New Washington County K-12 school’s opening delayed into late fall

WASHINGTON COUNTY, N.C. (WNCT) — The Washington County School System is delaying moving into a brand new facility that will house grades kindergarten through 12.

They were hoping the building would be done in time for school to start but they are now expecting to transition students over in late November or early December.

By starting the year already consolidated, they are hoping to make the transition even smoother. “So, we were the initial delivery date was going to be late fall, early winter. We thought we’d gotten ahead and so we were hoping for a preschool delivery,” Washington County Schools Superintendent Dr. David O. White said. “However, that didn’t work. So, we’re really back on our previous timeline. Unfortunately, we cannot occupy the school at the beginning of the school year like we had hoped, but that’s okay. We’re still excited about starting a new school year, a fresh school year.”

The project has been in the works and Dr. White said he doesn’t expect it to have any impact on the beginning of the school year. “We’ve been coordinating this for the past year, so we’ve been planning out what the initial consolidation will look like, and that’s consolidating our Pines Elementary and Creswell Elementary into our Washington County Elementary School and our Washington County Middle School and Washington County High School into Washington County High School.”

He said he sees it as an opportunity for the school system early in the school year. “This is just a great opportunity for us to start the school year and to really give a boost to Washington County Schools. We’ve actually created a new vision and mission for our schools, and we’re going to wrap it around our core values, new and instilled core values, two of which include high expectations for our students, staff and our community,” Dr. White said. “And the other is a love of learning. And I think that’s important as we take on this new facility, this new edifice that we are going to begin educating our students in. And I think if we stick to those core values, I think that we have a very positive future ahead of us.”

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