Weldon City Schools was one of nine districts across the state to receive funds from the Needs-Based Public School Capital Fund, according to the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction.
Weldon is slated to receive $50 million for a new 6-12 school that will replace the existing high school and middle school.
NCDPI announced today that nine school districts will share more than $300 million in new state lottery-funded grant awards.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Catherine Truitt said the needs-based grants are helping districts across North Carolina with fewer local resources ensure that all students benefit from the best possible learning environments.
“Many students in North Carolina attend schools built decades ago,” Truitt said. “These grants are paying for schools designed and built for the 21st century. Today’s students, regardless of where they live and attend school, deserve nothing less.”
Robert Taylor, deputy state superintendent for school and student advancement, said that with the nearly $400 million awarded this past spring to 28 school districts, and the more than $300 million to an additional nine districts today, the state has surpassed a billion dollars in funding for improvements to school facilities in recent years.
“As a former superintendent of a rural school district, I know how important these dollars are to the communities receiving them,” Taylor said. “It’s an investment by the state that will pay dividends into the future for many thousands of students and educators.”
Awards are capped at maximums of $30 million for an elementary school project, $40 million for a middle school project and $50 million for a high school project.
Grant applications were reviewed by the Department of Public Instruction in accordance with priorities provided in the law, including ability to generate revenue, high debt-to-tax revenue ratio, consolidation and replacement of multiple existing facilities, and the extent to which a project will address critical deficiencies in adequately serving the current and future student population.
Mark Michalko, executive director of the N.C. Education Lottery, said a substantial portion of the money raised by the lottery this year will help build new schools and repair older ones.
“It’s great that our state lottery proceeds make this $300 million investment in new schools possible,” said Michalko. “These new schools will serve families and their children for years to come and we look forward to seeing them opening soon.”
Over the last six years, the Needs-Based Public School Capital Fund has awarded a total of nearly $1.2 billion dollars to local school districts, providing funding for 69 new K-12 construction projects, including 39 new schools, 10 new buildings, and the replacement of 55 existing schools.
