News

Commissioners divided over future of HHS

The current Hendersonville High School building was dedicated on Dec. 3, 1926.

By Bill Moss, Published: October 21, 2015

Henderson County commissioners are sharply divided on how to move ahead with a construction project to replace or renovate Hendersonville High School, an 89-year-old structure that is deeply tied to the city’s history and culture.

Commissioners made just one decision on Wednesday after hearing a two-hour presentation on the construction options and costs for three major school projects with a total pricetag of up to $90 million. On a 4-1 vote with Commissioner Charlie Messer voting no, the board authorized architects to move ahead with plans for a Career Academy that would consolidate Balfour Education Center and Henderson County Early College programs in a new building on the campus of Blue Ridge Community College. They also appeared to be leaning toward construction of a new Edneyville Elementary School rather than renovating the old structure.

The Career Academy would be two buildings with a total of 50,000 square feet in the northeast corner of the BRCC campus, just north of the outer parking lot for the Sink Building. A new 85,000-square-foot Edneyville school would cost $24 million and take two years to build.
The longest and most spirited discussion centered on Hendersonville High School, the historic brick structure that anchors the Five Points area and is the alma mater of more county residents than any existing high school.

The choices came down to renovating the school, which is made up of different buildings constructed over several decades, or replacing it. Building a new school on the old Boyd auto dealership property seemed to have the most support. Because renovation involves creating a "modular village" for students and staff on the Boyd property, the new construction option costs less than renovation and would take less time, according to projections by Chad Roberson, the county's consulting architect. Roberson put the cost at $50 million wth a contruction time frame of 32 months. A minimal renovation option would last 32 months while other renovation options ranged from 44 to 60 months.

Left unclear was whether building a new high school would preserve the 1926 classroom building for use by HHS.

“My daddy graduated from Hendersonville High School in ‘48 or ’49,” Commissioner Michael Edney said, describing his  personal connection to the city high school. “I graduated from there in ’78, as did three sisters and a brother. Bobby Wilkins is married to my cousin. My son’s a freshman there and I’ve got a 5th grader that’s going to go there.”
The granite gym built in 1938 contains a weight room “that was dug out by students” and, Edney says, has a ceiling that could collapse at any time. “You’ve got mold,” he said. “Sometimes I wonder why I send my kids into that environment.”
Edney argued for the option of a new school “is the only legitimate option” because it disrupts the students the least, is the least expensive, takes less time and keeps the existing building, possibly for use as smaller specialized classrooms.
That brought up a what-if line of questioning about keeping the old Hendersonville High School building but using it as a community center, countywide magnet school or in some other way.
“There’s a lot of attachment to this in the community,” County Manager Steve Wyatt said of HHS. “Thinking outside the box, if it was brought up to code for other uses or community or administative uses, those are different numbers” in price than use as a school. “If it was a community center or something like that you would have to relook at those numbers.”
Edney was ready to make a motion placing HHS as the no. 1 priority but never got around to it when the board decided instead to volley the decision one more time back to the School Board, which will look at the construction options and recommend one in time for the commissioners’ Nov. 18 meeting.

Commissioners Grady Hawkins and Bill Lapsley opposed any action that would put HHS first in line when the School Board had ranked the Career Academy first and Edneyville second.

"I can’t agree with Commissioner Edney on changing the priority that the Board of Ed through numerous workshop has sent over to us," Hawkins said. "I would not be in favor of replacing the priority they have arrived at after looking across the entire system. ... We know there’s a lot of needs out there. I think the prioritization of it is a Board of Education process."
Building the Career Academy and a new Edneyville Elementary School are relatively straightforward, schools Superintendent David Jones said.
“Then you come to the elephant in the room with the Hendersonville project and we think it’s important to get a lot more buy-in with regard to how we move forward,” he said. “At some point you struggle with the history and the emotional part that come into play when you’re trying to make these very important decision that will have to last for more than 15 or 20 years.”

Commissioner Charlie Messer said the board had better set priorities, choose an option and move ahead because construction inflation will raise the cost.

"We know for a fact that we’re going to need $90 to 100 mil to do these three projects," he said. "Those numbers are going to change but you wait six momths from now that 90 to 100 million could be $110 million."