In previous years, the Needs-Based Public School Capital Fund Fund Grant structure prohibited Lenoir County Public Schools from using both lottery funds and grant funds to replace E.B. Frink Middle School. It required all districts who were awarded the grants to return all lottery funds for the period of the grant. In LCPS’s case, it was five years.

At the most recent school board meeting, Assistant Superintendent Nicholas Harvey II said, “Tonight, I am proud to report that the rules regarding the grant have changed. The lottery funding obligation has been removed from the criteria.”

An ask was then made to the Lenoir County School Board to consider approving the district to advertise for a request for qualifications (RFQ). This allows the administration to seek qualification bid packets from architectural firms to provide assistance in completing the Needs-Based Public School Capital Fund Grant. This grant is awarded under the Public Funding Building Capital Fund and the Public School Building Repair & Renovation fund. This is in addition to the state’s lottery supported capital funds aimed at assisting districts in economically distressed counties.

“What has changed is we now have full funding opportunities for school replacement,” said LCPS Superintendent Brent Williams in the meeting. “Meaning they’ll pay for the whole thing and you can get up to $50 million for a high school replacement, $40 million for a middle school in this case, and we’re proposing Frink Middle School replacement.”

Grant applications will be reviewed by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) in accordance with priorities provided in law, including the ability to generate revenue, high debt to tax revenue ratio and the extent to which a project will address critical deficiencies. Priority is given if a school was built before 1970, higher priority if the school was built before 1960 and with the highest priority given to schools built before 1950.

NCDPI has not released applications or the deadline for the 2023 cycle, but LCPS is anticipating that it will be sometime during the summer of 2023 because grant awards have historically been announced in September during the last two years.

Frink Middle School was founded in 1920 and was known then as La Grange Colored High School. La Grange Colored High School was changed in 1952 to E.B. Frink School to honor Emmet Frink who was the principal of La Grange Colored High School.

“The key point is if we did not get the grant, we would not move forward with the project, but we think it’s a win-win for us and we hope that you’re as excited as we are,” said Williams.

The Lenoir County Public School board voted unanimously to approve the administration’s RFQ request. If the grant is received, and the board approves, it would be approximately a year before any building would start. The anticipated build time for this is two years, depending on the grant, board approval, and the availability of supplies and materials.