School leaders taking
part in a groundbreaking
ceremony held Tuesday
included (left to right)
Board of Education members
Kay Carroll, Terry
Tippett, Lyn Andrews,
Superintendent Eric Bracy,
and Kevin Donovan.
A fourth elementary school is going
up on 1010
Site preparation
for the new Swift Creek
Elementary School had
already begun in earnest
prior to Tuesday’s
groundbreaking ceremony.
Located on the north side of
Secondary Road 1010
(Cleveland Road), the
20-acre site lies at the
western edge of Smithfield
Township within the
present-day Polenta
Elementary School District.
It will be Johnston County’s
25th elementary school,
noted Patty Whittington, the
school system’s
superintendent of elementary
education. And it’s the
fourth elementary school to
be built along an eight-mile
stretch of Cleveland Road
since the early 1990s. Ms.
Whittington called the
architect’s plan for Swift
Creek Elementary “nothing
short of spectacular.” VIEW colorful
renderings of the
facilities>
School Board
Chair Lyn Andrews took note
of the site’s heritage as
productive farmland owned by
Smithfield’s Wellons family
for several generations. “We
are here once again to plant
seeds… seeds of knowledge,”
she said.
Swift Creek Elementary is
the first of two new schools
to be built with funds
authorized by the
$177-million bond issue
approved by the county’s
voters in 2022. It will
provide 55 “teaching
stations” and space,
initially, for 939 students,
noted Brooks Moore, the
school system’s chief of
facilities design and
construction. (Later
Tuesday, the school board
approved a $40,236,116
"guaranteed maximum price”
construction contract for
the project.)
“This school is perfectly
positioned to offer much
needed capacity,” Mr. Moore
said, and should provide
future relief from student
overcrowding at West
Smithfield and five other
elementary schools in
surrounding districts.
It's scheduled for
completion in time for the
start of the 2025-26 school
year.
Next up for 2022 bond funds
is construction of a new
high school at Wilson’s
Mills. Meanwhile, the Board
of Education has called for
a $285-million school-bond
issue to be put before
Johnston’s voters this
November. The Johnston
County Board of
Commissioners has yet to
authorize that referendum.
The new Swift Creek
Elementary School is going
up across Cleveland Road
from historic Elizabeth
United Methodist Church:
School
board cuts pre-K
spaces as ESSER runs
out
ESSER, the
federal Elementary and
Secondary
School Emergency Relief
measure funded by
Congress at the height of
the coronavirus pandemic,
has brought roughly $113
million in federal aid to
Johnston County Public
Schools. But that source of
funding for local needs is
coming to an end this fall,
prompting cutbacks in
capital expenditures and
classroom services in the
coming year’s school budget.
Among the targets identified
so far are programs for
pre-kindergarten students.
Johnston’s Board of
Education Tuesday approved
by a 5-1 vote a
staff-proposed reduction in
pre-K services during the
2024-25 school year. Board
member Ronald Johnson cast
the dissenting vote; Mike
Wooten was absent.
The total number of students
presently served by various
pre-K programs is 865. That
will be reduced to 566 in
the year ahead. The number
of classrooms set aside for
those programs is now 48.
That will be cut to 30.
Chief Academic Officer Anna
Kuykeydal said an estimated
340 of the 566 students
covered by the revised plan
are exceptional children
with disabilities who must
be served as required by
state law. As a result, most
of the reduction in services
will impact children in N.C.
Pre-K, federal Title I, and
“fee-for-service” options.
“This is not a palatable
decision,” Ms. Kuykeydal
told the board, “but we also
know that we have to stay
afloat financially.”
Chief of Finance Stephen
Britt said it’s one of
numerous cuts amounting to
$66 million that must be
made in the coming year’s
budget because of ESSER’s
end.
The board’s majority
accepted the staff’s
recommendation even though a
couple of pre-K teachers
arose to make impassioned
pleas to hold onto current
programs. “This is my
heart... my passion,”
exclaimed Crystal
Smith, a pre-K teacher at
Princeton Elementary. “It is
hard to teach little
people... but it is precious
to us.”
Board member Kevin Donovan
asked what will become of
teachers and teaching
assistants who will be
displaced by the cuts in
pre-K classrooms. Given the
current number of K-12
teaching vacancies
throughout Johnston's
schools, “we will find
homes for
them,” replied Linda
Edmundson, the school
system’s interim director of
human resources. “No one
should be concerned about
that.”
2.4
acres for sale at 1558
W. Market St.
in West
Smithfield
Located
across from Rose Manor
Shopping Center close to
intersection with M.
Durwood Stephenson
Parkway. Just west of
Downtown Smithfield.
Seller has applied for
B-3 zoning. $498,000MLS#
10021671 (Photo by
ShowSpaces Photography)
SUSAN
LASSITER
Fonville
Morisey 
Realty
919-669-9235
Retail
sales showed modest
growth at year’s end
The
N.C. Department of Revenue
reports that retail sales in
Johnston County during the
months of October, November,
and December totaled
$847,590,518 – an increase
of $30.7 million
(3.76%) over sales of
$816,844,699 in the fourth
quarter of 2022, when
Johnston’s sales registered
a jump of 6.6% over the
previous year. Even though
the latest report showed
sales growth slowing a bit,
the total for December 2023
amounted to $306,081,715 –
the first time a single
month has topped the
$300-million mark.
WHAT'S COMING UP
Register of Deeds 15th annual
Shred Event this
Saturday
It's for
the public to
securely dispose of
“sensitive and personal
documents” free of charge
starting at 10 a.m. Saturday
and continuing until 1
p.m. in the parking lot of
Smithfield-Selma High
School. Johnston County’s
Register of Deeds Craig
Olive reminds the public of
a limit of three boxes or
trash bags per vehicle. Last
year almost 25,000 pounds of
paper was shredded, he
noted. Co-sponsors of this
year's event are the Local
Government Federal Credit
Union, the Civic Federal
Credit Union, Hinson’s
Printing, and the Johnston
County Report. If you have
questions about the process,
call the Register of Deeds
Office at 919-989-5160.
County
Board may adopt
utility, fire-service
plans Monday
The Johnston
County Board of
Commissioners appears ready
to adopt both an updated
Public Utilities Capital
Improvement Plan and a
single countywide taxing
district for fire-protection
services when it meets
at 6 p.m. Monday at the
Courthouse. Public hearings
have been held previously on
both proposals without any
appreciable objections
voiced on either plan.
VIEW the
complete agenda for
Monday’s meeting>
Town
Council hearings on two
land-use proposals
Tuesday
The Smithfield
Town Council will conduct
two public hearings when it
meets at 7 p.m. Tuesday
at Town Hall. Under
consideration are requests
for:
• Rezoning from
Residential/Agricultural to
Light Industrial of two
parcels totaling 15 acres on
Swift Creek Road across from
Johnston Regional Airport.
• A preliminary
plat for a 10-lot
single-family residential
subdivision on 34 acres
between Hillcrest Drive and
the Neuse River in West
Smithfield.
VIEW the
complete agenda for
Tuesday’s meeting>
Last-minute
reminder: The council
will hold a budget session
at 6:30 p.m. today.
DEATHS
& FUNERALS
A
WORD (OR TWO) FROM THE
EDITOR
Has "my neck
of the woods" “gone to the
dogs”?
On my
frequent walks along the
relatively
quiet streets of South
Smithfield, I’ve noticed a
recent upsurge in the number
of dogs either leashed by
their pedestrian owners or
confined by fences in
backyards. Don’t know if
they’re strictly for
recreational enjoyment or
perhaps put in place for
security reasons.
The good news is that it’s
rare to see those dogs
running loose on the streets
to harass us pedestrians or
get run over by a vehicle.
Quite a few of those pets
and their owners are taking
advantage of Smithfield’s
South Second Street Dog
Park, which recently got an
upgrade with shelters,
picnic tables, sidewalks,
and area lights. Here’s a
view of some of those new
amenities:
The Town of Smithfield has
made great strides in recent
years with its parks and
recreation facilities:
the Buffalo Creek greenway
trail, the refurbished Neuse
River Amphitheater and
upgraded boat ramp, the new
walking trail at East
Smithfield’s Smith-Collins
Park, West Smithfield’s
drone park, South
Smithfield's dog park.
Nearing completion: outdoor
pickleball courts. Next up:
a soccer park off NC 210 in
West Smithfield.
Complementing the town’s
works are pedestrian trails
and sidewalks being added by
developers to new
residential
subdivisions like East
River off Buffalo Road. Most
of that is being required by
the town, but there’s also
rising public demand for
such amenities that
developers dare not ignore.
So let’s “take it outside,”
as they say. Couldn’t be a
better time than April to
start doing that around
these parts.
To publicize
upcoming events and
activities, the
Town of Smithfield as well
as the County of Johnston
have turned to Facebook
postings to get the word
out. Here’s one example from
the town – perhaps the start
of a Weekly Sun
bulletin board:
Subscribers
to this edition: 1,522
MISS
A PREVIOUS EDITION?
You will
find it in the
Weekly Sun
archives>
the SMITHFIELD
WEEKLY SUN
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