NORTH EAST — Gone are the thick woods that had stood adjacently east of the North East High School stadium, a head-turning landscape change for anyone who travels infrequently on Irishtown Road and sees it for the first time.
Since July, that 25-acre parcel of land has been occupied by work crews clearing timber as one of the early steps in the construction of what will be the new combined North East Middle School/North East High School building — which is projected to open in July 2027, one month ahead of the start of the 2027-2028 academic year.
The new 294,000-square-foot NEMS/NEHS building will accommodate 2,000 students — 1,200 high schoolers and 800 middle schoolers — in separate sections of the structure. It will replace the overly worn and outdated North East Middle School, which was built in 1932, and the North East High School, constructed in 1970.
Cecil County Public Schools Superintendent Jeffrey Lawson reported that the new NEMS/NEHS building will cost approximately $181 million — 60 percent of which will be covered by the state and the balance covered by the county. That translates to the state paying about $103 million and the county contributing roughly $78 million.
On Tuesday (Oct. 1), along those financial lines, the Cecil County Council is scheduled to vote on Bill No. 2024-19, which calls for amending the Fiscal Year 2025-Fiscal Year 2029 Capital Improvement Program to accelerate the NEMS/NEHS complex construction.
What that means is this: The county will pay its approximately $21.5 million remaining responsibility and, in addition, it will front-fund the state’s more than $40 million remaining obligation. In the coming years, the state will pay back that $40 million to the county government.
“The county is fronting the state the funds, because the state is unable to pay as quickly, and then the state will reimburse the county,” Lawson said, noting that the goal is to open the new NEMS/NEHS by July 2027 and summarizing, “This will quicken the pace of the funding.”
Lawson then commented, “We appreciate the county’s effort to ensure that the new school is completed within the expected timeline. Otherwise, it would be 2031, 2032, before it would finished.”
Lawson noted that the 25-acre parcel beside the North East High School was purchased by the county at some point between 2016 and 2020, when Alan McCarthy served as county executive. That land was intended to serve as home to a new North East Middle School, which, some 40 years older than North East High School, was next in line for a new building.
School and county officials were quite aware, however, that North East High School wasn’t far behind North East Middle School in terms of need for a new building.
Lawson credits County Executive Danielle Hornberger for proposing that the 25-acre plot of land on Irishtown Road be used to build North East Middle School and North East High School under one construction project, killing two birds with one stone, so to speak. Hornberger, who defeated incumbent McCarthy four years ago, made that proposal shortly after taking office in December 2020.
“The savings is $10 million,” Lawson said, referring to one of the major benefits of using one tract of already-acquired land to build two schools under one roof — similar to Bohemia Manor High School/Bohemia Manor Middle School — instead of building two schools on two sites.
Hess Construction Company is serving as the construction manager on the NEMS/NEHS project and the Grimm and Parker architectural firm designed the building, Lawson said, adding that both are Maryland-based companies.
The building, which will have two cafeterias (and one shared kitchen), is designed to ensure that middle school pupils and high school students are separated throughout the school day, according to Lawson.
The building will boast some standout features, including a state-of-the art auditorium that will serve quite well as a theater for plays and other productions.
“There will be 1,000 seats in the auditorium and it will be the nicest auditorium immediately in the county,” Lawson said. “It will have the latest in theater sound and lighting.”
After the new joint-school building opens, the old North East High School building will be razed and then part of that land will be used to create a new high school baseball field and new tennis courts. There also will be a new field-house. The remaining land will be used for parking spaces — of which there has been a shortage for many years.
All of the other sports fields will remain — including the stadium football/soccer field, which recently was changed from grass to turf in the past few years. Along with the additions, they will be part of the new NEMS/NEHS campus.
Plans, if any, regarding the future of the North East Middle School building on Cecil Avenue and the 10-acre parcel on which it stands have not been made public.
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