Board hears update on southern county school site; county to purchase land, staff to bring action item

Nash County Board of Education members received an update on a proposed new school site in the county's southern area and were told the county will purchase the land and hold title until construction debt is repaid.

The briefing, given during committee meetings, summarized preliminary engineering work, a review of site access with the Department of Transportation, and a recommended next step to place a land-purchase item on the board's next business meeting agenda for formal consideration.

Mr. Davis, reporting on work completed since an earlier discussion, said the school system engaged Stocks Engineering to prepare a preliminary site layout and that staff conducted additional meetings with county and state engineers to test whether the parcel could accommodate a middle and elementary school configuration. "We had a great meeting," he said of the NCDOT review, adding that DOT staff "liked the way it worked out, so we passed that hurdle." He said the focus committee had signed off and recommended advancing the matter to the full board.

Davis told the board the county will purchase the property, and the purchase will be part of a larger county capital financing package. He said the district exceeded the minimum state match requirement (the county set a 10% match rather than the 5% minimum), and that the state will allow the district to use the excess match toward land acquisition: "Because we doubled the match, they have told us we could use part above the minimum match to purchase land with," he said.

Davis described the parcel as roughly 33.38 acres and said the preliminary layout includes parking for about 204 vehicles and athletic facilities: a baseball field, softball field, six tennis courts, a soccer/multipurpose field and a football field. He said the preliminary car queuing length measured about 1,730 linear feet, roughly double what DOT typically requires for similar sites. Davis emphasized the layout and access work were preliminary and said the civil-engineering contract may be selected later during the architect selection phase.

On schedule, Davis said the district hopes to select an architect in the spring, move to design in May, advertise construction bids in November, and receive bids in December with the goal of starting construction in January–February 2026 if the timeline holds. He cautioned some dates in the presentation were preliminary and said staff will firm them up as the project advances.

Board members present did not vote on land purchase during the committee meeting. Instead staff asked the board whether to place a formal action item on the next full-board agenda to authorize county negotiations and purchase; no members objected to adding the item for consideration.

The board also heard that county staff plan to retain the property in the county's name while debt financing is outstanding; title would revert to the school district after debt retirement. Davis encouraged the focus committee and superintendent to accelerate architect selection and other steps because of the grant and construction timeline.

Board members praised the cross-agency coordination and thanked staff for work on the funding and due diligence. The item will return to the board as an action item at the next scheduled meeting for formal direction and any required vote.

Details reported at the committee meeting should be considered preliminary: the layout and schedule are subject to change during final design, permitting, and formal board action.