The Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools Board of Education approved a bid for construction of a new Brunson Elementary School on Tuesday.
Brunson will be North Carolina’s first public school to be built on a brownfields site.
The new location was contaminated by prior industrial use, as it was formerly home to a furniture plant. At a school board meeting this week, environmental lawyer Stephen Berlin explained how that impacts the project.
“There is some contamination on there that is above residential standards," Berlin said. "So what that means is, you have to do something to address that risk.”
In this case, that involves the installation of a vapor mitigation system and a vapor barrier, which prevent chemicals from entering the building.
Some public speakers shared concerns about potential health risks to students.
"Your vote tonight is solely about your tolerance for health risks for our children," said Peter Antinozzi. "A vote for being the first elementary school built on a contaminated site in North Carolina is irresponsible and more simply dumb."
But others, like Brunson Elementary School teacher Michele Jordan, said they believed the school would be safe with proper cleanup.
“I mean, what are we going to do? Throw away all of downtown land because it once was something? We have to learn how to remediate," Jordan said. "That's what we have to do all the time in our school system today. I mean, every time a tile pops up at Brunson, we tape it off while somebody comes and removes it, because it's asbestos. I mean, we're mitigating those things all the time from things that we didn't know about in the years past.”
Building a new Brunson, which is currently located on a floodplain with structural issues and mold, was one of several projects on the district’s 2016 Bond Referendum. Jordan says it was a discussion even before that.
“It's been such a long time coming," Jordan said. "Our students deserve it. We deserve it.”
After some discussion, the school board voted 6-3 to approve a bid from General Contractor Shelco, LLC for roughly $36 million. Board members Steve Wood, Trevonia Brown-Gaither and Robert Barr voted against the bid.
Construction is expected to begin in the fall, with completion in the spring of 2026.
Amy Diaz covers education for WFDD in partnership with Report For America. You can follow her on Twitter at @amydiaze.