PENDER COUNTY — A staggered bell schedule, several-times considered by Pender County school board members, may have to become a reality to address traffic concerns and obtain a driveway permit from the North Carolina Department of Transportation.
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NCDOT District 1 Engineering Supervisor Kirsten Spirakis and project engineer Tammy Germiller joined the Pender County Board of Education via video call Tuesday to discuss the transportation aspect of its K-8 school under construction. Planned off Highway 210 in Hampstead, the school will make room for 2,300 elementary and middle schoolers in the at-capacity district.
Though the school will have one mile of queuing on the K-8 campus, NCDOT expects traffic to back up significantly on Highway 210, a two-lane lane road.
“It’s not a great idea to put two large schools together at one site,” Germiller said.
Because of the traffic impact, NCDOT is requiring an approved traffic impact analysis before issuing a driveway permit. The district has already submitted a draft TIA, but is now in the process of reviewing NCDOT’s recommendations on traffic mitigation before final submission and a formal decision.
The draft was submitted with roundabouts on Highway 210, as Bordeaux Construction project manager Ben Warren told the board at its Sept. 10 meeting. He said his staff felt they had been directed not to implement traffic signals, but NCDOT rejected the roundabouts, noting they would not work on the highway and would cost too much.
“The TIA was looking at two different scenarios, or was supposed to, one for non-staggered and one for staggered bell,” Germiller said. “I believe all that was looked at was non-staggered and the recommendation was a dual-lane roundabout, which we don’t build and would be at minimal cost of $5 million. So if that was actually a finalized TIA, I could have rejected it.”
The biggest point of contention is the recommendation PCS adopt a staggered bell schedule, having elementary school students arrive at a different time than middle schoolers. This wouldn’t have to occur until the school opened in 2027.
The board has discussed moving the entire district to a staggered schedule in the past, even voting to do so in June 2024 before walking it back a few days later. The latest review ended in a rejection due to concerns over disruptions to afterschool and family schedules, especially for families with students on different timetables.
Thus, NCDOT’s suggestion to adopt different start times has been met with resistance from some board members.
At the board’s Sept. 10 meeting, Hall questioned NCDOT’s authority to impose a staggered bell schedule on PCS.
“They honestly can’t tell us how to run a school system,” board chair Don Hall said. “They don’t have that right, just like we don’t have the right to tell them how to run a highway. I, for one, ain’t having it.”
At the same meeting, school board member Beth Burns was more understanding why NCDOT proposed a staggered schedule and suggested the board look to adopt one in the future.
Germiller said a staggered bell schedule is “a given” when districts propose co-locating schools on one site. She highlighted one school NCDOT is working with, another 2,300-student school, that did not implement the suggested staggered bell schedule.
“It’s been blowing up the highway, cars parked on the highway, parents can’t get in, can’t get out,” Germiller said. “They’re not staggering like they were recommended to, and when they opened, they did not put in their recommended improvement. So emergency vehicles needed on site couldn’t get on site.”
Hall asked if the school was punished for those actions. Germiller said they could have their driveway permit taken away, though NCDOT has not done so thus far. She added the same charter school wanted to expand, but NCDOT is denying it because of unfollowed directions.
Hall consulted the board’s legal counsel, Brandon McPherson, to ask if NCDOT could take away a driveway permit; McPherson confirmed it was in their purview.
State law gives NCDOT the authority to establish policies and adopt rules concerning the size, location, direction of traffic flow, and the construction of driveway connections into any street or highway that is a part of the NCDOT system.
“It’s just kind of odd a school that size would basically say no to everything and that they exist right now,” Hall said.
At the Sept. 10 meeting, Hall also criticized NCDOT for not offering to come to a meeting to discuss the K-8 school and its TIA, though a rep had attended one prior to that meeting.
“We’ve got thousands of people that are waiting on the thing to be built, and at any time, if they delay it, that’s just bad for everybody,” Hall said. “I just hope they realize that some things, you know, if we ever feel there’d be a problem delaying it, there are other actions we can take. We can also subpoena them to be here.”
However, NCDOT put the ball in the school district’s court on Tuesday. Germiller reminded the board it does not have a finalized TIA. Spirakis said the next step has to be decided by the board and its traffic engineer before resubmittal of the final TIA.
At the Sept. 10 meeting, Warren said progress on the K-8 campus was not being held-up by the TIA process at this point. He said he was planning to incorporate NCDOT’s various comments and resubmit the TIA soon.
“We have to show that we’ve exhausted some other options that they’ve requested,” Warren said.
Warren said most of the site had been cleared as of Aug. 22. Filling the site — by bringing in 285,000 yards of dirt — was 13% complete at that time as well.
In a bit of good news, Warren also reported construction bids have come in and costs are now anticipated to be $10 million less than projected. That will bring the school total so far to $136 million.
Overall, the project is on schedule.
[Editor’s Note: The piece has been updated to reflect NCDOT virtually attended a meeting prior to the one on Sept. 24.]
Reach journalist Brenna Flanagan at brenna@localdailymedia.com.
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