The Chapel Hill-Carrboro City School district’s plans to rebuild Lincoln Center and Chapel Hill High School have gone $25 million over budget, Assistant Superintendent Todd LoFrese said.
Plans to reconstruct the two buildings were originally proposed in 2013.
Lincoln Center, the school district’s central office, was built in 1951, and Chapel Hill High School opened in 1966. Given the age of both buildings, they are in need of renovation or rebuilding due to deterioration and other issues, such as not being wheelchair accessible.
“The entire facility is in a state of disrepair,” LoFrese said.
The district included teacher and even student input into the plans for the new Chapel Hill High School building.
“Our architects have met with each of the departments to go through what teachers need to make sure that we achieve our vision and that the building supports the education we are trying to deliver to our students,” LoFrese said.
Although teachers and students alike were under the impression that the new building would be smaller and most teachers would have to share classrooms, the building plan includes five more classrooms than the current building has.
In the new building, about 80% of teachers will be in one classroom all day, 16% will be in two and 4% will be in three, LoFrese said. In addition, the new building will include teacher collaboration spaces.
“Those teachers who are in two or three classrooms, in almost all cases, are teaching in a different space because they are teaching a different course that has different space needs,” LoFrese said.
Although the building plans were created in 2013, the district was unable to move forward with the process until 2016, when the bond referendum, which provided the money for the projects, was passed.
Between 2013 and 2016, building costs increased by 60%, leaving the building of Chapel Hill High School $15 million over budget and Lincoln Center $10 million over budget.
“We are currently looking at all different kinds of options, including reprioritizing projects, looking at doing projects in phases and looking at ways to control costs like [using] less expensive materials,” LoFrese said.
District officials met to address the problems surrounding the budgetary issues on November 2.
Biology teacher William Richards is concerned that with the large budget deficit, the district will have to cut corners, making the current building plan impossible.
“With a $25 million lack of money, what kind of design compromises are they going to have to make?” Richards said. “The only way I see the building we’ve talked about actually getting built is if Lincoln Center or the bus depot doesn’t get built. You can’t do all three projects even moderately well.”
