Ground breaks on site of county’s new school
(L-R): County Manager Allen Cook, Mitchell County Board of Education Chair Brandon Pitman, North Carolina Senator Ralph Hise, Mitchell County Schools Director of Facilities Kim Hodshon and Superintendent Chad Calhoun use shovels to break ground on the site of the new school. (Cory Spiers)
Eight years later, ground has been broken on Mitchell County’s newest school.
Officials from the Mitchell County Board of Education and Board of Commissioners were joined by dozens of others involved in the new elementary/middle school project during a special ground-breaking ceremony on Friday, Feb. 24 at the site of the new school in Ledger.
The school, which is made possible through $40 million in needs-based capital grant funding from the state, will have two sides— an elementary wing for grades 3-5 and a middle school wing for grades 6-8.
The school will be across from the Mitchell County Schools Central Office in Ledger, down the road from Mitchell High and the Mitchell County Senior Center.
The project began with preliminary conversations about eight years ago. Over the course of the past few years, the location, scope and details of the project have shifted several times.
Superintendent Chad Calhoun took the podium first on a blustery day, addressing the attendees as heavy machinery, shovels and mounds of dirt flanked him.
“It’s been a long time coming,” he said. “This is all about the kids. We wanted to do something that our children would be proud of. We wanted our children to have the same opportunities that any other child in the state has. This new school will give them that opportunity.”
Calhoun said the addition of the new school should allow the school system to bring some things back that have been cut.
An emotional Calhoun thanked everyone involved in the project, including North Carolina Senator Ralph Hise, who took the podium next.
“My dad went to Harris,” Hise said. “I finished middle school at Harris. My sons finished middle school at Harris. Those buildings are falling apart. There’s no other way to put it. We can’t even keep the roofs up. We can’t keep the heating and air going.”
Hise cited the importance of the state lottery funds that will fuel the project. He said the new school is a step toward holding the state accountable to its promise of using funds for capital projects in areas of need.
“We’ve finally arrived,” he said. “The money is in place and it’s time to begin this project.”
Hise said he works with bigger counties like Wake, which generally talk about how many schools they’ll build each year.
For rural areas, the perspective is much different. The new school will be Mitchell County’s first since Greenlee Primary was built and opened in 2000-01.
“For the areas of Western North Carolina, this is a once-in-a-generation event,” Hise said.
County Manager Allen Cook followed Hise and thanked all involved in the project before Kim Hodshon, Mitchell County Schools executive director of facilities, closed out the ceremony.
“We dreamed of and planned for a school that would solve so many issues we currently have in our aging schools,” Hodshon said. “This new school will be a state-of-the-art structure that will provide our students, staff and the community with a safe, technologically sound, ergonomically-pleasing environment for everyone to thrive.”
Vannoy Construction is the construction manager at risk for the project and Tanner Winchester, a product of Mitchell County Schools, will serve as project manager and will remain onsite during the building process.
None of the people involved in the planning and execution of the project were involved in the Greenlee project more than two decades ago, Hodshon pointed out.
Hodshon closed the ceremony by unveiling the new school’s nickname— Miners. The school’s logo features a purple “M” similar to Mitchell High’s.
“We are so excited to become Mitchell Miners at this new school,” Hodshon said, revealing and gesturing toward the new logo on her T-shirt. “It is a great time to be a Mitchell Miner.”