The armory beside Roanoke Rapids High School could be demolished if the Roanoke Rapids Graded School District is awarded a state Needs-Based Public School Capital Fund grant for a new building that would house the early college and career and technical education center, Superintendent Bennett Jones told Halifax County commissioners Monday night.

In a meeting held in Roanoke Rapids as part of the county board’s plans to hold sessions throughout the county, Jones told the board that if the project is funded, the school system would construct the CTE center on the existing site of Roanoke Rapids Early College, which is currently housed in the armory. “This building would allow both students at the high school and the early college to expand their studies into new CTE courses and pathways.”

He told the board that a new gym would also be constructed on the RRHS campus. “This would be our competition gym, housing locker rooms, training rooms, and other new facilities. In conjunction with this project would also be the development of the Patterson fields to provide new athletic facilities for baseball, softball, tennis courts, and a multiuse field.”

Patterson field, once the site of the former Patterson Mill, is behind the high school on Jefferson Street.

The high school gym was built in 1957 and is not air-conditioned, Jones said. “It has poor ventilation and HVAC. It’s a critical need as it serves as a classroom throughout the day in addition to hosting events for athletic teams. It’s a dangerous situation for our students and visitors on extremely hot and cold days. We even had to cancel indoor volleyball games this month due to excessive heat.”

Jones said the CTE building will allow the system to expand its career readiness program into areas beyond what it already offers. “It will allow us to work to improve our graduation rate as well as our ACT WorkKeys scores to help improve our standing as a district.”

The CTE center, he said, would allow the system to expand into other areas and to work toward earning industry-recognized credentials for students. “The vision is that the center could host community college courses as well as our high school courses. At the same time, this consolidates our early college and gets them out of the armory, which is a beautiful building built in 1941; however, it’s not at the level of current classroom conditions.”

This year’s application is a shift from last year’s, which sought funding for a new middle school to allow the current Chaloner Middle School to serve as the new location for the ACES alternative school and Clara Hearne Pre-K. “Part of the reason why we shifted was not only our needs, but also to become more competitive for the grant. There are key components the state will consider for the grant. One of those is being able to serve multiple schools as well as being able to meet a need.”

The RRGSD is applying for a chance to receive $52 million from the state, Jones said, which requires a 5 percent local match of $2.6 million should the system receive the grant.

“I 100 percent support this,” Commissioner Thomas Barrett said. “This is something we definitely need without question.”

Barrett then asked Jones what becomes of the armory, to which Jones replied, “The plan, if we were to receive the full maximum amount, would be to deconstruct. It would be torn down. The rationale is if you’ve walked through the doors, it’s a beautiful building. It is also not functioning at capacity as a school right now. It has a gym, but we cannot use the upstairs of the gym because that’s been condemned. It does not have HVAC in there.”

Jones said the classrooms in the armory are separated into areas where you have to pass through one classroom to reach the next. “We have a very limited campus, as you are aware. The thought of the design would be that we’d have a career technical education center along that street, and then where the current softball field is, that would be where the gymnasium would be. That would kind of block in that entire area and then develop the Patterson fields for the athletic complex across the street.”

Barrett said, “I think just like the high school, the armory is part of this town. It’s been a part of this town for a long time.”

He said he would vote for the school system to move forward with the grant application, which ultimately passed unanimously, but also cautioned, “Until you talk to the citizens of Roanoke Rapids and really get their input on what they think we should do with that armory building, I’m not going to look for another dollar going to tear it down, but I think that’s only fair.”

Barrett said he realizes the armory is on school district property, but the building “belongs to everybody in Roanoke Rapids. It’s just like the high school. It’s a piece of history. I think if we can get creative a little bit on the building, I think it’s something that needs more public input. Right now we’ve come up with this and the citizens of Roanoke Rapids have no idea until you start tearing the bricks down.”

Jones said he understood Barrett’s concerns. “That is one of the challenges in terms of the size of the campus where you can expand out. We couldn’t just build a new building. We can’t use the Patterson fields for green construction because that’s a limited space, which basically gives us the space where the softball field is — that’s the only new construction we could have.”

The superintendent said the system could look at tearing down the gymnasium and cafeteria. “I did my history and research on the armory, and I certainly recognize and value the piece that’s part of it.”

He said, however, “What I’ve been tasked to do is look at what’s best for the school district and move forward, and while honoring our past, we also can’t be chained by it. We can honor the traditions and the rich history that we have, while at the same time prepare for today for what the next 20 years, 30 years, and 50 years will be.”

Jones said, “My task is to look at what our needs are now and what our needs are going to be in the next 40 to 50 years at a building that’s almost 100 years old.”

Barrett said he understood. “I’m just saying you definitely need to get the input of the citizens of Roanoke Rapids in this deal.”

Jones replied, “This is at the preliminary stages to get this grant, because without the grant, we’re not doing anything. If we get this grant, then we can certainly have the conversations move forward if the project needs to shift and move the design to meet the needs.”