Wayne County Public Schools

On Monday evening, at its regularly scheduled monthly meeting, the Wayne County Board of Education approved a plan to better maximize facilities across Wayne County Public Schools (WCPS) to help reduce operational expenses. The plan, which is estimated to generate $750,000 annually in operational cost savings, will take effect August 2024.

“One of my tasks over the summer, and repetitively throughout my job here in Wayne County, has been to walk our campuses and look at the utilization of our facilities across Wayne County,” stated Dr. Marc Whichard, WCPS Superintendent to Board members. “One of the things that has become very apparent is that we have a larger capital footprint and operational cost than what is needed to adequately house, staff, and educate students within our school district. So as a part of that, I have created and have been working on for a number of months what I am entitling our School and Building Use Maximization Plan.”

Under the plan, Wayne School of Engineering will move off of Goldsboro High’s campus to the campus currently housing Wayne Academy. Current Goldsboro High classrooms in the older 1926 building will be relocated to a more modern portion of the campus that has been used by Wayne School of Engineering since 2007.

Once a 4A class high school based on its population size, Goldsboro High has a building capacity of 1,300 students. Its current population is a little over four hundred students. Under the plan, empty space in the 1926 building will be used to house staff from multiple centralized district support areas, including the Exceptional Children’s Department (moving from AP Exhaust campus), School Nutrition (moving from WCPS Maintenance Campus), and Federal Programs/HR/Testing Departments (moving from School Street campus). The move will greatly reduce heavier student traffic in an effort to help preserve the nearly century old building. Students will continue to have full access to all other buildings and areas on its campus.

Dr. Whichard told Board members that the plan takes into account the importance of Goldsboro High to the school district and to the community, and will help preserve and perpetuate the school's history and legacy.

To help more fully utilize Eastern Wayne High’s campus, Wayne Academy will be relocated to the former Freshman Academy modular suite which has 12 classrooms. Wayne Academy currently has around 70 students. Edgewood Community Developmental School, which has a little over 40 students, will also become a “school within a school” in a section of the main building at Eastern Wayne High. It will have a similar model as the CDSPs at Meadow Lane Elementary and Greenwood Middle, and will continue to have a centralized “12+ Program” for students ages 18-22 who have completed the life skills program at their high school. In addition, NC Pre-K Classes at School Street Early Learning Center will be relocated to Eastern Wayne Elementary.

As part of the School and Building Use Maximization Plan, the district will close the mobile unit used by the School Nutrition Department as well as the campuses at School Street and Edgewood. It will also end its lease with AP Exhaust for the building currently being used by the district’s Exceptional Children’s Department and Print Shop.