School Construction Report

The Wake County Public School System has 128,072 students for the 2006-07 school year. This is 7,568 more students than the 120,504 who attended on the 20th day last year. WCPSS's record growth for 2006-07 is more than double the average enrollment increase from 1998-2002.

Enloe is the largest high school with 2,495 students. Wakefield has 2,372 and Leesville Road has 2,355.

West Lake is the largest middle school with 1,336 students. Wakefield has 1,289, Holly Ridge has 1,285, Leesville Road has 1,266 and Heritage has 1,231.

Wakefield is the largest elementary school with 1,109 students. West Lake has 1,076, Durant Road has 999 and Middle Creek has 980.

WCPSS has 36,646 high school students, 29,031 middle school students and 62,395 elementary school students.

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GrowthCast is a short (3 minutes or less) QuickTime video covering some aspect of Wake County's record-setting growth and its impact on the school system. This week's GrowthCast looks at impact fees, transfer taxes, or other means of funding school construction - exploring the connection between Wake County's economic growth and the need to serve a rapidly growing number of students.

The long road traveled by the Board of Education and the Board of Commissioners that led to the school construction program was discussed in a joint meeting of the two boards today. They looked back to October 2003 when voters approved a $450 million bond request for the PLAN 2004 school construction program. In February 2004, staff talked with the school board about long-range capital planning. In November 2004, WCPSS contracted with NC State's Operations Research and Education Laboratory (OR/Ed) to develop an enrollment projection and school location model based upon housing data. WCPSS and County staff developed draft planning parameters in the spring of 2005.

In December 2005, the potential costs of five capital improvement program scenarios were shared with both the school board and county commissioners with school size and year-round being major variables. The number of scenarios was reduced to three and several community surveys during February 2006 indicated community support for scenarios that expanded the number of year-round calendar schools while reducing capital spending. In March 2006, the Board of Education took steps to reduce the cost of the capital improvement program such as building larger schools to serve more students, reducing the square footage of elementary and middle school classrooms and opening all new elementary schools as multi-track, year-round.

In April 2006, WCPSS staff recommended a draft capital improvement proposal costing $960 million that would convert almost all elementary schools to multi track year-round. In May 2006, the Board of Education adopted a capital improvement program costing $1.056 billion that calls for conversion of enough elementary schools to multi-track year-round to gain 3,000 seats. In July 2006, county commissioners decided to request voters' approval for $970 million in bonds to pay for the capital improvement program.

In October 2006, the Board of Education approved a process for providing as much calendar choice as possible and a timeline for utilization of applications to attend schools other than the base school.

WCPSS gained more than 6,400 students for the 2005-06 school year and approximately 5,100 students for 2004-05. The school system is now entering a six-year period in which the district is projected to grow by between 7,000 and 9,400 students each year, with total enrollment expected to surpass 160,000 students by the year 2010.

The school construction program will build 17 new schools, provide major renovations at 13 existing schools, buy land for 13 future schools, provide improvements at 100 campuses and replace old computers in schools.

Christy Barnett of WCPSS School Connection TV takes a look at the Capital Improvement Program: In November, Wake County voters will decide whether or not to approve a bond referendum to help fund the school system’s newest capital improvement program. The capital improvement program will help the system provide space for the thousands of additional children who will be moving into Wake County through 2010.

More than 100 people gathered to celebrate the opening of what its principal describes as a great school that will become greater.

Panther Creek High School principal Rodney Nelson welcomed the community to the school with a dedication ceremony Oct. 16. The Wake County Public School System, the Town of Cary and Wake County joined together to hold the ceremony.

Superintendent Del Burns, Wake County Board of Education member Ron Margiotta, and Wake County Commissioners Chair Tony Gurley all raved about the new facility, how it will help with growth and be a successful campus.

The new high school was built from a re-used (prototype) three-story design, also seen at Knightdale High School. Panther Creek opened with approximately 900 students in grades 9 and 10 and will add a grade each of the next two school years.

Although a new school, Panther Creek's faculty average 11.5 years of experience; 65 percent of the staff have advanced degrees; and 20 percent have already earned National Board Certification -- the highest standard in the teaching profession.

After the ribbon cutting, the student body president, and presidents of the class of 2010 and 2009 guided guests around campus and answered questions about their new school.

At its committee of the whole meeting Oct. 11, the Board of Education made an additional accommodation for families and cleared up some confusion regarding year-round track assignments.

By a unanimous vote, board members agreed that students in a year-round elementary school should be given some priority over someone in a traditional calendar elementary school in the application process to attend a year-round middle school. The priority would fall just below the priority already granted for those with siblings on the year-round calendar.

To clear up some confusion in the community, the board also discussed year-round track assignment. If a student at an existing year-round school moves back to his base school because of conversion, he will be given the same track assignment. For example, if a student is on track 2 at Turner Creek Elementary and moves back to Olive Chapel Elementary, he or she will stay on track 2. If the student wishes to change tracks, he or she may apply for a track change in March 2007 at the same time those already attending Olive Chapel can apply for a change. Olive Chapel students would indicate their initial preference for track assignment in January 2007.

Board chair Patti Head stressed that they were trying to accommodate as many families as possible and still fill classroom seats as efficiently as possible. Everyone is guaranteed a seat at their base school and then have a choice to apply to a magnet or calendar option, she said.

A list of accommodations approved by the board can be found at the Year-Round Schools online resource center at http://www.wcpss.net/year-round/.

In other business, the school board agreed to the proposed new school locations presented last week as part of the Blueprint for Excellence 2006. We've added links to maps of these new locations, as well as the locations of major renovation projects on the Blueprint for Excellence 2006 online resource center.

BOARD APPROVES CONSTRUCTION MANAGER FOR LAUREL PARK (E-26): At its meeting Oct. 3, the Board ofEducation approved of D. H. Griffin Construction Co., LLC as construction manager at risk for construction of the Laurel Park Elementary project. Construction is scheduled to begin in spring 2007. Construction management fees will be negotiated in accordance with professional services procedures using the Board approved construction manager at risk contract.

BOARD APPROVES CONSTRUCTION MANAGER AT RISK AGREEMENT FOR LAUREL PARK (E-26): At its Oct. 3meeting, the Board of Education approved the construction manager at risk agreement for Laurel Park Elementary, which is included in the next building program. Negotiations have been completed with D. H. Griffin Construction Co., LLC for the construction manager's pre-construction services only. Pearce, Brinkley, Cease + Lee, PA was previously selected as the designer for this project. The total proposed project budget is $20,853,980, of which, $895,000 is from the PLAN 2004 School Building Program and $19,958,980 is from the next building program. The total project budget includes proposed compensation for the Construction Manager of $150,000 for pre-construction basic services and 3.5% of the construction cost for the construction management fee. Funds for this present contract are encumbered from PLAN 2004 Program Contingency.

BOARD APPROVES SCHEMATIC DESIGN FOR LAUREL PARK (E-26): At its Oct. 3 meeting, the Board of Education approved the schematic design documents prepared by Pearce, Brinkley, Cease + Lee for conversion of Bespak Manufacturing Building to Laurel Park Elementary School. The total proposed project budget is $20,853,980, of which, $895,000 is from the PLAN 2004 School Building Program and $19,958,980 is from the next building program.

At its Oct. 17 meeting, the Board of Education awarded a contract to Beau Chene Company, LLC in the amount of $669,500 for the site set-up of three multi-purpose rooms and three eight-classroom size units for swing space at East Millbrook Middle. The total proposed budget is $30,854,735, of which $3,470,802 is currently available from PLAN 2004, $109,089 from PLAN 2000 Start-Up, and $30,000 from fiscal year 2006-2007 Capital Outlay Funds. The remainder of the funds for the total renovation project will come from the next building program.

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