Mariel Williams
editor@mitchellnews.com
The Mitchell County Schools Board of Education is preparing to sell the old Deyton Elementary School building to North Carolina Baptists on Mission (formerly NC Baptist Men) to use as a volunteer hub for disaster recovery construction projects.
The organization has put in a bid for $775,000, and the school board has put out a notice allowing other interested parties to submit an upset bid, as required by law. There is still time for either party to back out of the sale, but at the board’s meeting last Thursday the members voted to allow Superintendent Chad Calhoun to proceed with the sale should everything go forward as expected.
The board also agreed to stop advertising the old Harris Middle School property for sale in order to consider using it as a career and technical education facility. However, board members noted that it might be difficult to remodel the building in such a way as to comply with current safety regulations.
Reopening schools
The school board also discussed when it might be possible to reopen Mitchell County campuses, which have all been closed since just before the Sept. 27 floods. Calhoun said that it might be possible to open as soon as Nov. 6, but that date is far from certain.
The board voted to aim for reopening next week but agreed that it is too soon to commit to a date.
“We need to get back as quickly as we can because we don’t know what the snow is going to do,” board member Pam Pitman said.
In order to reopen, Calhoun said, the schools need fire truck access, working sprinklers, electricity, and restrooms. The district is looking into renting portable restroom facilities.
Calhoun noted that a lot of work has been done to get the schools ready so far, by both district employees and volunteers.
“Eleven ladies from Ohio have been cleaning schools,” he said. “They’re probably cleaner than they’ve ever been.”
School bus access is another problem following flood damage to the roads.
“We feel like we could probably run [buses on] about 95 percent of our roads,” Calhoun said.