The Craven County Board of Education is considering a plan to repurpose J.T Barber Elementary School for use as a kindergarten and pre-K facility. Under the plan, the school’s grade 1-5 students would be reassigned to other Craven County elementary schools.
During their April 18 meeting, Superintendent Wendy Miller requested that the board of education give staff direction on a plan to repurpose J.T. Barber Elementary from a traditional K-5 elementary school to a pre-K through kindergarten center.
Miller said the move would help address the more than 200 students on the school system’s waiting list for pre-K services. She said the county currently does not have the space to accommodate those students.
The move would require the reassignment of 194 J.T. Barber students in grades 1-5 to Oaks Road and Trent Park elementary schools, Miller said. The plan would allow J.T. Barber to serve more students who would also receive federal pre-K funding dollars, she noted.
“Recruiting teachers is harder than ever and serving a small school requires additional resources that may be better used by putting students together,” Miller told the board.
For much of the year, JT Barber students have been served by substitute teachers due to a teacher shortage, Miller noted.
“While they have amazing substitutes, our district goal is for every student to be taught by a highly qualified teacher,” she commented.
Miller said the board had three options when considering the plan:
-Things stay the same and J.T. Barber remains a K-5 school.
-They begin the process of repurposing the school for the 2023-24 school year.
-They begin the process of repurposing for the 2024-25 school year.
Miller said the plan would involve extensive changes and upgrades to J.T. Barber’s classrooms, bathrooms, playground and other facilities. She said the plan was to have staff and contractors get as many rooms ready as possible and then add 15-20 new students on the pre-K waiting list every time a new room was finished.
Stacey Lee, assistant superintendent of operations, said his staff was working on a plan for the project that would include cost estimates.
After discussion, the board agreed that they wanted school system staff to move forward with the plan but didn’t specify any timeline for when they wanted it in place. Miller said staff would continue to move forward and get the board information as quickly as possible.
The board has scheduled a special called meeting for Monday, April 24 at 5:30 p.m. to address the J.T. Barber repurposing plan as well as the school system’s proposed fiscal year 2024 budget.
Once the board agrees on a timeline, the next step will be to hold a community meeting with parents and families that would be impacted and prepare a more comprehensive plan, Miller said.
“I do not want to wait until May on this,” board member Jennifer Dacey commented. “This needs to be done very quickly.”
Earlier in the meeting, Dacey expressed concern that the plan was being presented to the board at such a late date.
“I’m trying to figure out how much do we think this is going to cost and where is that money coming from,” Dacey said. “My personal view is if you have numbers that will justify making this decision, which I need to see, I want to do it sooner rather than later.”
Dacey said she was concerned that news of the plan would make it more difficult to recruit teachers for J.T. Barber Elementary.
“I don’t see why we would put a school in a position where they’re going to have a very difficult time recruiting teachers and staff for this upcoming year,” she commented. “There are already teachers who put in to transfer from that school because of concerns about what’s happening there.”
Board member Lauren Kitzinger said she worried work to get J.T. Barber’s infrastructure ready for the change could not be completed by the beginning of the 2023-24 school year.
“We have four months until the next school year starts and I don’t think four months is adequate timing to think about starting a whole new school,” she said. “ Maybe I’m wrong. This is a really late start to this conversation, I think.”
Board member Carr Ipock noted that the closing of the Head Start program at F.R. Danyus has increased the number of children on the county’s pre-K waiting list.
“Everyone I think would vote that a year of planning would be really good but in the meantime we’re not serving a population that needs this opportunity,” Ipock said. “I’m inclined to press as quickly as possible for the population to be served.”
By Todd Wetherington, co-editor. Send an email with questions or comments.