No, the Durham school board won’t change its mind about moving arts school. Here’s why.
The school system is moving forward with plans to relocate the Durham School of the Arts outside of downtown, despite continued protest from some residents.
The new school — scheduled to finish construction in summer 2026 — will offer “true state of the art facilities,” said Fredrick Davis II, the district’s building services director.
Board of Education Chair Bettina Umstead said the spaces will be better for the arts curriculum and more students will benefit.
“DSA has a waitlist every year, so the opportunity to have additional seats at that school was a plus for me,” she said.
DSA is a middle and high school. The new campus will have a capacity of 2,295 students, compared to the 1,800 served today.
The school’s current brick campus is on nearly 17 acres on the edge of downtown, sandwiched between North Duke and North Gregson streets with nowhere to grow. A consultant said two years ago the campus was unsafe, had outdated classrooms and tied up traffic at pickup and drop-off times.
Over a decade ago, the school system paid $4.1 million for the 57-acre property on Duke Homestead Road where DSA will move, land records show. The property is about 3.5 miles away, on the north side of Interstate 85.
Costs comparable, but timeline longer
The group “Durham for DSA” has protested the move and met with Interim Superintendent Catty Moore last week.
“We hope you will still consider pausing this process,” parent Matt Kopak repeated Thursday night.
They argue downtown is essential to the school’s culture, and that construction prices have ballooned.
In 2022, when voters passed a school construction bond, DSA was projected to use a quarter of the $425 million raised. Now, DSA will take more than half of the money, putting off renovations for several elementary schools.
It’s projected to cost $256 million with all the upgrades planned, though the base cost is quoted as $241 million.
That’s pricier than a renovation, which consultants projected would run $216 million. (Although in December, when the school board voted on the move, Davis said a renovation would cost a whopping $371 million. They since had consultants produce a refined estimate.)
Staying put would reduce capacity short-term.
School staff say they’d have to lower the student population at least 20% because they can’t accommodate students during a renovation.
Beyond that, the renovation timeline would extend into 2030, Davis said.
Thursday night’s vote to move forward with demolition at the new site was unanimous. It costs $325,000.
No plans are public for what could happen at the downtown campus when DSA does move.
