Moore County school board’s purchase of Carthage site draws criticism; commissioners call for joint review

The Moore County Board of Education reported on Oct. 27 that it has purchased a roughly 30‑acre parcel near the junction of Joel Road and Vass‑Carthage Road as a potential site for a replacement Carthage Elementary School and a future Planning/Accountability/Research (PAR) and IT facility.

In a presentation to a joint session of the Board of Education and the Moore County Board of Commissioners, Assistant Superintendent for Operations Jenny Purvis summarized a multi‑year site search and capacity study. Purvis said the district’s consultants recommended a 600‑seat elementary prototype for Area 1 and that the parcel offers “adequate acreage for queuing and future expansion,” is about 2.8 miles from the existing Carthage campus and would avoid the steep grading and wetlands that ruled out several other parcels.

The school board said it followed environmental due diligence. Purvis said contractors from ECS Southeast tested soil samples and that “they were all reported as ‘not detected’” for petroleum impacts; she said a water test detected acetone at a level far below state thresholds and that the official report was available.

Why the matter matters

The procurement and the site choice prompted immediate objections from Carthage town officials, county commissioners and neighbors. Objections focused on process — several residents and commissioners said they learned of the purchase only from public reporting after a tense exchange at a previous school‑board meeting — and on technical concerns including traffic, sewer access and the prospect of development pressure in rural areas.

What the district said it found and what it proposes

The district told the joint meeting it had sought parcels large enough to accommodate a school and a future PAR/IT building without costly site work. Purvis said the chosen site requires minimal earthwork (she described roughly a 30‑foot drop across the parcel versus much larger drops at other candidate sites) and has access to county water at Joel Road. Because sewer is two miles away a force main would be required; Purvis quoted an engineering estimate of about $3,000,000 to install the force main into an upgraded lift station at Cox.

Administration also presented a prototype floor plan intended to reduce design time and cost. Purvis said the prototype could be adjusted for local needs (for example, adding a daycare wing) and that a bid‑ready plan could be produced in roughly two months, allowing early site work to proceed if funding were available. She also presented a preliminary budget figure for a new school in the range discussed by the district (~$40 million), and said delays could add an estimated $2–2.5 million a year to construction cost estimates.

Commissioners and town officials pressed the district on the traffic impacts of moving an elementary school outside the town; district staff said they had consulted N.C. Department of Transportation (DOT) on queuing and planned to design on‑site queuing for up to 800 vehicles and a dedicated bus circulation to keep car riders off the road. Commissioners and residents asked for traffic counts and independent studies; the district said DOT had done only a preliminary feasibility review and that a formal traffic study would be part of final site engineering.

Reaction from commissioners and the public

Town and county officials told the boards they were surprised by the timing and the purchase. Several speakers said the town of Carthage had expected to be consulted before the district closed on the parcel; local elected officials and many nearby residents urged the boards to pause and coordinate in public. A number of residents described the parcel as adjacent to century‑farm properties and expressed concern about truck traffic, pedestrian safety, wetlands and future development pressure.

At the meeting, county commissioners requested a joint public meeting to review the purchase, site infrastructure implications (sewer, water, road improvements) and costs; the boards agreed to continue discussions and to schedule follow‑up work sessions. Commissioners also said they will press for public review of any major bond request linked to the project.

What happened procedurally

The Board of Education told the commissioners it had authorized staff in closed session to move forward with the contract and that the parcel was closed very recently. School officials said that closed‑session authorization was a routine procurement step and that the district sought to be efficient; commissioners and several board members said that authorization should have been paired with earlier, broader outreach to the county and town given the scale of the project.

What’s next

The boards agreed to continue the conversation in a joint public session and to place remaining public comment on the next regular meeting agenda (Nov. 10). District staff said they would provide updated traffic, cost and capacity projections and that any final decisions about funding could be presented to voters if a bond referendum were required.

Provenance: Topic intro: 00:35:23 (school presentation on Carthage parcel) — Topic finish: 02:35:31 (commissioners request joint review).

Speakers (selected): Dr. Tim Locklear, superintendent (presentation/overview); Jenny Purvis, assistant superintendent for operations (site search, testing, costs); Chair Dawn Calcutt, Board of Education (opening remarks); Chairman Jeremy Cook, Board of Commissioners (comments); Commissioners Adams, Von Cannon; board members Benway, Hensley, Bruno, Dr. Dahl (discussion and questions).

Actions (recorded in meeting): - Motion to add a public comment period as agenda item 3, following the Board of Education presentation, under the Board of Education’s public‑comment rules (three minutes per speaker, no response) — motion approved. (mover/second recorded in meeting minutes.) - Board of Education record: staff were authorized to proceed to contract on the land purchase after closed‑session action; district reported the parcel recently closed (purchase price reported in meeting materials: $465,000; additional environmental/geotechnical testing about $25,000). (Vote detail: not specified in public transcript.)

Clarifying details: - Parcel size described as roughly 30 acres; district noted 30‑acre minimum target to allow queuing and future expansion (Purvis). - Purchase price reported by staff: $465,000 plus testing costs (~$25,000). - Estimated sewer force main cost: approximately $3,000,000 (engineer estimate cited by town staff via district). - Proposed Carthage prototype capacity discussed: 600 seats; district said a 600‑seat school would be about 87% full in the district’s Area 1 projection year cited (2034 in the presentation). - Soil testing: ECS Southeast report stated soil borings showed “not detected” for petroleum at tested depths (2–3 ft); water testing detected acetone at a low part‑per‑billion level far below state standards.

Proper names: [{"name":"Moore County Schools","type":"school"},{"name":"Town of Carthage","type":"location"},{"name":"ECS Southeast","type":"organization"},{"name":"ITRI/NC State (projections)","type":"organization"},{"name":"Rhodes & Company (Tim Vindjohn)","type":"business"},{"name":"Pinnacle Architecture","type":"business"}]

Searchable tags: ["Carthage Elementary","school site","school construction","sewer force main","public comment","Moore County"]