Officials with Cumberland County Schools appeared before county commissioners again Monday to provide additional details on a $610 million facilities and construction plan, outlining how school consolidations, new construction projects, and campus modernization efforts could unfold over the next seven years.
The presentation came during a Cumberland County Board of Commissioners budget work session and served as a follow-up to a joint meeting held in May, when commissioners requested additional information about construction timelines and funding needs.
Superintendent Eric Bracy said the district’s facilities strategy is being driven by several realities facing the school district, including aging buildings, declining enrollment, and excess facility capacity.
“The realities make it clear that action is needed to better align our facilities cost and our student needs moving forward as a school system,” Bracy said. “That is why this conversation matters.”
Bracy noted district enrollment shrunk by more than 1,200 students compared to the previous school year, a decline that translates into a loss of roughly $9.93 million in state funding.
“We have significant maintenance needs in a lot of our facilities,” Bracy said. “We have declining enrollment.”
The shrinking enrollment also means the district maintains more building capacity than it needs, which requires additional costs and inefficiency, he said.
The district’s broader facilities proposal totals approximately $610 million. The request includes $300 million for deferred maintenance projects, $160 million for previously approved construction and modernization projects, and $150 million for a proposed new E.E. Smith High School.
The school district has also asked the county for $110.3 million as part of its $671 million budget for fiscal year 2026-27 budget, which the school board approved in April. The $110.3 million is $6.5 million more than last year. The county’s proposed $656.5 million budget includes $105.8 million for the school district.
Bracy said the district expects next school year to mark the final phase of its transition away from positions that were temporarily supported through ESSER, the federal pandemic-relief program created during the coronavirus pandemic. The school district’s fiscal budget includes $3.78 million for staffing costs previously supported through ESSER.
“We’ve been scaling down our positions,” Bracy said. “We expect to be fully rid of ESSER-funded positions by the end of this next school year.”
Commission Chair Kirk deViere said county staff requested the follow-up discussion with the school district to answer questions raised during the earlier meeting and help inform the county’s long-term debt planning.
“We appreciate your staff and the quick way that you turned around those cash-flow models because that helped us build out our debt model,” deViere told school district leaders.
Consolidations Intended to Improve Efficiency
Bracy said many of the school closures and consolidations approved by the Board of Education earlier this year are designed to make better use of existing facilities before major construction projects begin.
The district’s recommendations stem from a facilities assessment conducted by MGT of America, which reviewed school conditions, enrollment trends, and building utilization throughout the district.
Rather than waiting for new schools to be built, Bracy said district leaders chose to begin making adjustments now.
“These actions rely on reassignment, repurposing, and better use of existing facilities in our school system rather than waiting for new construction to occur first,” Bracy said.
“Quite simply, we’re taking action now because we need to take some action now.”
District leaders previously estimated approved closures and consolidations could eliminate more than $31 million in deferred maintenance needs while reducing operational costs associated with maintaining underutilized buildings. That district plan calls for closing eight schools—five elementary campuses, one middle school, and two high schools. In May, the board voted to close two elementary schools, including one—Manchester Elementary School in Spring Lake—that is on the larger list of school closures.
County Commissioner Henry Tyson voiced support for the district’s approach.
“I do applaud the consolidation and this plan and I am in support of it,” Tyson said. “I think it’s a great plan moving forward.”
Tyson also noted that some schools identified in the MGT assessment as underutilized were not included in the current proposal and asked whether broader redistricting discussions could occur in the future.
“One of the things that I did notice in the MGT study is that we did still have some of the facilities that weren’t mentioned in the proposed plan,” Tyson said.
Bracy said district leaders intend to evaluate the impact of current closures and consolidations before determining what additional conversations may be necessary.
“I think we wanted to look at consolidations and closures and then see where we are after that to have that next conversation,” Bracy said.
E.E. Smith Remains Top Construction Priority
Much of Monday’s presentation focused on the district’s long-range construction plan, including four major projects identified as priorities by the school board.
Those projects include a $50 million elementary school on the J.W. Coon campus, a $40 million elementary school serving the Ferguson-Easley area, a $40 million elementary school combining Stedman Primary and Stedman Elementary schools, and a $150 million new E.E. Smith High School.
Bracy said construction of a new E.E. Smith remains the district’s top facilities priority. Earlier this year, the board approved a list of 18 facility recommendations outlining school consolidations, new construction projects, and campus improvements.
“The number one motion on that list of 18 was to construct a new E.E. Smith High School,” Bracy said. “Our board is very committed, I would say, to building a new E.E. Smith High School.”
District leaders said the projects are intended to replace aging facilities with schools that better match current enrollment and long-term educational needs.
“The larger goal is to replace older facility with stronger long-term solutions that match our enrollment as we go forward as a school system,” Bracy said.
Construction Timeline Stretches Through 2032
District officials also presented a projected timeline for facility transitions and construction projects extending through the 2031-32 school year.
The 2026-27 school year would focus primarily on relocations and preparation work, including moves involving Cumberland Virtual Academy, Ramsey Street High School. and schools affected by the closures of Manchester Elementary and J.W. Coon Elementary.
At the same time, the district would begin design and preliminary work on the J.W. Coon and E.E. Smith projects while preparing Reid Ross Classical School to serve as temporary swing space during E.E. Smith’s reconstruction.
“The first year of this is about putting the pieces together for the larger construction and consolidation phases that follow,” Bracy said.
Additional transitions would occur during the 2027-28 school year, including the proposed closure of Anne Chesnutt Middle School and changes involving Reid Ross Classical programs.
Construction would continue over the following several years, with district officials anticipating the opening of new facilities between the 2029-30 and 2031-32 school years.
Commissioners also questioned district leaders about site selection decisions for some projects.
Responding to questions about why the district selected the Stedman Primary site for construction rather than the nearby Stedman Elementary campus, Associate Superintendent Kevin Coleman said the location allows a new school to be built while students remain in their current building.
“The reason we chose Stedman Primary is you could literally take a wall and put it there,” Coleman said.”You can build the school while they’re still in school.”
County Reviews Funding Options
District leaders reviewed additional financial information requested by commissioners following the May joint meeting, including updated estimates for the proposed J.W. Coon and E.E. Smith projects.
The projections are separate from the roughly $7.5 million the county provides annually for school capital projects.
Robin Koonce, the county’s chief financial officer, said the information allowed county staff and financial advisers to begin modeling both the district’s previously approved $460 million facilities framework—including $300 million in deferred maintenance projects and $160 million in new construction—and the district’s expanded $610 million request.
Questions Raised About Closing Manchester Elementary
The presentation also included discussion about the recent closure of Manchester Elementary and future school investments in Spring Lake.
Commissioners Vice Chair Veronica Jones questioned why the district’s facilities plan did not include a replacement school in the Spring Lake area, noting concerns she has heard from residents following Manchester’s closure.
“Spring Lake got left out,” Jones said.
Jones also raised concerns about equity and future investments in minority communities.
“I do have concern about disequality and disenfranchisement when it comes to minority communities,” she said.
Jones said she had received videos from parents documenting travel times from neighborhoods affected by the reassignment plan and argued some students could face trips of roughly 45 minutes or longer during peak traffic periods.
District officials later clarified that approximately 50 students currently assigned to W.T. Brown Elementary would be reassigned to Ponderosa Elementary in order to create space for incoming Manchester students at W.T. Brown.
Kevin Coleman, the school district’s associate superintendent of auxiliary services, said the reassignment affects a group of students who already live near the Ponderosa attendance area.
“What we’re doing is we’re going to move the students, those 50 students that are next to the Ponderosa attendance area that currently go to W.T. Brown,” Coleman said. “Those students will go to Ponderosa. That will free up space at W.T. Brown.”
After the clarification, Faircloth questioned whether concerns about lengthy bus rides were being attributed to the wrong group of students.
“So, an hour and a half drive is irrelevant then,” Faircloth said.
Coleman said Manchester students would attend W.T. Brown while the reassigned students would move to the school closest to their attendance area.
“Manchester will go to W.T. Brown, but the kids that are at W.T. Brown, 50 of them are going over to make room at W.T. Brown for the Manchester kids,” Coleman said.
No formal action was taken during Monday’s budget work session.
“We understand the needs of the schools,” deViere said. “We understand the aging infrastructure.”
