcrowding and improving security and technology in schools.

All of the elementary, middle and high schools in northwest Guilford County are operating “at or over capacity,” according to a report by Cooperative Strategies, the school district’s facility planning consultant.

A spreadsheet posted on GCS’ website lays out the recommended school projects for northwest and northern Guilford County and their estimated costs. The projects include: • $47.6 million for replacing and relocating Northwest Guilford Middle

School • $68.5 million for construction of Northwest

Area Aviation High School • Constructing an elementary school for northern Guilford County, at an estimated cost of nearly $26.8 million • Repairs to Oak Ridge Elementary totaling $1.44 million • Repairs to Pearce Elementary totaling $298,665 • Repairs to Stokesdale Elementary totaling nearly $3.1 million • Repairs to Summerfield Elementary totaling $2.56 million • Repairs to Northern Guilford Middle

School totaling $574,717 • Repairs to Northern Guilford High

School $793,150

Schools Year Constructed Renova� ons/Addi� ons Permanent Capacity

Current Enrollment

ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS

Colfax Elementary

1955 Northern Elementary 2008 Oak Ridge Elementary 1923 Pearce Elementary 2007 1983, 1999 -

1957, 1974, 2005 594 560 576 620 700 694 678 650

Stokesdale Elementary 1953 1956, 1960, 2007

457 480 Summerfi eld Elementary 1936 1939, 1955, 1959, 1983, 2011 594 580

MIDDLE SCHOOLS

Kernodle Middle Northern Middle 2000 2007 1,016 750 904 825

Mobile Classrooms

7 3 0 2 4 0

3 0

Northwest Middle 1970 2012 896 989 19

Northern High Northwest High 2008 1962

HIGH SCHOOLS

1965, 2002, 2012 1,417 1,332 0 1,583 2,075 27

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