Estimated cost for new E.E. Smith High School goes up to $90M, school official says

Steve DeVane, The Fayetteville Observer
·2 min read

The estimated cost for a new E.E. Smith High School has gone up $10 million, a school official said Tuesday.

Joe Desormeaux, the school system’s associate superintendent of auxiliary services, told the Cumberland County Board of Education’s auxiliary services committee that he thinks the estimated cost of a new school is now $90 million. Earlier estimates had placed the cost at about $80 million.

Desormeaux did not elaborate on the cost during the meeting, but a school system spokesman said later that the estimate went up because the market has increased.

E.E. Smith High School is now on Seabrook Road in Fayetteville. The Cumberland County Board of Education is discussing the possibility of a new E.E. Smith High School, but the location has not been determined.
E.E. Smith High School is now on Seabrook Road in Fayetteville. The Cumberland County Board of Education is discussing the possibility of a new E.E. Smith High School, but the location has not been determined.

“All costs are going up because of the pandemic,” Lindsay Whitley, the spokesman, said in an email. “The estimates provided are rough estimates/targets.”

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Desormeaux said Tuesday that he told a task force looking at issues related to building a new E.E. Smith High School that the search for a design company is on hold pending additional information about funding and a location.

The school board's committee considered potential architects to design the new school in October, but could not reach a decision after committee members raised concerns about a former Cumberland County Schools employee’s connection to the recommended firm and questioned the process used to select the company.

More: E.E. Smith project on hold after Cumberland school board panel fails to act on recommendation

Desormeaux said the task force talked about possible funding sources for the school, including limited obligation bonds, general bonds, the county’s multi-year Capital Improvement Plan, grants, the Department of Defense, other county sources and the school’s system’s fund balance, Desormeaux said. The task force discussion focused on the possibility that funding would be available, he said.

Desormeaux said that even if the school system gets a $50 million grant for the school, it might have to come up with an additional $40 million to pay for the facility.

The task force talked about a possible location for the new school, but no area has been identified as a target, Desormeaux said. The task force discussed the possibility of hiring a consultant to help with finding a place for the school, he said.

“Funding and location were key points in this,” he said.

The committee did not discuss the search for an architect to design the new school on Tuesday.

At the meeting in October, the discussion became somewhat contentious when a board member who isn’t on the committee raised questions about whether two other board members should be involved in the process. One of those board members then raised questions about that board member’s logic in reaching that opinion.

Local news editor Steve DeVane can be reached at sdevane@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3572.

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: New E.E. Smith High School to cost around $90 million