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 hearing is intended to let residents, parents and stakeholders weigh in on the superintendent’s recommendation and on alternatives. “We stand here today to express our strong support for a public meeting to be held in February,” said Lisa Moore, a veteran teacher at Carthage Elementary, during the public-comments period. Tommy Phillips, chairman of the Carthage Centennial Committee, said the town board and other local groups have requested prioritizing a replacement and urged the board to approve a public hearing.

Board discussion at the Jan. 13 meeting focused on process as much as on the recommendation’s substance. Board member Hensley expressed concern that the district’s planning process had not presented enough distinct courses of action with associated cost estimates; he urged the board to present multiple options to stakeholders, including the possibility of keeping a smaller community school in downtown Carthage while building an additional school on a growth corridor. Miss Bruno and other board members said the K–8 option had been discussed previously in committee and that some community members had raised it; Purvis said a full feasibility study for an alternative such as a K–8 would require substantial staff work and could take the process back to an earlier stage.

Purvis also told the board that Carthage’s current average daily membership (ADM) is 340 students and that the 600-seat figure is a ten-year planning capacity based on updated enrollment projections. She said facility and safety assessments, plus ITRI capacity forecasts, informed the construction committee’s unanimous recommendation to plan for future growth.

Several parents and community representatives asked the board to consider alternatives before a final decision. Meg Sauls, Carthage Elementary PTO president, urged board members to visit the school and listen to parents on site. John Mysiak of the Lions Club told the board his volunteer group vision-screened thousands of elementary students and raised class-size concerns tied to achievement.

The board first approved a motion to hold the Feb. 3 hearing with a three-minute speaker limit; a later amendment increasing the limit to six minutes passed unanimously. A separate amendment to suspend Board Policy 23100 (public hearings) to allow limited board interaction with speakers passed on a 5–2 vote. The final motion, as amended (hearing Feb. 3 at 5:30 p.m., six-minute time limit, suspension of policy 23100 for the hearing only), passed unanimously.

What happens next: the public hearing on Feb. 3 will allow public comment and questions under the modified rules. Board members said the hearing’s purpose is to gather input; no final construction decision was made Jan. 13 and any eventual contract, bond, or funding plan will return to the board for separate action.

Clarifying details recorded in the meeting include that repairs to the existing Carthage campus were estimated at $13,500,000, current ADM at Carthage is 340 students, and the construction-committee recommendation envisions a core sized for 600 with classrooms initially built to serve about 450. Board members discussed but did not vote on any funding mechanism (bond, cash or other) at the Jan. 13 meeting.