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Friday, October 28, 2005
Schools 'maxing out' on mobile units, official says
Some schools don't have the land for them, he says; 60,000 enrollment is projected by 2013


By Danielle Deaver
JOURNAL REPORTER

Sedge Garden Elementary's sick room has multiple uses, including as an overflow cafeteria.
(Journal photo by David Rolfe)


By 2013, if current trends continue, the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school system will have nearly 60,000 students - and to handle that, officials say they will need 13 new schools, and renovations to 24 existing schools.

"It's purely enrollment growth, and we're maxing out on mobile units," Superintendent Don Martin said.

The building needs that school officials have identified would cost about $405 million.

Without new schools, the school system would have to keep adding mobile units. There is not enough land to continue doing that at some schools, and facilities that all of the students use, such as cafeterias and gyms, can support only so many children, Martin said.

The school system has more than 400 mobile units at area schools now - the equivalent of about 11 schools, Martin said.

And more students are expected. Enrollment is projected to continue to grow at about 2.3 percent a year. Two large new housing developments - Caleb's Creek and Brookberry Farm -are expected to add several thousand children to area schools. The county's birth and immigration rates are also producing a steady stream of students that will keep the schools overflowing for at least the next 17 years, he said.

Even with the new schools, the school system would end up with about 250 mobile classrooms because it would be impossible to build enough for all of the growth, Martin said.

But he said that school-board members probably won't try to ask Forsyth County commissioners to hold a bond referendum on the entire amount.

Instead, they will probably try to have a bond referendum for about $150 million to $200 million in 2006. If that bond package is approved, they will probably come back in three or four years and ask for the rest of the money , Martin said.

For some principals, any relief of overcrowding can't come soon enough. Sedge Garden Elementary School was built for 750 students. There are 1,008 attending there now. There are seven kindergarten classes and nine first-grade classes. Nearby Union Cross Elementary is also overcrowded.

"I really do hope that the new school will be built," said Sedge Garden's principal, Gaye Weatherman. "I know that it will relieve the overcrowding here. I also know that we could open that school up today and it would fill up because of the numbers in Zone 1."

The school system is hoping to build a school in the Caleb's Creek development that would take students from Sedge Garden and Union Cross. The school might be paid for with money from bonds issued by the county commissioners or with money from the bond package that the school system is hoping to get.

Some board members are already looking ahead at how the bonds might be received.

Members of the school board proposed an $80 million bond referendum in the spring and had to withdraw it because it received little community support. Some groups, including CHANGE, or Communities Helping All Neighbors Gain Empowerment, said they plan to oppose the $80 million bond package because it does not include enough money for renovations to existing schools.

School-board member Vic Johnson said Tuesday during a meeting of the school board's building and grounds committee that he is worried about how the group might react to the new bond proposal.

"This CHANGE group - they say half new construction and half renovation. Are we worried about CHANGE at all?" he said.

Martin later said that school officials will do what is needed. About $115 million of the $405 million bond would go toward renovations. The rest would go toward new construction.

"The renovations are needed. We really need the renovation projects," he said. "Once things are fixed up, CHANGE would say things are fixed up. We're not doing it for CHANGE. We're doing it because it's needed."