The Granville County Board of Education made some moves toward school reorganization and consolidation by voting Monday to move the campus of G.C. Hawley Middle School to the current South Granville High School campus. The move will be effective for the 2022-23 school year. The board chose not to close any other schools, according to information from Dr. Stan Winborne, associate superintendent of curriculum & instruction and student services and public information officer.
The decision effectively merges the two southern-end high schools at the current Granville Central High School location in Stem. In a written statement to WIZS Tuesday, Winborne said the southern-end high school would have its own identity, which implies that it will be called neither South Granville High nor Granville Central.
The decision to move Hawley was not unanimous; the board voted 5-2, with Dr. Tom Houlihan and Leonard Peace, both former school board chairmen, voting against the motion. The motion to shift the middle school students to the campus of South Granville and the high school students to Granville Central’s campus was made by Chairman David Richardson and seconded by Dr. Gregory McKnight.
The school board has been considering different options for reorganization and consolidation for the past couple of years; some of the options included closing Wilton and Creedmoor elementary schools and converting Tar River Elementary to a middle school so the Hawley students could be relocated there.
County commissioners recently nixed the renovation of Hawley Middle School when the estimated costs were shown to be upwards of $25 million.
In the past several years, enrollment in Granville County Public Schools has trended downward, due in part to families choosing to send children to charter schools. The district has faced schools with more empty classrooms and teachers taking jobs in larger districts nearby in search of higher pay and supplements.
There have been opportunities for the public to comment on the various options that the school board was considering; at a public hearing on Oct. 18, parents and staff of Tar River Elementary spoke strongly against making the K-5 school a middle school.
In addition to the votes mentioned above, Winborne outlined the different motions that passed and failed during Monday’s board meeting:
- A motion to leave open Wilton and Creedmoor schools passed unanimously.
- The motion to close Creedmoor Elementary and keep Wilton open failed 3-4. Glenda Williams, Amanda LaBrecque and Houlihan voted yes and Anderson, McKnight, Richardson and Peace voted no.
- The vote to make Tar River a middle school also failed. Williams, Peace and Houlihan voted yes and Ethel Anderson, McKnight, Richardson and LaBrecque voted no.
- The motion to take Tar River off the closure list passed 5-2; Williams and Peace voted against the motion.
- The motion to take Wilton off the closure list failed 3-4; Anderson, McKnight, Richardson and Peace voted no.
