View This Email In Your Browser
It’s Tuesday, August 13.
Come work with us! The INDY is hiring an editor in chief. Click here for details and how to apply. And read about some exciting new changes coming to the INDY.
Good morning, readers.
Despite local pushback against the Durham Public Schools Board of Education’s plan to move Durham School of the Arts to a new facility outside of downtown, the board still seems to support the original proposal, the 9th Street Journal reports.
At a virtual school board meeting Thursday, the board discussed the planned move and the likely costs of moving the school, which currently serves 1,850 sixth-12th graders in its current location near Brightleaf Square, versus renovating the existing facility.
The district now estimates that renovating the existing building would cost $269 million, while construction of the new campus is now estimated to cost $213 million (the total project, including design, fixtures, and equipment is expected to cost between $241 and $256 million).
Fredrick Davis, senior executive director of building services, and DPS interim superintendent Catty Moore reiterated Thursday that the current building could not meet the same capacity and programming needs that the new facility would meet.
But a community group has its own plan for DSA that a group of architects, engineers, planners, and developers have devised to renovate the current site at a cost of approximately $180 million.
But Moore said the lower-price tag plan “comes with not meeting the programming requirements that have been established for the performing arts school.”
The board postponed a scheduled vote on the new plan and moved the topic to the agenda for its August 22 meeting.
Have a good Tuesday.
—Jane
Durham
Bike Durham has gifted the City of Durham $60,000 to help pay for a protected bike lane project along Martin Luther King Jr Parkway.
ICYMI: Letters Bookshop in downtown Durham is moving to a co-op model.
Durham Public Schools’ new superintendent Anthony Lewis had his first day on the job yesterday. Read more about Lewis here.
Wake
ICYMI: Wake Democrats are split over the local party’s plans to make endorsements in Raleigh City Council races.
Wake County Public Schools leaders told the Wake County Board of Commissioners at a joint meeting Monday that a real-time security center to help the district monitor and respond to safety issues is a priority for the district.
Orange
The Town of Chapel Hill is seeking a poet laureate.
North Carolina
A judge ruled that third-party presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. can stay on the ballot in North Carolina this fall.
Michele Morrow, the Republican candidate for state superintendent on voters’ ballots this fall, posted a video of herself advocating for a pro-Trump military coup.
Today’s weather
A high of 84 degrees with a chance of rain and storms.
If you’d like to advertise your business to the Daily’s 30,000-plus subscribers, please contact [email protected]
Love The INDY? Join the INDY Press Club.
Support the ambitions of local journalism (plus, you can enjoy a few perks).
You must be logged in to post a comment.