Meadow Lane becomes concern
By Steve Herring
Published in News on May 9, 2016 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/ALAN CAMPBELL
Meadow Lane Elementary School on Ash Street has been a point of concern in the military community. The facility's condition has developed a perception of Wayne County schools being substandard.
Concerns about facilities conditions at Meadow Lane Elementary School have fueled a series of behind-the-scenes meetings that have been ongoing for several weeks now.
The informal gatherings have revealed another concern and raised the alarm among local leaders that the conditions have created a perception in the military community that Wayne County schools are not very good.
The meetings, attended by Goldsboro and county elected officials and staff, and representatives from the Wayne County Chamber's Military Affairs Commission and Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, came to light when they were mentioned in passing Tuesday during a joint session of Wayne County commissioners and the Board of Education.
"We had a very good meeting the other night over with the (Seymour Johnson Air Force Base) Commander Col. (Mark) Slocum," school board Chairman Chris West said. "(Wayne County Manager) Mr. (George) Wood was there. (Wayne County Commission Chairman) Mr. (Joe) Daughtery was there. The (Goldsboro) mayor (Chuck Allen) was there.
"Any of us there who didn't clearly hear the cry from the military about the facility at Meadow Lane -- we weren't on the same page. I am telling you that made it very, very clear. The BRAC Commission has even made it very clear. I think Meadow Lane was actually brought up in their last study."
"I think the perception from the military about Wayne schools is that they are not good," Superintendent Dr. Michael Dunsmore said. "I can assure when you come out and look through these buildings at what these kids are doing -- they are great. We have got to get that message out."
Dunsmore said Allen and City Manager Scott Stevens had brought him up to speed on the city's multi-sports complex to be built near Meadow Lane.
"One of the things that is really going to be, in my opinion, a huge eyesore to that facility is Meadow Lane Elementary," Dunsmore said. "One of the things when they come to Seymour Johnson Air Force Base they can't miss is Meadow Lane Elementary."
The grassroots effort to focus attention on Meadow Lane has been building for several weeks, but really came together April 25, West said after Tuesday's meeting.
There have been no formal gatherings, and representatives at each of the meetings have not been consistent until recently, he said.
Tuesday's joint meeting touched on several issues, including facilities. But most of the conversation on facilities honed in on Meadow Lane with Dunsmore laying the groundwork for the pressing need for a new school.
"Dr. Dunsmore, you started out with Meadow Lane," school board member Arnold Flowers said. "I detected some body language and some urgency there. I think probably the main thing in this is maybe our military standing in relationship with Seymour Johnson field, and they are possibly looking at another round of BRAC.
"In regards to that site what you are recommending is to demolish the current school and build a completely new school?"
"If I was making a recommendation to the board, my recommendation would be to build a new school beside it and then demolish it," Dunsmore said.
Typically a K-5 elementary school would be a two-story building, he said.
For Meadow Lane the replacement building would be an approximately 75,534-square-feet facility based on state and federal guidelines for the number of students it would house, Dunsmore said.
The cost is estimated at $17.7 million.
There are currently approximately 650 students at the school, but a new school would be built to allow for some expansion of maybe up to 800 or 900 students, he said.
Dunsmore said the base recently sent out 600 surveys to military personnel.
"We vetted that and we added things," he said. "They had a tremendous response and a lot the comments that we read -- 'tremendous staff, you have great people at Meadow Lane. The building is horrible. I wouldn't put my child there.' These are the ones who weren't going there.
"I went over to the base meeting. I had a mother who was mad at me for a child she had in private school. I said, 'Ma'am. I can't help you with that.' She said, 'I just want you to know that as bad as it is there, I still won't put them in Meadow Lane.' That hurt because what am I going to tell her?"
The economic impact that Seymour Johnson Air Force Base has over Wayne County is tremendous, West said.
"We have a school siting right there that adjoins their property that is the reason a lot of the airmen don't even live in Wayne County," West said. "They drive back here because they send their kids to a school in Johnston County, any school system around us because Meadow Lane School is in bad repair."
Yet a look at test scores shows that Meadow Lane is one of the school system's better-performing schools, Dunsmore said.
"I have great people there," he said. "I have great kids. But it is just a facility that is causing the situation. I know we have a tour scheduled to get you out to look at some of the buildings. My goal with that is to show you the great things, not just the repairs, because what we have going on in those school buildings is absolutely phenomenal."
Slocum has invited commissioners to tour Meadow Lane and Eastern Wayne elementary schools and Spring Creek Middle School from 1 to 4 p.m. on Wednesday, May 11.
"We have some work to do at Meadow Lane," Dunsmore said. "It's old. My fear is the safety and security of this campus. We are sitting right next to one of the top military bases in the world."
Yet, Dunsmore told the two boards they could walk out the door, go over to Meadow Lane, walk into the building and into any classroom.
"That scares me to death," he said. "So the other issue is that as we look at people coming in and out of Goldsboro and Wayne County, Seymour Johnson, I believe some of you heard Col. Slocum say, and help me out, mayor, (the base brings in) somewhere around $570 million a year in revenue into this town.
"He will also say, 'Dunsmore, I have people that are living in a campground and won't bring their kids to school.' I can go on the parents' Facebook page and they are going to say, 'Don't go there because of Meadow Lane.' Folks, this building is really hurting us."
To renovate Meadow Lane to make it secure so there is only one entrance in and out so the staff knows who is coming in and out isn't feasible, Dunsmore said.
"They are going to tell you with those projections it is better off to start anew," he said. "One of our goals is swipe cards across all of our buildings like here (central office). So if this building is locked and Mike Dunsmore comes through the door, we know what time he came in, how long he was here. And I have cameras that probably tell you everything I did while I was here. Every one of our elementaries in this county has no cameras. When we built, that was the technology.
"You moved elementaries out in the wide open spaces. That was because everybody was safe and happy. Those days have changed. We know that from what happened in Massachusetts and some other areas. So, that's one of our goals with technology now because of cameras and swipe cards. We have to get that. That helps us cut down on human capital because I don't have people sitting at the doors all the time. So that is another thing we are working on behind the scenes."
"I think 44 percent of the students at Meadow Lane are military," Daughtery said. "Well, that means that the majority of these are Wayne County citizens."
"As Col. Slocum and I talk, we don't want to say that one child is more important than the other," Dunsmore said.
Commissioner John Bell said he did not want people to get the wrong impression about the base.
"I am a career military person," he said. "This happens all over the country and around the world. They check on the educational opportunities that's available locally. So it is not Col. Slocum or anybody just picking on, it is all over."