North Carolina State Superintendent Catherine Truitt welcomed the nine school districts that will share in the more than $300 million in new state lottery-funded grant awards for school construction, renovation projects and other capital improvements to Raleigh to commemorate this special occasion.
Several of the new schools will replace at least two existing schools with combined facilities. Weldon City Schools will use the grant funds to replace two existing schools and create a new 6th-12th grade school. In all, the Department of Public Instruction received 164 grant applications from 72 districts across the state totaling more than $2.4 billion.
“This is a once-in-a lifetime gamechanger for Weldon City Schools,” offered Dr. Dannie Williams, Superintendent of Weldon City Schools. “We are pleased to have been awarded these funds, and we plan to create a school that our community will be proud of and that we all cherish,” he added.
The grants, awarded under the Needs-Based Public School Capital Fund, are in addition to the state’s two other lottery-supported capital funds - the Public School Building Capital Fund and the Public School Building Repair and Renovation Fund - from which all 115 districts in North Carolina receive allocations each year. Awards were 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. A request for bids/proposals for the new Weldon school will open this fall.