This page is designed to document the progress and process of Board of Education adoption of a Long Range Facility Master Plan. Below you will see some information about our assessment as well as a history of school construction for Craven County Schools. Each time a document or meeting is held to work on this process it will be documented below.

• February 2019: Board of Education engages Smith Sinnett Architects to conduct the Long Range Facility Master Plan
• April 2019: Initial Assessments of Schools begins by Ed Gordon, Vice-President and Principal for Smith Sinnett Architects
• November 2019: Draft initial assessment of school facilities completed
• December 2019: Final assessment completed
• January 2020: Long Range Facility Master Plan Document: Initial Assessment Book distributed to Board of Education, Board of Commissioners, and key staff
• January 14, 2020: Long Range Facility Master Document: initial Assessment presented by Mr. Gordon to the Craven County Board of Education

History and Context for Long Range Facility Planning

Craven County Schools facilities range in age from 69 years old which includes buildings on the campus of J. T. Barber Elementary to 13 years old (Creekside Elementary) which represents the last new building construction in Craven County Schools. Three schools have been constructed in this century,  Havelock Elementary (2002), Bridgeton Elementary (2003) and Creekside Elementary (2007). The order of the initial construction of each of our school buildings is below: 
 

This represents approximately, 2,098,198 ft² of school facilities. The average age of school facilities in Craven County Schools is 1971; nearly 50 years old. Although some of our school facilities are in adequate working condition, the age of the building makes them a challenge for the type of technology needed in our buildings to match the workforce development needs of our students as well as the changing demands of a 21^st century classroom. Furthermore, there is a significant amount of deferred maintenance in our buildings resulting from the average capital outlay expenditures over the last decade. That amount has averaged $825,000 annually over the last decade which ammortized per square foot is approximately $0.39. Or, to put it a different way, it is $35,870 per facility per year. This is not enough. Touring our facilities reveals buildings that have significant maintenance and upgrade needs as well as some facilities that, because of outdated HVAC, mechanical systems, electrical, and plumbing systems, are well past a point of urgency.  In addition, we have some wall systems that are breaking down and cracking which present more urgent needs.

All of this information coupled with the declining enrollment we are seeing in some schools related to military relocation and homeschool transition are forcing us to assess our facilities with an eye towards effective instruction, efficient use, and workforce development needs.

In February 2019, Craven County Schools engaged with Smith Sinnett to conduct a Long Range Facility Needs Assessment and use that assessment to assist the Board of Education in making a Long Range Facility Master Plan. 

For historical reference, Craven County Schools last utilized the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction to conduct a long range facility plan in 1990. Since that time we have had assessments of current facilities which provided information about the current footprint of our facilities and deferred maintenance. However, we have not had a plan that addressed the deferred maintenance, attendance planning, facility upgrade considerations and or the replacement of facilities. Since Hurricane Florence, it has become more urgent than ever that we create a plan to optimize our current facilities, make decisions about which facilities to continue in use, which facilities to transition to new uses, and to assess against our instructional program and each building's ability to provide instruction that meets the workforce needs of our community and region in the next decade.