David Matheson
Robbinsville – With surveys completed, Graham County Schools has announced the price and amount of land to be acquired for a new elementary school.
At Nov. 5’s board of education meeting, assistant superintendent/facilities director David Matheson revealed that 6.04 acres of property was set to be purchased from the Orr family, in the amount of $230,000. Lottery funds to be used toward the sale had been approved Nov. 4.
The school board unanimously approved the terms, while the board of commissioners will still have to greenlight the purchase at Tuesday’s meeting. In addition to giving the nod toward the purchase price, the board also authorized superintendent Robert Moody to begin working with contractors on developing plans for the new institution.
The district will create a structure based on a $42 million grant from the state; early indications are that the school will be two stories.
Graham County was 1-of-7 school districts across North Carolina to be awarded a total of $360 million in lottery-funded grants, under the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction’s Needs-Based Public School Capital Fund – which was launched in 2017 by the General Assembly.
Other systems afforded the funds were Edgecombe ($62 million); Hyde ($36,574,482); Jackson ($52 million); Martin ($62 million); Sampson ($62 million); and Swain ($52 million) counties.
The department of public instruction received 122 applications totaling $1.78 billion in requested funding.
Grant applications
* Accountability director Dr. Jaime Hooper detailed in her monthly report that an innovations grant had been received from Pittsburgh-based Inventionland, which will be used to remodel the Robbinsville High School library. A portion of the space inside the library will also be converted into an exceptional children classroom, with restroom facilities. Hooper’s report noted that the grant would cover 25 percent of the renovation cost.
* Hooper also revealed that the district has applied for a $400,000 Safe Schools Grant from the state department of instruction, which will be used for various upgrades across the three campuses.