OAKBORO — With millions of dollars in repairs needed and overcrowding issues facing Oakboro STEM Elementary, the Stanly County Board of Education hosted a public information session in a recent joint meeting with the Oakboro Town Commission and citizens at the Oakboro Community Building.

Stanly County Schools (SCS) superintendent Jarrod Dennis presented the plan to the Oakboro commissioners and Board of Education Vice Chair Dustin Lisk.

According to Dennis, Oakboro STEM Elementary operates in a building built in 1926 with an addition in 1974. He said the exterior veneer is separating from the building, with the wall cracking and separating. The school has foundation issues, he added, noting the walkway cover needs to be replaced.

Dennis also mentioned that SCS “has issues with the roof. There is extensive deferred maintenance and a load capacity.”

Lisk said the costs for Oakboro school repairs will be “upwards of $1 million just for the summer that the taxpayer is going to have to foot.”

“We are one of the few states in America that (the school board) is not independent,” Lisk said. “We’re totally funded from our county commissioner board. … I’m going to sum it up. The building’s falling down.”

Dennis reiterated for Oakboro’s board and citizens in attendance the data previously reported in the 2022-23 academic year, illustrating the overcrowding issues at the school and others in the western end of Stanly.

“Locust, Stanfield and Endy are currently over capacity at 115%, 107% and 110%, respectively,” Dennis said.

He added that West Stanly Middle School is at 113% capacity, and West Stanly High is at 94% but is projected to be over capacity by the 2027-28 academic year.

Dennis also explained a recent school board decision to redistrict in the west to move students from Locust and Stanfield to Endy.

Lisk mentioned the closed former elementary school in Ridgecrest but noted SCS does not outright own the title to the land on which it sits.

Lisk said the school system will apply for a needs-based capital grant of $62 million for a new Oakboro Elementary. SCS owns additional land behind Oakboro STEM, where the school has been proposed to go.

The grant would need a 5% match from the Stanly County Board of Commissioners, which would be approximately $3.1 million.

“We are way behind the eight ball, and we are playing make-up because things that should have happened 25 or 30 years ago did not happen,” Oakboro Town Commissioner Bud Smith, who was principal at West Stanly High School for many years, said.

Both Lisk and Dennis asked for the community’s support to ask commissioners to agree to the 5% match.