Ten firms want to build a new E.E. Smith High School, the Cumberland County school district’s top construction project with a price tag that could reach $150 million.
The firms responded to a request for qualifications from Cumberland County Schools as it seeks someone to provide architectural, engineering, planning, design, bidding, and construction administration services for the new school.
A request for qualifications (RFQ) allows a government agency to evaluate firms based on their experience and qualifications before selecting one for a project.
The E.E. Smith design RFQ required firms to demonstrate extensive experience with K-12 and public high school projects, including at least 15 years of K-12 architectural and engineering experience, two completed public high school projects within the previous 10 years, and a public high school replacement project involving demolition and ground-up reconstruction.
The project calls for demolishing the existing E.E. Smith campus and constructing a replacement high school on the current 27-acre Seabrook Road site. Under the district’s consolidation plan, students would be temporarily relocated to Reid Ross Classical School.
The push to replace E.E. Smith is not new. Cumberland County commissioners voted in October 2024 to build a new high school on the existing campus, following more than a year of discussions about whether to renovate the school, replace it on-site, or move it elsewhere.
In February, the Board of Education approved 18 facility recommendations, including a request for $150 million from county commissioners to build a new E.E. Smith on its current campus. The board later accelerated the construction timeline, and district officials have since identified E.E. Smith as the system’s top construction priority.
With construction expected to start in early 2028, the 2026-27 school year is likely to be the last one in the current building. Events commemorating the 100th year of the school, now in its fourth location, kicked off earlier this month.
During a September 18 board meeting, Matthew Johnson, the school district’s executive director of operations, explained how the district developed the qualifications, why the field was intentionally narrow, and how the board could evaluate and select a firm.
“Only 10 were returned because of the metric of how tight the RFQ process was,” Johnson said.
Johnson said the district wanted firms with a record of high school construction rather than firms that had primarily worked on elementary or middle schools. The RFQ required firms to meet a series of minimum qualifications before advancing to the qualitative evaluation phase.
A Tightly Defined Field
In addition to 15 years of K-12 experience and two public high school projects, firms had to show:
- At least three public educational projects with final construction values above $80 million.
- At least one public educational project above $100 million.
- At least one public educational project larger than 200,000 square feet.
- At least one public high school replacement completed within the previous 10 years that included demolition of an active facility and ground-up reconstruction.
The RFQ also required firms to demonstrate experience with North Carolina public school programming, public communication for highly visible capital projects, and the review and permitting processes for the state. Firms were also required to maintain a staffed physical office in North Carolina.
The district said it would place greater weight on projects that closely matched E.E. Smith’s characteristics rather than simply the firm’s overall volume of work.
Johnson said the requirements were designed to narrow a large pool of potential firms.
“There are thousands and thousands of architects in North Carolina,” Johnson said. ” I don’t believe that the board wants just any architect—we want the best.”
“The 10 that you received are considered highly qualified, and they have a track record, a history, and documentable proof,” he added.
‘Building a School Is Very Unique’
Johnson told board members that the district’s emphasis on high school experience was intentional. Designing a high school comes with challenges that firms may not encounter on elementary or middle school projects, he said.
“Building a high school is very unique versus a middle school or elementary school, because there are so many facets,” Johnson said.
He pointed to the size and complexity of a high school campus, including its athletic facilities.
“You have fields and tracks, you have a larger and more movement in this school building, and there’s just some design differences in a high school that you don’t face in a middle school or an elementary school,” he said.
Not every firm that has designed K-12 schools, Johnson said, has the experience needed for a high school.
“With a high school comes a unique opportunity, because not every architect’s ever even done a high school,” he said.
The district also wanted firms familiar with the regulatory requirements that come with public school construction in North Carolina, Johnson said.
“There’s a lot of architects, engineers that have done a commercial building, but there still seems to be a variance between commercial building and K-12,” he said. “Because we have other regulations like DPI that we have to go by as well, other than just local jurisdictions.”
How the Board Will Select Design Firm
The RFQ grades the firms using a 100-point scale. High school replacement experience carries the most weight at 30 points. Educational design experience and key personnel qualifications account for 20 points each. Community and alumni engagement experience, and complex demolition and redevelopment experience, each account for 10 points. Verifiable past performance history, and personnel continuity, account for 5 points each.
Johnson told board members to base their evaluation on the criteria established in the RFQ. Board members were provided orientation materials to guide their evaluations.
“As you review these RFQs, individually, part of what you’re basing your decision of the qualification off of is the metric that’s held in this document, because they responded based on this document,” Johnson said.
He encouraged board members to identify both strengths and concerns in each submission.
“Take note of the strengths that you see and highlight them” Johnson said. “Also take note of some of the concerns you see when you read through them, and write down any questions you may have.”
Johnson said the board could select a firm based on its review of the submissions or narrow the field and invite firms to interview. If the board chooses to conduct interviews, firms would present based on a set of questions, followed by questions from board members.
The RFQ requires the proposed project manager and lead architect to attend in person unless the school district provides advance written approval for another arrangement.
Once the board selects a firm, the district’s operations team will negotiate the contract. The proposed agreement will then go through legal review before returning to the board for an official vote.
A Second RFQ Will Follow
Picking a design firm selection is the first of two separate selection processes planned for the E.E. Smith project. The district will later issue a request for qualifications for a construction manager at risk (CM-at-risk).
The CM-at-risk team will work alongside the design firm during the design phase, providing input on costs, scheduling, constructability, and current market conditions before taking on the management of trade bidding and construction packages.
Johnson said the construction manager will provide another layer of oversight as the project moves from design into construction.
“They’ll talk about what the market’s doing in the present moment for different materials,” Johnson said. “They’ll walk through everything to make sure we’re getting the best value for our dollar, and it’ll help keep the architect in line, the architect will help keep them in line.”
The CM-at-risk team also will help develop bid packages and create opportunities for smaller contractors to participate in the project, Johnson said. The school board, following a new state law, is considering eliminating a goal of awarding 15% of purchases and construction contracts over $300,000 to businesses owned by women, minorities, and disabled people.
Johnson called the design selection one of the major decisions ahead for the board.
“It’s one of the two most important decisions this board will make for E.E. Smith in this near future,” he said.
