Elementary 11 funding approved

Northside residents are excited to hear the laughter of school children echoing through the neighborhood once again.

Northside is preparing itself for the construction of Elementary 11, which is expected to cost up to $20.6 million and could be finished as early as August 2013.

The Orange County Board of Commissioners approved funding for the elementary school on Nov. 17 in hopes of tackling overcrowding in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools system.

The new school will be built on the previous site of the Orange County Training School, said Stephanie Knott, spokeswoman for the school system.

The Orange County Training School was built in 1924, after the land was donated by Henry Stroud, a resident of the neighborhood. The school catered to the black community and was later renamed the Lincoln High School.

In 1951, Lincoln High School moved to Merritt Mill Road and the former site became the Northside Elementary School.

The school closed in the summer of 1966 with the finalization of desegregation.

Knott said the new project hopes to preserve the history of the previous schools.

The site is located between McMasters and Caldwell Street.

Since the closure of Northside Elementary, residents said families moved away from the neighborhood.

“The majority of the people in the neighborhood are individuals, mostly students, who are renting rather than buying,” said Alexander Stephens, associate director at the Marian Cheek Jackson Center.

But neighbors said the school could revitalize the community feel and bring families back.

“People like having kids in the neighborhood,” said Hudson Vaughan, associate director at the Marian Cheek Jackson Center.

Northside resident Annette Sharp, who works as an inclusion specialist at the Hargraves Community Center, said the school will unite the community.

“I think it will bring education for the African American people and participation in the community,” she said.

When Sharp attended Northside as an elementary student she was able to walk to school, which she said she hopes the children in the neighborhood will be able to do soon.

“These children go to school all over Chapel Hill and Carrboro,” she said. “Most of them ride the bus.”

How the area will be redistricted hasn’t yet been determined.

Lillian Alston, who lives across from the proposed location, said she doesn’t have children young enough to attend but would still like to volunteer at Elementary 11.

Though neighbors are generally excited about the school, construction could bring infrastructure problems, Stephens said.

“There are going to be challenges the community will face,” Stephens said.

“There will be more cars parked on the street and congestion concerning school buses.”

Despite the concerns, Stephens believes it will benefit the neighborhood.

“I think there’s excitement about the school,” he said. “There are so many powerful memories associated with that place—that school.”

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