With community members pleading for a new high school in the Hobbton district, the Sampson County Schools Board of Education received a glimpse of what the future could be if plans officially move forward.

Robbie Ferris, owner of SfL+A Architects, made a presentation about different option after a walk-through with Mark Hammond, executive director of auxiliary services for Sampson Schools. For Hobbton High School(HHS), a site across the street was considered with options for the school that’s more than 60 years old.

During the presentation, Board Chair Kim Schmidlin said a goal for a building’s committee and entire board is to see what it would take for the school’s to have improvements with a 20-year lifespan. She added that it includes energy proficient work involving lights, windows, and Heating, venting, and air conditioning (HVAC) work.

For HHS, the first ideas mentioned were to widen the corridors of the school to make it functional for the next 20 years or a complete renovation to last about 40 years. For the short term solution of 20 years, Ferris said the district would have to spend more money in the future for upkeep. Some of the needs includes new windows, lighting, mechanical systems, ceilings, and gymnasium. The total for that 20-year solution is about $5.9 million. The wholesale renovation is about $31 million.

“Keep in mind, it’s not a new building, it’s sill an old building under this scenario,” Ferris said. “There’s still going to be compromises. If you bought an old car and you restored it, it still wouldn’t be like a new car. There’s nothing that you could do to make that old car like a new car and it’s the same thing with this building.

“If you spent this amount of money, it would be as nice as it could be,” he said. “We would widen the corridors and we would create collaboration space and we would make this the most useful facility that we could possibly make it.”

One of the biggest option was a new high school across the highway, with a suggestion to tear down the current HHS to build a parking and queuing lane for Hobbton Elementary School and Hobbton Middle School (HMS), which are next to the high school.

“That would be improving that situation, so you wouldn’t have traffic backing up on the road, everyday day like you do now,” Ferris said.

A new building across the street would be back far enough to have space for a parking area and drivers picking up students. Schmidlin said the traffic situation is a huge consideration for the district leaders.

“The traffic situation is a huge consideration for us and this would increase the number of students we have coming and going every day,” Schmidlin said. “I think that would have to be a major consideration.”

She also asked about stoplight. Ferris said it would require a conversation with the North Carolina Department of Instruction to widen the roads.

Along with foundation work, technology, furniture, parking upgrades and building another school, the cost would be about $58.5 million. Ferris said high schools usually cost between $90 million and $100 million, but the new HHS would be less to accommodate 600 students, which is larger than the current amount.

If built, the school would come with athletic facilities including ball fields and a track. For several years, community members voiced their concerns about HHS being the only high school without a track.

Ferris also presented was placing middle and high school students in the Hobbton District in one new building, which would cost $78 million with each group taking classes in opposite sides of the building. Facilities such as gymnasiums, administration offices and cafeterias would be shared. He added that some of the possible advantages of the combined school include mentoring and spaces at the high school for advanced middle grade students.

“We have not designed a 6-12, but we have designed a handful of K-8s,” he said. “There are some some 6-12 schools around the state that we can look at to determine that program. You can easily break those two populations apart. I would generally advocate for one entrance because I think from a safety and security standpoint that’s better. But one of the decisions that has to be made is if you’re going to do one bus route or two. Once you make that decision, we can talk through the number of entrances and how we separate those populations.”

Through this scenario, students from Hargrove Elementary School would attend Hobbton Elementary and children from Hobbton ES would be moved to the middle school building.

If a new school was to move forward, Ferris emphasized that a new HHS or a combined HHS/HMS building would be different than the latest built schools.

“I think it’s important to see what new schools look like and how they’re changing,” Ferris said. “I know you all probably think about Midway, Union, and even Plain View, and Salemburg as new schools, but they’re not. A lot changed since then.”

Some of the features open classrooms, separated by glass walls to encourage collaboration in learning commons, which are similar to libraries or media centers.

“It’s a much more collegial type of environment,” he said. “Students can kind of come and go as much as the teacher will allow them. Every teacher is a little different and every student is a little different. But that is the beauty of this school. It allows teachers and students to work in a way that’s most appropriate for them.

“We built five schools that are built like this and they are very successful,” he said. “The students love being in the school and the teachers love the school.”

Some of the other design features include high windows to allow more daylight in the school. Ferris said daylight improves students performance by 20 percent. With the glass walls, he added that behavior is also better too because students know they’re being watched.

For other schools such as Clement, Plain View, and Salemburg Elementary, a few collaboration spaces were added. He said it was examples of the idea that was beginning to form in the industry.

“This is those ideas really coming full circle and being used really the way they were envisioned to be used,” he said. “It’s been a slow evolution, but it’s been really exciting for these students.”

Ferris and board members also discussed other transparency aspects including the gymnasium, dining area and other sections of the building featuring classrooms built around collaboration spaces. When it comes to safety, glass exteriors were questioned, with Ferris responding talking about locked vestibules and bulletproof or resistant glass options.

Additional cost such as inflation were also presented by Ferris as well when it comes to 2o years from now.

“Spending $10 million dollars is going to be similar to spending $2 million today,” he said while talking about school construction. “Keep in mind that the longer you wait to do something, the cost goes up.”

Together, they also analyzed what could be done to Roseboro-Salemburg Middle School (RSMS), and Hargrove ES.

Some of the suggested improvements for RSMS involved the kitchen area and humidity problems, bathrooms, ceilings issues, foundation work; and needs for the gym. The estimate for that work is about $1.4 million

“It doesn’t by any stretch bring that this entire campus up to the current standards,” Ferris said about the school built in 1949. “It’s just doing some of the critical work that needs to be done on that campus.”

At Hargrove, mentioned suggestions included new windows, HVAC upgrades, ceilings, lighting, and removing old mechanical pipes to improve the overall look. The total would be about $2.4 million to renovate the 62-year-old school. Repaving the entire parking lot and adding additional space for vehicles was also discussed. Along with traffic, drainage was another issue with the parking lot. If the total renovation project was to move forward, HHS students would have to placed somewhere else for school. Smaller projects for the school, RSMS, and HES would take place over the summer, if approved.

For changes at RSMS, Hargrove, and smaller renovations at HHS, Ferris said it would be difficult to have it finished by the summer, even if a decision was made this year because of design and permits through the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. If approved during the school year, work would begin in the summer of 2021.

A new Hobbton school would take about 9 to 12 months for the design process and another year for permit approval. Construction would take about 18 months for a high school and 22 months for a building with middle school students added.

Schmidlin said a new school is something the should be taking into account, along with the challenge with the upkeep up existing facilities.

“So this is an interesting approach, in particular the combination, because it does allows us to take a look at reducing the number of schools we have, in particular the oldest schools that we have,” she said.

A decision was not made during the Tuesday meeting, but the building matter is expected to be discussed at future meetings.

“I feel like it’s our responsibility to provide a good learning environment for our students and to provide a good teaching environment for our faculty, but it’s also our responsibility to maintain the schools that we have,” Schmidlin said.

Robbie Ferris, owner of SfL+A Architects, makes a presentation about building improvements for Sampson County Schools.
https://www.clintonnc.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/web1_Sampson_1.jpgRobbie Ferris, owner of SfL+A Architects, makes a presentation about building improvements for Sampson County Schools. Chase Jordan | Sampson Independent

Sampson Board of Education members Robert Burley and Tracy Dunn review documents.
https://www.clintonnc.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/web1_Sampson_2.jpgSampson Board of Education members Robert Burley and Tracy Dunn review documents. Chase Jordan | Sampson Independent

During a meeting about school improvements,Robbie Ferris, owner of SfL+A Architects, talks about the features of modern schools.
https://www.clintonnc.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/web1_Smpson_3.jpgDuring a meeting about school improvements,Robbie Ferris, owner of SfL+A Architects, talks about the features of modern schools. Chase Jordan | Sampson Independent
Board considers upgrades for oldest schools

By Chase Jordan

[email protected]

Reach Chase Jordan at 910-249-4617. Follow us on Twitter at @SampsonInd and like us on Facebook.