GCS Superintendent Terry Grier asks why Guilford County commissioners didn’t just break down all the projects on the original $457 million after commissioners split the new Eastern Guilford High School into a separate, $45 million package.
I agree with Commissioner Steve Arnold’s view that there is strong public support for a bond to rebuild Eastern Guilford where there might not be support for the school bond package as a whole, considering the fact that Eastern Guilford was destroyed by a tragic (though intentionally set) fire.
To a certain extent, Grier has a point when he wonders why all the school projects shouldn’t be broken down into separate packages. I’ll argue that the new Jamestown Middle School, which remains on the main package at a cost of $28 million, also has the public support that the rest of the package might not have, considering the fact that the Jamestown community has been waiting several years for the school to be built. With that in mind, it should also be split into a separate package.
In my view, the fact that money approved by voters almost five years ago for the new Jamestown Middle School has disappeared into thin air is almost as great a tragedy as Eastern High School burning to the ground.
Update: Perhaps I am being a bit melodramatic. Still, as long as commissioners are pulling projects, it’s fair to say that Jamestown stands with Eastern Guilford as a project with strong public support that doesn’t deserve to be dragged down by the weight of the entire $400 million-plus bond package.
