In preparation to place the largest bond in Orange County history on the ballot in November, CHCCS representatives met with the Board of Orange County Commissioners Tuesday to discuss the details of the possible $125 million bond.

The school system plans to use the $75 million dollars that would be allocated to them to make improvements Chapel Hill High School and to create a centralized Pre-K program at Lincoln Center.

“Chapel Hill High has been a constant problem for us, just in terms of the way things have been done over the years and the quality of the construction,” superintendent Tom Forcella said. “We really felt that was one of the things that had to be addressed first.”

The repairs to Chapel Hill High are expected to cost around $52.41 million. The school board plans on knocking down and replacing one building, while renovating the remaining buildings.

This would help solve issues of mold, flooding and moisture, as well as making the campus safer and more secure.

Commissioner Barry Jacobs said safety concerns were his number one priority.

“We started this conversation after Newtown,” he said. “That was my main motivation for trying to push to have this bond program.”

To increase security and help prevent school violence, like the kind Jacobs referenced with Newtown, Connecticut, Chapel Hill High will get a new secure lobby. It would prevent visitors from gaining access to the school without first going through the lobby.

The upgrades to Chapel Hill High are part of phase one, with seven other schools in the district also receiving health and safety renovations in phases two and three.

Jacobs said he wanted to emphasize student safety to the public.

“Anyone who had the same concerns since Newtown and they hear that they’re child is in a phase two building, we may not get to it until the next bond,” he said. “I would at least like to know we’re addressing that, we have a strategy for that.”

The other phase one project expected to be paid for by the bond is the deconstruction and replacement of Lincoln Center.

The new building is projected to cost $22.62 million dollars and would be the home of a centralized Pre-K education program.

“If we could have enough money and every child could go with their siblings to the school where they’re going to go to kindergarten and grade school, that would be perfect,” said board of education member Margaret Samuels. “But we don’t live in that perfect world. Less than fifty percent of (Pre-K) kids are in their district or the school they would go to for kindergarten.”

The public will vote on the bond that will finance both of these projects in November.

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