School Closure & Consolidation

The Board of Education reviewed multiple options and approved the recommendation to begin the consolidation process. This plan proposes consolidating New Hope Elementary with Dabney Elementary and Carver Elementary with E.O. Young Elementary.

Data consistently shows that the enrollment decrease and the age of school facilities are significant factors in this decision. Both Carver and New Hope are more than 70 years old, and ongoing maintenance and renovation needs make consolidation into newer facilities a more practical and fiscally responsible option.

NC Law for considering school consolifation or closures

New Hope Elementary and Carver Elementary will continue to operate as normal throughout the current school year. Students and staff would go to new schools in the 2026-2027 school year.

Class sizes are determined by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. Vance County Schools will continue to adhere to class size mandates, and staffing will be allocated based on enrollment numbers at each school.

Vance County Schools will follow state statute. North Carolina law (G.S. 115C-37.1) grants the Board of County Commissioners the first right of refusal for school property no longer needed for public education. This requires the Board of Education to offer the property to the county before it can be sold to another entity, allowing for potential county use.

In accordance with this statute, the county will have the first right of refusal for the buildings slated for closure. If the county does not identify a use, the properties will return to the district for potential sale. The money received from the sale of a building is returned to the county and can only be used for capital improvement as approved by the county.

Families will have the opportunity to choose any elementary school they wish to attend by completing the appropriate district transfer form. If choosing a school outside their designated school attendance zone, they will have to provide their own transportation, with the exception of EM Rollins STEAM Academy, our modified year-round school. However, students from Carver will be reassigned to EO Young as their home school and students from New Hope will be assigned to Dabney Elementary. Transporation will be provided for these reassignments.

PreK will largely depend on where students go and how many PreK classes are available.  We will continue to comply with guidelines on the number of students per classroom.  

Yes, Dabney does have an EC program. They will be served and have their needs met.

With Carver students moving to E.O. Young and New Hope students moving to Dabney, increased enrollment will bring additional funding and expanded opportunities for students. Larger schools are better positioned to provide consistent access to full-time nurses, counselors, and social workers—services that smaller schools cannot always sustain. By reducing our overall footprint, these support staff can more effectively serve students in centralized locations.

In addition, programs such as music, arts, and drama will be strengthened and more consistently available. At smaller schools, these offerings are limited or unavailable due to low enrollment, but increased student populations allow these programs to be enhanced and sustained.

State statute outlines that the first step is research conducted by the Board of Education. This research has been ongoing for the past three months and has included a thorough review of data and financial projections. The Board examined the potential impact of a Reduction in Force (RIF) if schools were not closed, as well as the possibility of furloughs—days without pay—for all staff if consolidation did not occur. To continue operating the district responsibly, beginning the consolidation process was determined to be the best option.

State law also requires public hearings and parent meetings, which were held the week of January 20.

Staff members at New Hope Elementary and Carver Elementary will all remain employed and be given priority to move to other jobs within the school system.

Staff may be able to serve one school rather than being split. This is part of the enhanced student services support.

It depends on where the students go. If the majority end up at EO Young, then a majority of the staff would have the opportunity to follow. Instructional Support Assistant vacancies already exist. There are currently 29 vacancies in the district as of January 21, 2026. The board is committed to no one losing their job - we cannot tell you your site or title, pending where the students enroll. You have job security; it is just a historical decrease in enrollment. All intent forms were made available to Carver and New Hope staff on January 20, 2026, to put in their site request. We want families to know that they have options as well - EO Young or another site if they choose to provide transportation.

That is not something we are planning for. We are trying to rightsize as much as possible. Specifically, over the last five years, we have reduced positions, avoiding a negative impact on the classroom.

Duplicate staffing would still present an issue in that scenario. This wasn’t the only option, and not the only schools were looked at during this review process. Furloughs and reductions of force were part of the discussion; however, we were working to cause the least harm to the community and offer the most we could to our students. It isn’t perfect, but we are going to do all we can to support. 

This will support the educational plan for the district - funding of the instructional program.

It isn’t coming to us obviously. The lottery funding does fund some capital projects; however, it cannot be used for salaries, electrical bills, etc. There is a lot of debate in Raleigh about that.

Every parent has the right to choose what is best for their students. Could some choose charter - they may. We hope families choose VCS, but we may lose some, and we may gain some. Every month at our board meeting for the last couple of years, we have enrolled more students than we have lost. As we pay the invoices to the charters every month, the number of students going to charters tends to decrease. We have received students back from charters as the year continues. 

Public schools receive local, state, and federal funding based on student enrollment within a county—essentially, the money follows the student. When a student leaves a traditional public school to attend a charter school, the state and local per-pupil funding generally transfers to the charter school. Private schools operate outside the public system and typically charge tuition for enrollment.

Previously, there was a cap on the number of charter schools; however, that cap has been removed, leading to an increase in charter schools across the state. VCS currently allocates funding to 27 charter schools, primarily located in Vance, Granville, Wake, and Durham counties. In addition, some families use private school vouchers to attend private schools, which most recently totaled over 3 million dollars in Vance County alone.

Public schools have no authority over charter schools. They have their own separate board and set of rules. General Assembly, based on their priorities, looks at the different funding streams, increasing opportunity scholarships, increasing the caps for charters, etc. We do not have any level of authority on charters. We do engage in conversation with families of charter and homeschool students, and often have students return to the district.

The General assembly has removed the cap, so we have no control of charter schools in
our community.