Duplin County school leaders presented a plan to renovate and add classroom and athletic space at the county’s four traditional high schools and to convert an elementary into a K–8, and the Duplin County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved a motion allowing the school board to apply for state capital grants to offset the project cost.

The school board’s architect, Jimmy Hyde, told the joint meeting the package would pair new construction with renovations and safety and traffic improvements at East Duplin High School, James Kenan High School, Wallace‑Rose Hill High School and North Duplin, and would convert the county elementary adjacent to North Duplin into a K–8 to absorb junior‑high students. Hyde provided site estimates and said the total projected cost for all four sites is $124,535,396, noting the figures are projections and “not bid, they are not firm.”

Why it matters: the plan aims to remove many modular classrooms and update aging facilities (some buildings are roughly 75 years old, the board said), expand college course access at comprehensive high schools and address safety, security and athletic facility shortfalls. School and county leaders said they will pursue competitive grants from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (DPI) and other funding sources rather than ask the county for full local financing at once.

Hyde summarized the scope and costs by site. For East Duplin High School he described new parking, new tennis courts, lighting, accessible entrances, a secure entry hallway, intercom and fire alarm replacement and asbestos abatement; he estimated the site projection at approximately $35,000,000. For James Kenan High School Hyde described replacing modular classrooms with new construction, enclosed connectors, a new gym and site work including a regulation track and soccer field; his estimate was $32,601,000. At Wallace‑Rose Hill he listed new parking and auto‑queuing, six tennis courts, a new gym and security perimeter work and estimated $27,973,000. For the junior/senior site and the connected elementary conversion (North Duplin area) Hyde proposed a new lobby and cafeteria, CTE renovations and creation of a K–8; he gave cost estimates of $11,287,000 for the high‑school portion and $17,377,000 for the elementary-to‑K–8 conversion. Hyde said total new square footage figures appear on the back summary sheet and repeated that the numbers are planning projections, not firm bids.

Superintendent Kevin (identified in the meeting as a district official) explained programmatic tradeoffs between the county’s comprehensive high schools and the countywide early‑college model. He said early‑college students can begin college coursework as ninth graders while most comprehensive high‑school students typically start such coursework in 11th grade under current rules and waivers. He also said the district has not discussed phasing out the James Sprunt Early College and that the early‑college model is funded differently by the state.

County and school board members asked questions about cost per square foot, bidding strategies and phasing. Hyde said roughly two‑thirds of the projected cost is new construction and one‑third is renovation work, and he recommended conservative per‑square‑foot allowances until contractors bid the work. Commissioners and board members suggested bid alternates for items such as tracks or second gymnasiums to capture mobilization savings; Hyde said some elements are easy bid alternates while others are embedded in larger building work and harder to separate.

On funding, the school board said DPI’s capital needs grant is a principal target. Board representatives described the DPI program as need‑based, funded by the General Assembly, with site‑level awards up to about $62,000,000 for high schools, $52,000,000 for middle schools and $42,000,000 for elementary schools, and a typical 5% local match if awarded. The school board requested county consensus to proceed with applications and offered to provide renderings, site graphics and application support.

Commissioner Branch moved and Commissioner Garner seconded a motion to allow the school board to pursue grant applications and related preparatory work; the commission voted unanimously in favor. The motion was recorded as an authorization for the school board to pursue the grant process and to provide application materials and support documents to the county as requested.

Discussion only vs. formal direction: the architects’ estimates and program descriptions were presented as planning information; Hyde repeatedly cautioned the estimates are not final bids. The formal action recorded at the meeting was limited to authorizing the school board to proceed with grant applications and to seek matching and additional funding sources; no county commitment to fully fund the project was made at the meeting.

Board members and commissioners stressed the county-wide nature of the needs and expressed the preference that any county funding approach not leave some schools without improvements. Several commissioners praised the level of cooperation between the boards and urged the school board to seek all available grants and to return with more detailed bid‑ready plans and budget breakdowns.

The boards also discussed program capacity: Hyde and school staff said the proposed work would add capacity at the four traditional high schools and — if the early‑college program were ever discontinued — the expansions would likely accommodate those students, though the early‑college program operates under different state rules and a current enrollment cap of about 200 students.

Next steps: the school board will prepare grant applications, create renderings and site documents to support DPI applications, and report back to the county commissioners on application status and any requested local match or phased‑funding options. Commissioners did not approve any specific local appropriation at the meeting.

Ending note: commissioners and school board members closed the meeting praising collaboration and urging continued work on grant applications and cost refinements.

Quotes used in this story are from the meeting transcript and attributed to speakers listed by name and role in the meeting record.