After more than a year of discussion, the Surry County school system is moving ahead with plans to build a new middle school in Pilot Mountain and a new elementary school in the Dobson area.
School-board members voted Monday night to go forward with buying 40 acres on Old Westfield Road for the middle school. They will meet Aug. 18 with county commissioners to request permission to put an option on the land.
Last week, the county paid $440,000 for slightly more than 29 acres on Rockford Road to build the elementary school.
Construction is set to begin this fall on both projects, which are estimated to cost a total of $27 million.
"The hope is to begin both schools and work on these projects simultaneously," said Jennifer Scott, a spokeswoman for the Surry County Schools.
The schools would open for the 2010-11 school year.
The elementary school would help alleviate crowding at Dobson and Copeland elementary schools. Enrollment at Dobson has been as high as 700 students, even though the school was built for no more than 450.
Copeland was designed for no more than 450 students but has had as many as 550.
Building the new elementary school has been a priority for some time.
But in Surry County, three school systems compete for construction dollars -- Elkin, Mount Airy and Surry.
Although more than 70 percent of children in Surry attend the county schools, the county commissioners decided more than two years ago to give the three school systems $3.5 million each so that one project in each system could move forward.
Elkin and Mount Airy chose renovations to aging high schools, and Surry added classrooms to a middle school.
Surry still wanted to build the new elementary school, and at one point was ready to move ahead with the idea that the county would pay for it with a loan.
Then in January, the county commissioners approved school-construction plans that called for spending $39 million for projects in all three school systems.
Commissioners say that the county will pay for the projects with money from the N.C. Lottery, existing debt service, public-school capital-building dollars, and a quarter-cent increase in the sales-tax rate that took effect April 1.
Part of the plan calls for spending the money over a three- to five-year period.
Commissioners designated about $7 million for the second phase of renovations to Elkin High School; more than $2 million for renovations at Mount Airy High School; $12 million to build a new elementary school to serve the Copeland and Dobson communities; and $15 million to build a new middle school in Pilot Mountain.
Commissioners put some money aside for a third county-schools project to be determined.
■ Sherry Youngquist can be reached in Mount Airy at 336-789-9338 or at syoungquist@wsjournal.com.
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