Will E.E. Smith High School move to Fort Liberty site?
Discussions during the Cumberland County School Board meeting Thursday night about a site for a new E.E. Smith High School drew claps, scoffs and muttering from the crowd, along with remarks from the school superintendent who said he wanted to speak up for himself.
Board members voted 5-3 Thursday night to propose the Stryker Golf Course site abutting Fort Liberty at the end of Bragg Boulevard as a possible location for the new E.E. High School building.
District officials said that while the golf course site, which is outside of Fort Liberty’s gates but is still federal land, is the only “viable” site for the new school at this time, the recommendation doesn't necessarily mean that’s where the new E.E. Smith school will be located.
Board Vice Chair Nathan Warfel and Board members Alicia Chisolm, Donna Vann, Jacquelyn Brown and Greg West were in favor of presenting the information to Cumberland County commissioners.
Board member Susan Williams was not at Thursday night’s meeting.
Board members Carrie Sutton and Judy Musgrave voted in opposition, along with Board President Deanna Jones, who received support from several audience members who are E.E. Smith alumni.
The school, originally opened in 1927 on the second floor of the Orange Street School, is named after Ezekiel Ezra Smith, an African American Fayetteville educator and statesman from the late 1800s.
The current building at 1800 Seabrook Road, which houses the historically Black school, was built in 1953.
It is also a host high school for students who live on Fort Liberty.
What alumni are saying
Alexis Andre, who is a 1991 E.E. Smith High School graduate and chair of the school’s National Association of E.E. Smith Alumni Association and Friends Inc., told The Fayetteville Observer on Friday that alumni have not been part of official discussions about the new school.
Andre, who briefly spoke at Thursday night's meeting, said alumni have attended public forums while discussions about a new high school have been ongoing for at least 15 years.
“It’s been a long conversation without us knowing anything and hearing bits and pieces, which is why I called for honesty and transparency last night,” she said by phone Friday.
Andre said she supported Sutton’s motion Thursday night for School Board members, commissioners, alumni and the community to work together before recommending a site to county commissioners.
Sutton’s motion was supported by Musgrave and Jones, but the other Board members present voted against it, which caused audience members to say "Wow."
“I agree with (Sutton, Musgrave and Jones) — what’s the urgency now?” Andre asked.
Andre said some alumni have asked the district to research how Charlotte-Mecklenburg officials handled a school that needed a new building at a site that appeared to be landlocked.
School documents state that the land where E.E. Smith is currently located doesn't meet the Department of Public Instruction's land-size requirement.
Charlotte school officials were able to restructure their school while children attended, and it is “now in better shape,” Andre said.
“We’ve asked (Cumberland County school district officials) to call to find out what happened to see if is possible to work for us, but have not gotten an answer back,” she said.
Andre said alumni want to know where the engineering firm working with the district to evaluate land is from, and want to see other options that aren't on post.
“Based on the meeting last night, it came across as if this is it and the only piece of land that is suitable to build this high school on,” she said. “There’s plenty of land in Fayetteville. We’re not New York City or California. You can’t tell us there is no other place to build our illustrious high school.”
Sharon McDonald-Evans, another E.E. Smith alumna and member of the alumni association’s board, also spoke at Thursday night’s meeting before the board’s vote.
McDonald-Evans said her father and uncle are veterans of the 82nd Airborne Division and used to play golf at Stryker Golf Course, but alumni are concerned if a new E.E. Smith High School were to be located there.
“We need to hear about other options, other locations and things of that nature. We also need to hear about why you can’t consider building on the (current) property," she told the school board. “Everybody wants a new school. However, we want what’s best for all of us, and want transparency to occur.”
Harrie and Deidra Reid and TaWanna Robinson-Kirk, all alumni of E.E. Smith and who sat in the audience, said they attended because they are also opposed to the golf course site.
'E.E. Smith is in your heart': Alumni, students say legacy means more than school's location
What happened at the board meeting?
Ahead of Thursday night’s vote, Kevin Coleman, associate superintendent for auxiliary services, said the county had proposed another site near the intersection of the Interstate 295 bypass off Murchison Road, but school district officials have not received detailed information about the land.
Coleman said staff recommended presenting the Stryker Golf Course location to commissioners to “progress the project” and facilitate discussions with county commissioners.
Sutton, who received applause from the audience at Thursday night’s meeting after her remarks, said she was not at last week’s auxiliary committee meeting when auxiliary members decided to move the discussion forward because she was attending her brother's funeral.
“I apologize to the community for the confusion and the uproar that this has created. As a Board member, I have made it very clear on many occasions that I do not support a military base site, or E.E. Smith being put on a federal landscape,” Sutton said.
Sutton said one concern about the location is that parents who have felonies are not allowed access to federal sites. She said she also thinks conversations are being rushed.
Andre, the alumni president, said some with criminal histories want to leave the past behind and be part of their children's lives, but prohibiting their access to school property for sporting events, parent-teacher conferences or awards ceremonies would prevent them from being able to support their children.
Musgrave, who once taught at E.E. Smith High School and has a daughter who graduated from the school, also does not support the school being on the golf course and said she thinks the school district should present commissioners with more alternatives.
“You will never get me to throw away the legacy and history of the great E.E. Smith,” Musgrave said.
She further expressed frustration that her vote against the recommendation, as well as the votes of Sutton and Jones, wouldn’t matter because of the majority supported the staff recommendation and she accused the board members who supported the recommendation of having loyalty "to the mutual admiration society” of superintendent Marvin Connelly Jr.
The comment sparked Connelly to address the board, at times pointedly defending himself.
Superintendent speaks up
Connelly told the Board that several months ago, staff was asked by the majority of the Board to coordinate having a professional company look at the Stryker Golf Course site.
“This is not about loyalty to Dr. Connelly,” he said, referring to himself in third person. “This is about doing what the Board of Ed directed."
Connelly said if any other sites were presented to staff, they would be looked at with the “same due diligence.”
Coleman said seven other areas have been assessed, but none are feasible sites because they are in wetlands.
Musgrave questioned the urgency of Thursday night’s vote and asked if someone was promised a new school by a particular date.
Connelly said that when he was hired by the school district five years ago, the Board told him building a new E.E. Smith High School was a priority.
“Therefore, the last five years I have given effort to find to get a new, innovative, state-of-the-art, 21st-century high school built for our students to learn in,” he said. “That's my only objective.”
Cumberland County wants to build two new schools. Here's why.
Where should a new E.E. Smith High School be located?
Federal land, and why no other site considerations?
School Board Attorney Nick Sojka said that based on preliminary conversations, if E.E. Smith were to move to the golf course, it would be similar to the county's Bill Hefner and W.T. Brown elementary schools, which are also on federal property and subject to long-term leases.
Andre, the alumni president, said there are concerns about entering into a 50-year lease with the military.
There is also concern that if E.E. Smith were to be put on Fort Liberty, its name would change, she said.
“It would not be E.E. Smith High School,” Andre said.
Connelly said other sites assessed won’t work, and indicated the county site on Murchison Road may require seizing private property from landowners under eminent domain, which he said the School Board has no authority over.
“It's been a conversation for the last 15 years. If you call that fast, I don’t know. But what I'll say is I’ll do whatever you as a Board of Education direct me to do as superintendent,” he said.
Directing his comments toward Musgrave, Connelly said that Board members have signed an ethics document with the state saying that they will support a Board majority vote.
“We don’t have to build a new E.E. Smith as far as I’m concerned, I’ll do whatever the Board directs me to do,” he said firmly, using his hands for emphasis and drawing a few gasps from the audience. “Let me finish — what I do not appreciate is when the Board directs staff to bring back information for Board members to sit here and say they’re being loyal to Dr. Connelly. That is not appropriate, and I’m not going to sit here and put up with stuff like that without speaking up.”
Musgrave seemed to take issue with Connelly's tone, nothing there there aren’t many situations “where someone argues” with their employer.
With discussions becoming heated, Jones called for order and said she said she thinks a state-of-the-art school can be placed anywhere, but she prefers E.E. Smith High School to stay in its current neighborhood and not on a military post.
After Warfel's motion passed to present the golf course feasibility assessment to commissioners, several in the audience said “wow.”
Connelly said county commissioners will have the final say on where the new school is built.
Andre said alumni representatives plan to attend the next Cumberland County Board of Commissioners meeting Tuesday.
She encouraged alumni and members of the community to attend the 6:55 p.m. meeting at the Cumberland County Courthouse, 117 Dick St.
Staff writer Rachael Riley can be reached at rriley@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3528.
This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Why alumni don't want a new E.E. Smith High School on Fort Liberty
