New ‘east’ elementary school: $49.6M; new ‘west’ elementary school: $50.1M; new ‘east’ middle school: $68.3M; renovate existing schools: $235.3M
The Alamance-Bur-lington school system could need $403 million to build three new schools – an elementary and middle school in eastern Alamance County and a new elementary school in the western part of the county – and renovate 35 existing school buildings within the next five years, according to a draft of the facility needs survey that a Winston-Salem consultant has conducted for ABSS.
School officials furnished a draft of the facility needs survey this week in response to a public records request that The Alamance News filed with the superintendent last month.
Though technically a paperwork drill that all public school systems are required to submit to the state Board of Education every five years, past facility needs surveys conducted by ABSS have also served as a bellwether for potential future school bond packages for the local school system.
Most notably, the 2015-16 school facility needs survey for ABSS had estimated that $186 million would be needed to build a new high school and complete system-wide renovations within five years – which eventually formed the underpinning for the $150 million bond referendum that voters approved for the school system in November 2018. A subsequent survey that ABSS staff conducted in 2020-21 suggested that $257 million in new construction and renovations would be needed within five years but was effectively shelved, due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the administration’s focus on completing the 2018 bond projects.
ABSS superintendent Dr. Aaron Fleming had recently forecast that ABSS would soon need a new elementary and middle school in the eastern part of the county. “I do think there [are] some opportunities for a middle and elementary; I do think there’s some opportunities to look at a new elementary school soon,” he said during an August 12 discussion about school capacity study that was conducted for ABSS earlier this year (see related story, this edition).
Read story on possibility of hiring a consultant to undertake redistricting of school zones: https://alamancenews.com/supt-suggests-hiring-another-consultant-for-redistricting/
Capacity figures presented to the board last month indicated that enrollment at Garrett Elementary School (769 students at the end of the second month of the previous 2024-25 school year) was at approximately 107 percent of its capacity (722 students). [Enrollment figures for the end of the first month of each current school year typically aren’t available until mid- to late-October.]
Enrollment at Southern Middle School (821 students at the end of the second month of 2024-25) was at approximately 109 percent of its stated capacity (756 students), based on the capacity study that was presented to the school board last month.
Superintendent: Actually, two new elementary schools will be needed
Meanwhile, Fleming revealed for the first time this week that he believes two new elementary schools – one in the eastern part of the county, plus one near the town of Elon – will be needed, as well as the new middle school in eastern Alamance County that he’d previously mentioned.
“There is a need for a new elementary [on] the eastern side, near Elon give or take a few miles, and then a new middle school on the eastern side quickly behind that one,” the superintendent said during the school board’s latest meeting Monday night.
School board vice chairman Dan Ingle said Monday night, during a discussion about the superintendent’s proposal to hire the same consultants who did the capacity study to develop new “school assignment zones” – redistricting – for ABSS, that enrollment at A.O. Elementary School is also at 90 percent of its stated capacity
Enrollment at A.O. Elementary School (624 students at the end of the second month of 2024-25) was at 99.4 percent of its capacity (628 students), based on the capacity study the consultants conducted for ABSS.
Estimated costs to build three new schools
The $403 million price tag for construction and renovations outlined in the facility needs survey is actually predicated on the construction of a second elementary school – in addition to a new elementary and new middle school that Fleming had previously said is needed to alleviate crowding at Garrett Elementary and Southern Middle schools.
The consultant estimates that it will cost $49.5 million to build a new 88,000-square foot elementary school, with a capacity for 800 students, in the eastern part of the county.
The estimated cost to build a “new east” elementary school includes: $37.4 million in construction costs ($424.53 per square foot as of May 2025); $3.7 million for furnishings and equipment; $2.8 million in contract administration and design fees; $2.2 million for site development; $2 million to demolish an existing building (which one isn’t specified); and $1.6 million (4 percent) set aside as contingency.
The consultant estimates it would cost approximately $50.1 million to build an 88,000-square foot elementary school for 800 students in western Alamance County.
The estimated cost for a “new west” elementary school includes: $$37.4 million in construction costs ($424.53 per square foot as of May 2025); $3.9 million for site development; $3.7 million for furnishings and equipment; $2.9 million in contract administration and design fees; and $1.7 million set aside as contingency.
The estimated cost to build a new elementary school in eastern Alamance County also includes $70,000 for building demolition; the estimated cost for a new elementary school in the western part of the county includes $600,000 to acquire 20 acres of land at $30,000 per acre, which is included in the grand total of $50.1 million for the “new west” elementary school.
The facility needs survey also includes $68.6 million to build a new 120,600-square foot middle school for 900 students in the eastern part of the county – or about $2 million more than it cost to build the county’s seventh high school, Southeast, that opened in 2023.
The estimated cost to build a “new east” middle school consists of: $51.2 million in construction costs ($424.53/square foot); $5.3 million for site development; $5 million for furnishings and equipment; $4 million in contract administration and design fees; and $2.2 million in contingency. The overall price tag for the construction of a new middle school also includes approximately $900,000 to acquire 30 acres of land, at $30,000 an acre, for a future middle school site.
The facility needs survey for ABSS also outlines – in addition to the estimated $168.3 million to build three new schools – approximately $235.3 million in renovations to existing school buildings over the five years between 2025 and 2030.
The total price tag for renovations includes additional upgrades to the eight schools that were renovated and/or expanded as part of the $150 million bond referendum that voters approved for ABSS in November 2018: Cummings, Eastern, Graham, Southern, Western, and Williams High schools; and Pleasant Grove and South Mebane Elementary schools (see accompanying chart).
The survey also suggests that, between 2030 and 2035, $23.5 million in renovations to non-instructional spaces (such as the maintenance building, bus garage, Sellars-Gunn Education Center, and Central Office) also will be needed.
Background on the facility needs survey
Fleming had told school board members during their August 25 meeting that the facility needs survey – which he said he’d seen a preview of and described as “a big one” – would be presented at their next semi-monthly meeting.
The newspaper filed a public records request with the superintendent, asking to examine the draft facility needs survey conducted for ABSS by Building Asset Inventory Single Component Assessment under a county-funded contract that school board members approved on February 24, 2025.
Alamance News publisher Tom Boney, Jr. emphasized in his request to Fleming that North Carolina’s Public Records Law provides that records made or received in the transaction of public business (including draft documents) are public records subject to inspection.
“This interpretation was made explicit by a state Supreme Court decision (News and Observer Publishing Co., Inc v. Poole), which established that the statute contains no exception for drafts,” Boney elaborated in the public records request.
School officials later insisted to the newspaper that no such draft had been received; and the presentation by the consultant with BAISCA that had been scheduled for September 9 was postponed.
ABSS officials have since told the newspaper that more information about the facility needs survey would be presented to the board in the coming weeks.
The state-mandated facility needs survey is developed using a statewide program that requires data such as school capacity, enrollment, square footage, and conditions of each facility to be entered, according to the school planning division within the N.C. Department of Public Instruction (DPI). Costs per square foot for school construction and renovations, as well as DPI’s current school facility guidelines, are built into the program, which then calculates future facility needs and costs as the data is entered, according to DPI’s school planning division.
