
{"id":2750,"date":"2008-06-05T07:15:34","date_gmt":"2008-06-05T15:15:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=2750"},"modified":"2008-06-05T07:15:34","modified_gmt":"2008-06-05T15:15:34","slug":"school-board-to-pick-new-school-site","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2008\/06\/05\/school-board-to-pick-new-school-site\/","title":{"rendered":"School board to pick new school site"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Staff recommends Northside locale<\/p>\n<p><strong>by Susan Dickson<\/strong><br \/>\nStaff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>The Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Board of Education will consider two sites \u00e2\u20ac\u201d one in the Northside neighborhood and the other on the Greene Tract \u00e2\u20ac\u201d for the district\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 11th elementary school in a work session tonight (Thursday).<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\nSchool 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.<\/p>\n<p>The Greene Tract site, located at the end of Purefoy Road, is jointly owned by Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Orange County.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153This is kind of a unique juncture for the school district,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d 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.<\/p>\n<p>Land costs associated with the new school would be lower because both the Northside and Greene Tract sites are already owned by government bodies.<\/p>\n<p>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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 11th elementary school to open in the fall of 2010. The district\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 10th elementary school, Morris Grove, will open on the corner of Dromoland and Eubanks roads in August.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153As you know, growth continues in Chapel Hill, and we need a place to build it,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d retiring Assistant Superintendent Steve Scroggs said.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Our schools are back to getting overcrowded,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he continued. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Growth hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stopped in Chapel Hill. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s changed where it goes, but it hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stopped.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Building a school in downtown Chapel Hill excites us,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Scroggs said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I do think this could be a wonderful opportunity to put a school in a neighborhood where kids live.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think it is a wonderful idea to have a neighborhood school in the Northside neighborhood,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Bailey said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Finally, a school that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s within walking distance for people that live in that area.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think this is an opportunity for some of the negative stereotypes of our neighborhood to be washed away,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Bailey said that while Empowerment has been successful in organizing the community of the Northside neighborhood, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153what we haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t been able to do is change that perception that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s existed since the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc70s.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think a school will round that whole thing out,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she added.<\/p>\n<p>The school would also bring an influx of new families to the already diverse neighborhood, Bailey said.<br \/>\nStuckey said she hoped that the community members would take advantage of the school.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We want to be an asset to the neighborhood where [the school] is located,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Stuckey said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We would anticipate that folks in the community will use the school.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It would be very similar to when we build schools near large apartment complexes,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Scroggs said.<br \/>\nAlthough 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.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Where 12 falls really depends on where Carolina North is in [the construction] process,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Scroggs said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153[The Carolina North site] has got potential written all over it.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>The board is scheduled consider the sites in a work session tonight, then make a final decision by June 19.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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 \u00e2\u20ac\u201d one in the Northside neighborhood and&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-schools"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2750\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}