Staff recommends Northside locale
by Susan Dickson
Staff Writer
For the first time since the 1960s, elementary school students could return to class at the site of the segregated Northside Elementary School in downtown Chapel Hill.
The Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Board of Education will consider two sites — one in the Northside neighborhood and the other on the Greene Tract — for the district’s 11th elementary school in a work session tonight (Thursday).
School officials have recommended that the board approve the Northside site, between Caldwell and McMasters streets, for the 11th elementary school. The site was the location of the Orange County Training School, a school for black students that later became Northside Elementary School. The school opened in 1924 and closed its doors after schools were desegregated in the 1960s.
The Greene Tract site, located at the end of Purefoy Road, is jointly owned by Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Orange County.
“This is kind of a unique juncture for the school district,†said Lisa Stuckey, vice chair of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Board of Education, adding that the district has typically had to purchase school sites from private owners.
Land costs associated with the new school would be lower because both the Northside and Greene Tract sites are already owned by government bodies.
Officials have considered nearly 30 different sites, but are focusing on the Northside and Greene Tract sites after eliminating others for various reasons. According to district projections, Chapel Hill-Carrboro will need the district’s 11th elementary school to open in the fall of 2010. The district’s 10th elementary school, Morris Grove, will open on the corner of Dromoland and Eubanks roads in August.
School officials previously considered a site on the Carolina North project, but because the project will be under construction in coming years, the site would not be available in time.
District officials said in order to open a school by 2010, the district must identify a site and begin working with an architect this summer.
“As you know, growth continues in Chapel Hill, and we need a place to build it,†retiring Assistant Superintendent Steve Scroggs said.
“Our schools are back to getting overcrowded,†he continued. “Growth hasn’t stopped in Chapel Hill. It’s changed where it goes, but it hasn’t stopped.â€
Scroggs said because the Greene Tract site does not already have water and sewer lines, building a school there would cost more and take more time than at the Northside site. In addition, a school at the Northside site would be the only school in downtown Chapel Hill.
“Building a school in downtown Chapel Hill excites us,†Scroggs said. “I do think this could be a wonderful opportunity to put a school in a neighborhood where kids live.â€
The district has mailed letters to residents of the communities around both the Northside and Greene Tract sites. In addition, school officials have met with Lincoln High School alumni regarding the historical significance of the Northside site.
Delores Bailey, executive director of Empowerment, Inc., said she thinks the school would be a positive asset to the neighborhood. Empowerment is a community development and housing counseling agency that has conducted community outreach in the Northside neighborhood.
“I think it is a wonderful idea to have a neighborhood school in the Northside neighborhood,†Bailey said. “Finally, a school that’s within walking distance for people that live in that area.â€
Bailey said that while the Northside neighborhood has been changing over the last several years, she believes an elementary school would further change the face of the neighborhood.
“I think this is an opportunity for some of the negative stereotypes of our neighborhood to be washed away,†she said.
Bailey said that while Empowerment has been successful in organizing the community of the Northside neighborhood, “what we haven’t been able to do is change that perception that’s existed since the ‘70s.â€
“I think a school will round that whole thing out,†she added.
The school would also bring an influx of new families to the already diverse neighborhood, Bailey said.
Stuckey said she hoped that the community members would take advantage of the school.
“We want to be an asset to the neighborhood where [the school] is located,†Stuckey said. “We would anticipate that folks in the community will use the school.â€
Scroggs said if the school were located at either site, redistricting could be somewhat challenging, since there are higher numbers of students receiving free or reduced cost lunch in the walk zones around the sites. However, he added that with tight redistricting parameters, he believed the percentages of students receiving free or reduced cost lunch could be balanced across the district.
“It would be very similar to when we build schools near large apartment complexes,†Scroggs said.
Although he recommends the Northside site for the 11th elementary school, Scroggs said both the Greene Tract and Carolina North sites could be good sites for the 12th elementary school, which will be needed shortly after the 11th elementary school, according to district projections.
“Where 12 falls really depends on where Carolina North is in [the construction] process,†Scroggs said. “[The Carolina North site] has got potential written all over it.â€
The board is scheduled consider the sites in a work session tonight, then make a final decision by June 19.