WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (WGHP) — Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools leaders will soon be voting on who will handle the construction of a new elementary school.
The project to build a new Brunson Elementary School is hot button topic for some with the new school to be built on a property with contaminated soil.
Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools implements new policies as students return to class The site for the new Brunson Elementary School is on North Patterson Avenue. It’s the former site of the Thomasville Furniture Manufacturing Plant. The biggest concern for some people is that it’s one of NC Department of Environmental Quality’s Brownfield Sites, which identifies it as having a threat of environmental contamination.
“I’m not quite sure how they ended up at this site other than it’s quote-unquote the only property available within the residential zone of Brunson, but that doesn’t mean it’s a good site,” said Allen Daniel, a parent.
The current Brunson Elementary School was built in 1960 on a floodplain, and voters agreed Brunson needed a facelift. In 2016, they said yes to a bond referendum, which would pave the way for a new school.
Allen Daniel, a parent of a Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools high school student, says he is glad an upgrade is in the works.
“I was 100% behind a new Brunson,” Daniel said. “My son went to Brunson at the current location, and there was no question they needed to build a new school,”
He’s left raising his eyebrows at the proposed location for the new school due to contaminants being found in the soil at the site. He is not confident in the location.
“Unless anything changes, they will have to do semiannual tests to make sure that none of that contaminated air is escaping into the school,” said Daniel.
According to NCDEQ, the developer or property owner must accept the environmental concerns that go along with the Brownfields Site. They must be committed to managing it and mitigating the environmental concerns properly.
Currently, the prospective developer is working with the North Carolina Brownfields Redevelopment Section to redevelop the property safely. One proposed remediation method is the vapor intrusion mitigation system plan. Its goal is to prevent the entry of chemical vapors into the building, using barriers, venting and sealing openings in walls to keep contaminant vapors out of buildings.
The state is working with the prospective developer towards a Brownfields agreement, which will give site-specific actions necessary to make the site suitable for reuse. The state expects it to be completed this calendar year.
Daniel is concerned about district leaders voting on the construction bid before an official Brownfields agreement has been made.
“Which is sort of putting the cart before the horse because they don’t have a Brownsville agreement. And that agreement is the state telling the district what they have to do to mitigate,” said Daniel.
The Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools Board of Education will vote on the general construction bid at Tuesday’s meeting at 5:30 p.m.
If bidder Shelco gets the thumbs up from school board members, construction will soon begin and is expected to be finished in the spring of 2026.
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