BY MILES LAYTON

EDENTON — At Monday night’s Chowan County Board of Commissioners meeting, discussion turned toward the Edenton-Chowan Schools system’s recent state performance grades—and whether those results reflect the kind of academic progress expected as the district prepares to build a new high school.

Commissioner Ellis Lawrence raised the issue during board comments, noting that while the county continues to invest heavily in the future of public education, the state’s school report cards show room for improvement.

Lawrence’s point was that while the school system is moving forward with a new high school, he thinks it’s fair to say that the academic results across the district could stand to improve because that’s an important piece of the overall investment that’s being made in the community.

The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction recently released its annual performance grades for public schools statewide, combining measures of student proficiency and growth. Edenton-Chowan Schools’ four schools—John A. Holmes High, Chowan Middle, White Oak Elementary, and D.F. Walker Elementary—each received letter grades that, while consistent with recent years, continue to fall short of the state average in some key areas. See our story to learn more details.  

Replacing the existing 1950-era building at 800 North Oakum Street, the project was approved by the Edenton-Chowan School Board in March 2021, with funding from a state grant and a local match totaling approximately $82.4 million.

Lawrence’s comment sparked a wider conversation among commissioners about how to understand the data behind those grades and how the county and school district might work together to support improvement.

Kirby Commends Collaboration Between Boards

Commission Chairman Bob Kirby thanked Lawrence for raising the issue and took a moment to recognize members of the education community who were in attendance.

“Thank you for that very much, Doctor (Lawrence),” Kirby said. “And I just want to note, I think this is important to note—our superintendent of schools (Tammi Ward) is sitting right out there in the gallery, as is the chairman of the school board (George Lewis). And I will say that that’s something that’s refreshing for me because I’d go so far as to say a year ago, even maybe a little more than that, the superintendent of schools and chairman of the school board were not at our meetings. They’ve obviously shown a lot of interest in what we’re doing as well.”

Kirby said the relationship between the two boards has strengthened over the past year, particularly as the county and the school system have coordinated on major capital projects, including the design and funding of the new John A. Holmes High School facility.

“We do communicate rather frequently,” Kirby said. “At their level especially, they’re very sensitive to it. They are developing a way forward with this, and the observation on your part is very well taken. I understand exactly what you’re saying and why you’re saying it. I think it’s important.”

Kirby added that Superintendent Ward has been proactive in sharing updates with the county, including data on student performance and ongoing improvement plans.

Vice Chairman Larry McLaughlin said he recently attended a local NAACP meeting where School Board Chairman Lewis discussed school performance data in greater depth. McLaughlin said that while the overall letter grades may not look impressive, there are encouraging trends within the numbers that deserve context.

“I was at an NAACP meeting and Chairman Lewis was there, and he parsed those statistics,” McLaughlin said. “Might I suggest that we invite them to our next meeting to explain those statistics to us? In fact, there is progress within the numbers, but the grade doesn’t necessarily reflect that.”

McLaughlin’s suggestion drew support from other board members, several of whom agreed that a presentation from school leaders could provide valuable insight into how the grades are calculated and what the district is doing to address them.

McLaughlin reiterated that inviting school officials to present at a future meeting would be an important next step.

“I think it’s good for us, and for the public, to understand the full picture,” he said. “There’s a lot of effort being put into improvement that those grades alone don’t always show.”

Commissioners voiced general agreement that improving student performance is not solely the responsibility of the school district but a shared community goal.

Kirby said he views the current relationship between county government and the school system as stronger and more transparent than in years past.

“There’s clearly a sense of partnership now,” he said. “That’s encouraging to see, and I think it will help us all work toward the same goal—giving every student in Chowan County the best opportunity we can.”

Since we’re on the topic of schools…

Chowan Commissioners Question Communication Gap Behind $304,000 High School Change Order

Commissioners on Monday faced a decision over whether to approve a $304,365.40 change order for additional work at the new John A. Holmes High School construction site — work that would allow the facility to serve as a public emergency shelter during natural disasters.

The change order, listed as Change Order No. 16, includes the installation of a generator and specialized window film, both necessary for the school to meet safety and operational standards as a designated emergency shelter. Commissioners previously approved the general scope of the generator and window film projects, but Monday’s discussion focused on why those items had not been incorporated into the school’s original design plans.

Kirby questioned how such a significant feature — intended to serve the county’s Emergency Management needs — could have been omitted from the architect’s plans.

“When we did the design of this project,” Kirby asked, “did we not tell the architect that this was going to be used, at least in part, as a shelter?”

County Manager Howard said the confusion appeared to stem from a miscommunication between county officials, the school system, and the design team early in the project’s planning.

“There were discussions made with the previous school system staff about the school being made to shelter,” Howard said. “That did not get relayed to the architect.”

Kirby pressed the point. “Not memorialized?” he asked.

“Not to my knowledge,” Howard replied. “Now, I will say the current facility does not have a generator.”

Kirby noted that if the architect had been informed of the building’s intended use as a shelter, the generator and safety window film would have been designed into the plans from the start.

“If the design professional knew that we were using this for this capacity or this function,” Kirby asked, “the design professional would have been expected to include in his design these components, right?”

Howard agreed. “That’s right.”

Howard explained that the county was not directly involved in the school’s design process, which limited their ability to ensure such requirements were addressed at that stage.

“I didn’t expect to be part of the design process either,” Howard said. “So we weren’t in there. This came up later, during inspection, just to make sure it was there.”

Kirby said he would have expected the design professional to proactively confirm the building’s intended functions.

“Would we not expect a design professional during the design phase to say to our school board, ‘Okay, I’ve got this checklist here, and one of the items is: is this facility going to be used as a shelter?’” he asked. “I wouldn’t expect them to ask us that question?”

Howard responded that not every locality uses a school as a shelter, so the architect may not have assumed that role for the new building.

“You know, we also use our high school cafeteria as a shelter,” Howard said. “But not all localities do.”

Kirby noted that architects typically carry errors and omissions insurance for situations where required elements are left out of a design.

Boils down to — if the architect knew about the need and left it out, that person could still be responsible.

However, Howard said that protection would not apply in this case.

“I have no record of them being told that [the shelter features] had to be included in the design,” Howard said. “They’re going to come back and say, well, it wasn’t in the design, so it’s not going to be an error.”

Kirby acknowledged that the oversight appeared to be an omission rather than an error on the architect’s part but expressed frustration over the added cost.

“I guess what you’re saying is that really shouldn’t apply here,” he said. “It’s an omission —but they have ways around that too.”

Howard said that although the county caught the issue early enough to avoid delays, the correction does come with a price.

“I’m not going to say it’s not costing a little bit more to do it now,” he said, “but we’ve caught it early enough where that’s settled.”

The board took no final action Monday but is expected to approve the change order to ensure the new high school can function as a safe public shelter during future storms or other emergencies.