Chocowinity Primary is making room for returning fifth graders
Posted at 16:27, Monday, November 21, 2022
- Dr. Matthew Cheeseman, Beaufort County Schools Superintendent.
The Beaufort County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously Monday, Nov. 7, to allow Beaufort County Schools to apply to replace the modular building on the Chacowinity Elementary School campus. This modular building will allow rising fifth-graders to remain at Chacowinity Elementary School instead of going to Chacowinity Middle School, which currently serves fifth through eighth grade students.
According to Beaufort County Schools Superintendent Dr. Matthew Cheeseman, the North Carolina General Assembly appropriated $300,000 for the past fiscal year and $500,000 for the 2022-2023 fiscal year for the school district. The money is to be distributed by the Beaufort County government to the local board of education. A total of $800,000 would pay for a new modular building at the back of the school to replace the current one. Cheeseman said he doesn’t expect the project to replace the modular system to cost more than $800,000.
The existing module “depreciated over time,” Cheeseman said, adding that the school district removed the module at Chocowinity Primary because it was “so shabby.” The existing module “does not contribute to student learning”.
The modular replacement will help 99 current fourth-grade students stay at Chacowinity Elementary School and transition to fifth grade there. The modular will have four to six rooms with a bathroom.
“Being able to do this will also allow us to use the four classrooms in the brick building that are currently being used as labs and other facilities in those modules so that our fifth graders can actually stay in brick and mortar construction,” Cheeseman said. .
Where the new module will be located, there are existing water, septic and electrical lines. Additionally, in April 2022, the City of Chacowinity granted the school a building permit, which they are maintaining. When the old module is demolished, a structure will be erected at the surface level of the concrete slab.
Cheeseman said he hopes to have the new module installed on Aug. 11, or about two weeks before school starts.
He explained the benefits of returning fifth graders to Chocowinity Primary, which improves school performance. The school is one of at least two schools in the state that are Pre K-4 compliant and have a B rating from the NC Department of Public Instruction. Chocowinity Middle School is one of 33 schools in the state that serve students in grades five through eight. Cheeseman said “very few” models in which fifth-graders study alongside sixth- through eighth-graders have actually worked during the COVID-19 pandemic. Most of the 33 schools he guessed had a D or C rating.
Speaking of the fifth-graders, Cheeseman said they have “elementary” thinking. “So you have to bring them back to elementary school teachers, elementary students, elementary play.”
When fifth graders are sent to middle school, the school district is at a loss in terms of who can teach them based on their mandated, student schedule based on academic interventions.
Almost 20 years ago, the fifth grade study area of Chacoviniti Elementary School burned down. This led the fifth graders to begin their studies at Chacowinity High School. Since then, Beaufort County Schools has been working to bring the fifth-graders back to Chacowinity Elementary School, Cheeseman explained.
