Consolidation back on Granville school board's agenda

Nov. 23—OXFORD — School consolidation is back on the table for the Granville County school board, thanks to the district's teacher shortages and its long-term fiscal and enrollment problems.

Board members resumed their discussion of the possibility on Monday, nearly a year after they first decided and then went back on a decision to merge South Granville High School and Granville Central High School.

No decisions were made, and no timeline to make any emerged, but members signaled that elementary schools in the southern end of the county, and the aging G.C. Hawley Middle School, may end up in the crosshairs.

Hanging over the Granville County Public Schools is the expiration in the coming months of federal pandemic aid, which will open a hole in the district's budget. Administrators noted that there's already a goal in place to cut spending by $1.5 million a year to make up for that.

"We're on the clock," school board member Gregory McKnight said. "Federal dollars run out in 2024 and if we don't make a decision, we're going to have to lay some people off. That's just the hard truth. If we take no action, in 2024 somebody's got to get a pink slip."

The consolidation debate is back on the agenda at the urging of Superintendent Alisa McLean and her staff, who while urging passage of an increase in the local teacher supplement and other hiring incentives to address the teacher shortage also said the issue of "school reorganization" needs revisiting.

They cited the possibility of a "significant increase in staffing efficiency," and of freeing up money to help extend the new incentives past the two years the board committed to funding.

The big-picture problem for the Granville district are its enrollment losses to charter schools, which have left all its schools well under capacity.

Officials figure that on average, the district's schools are serving just 63.6% of their optimal capacity. That masks considerable variation on a school-by-school basis.

But none of the district's middle schools, including Hawley and Northern Granville Middle School, even hit the 60% mark. J.F. Webb High School is operating at 49.8%% of capacity. West Oxford Elementary and Butner-Stem Elementary at 72% and 73.1% respectively are the closest to capacity.

McLean's staff gave the board details on where the 2,058 students from Granville County who are attending charter schools instead of the county K-12 system are taking their classes.

They showed that Falls Lake Academy is their most common destination, with that school this year serving 824 students from the county. The largest enrollment at a GCPS facility is at South Granville High, which has 712 students.

GCPS as a whole serves 6,548 students.

Other common charter-school destinations for Granville students are Oxford Prep (510 students), Vance Charter (206), Wake Preparatory Academy (140 or so) and the Franklin Academy (73) in Wake Forest, Voyager Academy in Durham (78), and Henderson Collegiate (50).

All told, 36 charter schools are getting money from the state and Granville County.

"Many of these students have never come to us," said Stan Winborne, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction. "They start kindergarten at a charter school."

Aside from the enrollment issue, Hawley's age and condition have system officials eager to find an alternative for the 489 students who attend that southern Granville facility. Air quality problems — fungus, in short — affecting two classrooms recently needed attention in the form of air scrubbers, cleaning and the replacement of ceiling tiles.

Previous estimates suggest Hawley needs $5.2 million to address maintenance backlogs.

Some board members indicated that they see a potential solution in the merger of a couple elementary schools in the southern end of the county, freeing up one of the buildings to become a middle school to replace Hawley.

Another possibility, board Chairwoman Glenda Williams noted, is instituting K-8 programs that can serve as an alternative to a traditional middle-school setups that's unpopular with "a lot of parents."

Contact Ray Gronberg at rgronberg@hendersondispatch.com or by phone at 252-436-2850.