Durham’s got a plan to repair its aging schools. Is your child’s school on the list?

Jennifer Plant’s morning commute got 20 minutes longer this week when broken heaters shut down her son’s school.

Now, school and county officials are figuring out how to pay for long-deferred repairs and maintenance before it happens again.

A 2019 assessment found Durham Public Schools needs $727 million for maintenance and improvement projects like new schools over the next 10 years.

DPS prioritized the projects and asked the county for $468 million to tackle its most pressing needs. At a meeting Tuesday, the county commissioners, who fund the school system, proposed a $493 million plan.

The longer that repairs and upgrades are put off, the more expensive they will become, DPS Chief Operating Officer Julius Monk warned.

At Morehead Montessori Elementary School, DPS is replacing seven of 11 heating units after the system failed last month. The repairs will cost an estimated $100,000, Monk said.

The school’s 250 students are being bused to Eno Valley Elementary School and Durham Public Schools’ Staff Development Center for classes until the repairs are completed.

“This preventable maintenance issue has been a major inconvenience for my family,” said Plant, whose son is in pre-K at Morehead Montessori.

“Waiting at Morehead for the buses to arrive and take my son to Eno Valley each morning, means I am going to be late for work,” she explained. “Then I have to leave work early so I can make it in time to pick him up from aftercare at Eno Valley.”

DPS is only busing students during normal school hours, not for afterschool programs.

A school system issue

After Tuesday’s meeting, Plant said she is glad to see a plan being worked out but worries about the gap between the school system’s identified needs and what the county’s plan will pay for.

“I am a homeowner. And the way I avoid catastrophic maintenance events in my home, is to keep up with the routine maintenance,” she said. “It is frustrating because this is a predictable scenario. Those heaters obviously needed to be replaced.”

Deferred maintenance is a system-wide issue, Morehead Montessori Principal Cynthia Webb said.

“Our children deserve to have safe, modern, predictable and prepared environments to continue on their path of excellence,” she said.

School board member Minnie Forte-Brown said she is grateful the county has proposed more than the school board asked for, but she too questions if it is enough.

“We’re in Durham, home of the Research Triangle,” she said. “We have to have schools that represent that.”

Bond referendums, taxes

The school system identified 20 projects to be completed over the next decade under the proposed $493 million plan, including the immediate construction of three new schools.

The projects also address the school district’s top renovation, repair and deferred maintenance needs.

Funding would come from a series of bonds, state lottery money and a possible tax increase, including:

▪ $144 million in limited obligation bonds, which would not require voter approval.

▪ A $211 million bond referendum in 2022 and a $127 million bond referendum in 2026, both requiring voter approval

▪ $10 million in state lottery money – $1 million per year

An election issue

School maintenance and safety concerns are also pressing issues in Orange County, where a political action committee has formed to make them an issue in the upcoming county commissioners election.

A $120 million Orange County school bond that voters approved in 2016 is nearly spent, and school officials estimate that $260 million in maintenance repairs are not yet funded, The News & Observer has reported.

In Durham, meanwhile, Plant said she will continue to shuffle her family’s schedule until her son and other students return to Morehead Montessori.

“I am fortunate to have a flexible schedule,” she said. “But there are a lot of parents impacted by this, and they don’t have the same luxury.”

The next joint board discussion on the funding plan for Durham school needs is May 19

This story was originally published February 6, 2020 at 3:20 PM.