NEW HANOVER COUNTY — Leaders of New Hanover County Schools were once again before county commissioners Monday morning requesting funding, this time for a facility study on New Hanover High School.
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Heading into the school year, NHHS is undergoing repair to its southside foundation, displacing some students to temporary trailers. However, the 102-year-old building has a laundry list of needs and the school district wants to develop a master plan, the first since 1999, to see just how much that will cost.
“The only way we can ever get a level set is to actually spend time and energy looking at the current conditions and putting a cost estimate to what that would be to bring a 102-year-old high school into the third decade of the 21st century,” county manager Chris Coudriet said at last week’s agenda review.
The commissioners unanimously approved the $300,000 request at their Monday meeting, though not without some haranguing over where the funds should come from and if more money should continue to pour into New Hanover High School.
The study will be funded with interest accrued in a special revenue fund of the county’s.
Commissioner Rob Zapple said he could “make a strong case” for NHCS to use the state’s capital fund or public school renovation and repair fund, made up of lottery money. Both exceed $300,000.
“There’s money there in those accounts for things just like this,” Zapple said Monday. “I know that there’s going to be a significant amount of money that this report is going to reveal, and it will be in the millions, if not tens of millions, of needed repairs that need to be done. So I’m just trying to be at the front side of this process, to be as careful as possible, and to use whatever funding we have before we start jumping in coming to the county.”
NHCS Assistant Superintendent of Operation Eddie Anderson explained the funds remaining in those accounts are obligated to other capital needs.
Zapple questioned NHHS’ pecking order on the district’s priority list, asking if the funds should be diverted to much-needed repair at the high school.
Anderson explained the lottery funds were being used to cover the highest priority of its projects, as the county commissioners did not provide any capital funding to NHCS this fiscal year. Between the two funds, there is around $1.5 million expected to be spent down..
The money that could have been dedicated to capital was redirected to offset the district’s $20-million operating cost deficit. The commissioners’ final allocation to the NHCS was $9.5 million more than the previous year, to help retain as many educators and NHCS staff as possible.
Despite this goodwill, North Carolina state statute puts the onus of capital spending on local governments. School district operations are funded with a variety of federal, state and local funds, but local governments are responsible for more than 98% of capital.
Anderson explained the district already swept up savings among previous projects and those under construction to come up with an additional $500,000 for the current NHHS foundational repairs.
Commissioner Jonathan Barfield said the conversation on funding the study was just “semantics,” as money for NHCS is the county’s money no matter what pot it’s pulled from.
“We’ve got to stop talking on both sides of our mouth when it comes to saying that we’re going to do what you need,” Barfield said. “We want you to reduce your fund balance; and then there’s significant needs, as you keep saying, there are more needs than there’s money.”
However, the commissioner was wary of continuing to drop money on a potentially decomposing school. Barfield continued his comments from the agenda review about the viability of New Hanover High School.
“I know that there’s a lot of sentimental value in New Hanover High School, it’s the high school that I and Chair Rivenbark attended, but at the same time, I think we’re throwing good money at the bad,” Barfield said.
He noted the district decided to rebuild College Park and Blair elementary schools, both part of the 2014 bond, without a facility study. The driving decision to do so, according to Anderson, were the safety concerns due to the high exterior circulation for an elementary school.
Anderson told the commissioners the New Hanover High study would enable them to have a conversation about the future of the school.
The notion was seconded by commissioner Dane Scalise.
“In the grand scheme of things, it might end up being revealed that it’s so great a cost that we have no choice but to build a new facility,” Scalise said. “It is 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, and I would at least like to know that that’s possibility or not before we make a decision like that.”
New Hanover High School has been mired by failing infrastructure for years. In May, Anderson told WHQR the total cost of work needed for NHHS was around $90 million.
The school is undergoing the first phase of foundational repairs that closed three classrooms last school year when the issue was discovered. The $1.6 million repairs will affect 16 classrooms as the first day of school nears.
The most notable of the school’s problem areas is Brogden Hall, its gymnasium with a sinking floor. The $3.1-million fix closed the gym between 2021 and 2022.
The building’s 30-year-old fan coil units need replacing, estimated at $1 million, along with almost $400,000 in lighting ceiling replacements and a $260,000 concession stand with proper sewer and water. Additionally, the Memorial Classroom building beside Brogden Hall still operates with window air conditioning units.
The school is still awaiting funding for a culinary arts program, a $1.4 million project. New Hanover’s cafeteria also needs an update, though nothing is planned.
The AdvoCats fundraising group, founded by two parents of NHHS students, have raised awareness and money for repairs. Along with others in the community and on the school board, they are frustrated with the perceived lack of care for NHHS compared to the district’s other high schools.
The district’s 2014 bond addressed $5.7 million in repairs to NHHS to “create an appropriate learning environment,” while both Laney and Hoggard high schools received new gymnasiums for $10.6 million and $16.4 million, respectively.
In 2022, NHHS parent Katrina Aldrich determined the inequitable school conditions could be a civil rights violation, as the school has a majority Black and Hispanic population. She filed a formal complaint to the U.S. Department of Education.
Last fall, the board and county commissioners were feeling out another bond to help address the problems at NHHS. The movement didn’t come together for this year’s election ballot, but is still on the table for the future.
Port City Daily reached out to the AdvoCats for their response on the commissioners discussion of NHHS’ future. Co-founder Kassi Rempel said they had not yet formed an opinion; the ideal option would be to preserve the building, but the county must explore all its options, she said.
“We don’t dismiss the fiscal responsibility of the county and commissioners,” Rempel said. “So if building a new campus will cost the county considerably less than renovating existing buildings, we will not likely engage in a campaign for paying more to preserve the existing facilities.”
Reach journalist Brenna Flanagan at brenna@localdailymedia.com.
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