Serving Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, and other towns of the North Carolina High Country
Founded 05-05-05
February 23, 2006 issue
What’s Up with Watauga High School?
Story by Kathleen McFadden
To understand the current debate over Watauga County High School, flash back to April 2003 when then-Superintendent Dr. Richard Jones delivered a “State of the Schools” presentation at a special educational summit hosted by the Boone Area Chamber of Commerce. The summit’s focus was one topic: what to do about the high school?
Jones enumerated the many problems with the facility and proposed five potential solutions: expand and renovate the current school; renovate the current school and build a second new high school; build two new high schools and sell the current facility; build a separate ninth grade school; or develop a satellite campus for arts and technology.
Jones called strongly for the summit participants to begin the process of finding a solution immediately and suggested that the next step was to convene meetings of parents and interested residents at each school.
Following the education summit, Watauga County Schools prepared a brochure summarizing the problems with the current high school facility, listing the five options Jones suggested at the summit and providing a comparison of small versus large schools to highlight some of the issues that would be involved in constructing two county high schools. The brochure was distributed to parents via their school children and was also publicized as being available to all interested residents.
At the time, some community members and elected officials questioned the seriousness of the problems at the school and the need for multimillion dollar capital improvements. To illustrate the school’s many facilities problems, Watauga High School officials and members of the Board of Education invited the county commissioners on a guided tour of the high school in May 2003.
Jones retired shortly afterward and the Board of Education selected Dr. Bobbie Short as the district’s new superintendent. Short officially began work on July 1, 2003, and continued the high school dialog Jones had begun.
In September 2003, the Board of Education hired educational consultant Sue Robertson to spearhead a countywide feasibility study to sort through the many options and considerations related to the high school. At that stage of the process, what to do about the high school wasn’t the only decision on the table. Additional questions were whether to leave the K-8 schools as is, split off the upper grades into a county middle school or split off a different student cohort into a county junior high school.
Short and Robertson appeared before the county commissioners in October 2004 to inform the board of the plans for the feasibility study and to invite one of the commissioners to participate in the process as a “key communicator” on the high school feasibility study committee—a group of stakeholders who would be responsible for summarizing the data from the feasibility study, identifying the most promising options from an initial field of 18 and making a final recommendation to the Board of Education. Commissioner Keith Honeycutt accepted the invitation to serve on the committee.
By April 2004, the Board of Education had conducted in-school meetings at every elementary school to obtain parent and student input and had held two community-wide meetings to present the findings from the surveys and the most viable options identified by the feasibility study committee. Also by April 2004, the key communicators had completed their work and their final recommendation was that the Board of Education build one new consolidated high school, either on the existing site or at a new site.
Representing the study committee, Cindy Walker made the presentation to the board and said that the estimated cost of a new high school would be $40 to $50 million.
Acting on the committee’s recommendation, the Board of Education initially searched for a possible alternative site for the school, but abandoned the idea when the search committee was unable to find acceptable land. From that point, the board has pursued the new-school option, working with SfL+a Architects of Charlotte. The current estimate for the new facility is $43 million, well under the upper-level estimate Walker presented to the board two years ago.
Now fast forward to February 2006.
In the past month, a group opposed to the cost of a new high school has organized to push for renovation of the current facility. The group—a registered political action committee called RID (Republicans, Independents, Democrats) Citizens for the Restoration of Watauga High School—are holding regular meetings and placing full-page ads in local newspapers (including this one) to protest the demolition of the current facility, to push for a feasibility study of a wholesale renovation and to suggest that ad valorem taxes in Watauga County will have to increase by another $0.34 to pay for the school.
To complicate the situation even more, within the last week, an unnamed party has made an offer to purchase the current high school site for an undisclosed amount. The Board of Education has suspended design activities on the new high school pending a decision about the offer.
This week’s edition of High Country News includes a report on the most recent meeting of RID (Republicans, Independents, Democrats) Citizens for the Restoration of Watauga High School, as well as a public statement from Superintendent Bobbie Short that addresses many of the high school issues.
Current Proposed
Classrooms 74 82
Class Size 660-1,020 sq. ft. 750-1,200 sq. ft.
Cafeteria 4,300 sq. ft. 5,500 sq. ft.
Kitchen 1,976 sq. ft. 3,690 sq. ft.
Auditorium 3,570 sq. ft. 5,400 sq. ft.
Stage 1,190 sq. ft. 3,500 sq. ft
Auto Tech 3,720 sq. ft. 8,500 sq. ft.
Welding 2,200 sq. ft. 3,200 sq. ft.
Media 7,414 sq. ft. 8,400 sq. ft.
Total School 198,700 sq. ft 238,957 sq. ft.
For the complete listing, click to www.watauga.k12.nc.us/whs/specs.htm.