Bonds will be needed to pay for it
By Emily Weaver
Dunn Daily Record
Harnett County commissioners gave the school district a green light Monday to move forward with plans for a new middle school in southern Lillington to alleviate crowding at other middle schools. The decision was announced in a joint meeting by the two boards in Lillington.
The need for a new school was escalated by the number of houses currently under construction in the county. Both are high since 2020, but so are costs. The school once estimated to cost $60 million is now priced for completion at $78 million.
County leaders will have to issue bonds to cover it.
The climb to Flatwoods
The new center of learning is tentatively titled Flatwoods Middle and is expected to be about 174,000-square feet with room for at least 1,100 students. Harnett County Schools bought the property for the new school with $1.2 million in education lottery money in October 2021. The 100.7-acre parcel sits at the corner of Joel Johnson Road and U.S. Highway 401.
“As you know, we have a severe overcrowding issue. That’s nothing new. It’s been this way since I’ve been in Harnett County. Harnett Central Middle School is, what I would say, severely over capacity,” HCS Superintendent Dr. Aaron Fleming told the boards.
The school had 1,068 students in the 2020-21 school year — topping capacity of 950 students, according to OREd, the Operations Research and Education laboratory based out of N.C. State University. OREd offers student enrollment forecasts and analysis-based school planning services to districts across the state.
Its forecast for the 2022-23 school year at Harnett Central Middle reflected a student population of 1,818. Figures provided to the N.C. Department of Public Instruction that year counted 1,018 students, but the numbers are expected to grow with thousands of new houses under construction in the county.
Sixteen mobile units are currently in use at the school.
“… The number of students is projected to increase by 273 in the next eight years,” county leaders noted in its six-year capital improvement program for 2024-30. “Though not yet over its rated capacity, Overhills Middle is projected to exceed its rated capacity by 16 students in the next eight years.”
OREd showed that school’s population at 790 in 2021, just 10 shy of its limit. Enrollment was up to 794 in 2023, according to NCDPI.
