NEW HANOVER COUNTY — The future needs of New Hanover High School will be presented to the school board and public next week. Options for the school’s long-term modernization have been reviewed in recent months, with a master plan indicating it could cost anywhere from $137 million to renovate the campus to $280 million to build a new complex altogether.
READ MORE: Commissioners approve more funding for NHHS, despite suggesting it’s a money pit
ALSO: Lifelong Wilmingtonian aims for New Hanover High School to become historic landmark
New Hanover High School has had multiple upgrades and renovations done in the last few decades and is currently having foundational issues and cracks in its walls corrected on the southside of the building. Commissioners approved $9.7 million to cover these repairs and agreed to pay for a long-term needs study, the latter costing $300,000.
Initiated last year, it’s the first full study completed on NHHS since 1999 and will map out overall improvements and associated costs expected to bring the school into the 21st century.
New Hanover High School was built in 1921 and currently has 16 classrooms and more than 10 offices dislocated this school year as crews continue to work on the structure. Plans are to reopen the main campus by the start of the 2025-2026 calendar year; however, it’s been clear throughout the process that even after these repairs are covered, more will be needed.
Last year, the former assistant superintendent of operations, Eddie Anderson, surmised it could cost around $90 million. Those estimates have more than doubled in some areas (see the presentation doc at the end of the article). Though the in-depth study isn’t fully available to the public yet, according to a New Hanover County Schools spokesperson, the board and public will hear from architects LS3P, who will give a presentation proposing three options to address NHHS:
- Build a new school
- Renovate the current one
- Take a hybrid approach that renovates the current campus and includes new construction
Currently present on the school campus are safety challenges, according to the master plan. The goal is to correct issues, including an unsecured bridge and perimeter, 50 access points to the buildings, and an unsafe bus drop-off and dining hall.
The campus also doesn’t meet the North Carolina Department of Instruction recommended square footage for schools. For instance, it lacks just more than 15,000 square feet for core academic spaces, such as undersized science classrooms by almost 7,000 square feet, and undersized dining area and auxiliary gym, both by around 6,000 square feet each.
Also existing are expensive and outdated building systems in air conditioning and heating, electricity and plumbing. All three options in the plan include correcting these areas.
The options
Created by Paramount Engineering, Cheatham and Associates PA, Woods Engineering, Bowman Murray Hemingway Architect and LS3P, the plan indicates a new high school would be roughly $280 million, the most costly of its three suggestions. The campus would include a student union, academic building, dining, performance arts center, gymnasium, auxiliary gym and weight room. Plus, the new campus has multiple parking and athletic areas, including a tennis court and baseball, softball and football fields.
The new school also would need to be constructed on 70 acres, with the land projected to cost $30 million. The almost 310,000-square-foot building would make up the remainder of the price at $250 million.
NHHS’s campus currently is 15 acres, though last month the county announced purchasing a property adjacent to New Hanover High School to add to it. The three-bedroom home is located near 13th and Dock streets, adjacent to the school, on a 0.07-acre lot, and cost $275,000. “The property is the only land on the block not owned by New Hanover County Schools,” according to county documents. The county purchased the property with the goal to make improvements to campus security and for future growth.
Rob Morgan, the assistant superintendent of operations who took over after Anderson retired, told the school board last month the main focus of the plan is to assess how it can prioritize school and student safety, academic programming, operational consistency, and cost. It also measured preservation of its community asset.
New Hanover High School is 104 years old and was voted on earlier this year by the city’s Historic Planning Commission to be added to the study list so the school could potentially become an historic landmark in Wilmington. This was brought forth by local preservationist and real estate developer Gene Merritt in the spring; he made the proposal after a former commissioner suggested last year to tear down the high school and start anew.
Building a new school would pass safety, academic and operational needs, but proves to come with the heftiest price and doesn’t take into account the current structure’s preservation, according to the presentation document shared with PCD.
The renovation-only option is the least expensive at $137 million and passes the threshold of being cost-effective, improving safety and preservation desires. Yet, this option provides challenges still in educational and operational outcomes. By renovating the building, it would not resolve walkway areas and bus drop-off issues, nor correct the space needed for science core academics and dining.
Renovations would include around 225,000-square-feet containing a blend of minimal new construction yet rehabilitation work on the main building, as well as rehabbing Brogden Hall, George West building, Joe Miller Weight Room, and administrative offices.
A four-phase hybrid solution also is put forth, to include both new construction, with a third-story addition, and renovations. The plan would take more than a decade to come to fruition, each phase expected to last three years. Its present cost is estimated at $195 million, though it could tap out at $230 million when taking into account inflation over the 12-year construction timeline.
This suggestion also includes growing the footprint of the school, passing all benchmarks of safety, cost, educational outcomes, operational impact and community asset preservation.
Phase one of the hybrid solution is priced at $60 million, to include securing the perimeter of the school and bridge. The third-story would create 67,500 new square feet of space, to contain an auto shop (4,000 square feet), dining hall and band and orchestra room (19,000 square feet), and student union and culinary arts area (5,000 square feet).
The next phase would cost $75 million and covers renovations to the main high-school building and transforming the former cafeteria into a facility, such as a weight room.
Phase three would be $56 million to secure the walkways with newly built north and south connector buildings, as well as renovations to Brogden Hall. Brogden’s gym floor was last replaced for $3.1 million during the 2020-2021 school year due to foundational issues.
The final phase of the hybrid option is projected to cost around $42 million and includes new construction of an auxiliary gym, as well as renovating the George West building and creating a CTE hub.
How to pay for it
The plan suggests a 2026 bond referendum to cover costs. A bond has been discussed among commissioners and the school board in the last few years to help address the school district’s capital needs. The county funds capital needs and supplements state funding for salaries and operations in the school district.
Stephanie Walker, who was on the school board before being voted as a county commissioner last year, supports putting forth a bond referendum. She told Port City Daily Thursday it’s really the only option to cover these price tags.
“Expenses look so high, no matter what choice we go with in the end,” she said. “And if you’re looking at pockets of money, where would that come from?”
Walker pointed to recent county budget cuts being worrisome and affecting pre-K students and school nurses. She suggested the county’s revenue stabilization fund as a potential option, but with four of the five commissioners’ approval required, she isn’t sure what the appetite is for her colleagues to access the pot of money.
Port City Daily reached out to other commissioners for feedback on the presented options and potential bond; Rob Zapple was the only one to respond by press. The commissioner said he wants to learn more about the numbers, understand design priorities, assess construction phasing, and figure out what kind of impacts it could have on students and teachers before supporting any of the ideas.
Similar to Walker, he added a bond would also need to take into consideration other capital improvement projects the county needs, not just needs for New Hanover High School.
Voters last approved NHCS’ 2014 school bond for $160 million. It included building Porters Neck Elementary School for $16 million, demolishing and rebuilding Blair Elementary School for $17 million, providing new gymnasiums for $10.6 million and $16.4 million for Hoggard and Laney high schools, respectively, among other projects. NHHS received $5.5 million in renovations to its George West building.
Walker sits on the schools board’s 19-member finance committee and said there have been in-depth conversations regarding a bond in recent months, with members asked to rank its priority of projects in the school district. Walker put New Hanover High School at the top of her list, followed by addressing Laney High School’s needs of being overcrowded, and then building a new elementary school at Riverlights to help with growth in that region of the county.
However, a decision to get the bond onto the 2026 ballot for the public to vote on has to be made soon, as Walker said the deadline is Oct. 31.
“So we are talking about a small window of time here,” she pressed.
It was last discussed to bring forth a bond during the 2024 election but nothing came of it. Walker said she would like to have a public joint meeting with the school board to go over the study, discuss what was found and talk about how to move forward.
Though Walker didn’t give an idea of which option she preferred, she said building a new high school in NHHS’s district — downtown Wilmington — didn’t seem feasible.
“There’s not 70 acres where it’s located,” Walker said, adding she also wasn’t in favor of tearing down the school or selling it only for someone else to raze it. “So that doesn’t really seem like an option at all.”
Like the media, commissioners received LS3P’s presentation documents earlier this week. Walker confirmed commissioners met with staff and school board members in the last few months in “2-2-1 meetings” — as to avoid a quorum, which triggers the meeting to be public.
Assistant superintendent of operations, Morgan, told the school board last month the presentation would include all stakeholder input, including from the community-at-large. New Hanover schools staff and students — former and current NHHS alumni — attended an open house in February.
The study team and staff were supposed to present the findings last month but the presentation was pushed back. Morgan said feedback from meetings meant they “had to go back to the drawing board with some things.”
Walker said the presentation she received this week looked somewhat different since she last viewed it, especially with costs not really fleshed out before.
The study’s release
On July 8, the school board will hear LS3P’s presentation at its meeting, open to the public. A spokesperson for NHHS said the full needs assessment report paid for by commissioners is not available yet “and will not be available for some time, and I believe they will speak to that as well” on Tuesday.
Superintendent Chris Barnes mentioned during a public meeting at the end of April that a draft of the study was complete. Port City Daily submitted a public records request for it on May 1 but only the presentation document was turned over on July 1.
Even drafts are considered public record by law, which caused some debate among school board members at its June 3 meeting. Board member Tim Merrick broached the subject and the state statute, pushing for the draft’s release.
“The attorney general has put out a statement that explains the law, that anything that is done, even if it’s just a draft in our schools, is already public information and needs to be shared with the public,” he told his colleagues. “Everything we do, open meetings law, we are a public body. We don’t do anything in private.”
Fellow board member Pat Bradford didn’t think the document should have been made public before completed.
“I appreciate the fact that the plans haven’t been released because they’re not finished,” she said, “and we look forward to the finished product when you bring them to us next month.”
Justice asked if the presentation would be the same as what was already presented to the school board, to which Morgan attested there would be similarities, but said plans have been “evolving.” Justice sided with Merrick and wanted to ensure the public would be informed properly.
“Everything that we see, everything that’s printed is a public record, so in essence, the information they shared with us that day could be out there in the public to give feedback,” Justice said. “We should be proactive about the dialogue … this is going to take a lot of time and a lot of public support.”
Vice Chair Josie Barnhart wanted clarification the public would be able to access the plans in July, to which Morgan confirmed. Below is the presentation document shared with PCD:
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