Guilford County Schools officials consider total rebuild of Lindley Elementary School

An assessment of Lindley Elementary School in Guilford County reveals it may need to be rebuilt entirely.

Last December, the Guilford County Board of Education approved a $4.1 million contract for work at the 96-year-old school.

Whether the project would require a total rebuild, or constructing an addition and doing some renovations, hadn’t been decided then. Several community members urged the board to preserve the historic school as much as possible. 

But at a recent meeting, officials said the school’s condition may be too poor to efficiently repair, with structural concerns, outdated systems and the presence of potentially hazardous materials.

“Given the condition of the 1928 building and needing to comply with state standards for elementary schools, the cost to renovate a building, and addition, exceeds that of building a new school," said David Powell, the project's lead architect. 

Powell’s projected costs for the total rebuild would be roughly $17 million less than the renovation option. It would also be completed about three months earlier. Powell added that salvageable materials from the old school could be preserved and repurposed in the new construction. 

Board Member T. Dianne Bellamy-Small supported the plan to rebuild the school and find other ways to honor its history. She suggested using the old bricks to make a mosaic, or even a miniature Lindley replica. 

“We know what it costs us to try to meet the needs or the wants or the desires of people wanting to preserve stuff," she said. "But sometimes it's just like a good pair of shoes, once it gets holes in the bottom of it, you gotta throw them away.”

Guilford County Schools officials plan to meet with the Lindley community on July 10 to go over their findings and recommendations. The school board will ultimately decide on whether to move forward with a renovation or rebuild on July 23. 

Amy Diaz covers education for WFDD in partnership with Report For America. You can follow her on Twitter at @amydiaze.