Burke County Board of Education members are expected to move forward Monday night with the purchase of a property to build a new school for the eastern part of the county.
The property, located at 305A Third St. SW, Hildebran, is about 3.91 acres. It’s adjacent to Hildebran Elementary School’s current property.
A resolution that will be presented to the school board at its Monday night meeting lists the purchase price for the property at $675,000. Hildebran and Icard elementary schools would be combined and moved into the new school, replacing the 90- and 68-year-old schools.
The school district received a $42 million grant from the state to build a new elementary school.
School officials did look into renovating the old schools to make them suitable for students and teachers alike, but the low-end estimate for costs would come in at more than $50 million combined, Hamilton Cort of McMillan Pazdan Smith Architecture told the school board in August. The grant the district received can only be used for new construction — it cannot be used to renovate older buildings, said Mike Swan, superintendent of Burke County Public Schools.
Swan said an architect told board members at a planning session Tuesday, May 6, the school system could use a prototype of a two-story building for the new school. Swan said an architect or designer for the building has not been selected yet.
Next steps are a traffic pattern study through the North Carolina Department of Transportation and public meetings where community members can chime in about the new school.
“The school will have a full size auditorium, full size gymnasium, its own standalone football field, and we’re potentially looking at having two baseball fields on the campus,†Swan said. “Depending on funding … but we want it to be kind of like the hub of the community.â€
The board of education meets at the Olive Hill Resource Center, 509 W. Concord St., ¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥, at 6 p.m. Monday, May 12.
Chrissy Murphy is a staff writer and can be reached at cmurphy@morganton.com or at 828-432-8941.