PENDER COUNTY — Delayed by a month, the Pender County School Board pushed back its decision on choosing a contractor and architect to oversee Topsail Middle School adaptive reuse project. After three presentations were given, the board decided it needed more time to digest the information.
Board member Beth Burns made the motion to postpone the vote. She noted during the meeting all contenders were compelling — TA Loving and LS3P, Monteith and BMH, and Bordeaux and Mosley.
To Port City Daily on Thursday, Burns added: “There were a lot of options that we weren’t expecting, at least that I should say that I wasn’t expecting … I wanted to make sure that we all had a little bit more time, sit back, think about it.”
The board unanimously agreed to take up a vote at its June 9 meeting instead.
READ MORE: Pender County Schools identifies $6.5M in needs amid county budget disarray
The renovations are being covered by a bond referendum passed by voters in 2022. Pender County requested $177.7 million in general obligation bonds, approved by the Local Government Commission. Community members voted in favor by 53 percent, with an increase of 9.25 cents on their property taxes to cover five projects overall in the Pender County schools system to address overcrowding.
Currently, Topsail High is home to 1,883 students and is over capacity by 483 students, according to Pender Schools spokesperson Bob Fankboner. The high school shares a campus with Topsail Elementary and Topsail Middle in Hampstead. Transforming the 111,000 square-foot middle school could help free up space for high-school students, as around 830 middle-schoolers will move to the new J.H. Lea K-8 campus starting in the 2027-2028 school year.
Fankboner said it’s premature to speculate how many people the new two-building campus will house once renovations are complete, since the scope of plans have yet to be decided. Nor was there a price proposed.
While the bond is covering $22 million for the project, according to Fankboner, the final cost “will depend on the scope of the project, which has not yet been determined.”
The three teams presented to the board an outline of their ideas, ranging from refreshing the current middle school to complete demolition. But the board ultimately decides what’s finalized and Burns said this early in the game they didn’t have pricing on anything.
TA Loving and LS3P unveiled three possible approaches: renovation, replacement, and hybrid.
For the renovation option, they would focus on refreshing and re-envisioning the campus with a new student drop-off loop, a walkway connecting the two buildings, address code and building envelope issues, as well as safety upgrades. The TA Loving and LSP teams said of the three, renovation would be the least disruptive and the cheapest option of the three they presented.
Next, TA Loving suggested a full replacement. Under this framework, it would require complete demolition of the current middle school and not rebuilding. Instead, the extra space would be used to create a secondary entrance, expand student and athlete parking, and relocate the bus access. To add capacity, the team suggested building an addition to the current high school building for more classroom space.
Combining aspects of renovation and replacement, the hybrid approach would connect the middle school’s new building and gymnasium to form athletic and ROTC spaces. Parking would be expanded and buses would be moved. Out of TA Loving and LS3P’s design possibilities, the hybrid approach is the most flexible in terms of designing to the budget.
Monteith and BMH focused on rehabilitation only to ensure the school becomes more efficient with safe circulation.
“Many of us standing up here today are Topsail High School and Middle School parents so this job is personal for us,” Montieth project executive Drew Rintelmann said.
The design would include upgrades on HVAC, roof, building envelopes, ADA needs, windows, overall structure, electrical and plumbing, a new fire sprinkler system, and other needs.
Another area for potential renovations are the rooms in the middle school’s administration area, which do not currently meet the typical 850 square-foot for rooms in a high school, as recommended by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. The 8th grade wing and select science classrooms will only require a refresh — such as new paint jobs to match the rest of the renovations — since they already meet the standard.
The team also designed a student loading zone with a canopy, extra parking, an additional lane for queuing, improved function for the roundabout, and enhanced pedestrian safety.
The final team to present, Bordeaux and Mosley, are already working with Pender County School District on the construction of J.H. Lea. It’s slated to open in August 2027 off N.C. Highway 210 in Hampstead for K through 8th grade and will house around 2,300 students.
The focus of the Bordeaux and Mosley demonstration included repurposing and refreshing Topsail Middle School, such as improving science classrooms, having roller doors, new lighting, pull-down wheels on the ceiling for electrical cords, and removing the ceilings in career and technical education classrooms, a media center, and a dining commons.
Chair Don Hall seemed favorable to Bordeaux and Moseley.
“I think we would get more personalized service with a smaller company,” Hall said, intimating a smaller company would prioritize the renovation over a larger company with more high-profile projects.
“I think we’re definitely the smallest,” Ben Warren, from Bordeaux, quipped in response.
“I think we’ve worked with you guys for long enough now, we know exactly what you’re capable of,” Burns added. “I think we’ve got a good working relationship with all of you.”
Upon exiting, Hall attempted to adjourn the meeting before Burns stepped in noting it was an action item that needed a vote. That’s when she introduced a motion for its delay.
The planning process for construction on Topsail Middle School is anticipated to begin soon after the board selects a firm; no known environmental issues such as mold, asbestos, or lead was identified at the campus that would require remediation, according to the RFQ documents. Fankboner said it’s unlikely students will be in the building during phased construction.
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