By MATT LAMB
Insider Staff Writer
The Board of Education on Feb. 16 set a different course for near-term building plans, capitulating to a request from the Moore County Board of Commissioners preventing development on Vass-Carthage Road and keeping Carthage Elementary School at its historic location in downtown.
Following a series of recent meetings with each board’s chair and vice chair, the school board endorsed a three-fold plan. The school board will forgo a potential general obligation bond referendum in November by allowing the commissioners to pay cash for a new, smaller 400-450-seat Carthage Elementary on the school’s existing footprint, rather than on the Vass-Carthage Road parcel purchased in October.
In addition, the district will halt a request for $3.3 million in lottery funding for a new information technology building on the same site, and instead will explore a potential location at New Century Middle School. Finally, the school board will put off seeking bond money for a comprehensive high school until 2028.
The majority of the school board, called into a special meeting Monday, seemed taken aback by the sudden change and the short timeline in which it occurred. Despite reservations about the process, the board seemingly recognized that the commissioners’ offer was a surefire way to fund a new Carthage Elementary without going to a bond vote that might not muster enough support.
“After we had additional discussion with Chairman (Nick) Picerno and Vice Chair (Jim) Von Canon — and we appreciate those collaborations — we thought it was important, based on those discussions, to bring the board back together as quickly as possible to discuss Carthage Elementary and a path that the commissioners would like us to consider,” Superintendent Tim Locklair told the board. “And, also a path around planning for a potential new high school and how that impacts the work that we’ve been planning, and replacing our IT/PAR building.”
Due Diligence
While planning for a new high school — initiated recently at the commissioners’ prompting — was in its early stages, the legwork for a new Carthage had been underway for years.
In 2021, the Carthage town Board of Commissioners made it known that it wanted the elementary school replaced. Officials said renovating was doubtful, calling the 75-year-old campus on a small, 7 1/2-acre lot at 312 Rockingham St. “too old and renovations would be too expensive” compared to new construction.
Momentum at the time was halted by COVID lockdowns until, in 2023, the school board passed a $462.5 million prioritized list of construction projects throughout the district. Replacing or expanding Carthage Elementary was identified as the second-most-important project, with a potential cost of up to $45 million.
In 2024, a diverse group, including school board members, Carthage community leaders, and parent-teacher association (PTA) volunteers, took a campus tour to discuss the school’s future.
Highlighting the deteriorating infrastructure, the group of stakeholders said they were amenable to building a new school on a new lot or using the existing campus.
Locklair ultimately recommended building a new school on a new site with a core capacity of 600 students to accommodate growth over the next decade in the district’s Area One, which includes Carthage, Vass, Cameron and Whispering Pines.
Last February, the school board hosted a public hearing where Carthage residents, teachers and district staff members expressed overwhelming support, urging the district to press on with plans for a new school on a new site. They cited safety, space constraints, cost and the possibility of future expansion to justify moving from the school’s current site.
Assistant Superintendent Jenny Purvis set out to find a parcel suitable for the new school. When she couldn’t find one on the market, she contacted Malcolm Worth McDonald, who was willing to part with 32 acres just beyond the intersection of Vass-Carthage and Joel Roads for $465,000.
That parcel purchase marked a turning point. As word of a new site surfaced, a vocal chorus of nearby residents and neighbors said it was a poor choice. They highlighted its location on a two-lane road surrounded by old farms and the prospect of spurring urban sprawl. The opposition caught the attention of the county and the Carthage Board of Commissioners, both of which expressed displeasure with the site.
Purvis ended up fielding a bevy of other options proposed by Carthage’s elected officials, aimed at keeping the school in the town proper, but found them cost-prohibitive or infeasible.
A joint meeting with the county ended with the commissioners voting unanimously to walk out, frustrated by the school board’s decision.
To the dismay of school board members David Hensley and Pauline Bruno, both of whom called Vass-Carthage a poor choice, the board voted recently for the third time to endorse the Vass-Carthage road parcel as the future home of Carthage Elementary.
With cost information submitted to the commissioners for a bond referendum, the district moved on to the second part of the plan for Vass-Carthage Road: the information technology and planning, accountability and research building.
The current facility, located at the Community Learning Center at Pinckney, is, according to Central Office staff, beyond repair. The district was scheduled to appear before the commissioners later this week to request $3.3 million in lottery dollars from the district’s coffers to get construction underway on Vass-Carthage Road.
‘Inside Baseball’
“We’ve continued to have conversations with our commissioners,” Purvis said during the special-called meeting on Monday. “At this point, they’ve shared that they do have the ability to pay for a smaller school without having to take it to bond.”
As frequent opponents of public debt financing, the commissioners before the selection of Vass-Carthage Road had intimated they could pay cash for Carthage. Later, Picerno said it should be left to the taxpayers to determine whether a new school was a worthwhile expenditure of public money.
“A smaller Carthage Elementary would be a replacement for the current school,” Purvis continued. “It would go on the current site, and it would be for a capacity of about 400 to 450 students. This school, we know, would not relieve future capacity issues, but the commissioners are committed to that, and they are aware that there will be something coming down the pipe in the future.”
It is currently unclear how the district and the commissioners will fund the need to address crowding in Area One schools, which was meant to be alleviated by a larger school strategically located on Vass-Carthage Road to handle student enrollment.
“As we’ve always shared, our priority is ensuring that the students and community of Carthage get a new Carthage Elementary School,” Purvis added. “So, at this time, Dr. Locklair and I recommend this path, and we request that the board endorse moving forward with a smaller school on the current site to be funded without the need to go to bond.”
Purvis said students will not need to move off-site during construction, but will be accommodated by mobile units. The plan is for a two-story school that can fit within the tight parcel, with increased vehicle queuing near the front of the lot.
For the most part, although flummoxed by the processes, the school board recognized the value of definitive dollars over a hypothetical bond.
Board member Ken Benway, however, couldn’t get behind the plan.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a mature plan fall apart so quickly based on no understanding of the alternative,” he said. “I don’t have enough information to make a recommendation, pro or con. I would really like to know the inside baseball aspects of this whole thing. I guess we’ll find out eventually, but I’m just taken aback that we’re not going to do enough homework to make a good decision here.”
The board ultimately voted 6-1 to proceed with the commissioners’ recommendation.
As for the IT building, citing continued “expressions of reservations” about development on Vass-Carthage Road, Purvis said New Century Middle has 3.5 acres that may be used for a new facility.
The school board unanimously decided to defer the lottery request until it can review the details of a new IT building on the New Century campus.
As it currently stands, there is now no plan for the Vass-Carthage Road site. Purvis said the district bought the plot at a good price and would be remiss to sell.
“We had a 92-year-old fella who sold it to us at that price because he wanted to give back to the district,” she said. “From an integrity point of view, it would be my recommendation that the board just hold on to it.”
Regarding a new high school, the board voted 5-2, with Board members David Hensley and Pauline Bruno in opposition, to follow the commissioners’ suggestion and pump the brakes on putting a new school on the 2026 ballot.
“It’s long been a need to address those capacity issues at Union Pines and Pinecrest (High Schools); however, at this time, it was the desire of us and the commissioners to see if we couldn’t get this on the 2026 bond because it has been a real need and has been for a lot of years,” Purvis said. “But, at this point in time, in our continued conversations, thinking about it, we just feel like we need a lot more information for our voters before they’re prepared to vote on this.”
The board plans to continue gathering information, hosting stakeholders and developing a plan to address crowding at the district’s high schools as part of a 2028 bond referendum.
Contact Matt Lamb at (910) 693-2479 or mlamb@thepilot.com.
