New Hanover County school board working on solutions to address overcrowding

WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) - Schools in New Hanover County are quickly overcrowding, and leaders will need to consider big improvements to keep up.

According to numbers from a third-party study the board commissioned, 26 of the 43 schools in the district are overcrowded, including three out of four of the high schools. That means those schools are at least at 96% full.

The board of education met last week and discussed building more schools and redistricting to keep up with this growing population of students.

Commissioner Jonathan Barfield Jr. says some schools have too many students, while others have empty seats in classrooms. This makes it a balancing act for the school board to decide how they go about building new schools and drawing new boundary lines.

”It’s kind of hard to make everyone happy. I think in the past, when they’ve talked about moving kids to different schools, you’ve got parents that will come out very upset about their kids not going to the neighborhood school,” Barfield said.

The commissioner says last year was the first time in ten years that the county’s schools have seen an increase in enrollment.

“We’re always looking at growth patterns,” Barfield said.

He says about one-third of the commissioners’ budget goes to funding public education, which makes extra facilities such as mobile classrooms possible. Barfield says the commissioners are working with the school board on a daily basis, but it’s ultimately up to the school board to decide what will happen next.

Copyright 2023 WECT. All rights reserved.