WS Chronicle

Last week the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools (WS/FCS) Board of Education approved a resolution to move forward with the next phase of construction for a new Ashley Elementary. Talks about replacing the elementary school located in the heart of East Winston have been ongoing since 2016.

The resolution approved during the school board meeting Tuesday, Sept. 24, will allow district leaders to move forward with Construction Documents (CDs). 

Funds for the design of the new school were covered in the 2016 Education Bond approved by voters, and the schematic designs were approved by the board in March. 

Now that full design documents are complete, moving forward with construction documents will cost an additional $700,000. Architect fees and construction documents are based off a percentage of the estimated total construction cost. Completed CDs will allow district leaders to request bids for the project. 

“What typically happens in the design process, you have a schematic design, then a design document, then a construction document,” explained Darrell Walker, WS/FCS executive director of construction and planning. Construction documents are expected to be completed by March 2025 and the bidding process will begin shortly after. 

Including construction, furniture, media, technology, security, and other needs, the project is estimated at $46 million Construction will take about 16-18 months, which means the school would open during the 2026-2027 school year. 

Although Ashley has served as an elementary school since the mid-’90s, the building was originally built in the 1960s and operated as a middle school until it closed in the 1980s. As mentioned previously, in 2016, voters approved paying for the design of a new Ashley Elementary, but funding to build the new school was left off the 2016 Education Bond.

In 2018 the push for a new Ashley heated up when teachers and staff at the school complained of mold being present throughout the building. That same year, Action4Ashley (now Action4Equity), and a local branch of the NAACP, filed a discrimination complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights against WS/FCS. The complaint alleges that WS/FCS violated federal anti-discrimination laws by failing to ensure that students at Ashley, who are almost all Black and brown students, have the same access to safe and appropriate school buildings as white students in the district.

In 2019, construction of a new Ashley took a step closer to becoming a reality when the Winston-Salem City Council approved the sale of vacant land located near Cleveland Avenue Homes. WS /FCS made a request to purchase 18 lots located near East 21st Street and New Hope Lane near Highway 52. To finalize the deal, the city council had to rescind a previous deal for the sale of 24 lots to the Housing Authority of Winston-Salem (HAWS).

When it came time to vote on moving forward with the next phase of construction, the motion passed 7-1. Susan Miller, who represents District B, voted against the motion.