Johnston County — A slowdown in growth is bad news for the housing market, but it might be a welcomed change for Johnston County schools.

Growth — especially in western Johnston — has filled schools to capacity and prompted school leaders to ask County Commissioners to dish out more money, and fast.

During their retreat on Friday, Commissioners heard from Superintendent of Schools Anthony Parker. A big topic was school overcrowding and how that problem might be eased, if just a little, by a growth slump.

From 2000 to 2006, Johnston’s population grew by almost 30,000, or about 24 percent, according to a land-use report from the school system. By July, the population is expected to jump about 3.2 per cent from the same time in 2007. Another 3.1-percent jump is expected by July 2009, the report says.

“That’s lower than what it was,” Parker told county leaders. “The good news out of this to me is growth might be slowing down.”

Even so, the county will still need more schools, Parker said. Two new high schools — one near Archer Lodge and another in the Cleveland community — will open in 2010. But by the next year, the county will be nearly out of classroom capacity again, he said.

Next school year, three of the county’s five high schools will be out of room: Clayton High, Smithfield-Selma High and West Johnston High. North Johnston High is expected to be out of room by the start of the 2013 school year, and South Johnston is expected to be maxed out in 2012, according to school data.

Of the county’s 10 middle schools, four will be out of classroom space at the start of the next school year: Clayton, Four Oaks, North Johnston and Smithfield.

Of the county’s 23 elementary schools, less than half — 10 — will be out of room.

It’s an ongoing problem, Parker said. But he thanked county leaders for approving an early bond sale to allow a new high school in the Cleveland community to open a year earlier than scheduled. “It’s going to make a significant impact on Johnston County,” he said. “We’re going to be in far better shape than we have been in some time when we open those new high schools.”

The school system’s goal is to map out its building needs through 2013, Parker said. At the top of that list would likely be another elementary school in West Clayton, an elementary school near Wilson’s Mills and another in the Riverwood community, Parker said.

Two new elementary schools will open next fall — one near Princeton and another on Powhatan Road near Clayton.

Commissioner Ray Woodall asked Parker why the school system wasn’t building joint schools. Put elementary, middle and high schools on the same campus, he suggested.

The school system bought enough land on Powhatan Road to put a middle school there too, Parker said. But putting schools on a joint campus can cause problems, especially when it comes to traffic, he said. “High schools need to be by themselves,” he said.

So what about building big four-story schools that can handle up to 2,400 students, some county leaders asked. It might save taxpayer dollars.

The new high schools set to open in 2010 are designed for 1,200 students. But they could accommodate up to 1,600, Parker said. “We’ve got the potential to build on to it,” he said.

“We understand the demands being placed on you other than schools,” he added.

Dropout rates
Commissioner Cookie Pope asked Parker what the schools planned to do about an increased dropout rate.

There is no easy solution, Parker said. “At 5 percent, it’s more than it needs to be,” he said.

A large Hispanic population might contribute to the rate, Parker said. Sometimes these students go back to their native countries without the schools realizing it.

“We’ve got an ever-increasing Hispanic population,” he said. “We have a difficult time tracking them.”

Sometimes, students move out of state, and Johnston County schools don’t know where they went. Those count as dropouts too, Parker said.

While upping the dropout age has been suggested as a means to reduce the rate, Parker said he was skeptical.

“Increasing the age from 16 to 18 is not going to solve the problem,” he said. “You’ve got to keep a child motivated to stay in school.”

Parent involvement is key, he said. So is more collaboration with the Department of Social Services and mental health services, he said.

Parker’s goal is to reduce the dropout rate in Johnston 50 percent. “It’s a tough one, but we’re going to do everything in our power to address it,” he said.