NCSSM preps to grow again; WH-H to gird for battle?

The North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics has perched over in the old Watts Hospital site at Club St. and Broad St. for twenty-seven years, taking the spot of the hospital facility moved there in the early 1900s. NCSSM sits right in the heart of one of Durham's thriving urban neigborhoods, the Watts-Hillandale district.

Notice that no one ever proposed to rename the neighborhood NCSSM-Hillandale? Well, that's not too surprising. For years, it seems, there's simmered some concerns from neighbors about the school's plans for growth and the impact of the school on the surrounding streets and blocks. Not that that's a universally-held view -- other residents are quick to point out that the school's student body, which is drawn from a competitive range of high schoolers from throughout the state for a rigorous two-year academic program, are some of the most civically-engaged and neighborly high schoolers you could expect to find.

Well, NCSSM's board of directors and the state legislature have approved plans to grow the school's population by one-third (from the current enrollment of about 600), which will necessitate the construction of the Discovery Center, a $70-million, 250,000 sq. ft. building with labs, classrooms and a cafeteria. Shortly before Thanksgiving, NCSSM also announced that it would hire what a WHHNA board member described as "an expert in [Durham] zoning ordinances" to help shepherd the development of the project through the city's development phases.

NCSSM is beginning a campus master planning process to look at how the Discovery Center should fit in to the century-old complex; one possibility under discussion is to locate the classrooms building near the Club Blvd. entrance to the campus, replacing the parking lots currently in place there.

As Don Moffit, a W-H neighbor and member of the City's Planning Commission, noted in an email on the W-H listserv, NCSSM is following the model of many local businesses and institutions in getting consulting help with Durham's zoning regulations, which especially under the newer UDO has its moments of arcane head-scratching involved. Unlike Duke and NCCU, which were rezoned to a UC (University/College) designation after many years when the campuses' zoning district being ignored when development was proposed, NCSSM remains a residential-zoned site, so some zoning change or variance will be necessary for just about anything the school wants to do.

Naturally, planning processes like these are slow and it could be several years before anything comes to fruition -- but since zoning changes means it's time to go talk to the neighbors, the next couple of years will be an interesting one for the school and Watts-Hillandale. The neighborhood association and school entered a deep conflict over what type of lighting the school would use to illuminate a soccer field (a natural concern for immediate neighbors of the school, who worried about the impact of bright lights right across the street.)

How will the neighborhood and school work together on this process? Personally, I find both the school and W-H to be two real jewels of Durham -- one a national leader in secondary education, the other one of the best-preserved and most active residential districts in town. One can only hope the negotiation process to follow will find a way to set both of these jewels in a harmonious setting, and not to further clashes.

Comments

[barry]

"Shortly before Thanksgiving, NCSSM also announced that it would hire what a WHHNA board member described as "an expert in [Durham] zoning ordinances" to help shepherd the development of the project through the city's development phases."

Pass the popcorn.

[PWT]

...other residents are quick to point out that the school's student body...are some of the most civically-engaged and neighborly high schoolers you could expect to find.

Huh?

They're "civically-engaged" because the school requires them to complete community service, a small price to pay for their taxpayer-funded boarding school education.

Neighborly? Perhaps. But how would WHH residents ever know? The administration keeps the students sequestered on campus, with few opportunities for interaction with Durham residents outside the mandatory service projects.

Under a previous administration, the school actively encouraged students and neighbors to get together regularly, almost like a host family program. But that was stopped with the current president/chancellor.

The neighbors asked about restarting the program, but were rebuffed. The neighbors also suggested a "share your pet" day, similar to one Duke held for several years, when neighbors would bring their pets on campus so students who might be missing their own pets would have some interaction. Again, lots of excuses and little interest from the administration.

And perhaps the cruelest blow: One of the primary reasons given for the tennis courts to be built adjacent to homes along Maryland Avenue was that the administration didn't want students walking two blocks to the tennis courts at Oval Park "because it wasn't safe, especially at night."

This assertion was made despite the facts that:
1) The Oval Park courts aren't lit, so why walk would students be walking down there at night?
2) The students regularly walk through the neighborhood, especially up and down Ninth Street, at night.
3) Neighbors are out walking their dogs, jogging, or just visiting at night.

This isn't a knock on the students. They are very bright, engaging, and polite young people. But the school's administration clearly doesn't want them interacting with the townies. Just another example of poor leadership by the current administration and its rubber-stamp board of trustees.

What a tragic loss for both the students and the neighbors.

[Steve]

I have a rare vantage point about NCSSM – I currently work there and I went to school there long, long ago. I also live on campus, so for me WHH is just as much my neighborhood as it is for any other house dweller.

I’m not interested in debating every action of the administration. I’m far down the chain and frequently out of the loop; though I knew about the Discovery Center plans I had no idea they were considering multiple buildings or any location other than the center of campus until I read it in the paper. So please don’t take my words as the voice of the school leadership.

But there are some things to clarify. Yes, the school requires NCSSM students to do a variety of services for the privilege of attending, and it has since the beginning, long before a tuition grant was ever imagined. For one, students are required to do 60 hours of communities either prior to their junior year or following their junior years. Most of them do considerably more, but sixty is the minimum. There are students from all over the state but that includes Durham, so some of that required community service is done in Durham.

What a WHH resident posted on the e-mail list, though, was community service done *in Durham* outside of the scope of the required 60 hours. In the past two years there have been students working to clean up Ellerbe Creek, raking yards in the WHH neighborhood, surveying houses in the WHH neighborhood for potential solar energy use, tutoring students in a “Big Buddies” program at E.K. Powe, singing at Durham rest homes, collecting nearly 1000 books for the Durham County Library’s book sale following the recent fire, working at the Durham branch of the Food Bank, collecting canned food for food drives, collecting hundreds of stuffed animals for the Durham Fire Department to give to children, and more. This is just what I can recall without talking to anyone else here.

I can respond to other comments later, but I did want to correct this perception that the service noted in the paragraph above is required – it’s not. Are the students angels? No. Are they motivated by college applications? Probably. But they are investing in Durham on a voluntary basis.

[Steve]

That should be: "students are required to do 60 hours of service in their home communities"

[PWT]

Thanks for the clarification about the service. I never intended to knock the students. I've been part of earlier programs that included the students and personally got to know two students who attended my church, so I know they are great kids. It's the short-sighted attitude of the administration that limits the students' interaction in Durham and with the surrounding neighbors. And that's a real shame.