Space constraints
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on November 6, 2014 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/MELISSA KEY
Students in Jennifer Breeze's Introduction to Derivatives class take notes in a modular classroom on the campus of Eastern Wayne High School. Modular units serve to alleviate overcrowding at more than half the public schools in Wayne County.
Temporary classrooms. Modular units. Trailers. Educational cottages.
No matter which term you choose, Wayne County Public Schools has nearly 110 of these spaces in various shapes and sizes.
Twenty of the 31 county schools rely on them in some form or fashion -- primarily classrooms or storage -- and the district also uses a handful for offices, such as for the Child Nutrition Department. Rosewood High and Mount Olive Middle schools have converted older models into concession stands on their campuses.
They have served to offset population shifts creating a surplus of students over the years.
"We have had mobile units for years," WCPS Superintendent Dr. Steven Taylor said, adding that it is a universal situation for school systems. "It's a moving target every year with the population."
For as long as he can remember, Taylor said relying on modular units has been a reliable alternative to permanent space increases.
"The need for mobile units comes in when you have a population explosion or expansion you didn't anticipate," he said. "But it also comes in when you don't have the funds to build, and the temporary (units) are the best you can do to house those children.
"If you're domiciled in a school attendance zone, you're entitled to go to that school. We have to budget the space."
The units vary in size and cost. Depending on the amenities, most of them run between $40,000 and $50,000. Additional costs could include plumbing, electrical and other hook-ups. Funds to purchase them come from capital outlay.
They also have to meet city and county codes and be inspected and approved by the respective agencies.
The units can be bought or leased, Taylor said.
"Typically we buy them. It is almost as cheap as it is to lease," he said.
"The board's first option is never to put a mobile unit at a school, but we have to do it within our means."
In recent years, the district has been buying more quads, four double-wide trailers put together.
As they are needed elsewhere, they can be shifted around. Eastern Wayne High School currently has 14 classrooms in a larger modular unit that were transferred there once the Eastern Wayne Middle School construction was completed.
But in some areas, where there are growing numbers of students with nowhere else to go, more modular units pop up on campus and stay there.
Charles B. Aycock High School, the district's largest high school, has a unit that was built in 1967. The school currently has 14 units, while Spring Creek and Northwest elementary schools have 16 and 13, respectively.
The trailers are not designed to be a permanent structure, but if maintained, stand up well until funding is available to build.
"I think it's important to note that if you look at our Phase I facilities plan (from 2007), these schools like Aycock and Spring Creek Elementary, they'll be reduced down once those additional classrooms are put in," Taylor said. "I don't think we ever had in mind that these mobile units would stay there forever.
"The goal of the board through the facilities plan was to eliminate as many as possible."
That was the case when construction was completed at two other schools on the plan, Eastern Wayne and Norwayne middle schools.
When the district completes two new middle schools at Grantham and Spring Creek, along with the 20-classroom addition at Aycock, the next steps will be renovation projects at Goldsboro High School and additional classrooms at Spring Creek Elementary. The facilities plan also proposes two new schools in the northern end of the county, an elementary and middle school.
"Obviously the two new schools have yet to be built. They will be major endeavors," the superintendent said. "My thinking is we can eliminate a lot of those mobile units."
Ideally, every student in Wayne County would be walking the hallways of pristine new school buildings.
Short of that, modular units are practical and fortunately, Taylor said, most understand that they meet a pressing need.
"I don't hear complaints from parents, because (students are) not in those mobile units all day long," he said. "Typically they'll go in and they have a class and go back in to the (main) building. They're just part of a facility. It's used during the day but not all day."
Appearance is another concern. At Spring Creek Elementary, for example, Taylor said there is no room to add any more unless they were put in the parking lot.
"When you look at the aesthetics, obviously we don't have them out front," he said. "But I think it's kind of a necessary evil. If we had plenty of money and we needed to build permanent structures we would do that. But we have to do the best that we can with these."