Cumberland County Schools Need a Facilities Plan: Is It Time to Consider a School Bond?
Our children get one opportunity at an education. They should not have to spend those years in buildings that are struggling to keep up with the demands of modern learning.
As a father, community volunteer, Realtor, and President of the Terry Sanford Athletic Booster Club, I have spent years inside our schools and around the families, teachers, coaches, and students who make Cumberland County Schools special. I have also seen why we need to take a serious look at the condition of our facilities and the future of our campuses.
This is not a call to write a blank check. It is a call for a complete, transparent, long-term plan: and an honest public discussion about whether a school bond or another form of long-term financing is the right tool for Cumberland County.
The Need Is Too Significant to Ignore
Cumberland County Schools serves approximately 48,434 students and operates 86 schools across our community. That is a large and diverse public school system, including families who have lived here for generations and thousands of military and federally connected students.
The district and county are addressing approximately $800 million in deferred maintenance and facility needs. A 2025 Master Facilities Assessment identified approximately $805.8 million in recommended repairs and upgrades, including major needs involving heating and cooling systems, safety infrastructure, and aging building systems.
A seven-year plan identified approximately $314.3 million in the most urgent facility needs, including an estimated $92.2 million for HVAC improvements. Cumberland County has committed approximately $300 million toward facilities planning and construction, while the broader facilities modernization and construction framework has been reported at approximately $610 million.
Those figures represent different stages and components of planning. They should not be treated as one finalized bond amount. But together, they show the scale of the challenge.
The question is not whether Cumberland County Schools has facility needs. The evidence makes that clear.
The question is whether we are willing to address them responsibly, openly, and before today’s problems become tomorrow’s emergencies.
A School Building Is Part of School Safety
When we talk about school safety, we often think first about security officers, visitor procedures, emergency drills, and secure entrances. Those are essential.
But school safety also depends on the building itself.
Students and staff need:
- Reliable HVAC systems and healthy indoor air quality
- Sound roofs, plumbing, and electrical systems
- Safe entrances, hallways, and athletic facilities
- Accessible classrooms and restrooms
- Modern communications and technology infrastructure
- Buildings that can support emergency response and secure operations
- Classrooms designed for today’s instruction: not yesterday’s expectations
A school cannot provide an exceptional learning environment when basic systems are unreliable. Teachers should not have to work around failing air conditioning, outdated technology, crowded classrooms, or maintenance problems that have been postponed year after year.
Facilities are not simply bricks, mortar, and budgets. They are where students learn, teachers work, families gather, and communities build confidence in the future.
Operating Dollars Cannot Carry Every Capital Project
The proposed 2026–27 Cumberland County Schools budget is approximately $670.8 million. That is a significant operating budget, but an operating budget is not the same as a capital-construction budget.
Approximately 79% of the district’s budget goes to salaries and benefits. That investment is appropriate because students need excellent teachers, principals, counselors, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, and support staff.
Our operating dollars must also support transportation, student services, mental health resources, instructional materials, technology, utilities, and school safety.
That means annual operating funds cannot realistically carry every major roof replacement, HVAC project, renovation, new campus, and construction project without competing with classroom priorities.
This is why capital planning matters. Major public facilities are long-term community assets, and they require long-term decisions about design, construction, maintenance, financing, and accountability.
Projects Are Moving Forward: But They Must Be Clearly Prioritized
Current planning and Board actions include a proposed new E.E. Smith High School, new elementary construction at the J.W. Coon, Ferguson-Easley, and Stedman sites, a classroom addition at Gray’s Creek High School, and facility consolidation and relocation discussions.
These projects are proposed or in planning. They should not be presented as completed.
The Cumberland County Board of Education’s February 2026 recommendations included funding requests and directions related to new construction, maintenance, possible closures, relocations, redistricting, and the coordination of project timelines. The Board also requested approximately $300 million for high-priority maintenance over a seven-year capital improvement plan.
That is a serious beginning. But the community deserves to see the full picture: not only individual projects considered one at a time.
We need to understand how each proposal fits into a comprehensive plan for all Cumberland County NC schools.
Is a Bond the Right Answer?
A bond may be one possible tool. It may not be the only tool.
A voter referendum for a general-obligation school bond is different from county-issued financing, debt scheduling, capital appropriations, or budget ordinances approved through the county’s normal public processes. The timing, approval process, repayment structure, and taxpayer impact can vary.
At this time, I am not announcing that a voter-approved school bond referendum is currently on the ballot. I am saying the public deserves a clear discussion about the options available to address our facilities needs.
Before supporting a bond or another long-term financing plan, I would expect the Cumberland County Board of Education, county commissioners, and district staff to explain:
- How much would be borrowed?
- What would the interest and total repayment cost be?
- What would the repayment period be?
- What would the potential tax impact look like?
- Which projects would be funded first?
- What safeguards would protect taxpayers?
- How would the county maintain the buildings after construction?
- What would happen if construction costs rise or enrollment changes?
Responsible financing starts with plain language and complete information. Families and taxpayers should not have to decode complicated documents to understand a proposal that could affect Cumberland County for decades.
My Standards for a Long-Term Facilities Plan
If I am elected to the Cumberland County Board of Education in 2026, I will support a facilities process built on the following standards.
1. Publish the complete assessment
Residents should be able to review a complete, prioritized list of facility needs: not only selected projects or broad totals.
2. Show the condition and future of every building
Each school should be identified as needing repair, renovation, replacement, consolidation, or continued use, with estimated costs and timelines.
3. Make enrollment projections public
The district should publish enrollment and population projections so construction decisions reflect where students are expected to live: not only where they live today.
4. Explain financing in plain language
Any bond or financing plan should clearly show the amount borrowed, interest, repayment period, total cost, and potential taxpayer impact.
5. Protect classroom priorities
Capital spending should not weaken teacher support, student services, transportation, instructional resources, or school safety.
6. Require strong oversight
Competitive bidding, independent review, milestone reporting, budget updates, and public project dashboards should be standard practice.
7. Give the community a meaningful voice
Parents, teachers, students, taxpayers, military families, builders, Realtors, and neighborhood leaders should have real opportunities to participate before final decisions are made.
That means more than placing information on a website. It means listening at a cumberland county school board meeting, holding community forums, and making sure the public can understand how feedback affects the final plan.
8. Prioritize needs: not appearances
Urgent safety, health, infrastructure, capacity, and overcrowding needs should come before cosmetic improvements. We should fix what is essential first.
Parents Deserve a Voice in These Decisions
A facilities plan will affect more than construction schedules. It may affect school boundaries, transportation routes, the cumberland county schools calendar, athletics, extracurricular programs, staffing, and neighborhood identity.
Families deserve to know what is being considered and why.
Parents should not learn about major changes only after decisions have effectively been made. We need parent voice in schools from the beginning: especially when discussions involve possible closures, relocations, redistricting, or consolidation.
The district should also communicate in ways that working families can access, including clear online information, public meetings, translated materials when needed, and timely updates through established CCS channels.
Good public leadership does not avoid difficult conversations. It creates a process people can trust.
Strong Schools Support a Strong Community
Modern schools help Cumberland County compete for families, employers, and economic opportunity. They support teacher recruitment and retention. They help military families feel welcome when they move to Fayetteville NC schools. They contribute to neighborhood stability and community confidence.
As a Realtor, I understand that schools and facilities influence how people view a community. As a parent and volunteer, I understand that the most important measure is not a building’s appearance. It is whether the facility helps students learn and teachers succeed.
Our cumberland county schools jobs also depend on a strong school system. The district is one of our community’s largest employers, and high-quality facilities can help create a workplace where educators and staff feel respected and supported.
A good building will not solve every educational challenge. But neglected buildings can create challenges we should not accept.
The Long-Term Economic and Property-Value Impact Matters Too
This conversation is not only about education. It is not only about construction, either.
Well-maintained, safe, modern cumberland county schools can strengthen Cumberland County’s long-term economic foundation. Strong school facilities can help attract families, retain military families deciding whether to stay in our area, support business recruitment, and give employers greater confidence in the direction of our community. They can also encourage construction activity and local-business participation as projects move from planning to delivery.
Builders and Realtors should pay close attention to this discussion. In communities across North Carolina, school quality and facility conditions influence where families want to live, how neighborhoods are perceived, and where future development is more likely to occur. That does not mean any project should be sold with promises of a guaranteed return or a specific rise in home prices. It does mean school conditions are part of the larger picture for surrounding property values, neighborhood confidence, and community growth.
As a Realtor, I believe this point deserves plain, honest language: families often consider nearby schools when choosing where to buy or rent, and employers consider community assets when evaluating expansion, relocation, and hiring. When cumberland county nc schools are safe, functional, and prepared for modern learning, that sends a message that Cumberland County is planning ahead.
That is why this should be treated as a long-term community investment: one that supports students and teachers first, while also helping protect and strengthen the broader economic health of our county. The public should expect those benefits to be measured transparently over time through open planning, clear reporting, and responsible oversight: not assumed, exaggerated, or used as an excuse for a blank check.
Students First Means Planning for the Next Generation
The cumberland county board of education has an important role in setting educational and facilities priorities, advocating for students, and holding the district accountable. County commissioners and taxpayers also have essential roles in deciding how capital projects are funded.
This must be a partnership: not a tug-of-war.
Planning for the future of Cumberland County means investing in students, teachers, school safety, and the economic foundation of the community at the same time.
I am not saying a bond is definitely the answer. I am saying we cannot ignore aging infrastructure, and we cannot pretend annual operating dollars can solve every major capital need without consequences.
We need a transparent facilities plan that tells the truth about our buildings, our enrollment, our priorities, our finances, and the long-term impact these decisions can have on families and the future of Cumberland County.
Students First. Teachers Supported. Parents Heard. Schools Safe.
That is the standard I will bring to the cumberland county school board. Let’s have the public discussion, examine every responsible financing option, and build a facilities strategy worthy of the next generation.