Carrboro High School’s buildings are complete, but the grounds and roadways are sill being prepared. Photo by Robert Dickson
By Susan Dickson
Staff Writer
Carrboro High School athletic teams may be able to use the school’s new athletic fields prior to its opening after all, but students who want to volunteer to get the school ready may still have to wait.
Principal Jeff Thomas said this week he’s been concerned that since it’s likely to be mid-August before a traffic light being installed at Rock Haven Road and Smith Level Road will be operational, students might not be allowed access to the school site.
The school is scheduled to receive a certificate that will allow staff to begin work at the school by sometime next week, but town requirements state that the school won’t be granted a certificate of occupancy for students until the traffic signal is in place.
Thomas said that the town of Carrboro has told him the light will be completely installed and the town will issue the certificate of occupancy for students by mid-August.
Thomas had feared that students on Carrboro High athletic teams wouldn’t be able to practice at the school until the occupancy certificate was received. Team practices, which begin July 30, have been rescheduled at the Lincoln Center, Culbreth Middle School and other locations.
Marty Roupe, the town’s development review administrator, said the conditional use permit seems to indicate that the certificate only needs to be granted prior to the beginning of the school year, and that athletic teams should be allowed to practice, but that students would not yet be allowed to enter the building. Students who had volunteered to help set up the school will have to wait for the traffic light to be installed.
The school building is nearly complete and staff will begin moving furniture, equipment and supplies into the school after the town issues the staff certificate of occupancy.
Thomas said he wasn’t sure why the stoplight would not be complete until mid-August.
“It’s probably a complicated, complex process,†he said.
Carrboro planning officials said it was unclear whether the installation of the light was delayed or if it was originally scheduled to be completed in mid-August.
More than 500 students will attend Carrboro High in the fall. The 140,000-square-foot school will eventually accommodate 1,200 students.
A dedication ceremony at Carrboro High is scheduled for August 23, and the school is set to open on August 27.
Thomas said while the light complicates the picture prior to opening, the school should have no trouble opening on schedule.
“We have to open on time,†he said.