'It is my bloodline': E.E. Smith student body president weighs in on school's future
E.E. Smith High School was again at the forefront of discussions at this month’s Cumberland County Board of Education meeting, with a student representative saying a new school is needed and a former county commissioner asking that the new location not be on federal property.
The board voted 5-3 last month to recommend county commissioners build a new E.E. Smith High School building at Stryker Golf Course, which abuts Fort Liberty at the end of Bragg Boulevard.
Fort Liberty commander, Lt. Gen. Christopher Donahue, also spoke about the school moving by the installation during a media round table discussion Thursday.
During Tuesday night’s meeting, E.E. Smith student body President Kenneth Williams addressed the board about its previous decisions on E.E. Smith’s relocation.
Williams said he is the fifth generation in his family to attend the school.
“It is my lineage. It is my bloodline,” he said. “Many of my current teachers and coaches were ones that have known me since I was that little boy growing up around the school.”
He told board members that E.E. Smith’s current location, 1800 Seabrook Road, is the school’s fourth location.
It was founded in 1927 on Orange Street before moving to Campbell Avenue in 1929, Washington Avenue in 1941 and its current location in 1954, he said.
“It is now time to move forward to our fifth location,” Williams said. “Both those who stand in affirmation of a new building and those who stand in negative make valid points to their side of the argument.”
More on this topic: E.E. Smith historic status in Fayetteville in spotlight as school could move
New school needed
Williams said that he met with focus groups about the topic before Tuesday night’s meeting and heeded his principal Larry Parker Jr.’s advice to engage his peers for multiple perspectives.
The “resounding majority” of the student body agrees a new school is needed, he said.
“We have reached a point in time where we have no choice but to build our school and build it the right way; one that will propel us into esteem future as not only one of the last standing historically Black high schools but as a premiere school in the state of North Carolina,” Williams said.
The 70-year-old building needs repairs and doesn’t meet the needs of the future. Baseball fields and softball fields aren’t built to regulation, causing students to play games at Ferguson Elementary School, Williams said.
More space is needed for the school’s STEAM academy and Cumberland County Schools' Fire Science Academy, he said.
Location, location, location
The current location doesn't allow room for expansion to accommodate students, Williams said.
He talked about how the only other site, aside from Stryker Golf Course, that district officials considered and then discounted was a flood-risk area further down Murchison Road.
“We should not have to learn at a facility that no longer meets our needs or the needs of the future," Williams said. "We should not be limited in what we can experience as students. We — the student body of E.E. Smith High School — request that our community and school board unify on what is best for us — the students and for our school.”
The school’s current location cannot be replaced, Williams said.
Teachers and coaches are the “heartbeat,” of the school, while students are “on the front lines” to preserve its history and break “new barriers in the future.”
“The sentiment of our location is not something that can be duplicated or recycled, but it will be our identity, our likeness, our image that can never be mass-manufactured, along with our undying traditions and history that we will carry with us to ensure the perpetuity of our future regardless if we are on a city property, county property or federal property,” he said.
Former Cumberland County commissioner's concerns
Former Commissioner Charles Evans followed Williams’ remarks.
Evans said he is not an E.E. Smith alumnus but still has concerns about officials recommending Stryker Golf Course as a potential location for the new school.
He repeated worries raised last month about felons not being allowed on federal property, which Stryker Golf is considered, and candidly told board members he, too, is a former felon. Evans has been transparent about his convictions in 1992 for two counts of felony embezzlement and one count of cocaine possession.
“You’re going to have some parents that would like to be in attendance at some of the things at E.E. Smith but just can’t because they have made mistakes,” Evans said.
He also raised a point about E.E. Smith being moved from the Broadell neighborhood, where, he said, two school superintendents have lived.
“E.E. Smith is one that the Black community takes with pride ... Every time a school is moved from a community, it does something to that community to make it less of a community than what it is," Evans said.
Will E.E. Smith High School move to Fort Liberty site?
'Fort Bragg is our family': How Cumberland County Schools and E.E. Smith are serving students
Fort Liberty commander talks about potential high school relocation
During a media roundtable discussion Thursday, Donahue, senior commander Fort Liberty and the 18th Airborne Corps, said military leaders are having discussions with Cumberland County, state and federal officials.
If E.E. Smith High School is built on Stryker Golf Course, Donahue said, it would be a joint Department of Defense Education Activity, state and federal project.
Because the site is outside the installation’s main gates, Donahue said there would be no extra checks for those wanting access to the school.
He said the school would also keep its name.
“If you go and look at who E.E. Smith was, he fought in the Spanish-American War. He was an ambassador,” Donahue said. “We all know what he did here in this local community.”
Donahue said E.E. Smith means a lot to the Fort Liberty community because it is their high school for where they send their children.
“If there’s any concerns with anybody, we want them to come to that school board meeting and raise it, because again, we want this to be great,” he said.
He said the school additionally would be a traditional high school and STEAM school, which his said could be “the premier” STEAM school in North Carolina.
Staff writer Rachael Riley can be reached at rriley@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3528.
This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: E.E. Smith High: Fayetteville school's future discussed
