Board approves Pinnacle for design
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on October 4, 2016 9:57 AM
The Wayne County Board of Education has selected Pinnacle Architecture to design the new Meadow Lane Elementary School Monday night.
Wayne County Schools Superintendent Dr. Michael Dunsmore asked the board for approval to secure Pinnacle Architecture, of Matthews.
"The county so graciously allotted money for us to replace Meadow Lane as well as some other projects," Dunsmore said. "Our first step with that is to identify an architect for that project.
"The facilities committee along with members of the county commissioners and our staff met. We interviewed four separate firms, and unanimously agreed to recommend we enter into contract with Pinnacle."
The board voted 6-0 in favor of the firm. Board member Dwight Cannon was absent.
There is no contract at this point, said Dave Evans, director of project operations.
"Now we'll go into negotiations to arrive at a contract," he said. "If for some reason we can't arrive at a suitable agreement with the firm, then we proceed to the next firm."
The process, once a contract is signed, is that the architecture firm will do all the prep work and then turn information over to the state Department of Public Instruction, Dunsmore said.
"Our next step in the process then will be to go out to bid for the construction company," he said. "We're hoping to get started with that project sometime in the spring."
The only question raised came from Chris West, board chairman, who said the prototype provided by Pinnacle did not reference the developmental school.
The model being used, Dunsmore said, is Richlands Elementary School in Onslow County, which the architectural firm is slating to complete by June 2018. The project consists of a new 800-plus students elementary school for grade PK-5 that will house an administration wing, three classroom wings, a media center and cafeteria.
"What we'll do is put together a community group of parents, teachers, principals, to come down to the specifics of what we want to include in the developmental school, what we need to include in the Edgewood (project)," the superintendent said. "The plan is (for Pinnacle) to come either to the next board meeting or the December meeting and make a full presentation to the board with all those specifics.
"These were just an example of other projects."
Concerns about facilities conditions at Meadow Lane had sparked a series of "behind-the-scenes" meetings last spring that became public when mentioned during a joint session of Wayne County commissioners and the school board.
Discussions prompted a three-hour tour of several schools in May to study the contrast in facilities around the county. Representatives from the city, county, school district and Seymour Johnson Air Force Base were part of the caravan.
At a June meeting, commissioners continued the debate, expressing interest in using state funds earmarked for schools construction to update the elementary school near the base gate.
The proposed plan called for a new $21.8 million Meadow Lane school to be built on the existing campus, and include a wing to house a new Edgewood Community Developmental School. Other projects mentioned included 22 additional classrooms at Fremont STARS Elementary School, a new gym and six classrooms at Southern Wayne High School and adding air conditioning to the Rosewood Middle School gym.
Right now, the price tag on the local project is unknown, Dunsmore said.
"What we allocated was the amount the commissioners gave us," he said. "Obviously our goal is to come in as low as we possibly can. Richlands came in at $16 million. Their entire project is closer to $19 million.
"We'll know probably in the next two weeks an exact number. The cost and the materials will be a factor."
During board comments, members sung the praises of the collaboration that led up to the next round of facilities plans.
Board member Arnold Flowers said he was excited about how smoothly the process had gone so far.
"I'm amazed at the way that our superintendent, our county manager and the county Board of Education and the county board of commissioners and folks out at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base all came together to make this happen," he said. "After we built Grantham Middle and Spring Creek Middle, you could have knocked me over with a feather when the county commissioners came forward with the money to build this new school, new facility. I didn't think it would happen.
"They're obviously very committed to, the county commissioners, very committed to improve the quality of our facilities."
Flowers, a former commissioner, pointed out that the partnership between school boards and commissioners is not always so magnanimous.
"The citizens of Wayne County need to know that it's not like that in every county," he said. "The type of relationship we have in Wayne County between our board of education and the board of commissioners, it's not like that in every county. Some of them are at each other's throats all the time.
"I'm just really thankful for that, and I wanted to make the public more aware of it."
West agreed.
"Commissioners and this board have worked hard, and I think they have gotten on the same page with Wayne County Public Schools and Wayne County to make our schools better, make our county better," he said. "It's just been a collaborative effort. It's very nice to see."
Dunsmore acknowledged efforts of the staff as well as the board in lending support to such projects.
"We have quite a great relationship here in working together," he said. "I think the community involvement, everybody is working extremely hard for the benefit of our children.
"It's exciting to move on to the building phase. Now comes the hard work."
The school board also changed the date of its November meeting.
Regular meetings are usually held the first Monday of the month. The board voted to hold its next meeting a week earlier, on Oct. 31 at 9:30 a.m.