School board chair, lawmaker team up for multi-million dollar school expansion

NEW HANOVER COUNTY, NC (WWAY) —  ​It’s a bill that could mean a whole lot more than new books for one New Hanover County high school. It could mean big bucks.

Right now HB 89 sits in the eduction K-12 committee in Raleigh. Rep. Ted Davis filed the bill in late February hoping to begin the long process of getting a funding measure into the state appropriations for the 2019-2020 budget. That funding could mean up to $8 million for the New Hanover County School System all funneling towards Sea-Tech.

It took a million dollars to get Sea-Tech high off the ground back in 2017. At the time, the school planned to enroll 40-60 students. Now it’s a little under a 100 ready to half way through its second year.

“I’m just excited about this possibility,” said Lisa Estep with the school board.

The possibility of $8 million would change course for the school. Regardless, the school system plans to move students into the old Rock Church facility this Fall. Since the beginning of the school, Rep. Davis has seen potential for it to be a force in the county.

“Now we’ve got the ball rolling, so I want to see it come to fruition. That’s why I think it’s so important to provide this funding so we can complete the construction,” said Davis adding that a vocational school is something he pushed for years ago as a county commissioner.

The bill would not only fund the work to reconstruct the old church to a scholastic venue, but it would provide money for building multiple spaces in the school to fit the planned ‘academies’.

“This will allow us to start building those academies out sooner,” said Estep.

Tuesday, Estep laid out to the school board and the public what those academies would entail. They would follow several career readiness and vocational courses. The bill specifically mentions funding to build a carpentry space, a computer lab to support video production and medial coding courses as well as space for culinary learning.

Estep says the third year is when the school planned to expand further from a traditional curriculum into those career ready courses.

“All you hear about now is shortage of people to do this, shortage of people to do that. I mean it’s just an excellent opportunity,” said Rep. Davis.

With the move, the school system plans to nearly double the size of student attendance and surpass 100 enrolled.

“Anything we can do for those kids to prepare them for the future it’s a win,” said David Wortman with the school board applauding the effort.

The bill requests the funds become active by July 2019. Davis says the legislation sits in the infancy stages right now. He plans to begin working and talking with senior lawmakers to gain support for the legislation.