Water, Sewer Lines Delay School’s Debut

By Meiling Arounnarath, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.

Jun. 2–HILLSBOROUGH — The Orange County Schools system’s new middle school will open late because water and sewer lines won’t be ready on time.

At a special meeting Wednesday, the school board voted 6-1 to push the opening of Gravelly Hill Middle School from Aug. 25 to Oct. 3, spokeswoman Anne D’Annunzio said Thursday.

The decision was based on public safety, she said. The school must have running water and working sprinklers and fire hoses before it can be occupied.

The students and teachers who were supposed to start the school year at Gravelly Hill will now go to C.W. Stanford Middle School, where their classes will be held separately from those of other Stanford students.

Most of the students slated for Gravelly Hill are coming from Stanford already or would have been entering Stanford as sixth-graders, D’Annunzio said, which is why the board chose to locate the students there.

“We’re trying to make it as painless as possible, make the transition go as smoothly as we can,” she said.

School board Vice Chairman Al Hartkopf cast the dissenting vote. Stanford is already over capacity, and adding more students will make it even more crowded, he said.

Hartkopf suggested splitting students up and placing some at A.L. Stanback Middle School.

D’Annunzio said Stanford has a capacity of 726 students, and is already at 870. Only 30 to 40 students not already assigned to Stanford will be taking classes there temporarily, she said.

The principals of both schools have gone through Stanford and designated classrooms for Gravelly Hill students.

The students will have separate school buses and drivers who will stick with them when they switch to the new school.

But Hartkopf said the disruptions will be too much and the system should not set an opening date until it’s actually ready.

“The fact of the matter is the school’s not ready, so we ought to not open it,” he said Thursday. “Open it — not hurriedly — but with thoughtful deliberation that the people of this county deserve.”

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Copyright (c) 2006, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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