By Karl Cameron
Special To The Carolinian
The J.W. Ligon Media Center was the scene of a lively community meeting on May 15th at 6:00 p.m. that seemingly the local African-American Community wasn’t told about. The topic of the meeting was the fate of the J.W. Ligon Building, which now houses a Middle School. J.W. Ligon Senior High School Alumni attendees were particularly concerned, because no public notice of the meeting was issued to their knowledge, and they found out through Social Media from a text titled: “It’s True!! Possibilities for John W. Ligon School.”
The text stated, “Wake County School building planners and architects want to… (1) Tear down all of the existing buildings, (2) Build a 3-story building on the current football field, (3) Replace current building with an athletic field and a parking lot, (4) Reduce auditorium from current 900 seat auditorium (original to the school), (5) Replace with a tiny 350 seat auditorium with a smaller stage, (6) Reduce the arts and classroom spaces.
The Wake County Public School System website further stated that the project is scheduled to begin with design in Sept. 2024, with design completion in Dec. 2026. Construction is anticipated to start in Sept. 2027, with completion in the 2029-30 school year.
A crowd of mostly J.W. Ligon Senior High Alumni and community concerned citizens filled the J.W. Ligon Middle School Media Center, and voiced their concerns, regarding what they had learned through Social Media, as well as word of mouth in the community. Ms. Elizabeth Sharpe, opened the meeting, assuring the audience that she had no knowledge of the text that has circulated in the community, as well as assuring attendees that the meeting was part of an information gathering process, before anything definite was put in place moving forward.
Further concern among those in the audience began to circulate one to another when attendees realized that representatives of the architecture firm LS3P were seated in front of everyone. Ms. Sharpe turned the meeting over to one of their representatives, who proceeded to pose the following questions to the crowd: “What is your tie to Ligon Middle School? What do you love about Ligon Middle School? What are some of the challenges you see with the current school building?”
The presenter got no further than the third question, as attendees began to express their concerns about the pending project from the floor. Frances Lonette Williams brought up the fact of the school’s history, which includes the existence of a Senior High School with grades 9-12, which produced students that excelled in the arts, athletics, as well as academics. Her comments were followed by a chorus of responses including: “Now our history will be erased, this is devastating!” “This project should be approached with the same state of mind, if Broughton High School was the subject.”
A middle school parent echoed, “We love this fact that this was a High School Building. The study of integration is important to us as native citizens of Raleigh. We love our Magnet School, that’s why we bring our children here. We should celebrate what Ligon has been.”
J.W. Ligon Alumni President, Tony Bethea went further stating, “I don’t know what needs to be done. What makes sense is to renovate versus creating a new structure. It’s better to make small improvements from time-to-time. A new building would destroy the memory of the school (J.W. Ligon Senior High School).”
A J.W. Ligon Middle School graduate commented, “If we want to preserve the school, we will. 30-people in a classroom was fine in the past, when my aunt, and uncle couldn’t go to any other school, but this renovation without the community in mind is gentrification. We need to preserve the essence of Ligon.”
The meeting closed with Ms. Sharpe assuring the crowd that notice of future meetings concerning the fate of the J.W. Ligon Building would be made more accessible to the community. Efforts to contact the Wake County Public School System regarding notice of future meetings received no response by press time.
