150 Show to Debate School Site

Before the Chapel Hill Town Council could convene its meeting Monday, the fire marshal asked the audience, numbering more than 150, to clear the walkways to ensure safety.

Most of the residents in attendance were there in support of two petitions -- one by the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Education and the other by a resident -- both concerning the placement of a third high school in the southern part of the district.

The Town Hall conference room was filled almost to capacity with residents, some of whom had to stand along the wall and out in the hallway.

"Grassroots activism -- that's what this is," said Etta Pisano, who is a member of the high school redistricting committee.

After the petitions were read, Mayor Kevin Foy said the council has a long history of working with the school board and referred the petitions to town staff to obtain further information on the site.

The first petition for placement of a third high school in the southern part of the district was presented by resident Doug Ostanek.

He said the site has a well-established transportation structure, is an excellent opportunity for shared resources such as athletic facilities and has a buildable area that could act as a buffer for local houses. "We believe having a high school in the southern part of the district makes sense," Ostanek told council members.

The proposed tract of land, the Southern Park site, would co-locate the third high school with the proposed Southern Community Park.

Residents opposing this co-location presented a third petition Monday asking that the high school be built on another tract of land in the southern district.

Resident Sean Lennard of Dogwood Acres Drive, part of which runs through the middle of Southern Community Park, said after the meeting Monday that everyone wants a high school in the southern district. However, he said, the Town Council had promised Dogwood Acres green space and a third high school would destroy the vegetation in the area.

"To put a high school and a community park with fields (in the area) would all but clear-cut those lands," Lennard said. "Once this land is gone, there is no more."

But resident David King said he thinks the co-location of the third high school with Southern Community Park is sensible. "We are not opposed to a southern high school at all," King said. "But in terms of cost, of environmental issues ... co-locating the high school makes sense."

Valerie Foushee, chairwoman of the school board, was not at the meeting to present her petition, but board member Ed Sechrest was there to speak on the board's behalf.

Sechrest said members want to meet with town staff to take a look at the southern site because the board saw the two other proposed sites, Rock Haven Road and Old Lystra Road, as having problems. "We realize that both sites have serious drawbacks," Sechrest said, citing costs as one problem.

The City Editor can be reached at citydesk@unc.edu.