Moore County Schools schedules Feb. 3 public hearing on replacing Carthage Elementary; debate over size, site and process

The Moore County Schools Board of Education voted Jan. 13 to hold a public hearing on Feb. 3 at 5:30 p.m. to receive public comment on Superintendent Dr. Locklear’s recommendation to replace Carthage Elementary School with a new building on a new site. The board amended the public-hearing rules to allow six minutes per speaker and, for this hearing only, to permit board members to ask brief clarifying questions of speakers.

The hearing follows a district facility assessment and construction-committee review that identified substantial needs at the existing Carthage campus. Miss Purvis, who presented background at the Jan. 13 meeting, told the board that repairs to the current campus would cost $13,500,000 and would not enlarge core spaces or add classroom capacity. The superintendent’s recommendation presented to the board calls for designing a new school with a core capacity for 600 — library, cafeteria and other common spaces — but initially building classrooms for roughly 450 students, with the ability to add classrooms later as enrollment grows.

The public…