BRUNSWICK COUNTY — The school board for the state’s fastest growing county discussed several expansions to its footprint and enrollment on Tuesday.
READ MORE: $5.5M land purchase approved by Brunswick County schools for new Leland elementary facility
The Brunswick County Board of Education discussed putting under contract the design-build of its anticipated elementary school in Leland. The board also gave the go-ahead to the district’s long-term plan to put pre-K classrooms back in elementary school for the general population; the district already offers pre-K for exceptional children.
If both projects get underway soon, they are planned for full implementation or completion in 2028.
Deputy Superintendent and Chief Academic Officer Molly White presented a timeline for pre-K’s reimplementation of the 264 state-allocated seats. Under her team’s suggestions, the district would spend the next six months gathering information and establishing contacts; after that, a pre-K coordinator would be hired. This person would spend the 2025-2026 year preparing for the return.
The 2026-2027 school year would see the opening of three or four regional classrooms, though White noted that model would be hard on families who may have to get their student up earlier in the morning and get them back later in the evening. It’s also harder on the district.
“With transportation costs, the more we keep them closer to what their home is, the more we try to do that , because that is an expense for us,” White said.
One or two classrooms would be added in the 2027-2028 school year, assuming the classrooms already online were at capacity and the district has room for the additions.
Superintendent Dale Cole noted that adding pre-K classrooms wasn’t as simple as moving younger kids into K-5 classrooms; the state sets different standards for early childhood education, mainly lower class sizes and student-teacher ratios.
The next school year would bring about the full expansion of pre-K into all elementary schools with a minimum of 11 full-day programs.
“Our goal is not until ‘28 and so we have to look at educating ourselves, and doing this in a responsible manner that does not compromise our K-5 classrooms,” White said on Tuesday.
White reported establishing connections with 167 3- or 4-year-olds preparing them to come back into the BCS system, though the district would ideally
The pre-K expansion will bring back early childhood education to Brunswick County Schools after almost 15 years of its absence. In 2010, school officials made moves to turn over the county’s 264 state-allocated pre-K seats to private daycares, as the district was undergoing budget cuts. Eliminating the district’s pre-K program would save the county around $500,000. The board would later vote to do so, turning over those seat allocations to private daycares, though the county has been experiencing a shortage in recent years.
Cole said he has never worked in a district without a pre-K system and is not aware of any other district without one now.
“It was a really different thing for me when I first came here,” Cole said.
He took over the superintendent role in 2023 after leaving the same post at Clay County Schools.
White told the board Tuesday that implementing pre-K has been a goal of the district for a while.
“But, obviously, without the space to do it, it’s been very hard to move forward with getting those seats back,” she said.
Another project may soon be on track to fix the space problem, however. Doug Sherwood of Sawyer Sherwood & Associates presented to the board Tuesday on preparing for the addition of another elementary school in its arsenal.
In April 2024, the firm was selected to be the design management team for the new school at the Jackeys Creek site. In the past five years, Sawyer Sherwood & Associates has designed athletic renovation projects for North and South Brunswick high schools, as well as an addition to Waccamaw School.
The district finalized the $5.5-million acquisition of a 64-acre property near Leland’s Jackey’s Creek in September. It is intended to be the site of a 750-student elementary school slated for completion in 2028.
However, Sherwood said his firm needs to be under contract by May to meet that deadline.
Cole agreed the board needed to decide whether to move forward soon so the district could put together a financial plan.
“I think what the board is looking for is to feel comfortable with moving forward with funding,” Cole said. “If that’s too far down the line, we’re going to need those classrooms anyway. And so then it becomes we’re buying modular classrooms to get us through so we can open a school building.”
According to a demographic study presented to the school board in April 2024, elementary schools serving the Leland area are approaching full capacity. This school year Belville Elementary and Town Creek Elementary are both operating beyond their capacity, while Lincoln Elementary is at 95%.
The study also predicts in the next 10 years, 17 out of the 20 schools will surpass full capacity, with all 20 schools expected to be at or above 90% capacity.
The board was hesitant to move forward with the contract without a detailed site plan and specific cost details for various stages, such as extending utilities to the site or mitigating the soil for construction.
The estimated cost for the school is $82 million, excluding potential site improvements but including emergency shelter site capabilities, which adds an additional 8% to 10% to the overall estimate.
Brunswick County Schools spokesperson Gordon Burnette said the district is currently exploring “various funding options for this critical need in the northern part of the county,” which could include grants, state funds, and a local bond referendum.
Ultimately, the board did not make a decision on the design-build contract Tuesday, but they acknowledged the May deadline.
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