Morrisville High School will open in a different spot. How it would save Wake money.
Two future Morrisville schools — including a new high school named after the town — will change locations in an effort to save money.
The Wake County school board voted Aug. 6 to swap the construction sites for Morrisville High School and Parkside Middle School. The change also affects the Wake Early College of Information and Biotechnologies, which will share part of Parkside Middle’s campus.
“Ultimately by making this switch we’re going to have more capacity for high school students,” said school board member Sam Hershey, who chairs the facilities committee. “We’re still going to get our capacity for middle school, and we’re all going to do it for a lower cost.”
The board approved the switch after hearing complaints about lack of communication with the community about the change.
A bigger high school
The plan has been to build Morrisville High on Paramount Parkway and Parkside Middle near the intersection of Little Drive and Davis Drive.
But at the June 25th board facilities committee meeting, administrators recommended constructing Morrisville High on the Davis Drive property and Parkside Middle on the Paramount Parkway location.
The site swap could allow Morrisville High to hold 1,800 students, 600 more than now planned. The additional capacity would help relieve overcrowding at Green Hope and Panther Creek high schools in Cary.
In addition, Assistant Superintendent Dave Burnett told the committee that the new location could allow Morrisville High to open in August 2026 — a year earlier than now planned.
Administrators said an August 2027 opening is more realistic.
Cutting construction costs
Cost is a major factor behind the proposal.
Burnett said construction costs for the Paramount Parkway property will be expensive no matter what they build there. But a middle school campus is smaller than a high school, so Burnett said the costs should be lower.
Construction costs per student would also be significantly reduced by building the high school on Davis Drive instead.
“Sometimes people think that we’re spending and just spending and spending and not thinking about it,” Hershey said during the facilities committee meeting. “I don’t want to say this decision was largely driven by the financial aspect of it, but it was a significant factor. The board made it clear that we were looking for alternatives.”
The swap could push back the 2026 opening for Parkside Middle.
“Since there are many factors that can delay/speed up the construction process on a project of this size, we’re not able to give an exact timetable of completion,” the district said in a statement. “However, between the design and approval process and construction period, 3.5 to 4 years would be a reasonable estimate.”
Impact on early college
The Wake Early College of Information and Biotechnologies (WECIB) opened in 2022 on Wake Technical Community College’s RTP Campus. The specialized high school allows students to graduate with a high school diploma and up to two years of college credit.
Burnett said Wake Tech needs the space so they need to relocate the WECIB students as soon as possible.
WECIB will relocate in November 2025 to the Davis Drive property now proposed for the high school. The early college would relocate again at a later date to Parkside Middle’s campus.
Burnett said putting the early college on Paramount Parkway will keep it close to Wake Tech’s RTP campus. High school juniors and seniors would go to Wake Tech for their college courses.
“We think it’s a win-win,” Burnett said.
This story was originally published July 3, 2024 at 6:00 AM.
