Wake school may be built around graves

RALEIGH -- Wake County school administrators said today they think they can build around a possible slave cemetery located on the site of a new high school.

Neighbors of the proposed high school on Forestville Road in northeastern Wake say it shouldn't be built because it would mean desecrating what they believe is a slave cemetery on the site.

Betty Parker, the school district's real estate services director, told school board members today that planners believe it will be possible to revise the building plans to work around the cemetery. The cemetery is at the southwestern corner of a proposed student parking lot.

Parker told board members that they hadn't learned about the graves until last week, just before county commissioners voted to purchase the site. The school is scheduled to open in 2011.

Parker pointed out that some schools already have cemeteries on site. In other cases, she said they've relocated graves.

Parker called it "unsubstantiated" that the graves are part of a slave cemetery as claimed by a local historian contacted by residents opposing the school.

Residents say they want a park and memorial built on the site instead of a school. So far, they say they've identified 60 graves. (Opponents of the school site have created a Web site, www.savetheslaves.com, to share more information about the cemetery.)

Neighbors, who initially opposed the school due to traffic concerns, hope to mobilize African American groups to block the school.