July 10, 2018

The Lee County Board of Education continued the traditions of the former W.B. Wicker School by unanimously naming the new elementary school "W.B. Wicker Elementary School" and selecting the Tigers as the mascot, along with the school colors of Navy and Old Gold.

May 1, 2018

W.B. Wicker Project Budget

April 25, 2018

Contract - Lee County Schools and American South General Contractors (signed April 10, 2018)

Payment Bond - American South General Contractors

Performance Bond - American South General Contractors

April 24, 2018

W.B. Wicker Deed

April 11, 2018 (Revised April 19, 2018)

Notice to Proceed

April 10, 2018

Resolution Approving the Leading by the County of Lee, North Carolina of Certain School Facilities to the Lee County Board of Education, Requesting Said County to Provide Financing for the Construction, Renovation and Improvement of an Elementary School and Authorizing and Approving a Construction and Acquisition Agreement and Lease Agreement in Connection Therewith

November 6, 2017

The Lee County Boards of Commissioners and Education met in a joint session for presentation on the W.B. Wicker PK-5 STEAM School.

Hite Associates Presentation of Concept Plan (PowerPoint) - Architech Jimmy Hite

Hite Associates Presentation of Concept Plan  (PDF) - Architect Jimmy Hite

W.B. Wicker Elementary - Overview of a journey to create an A+ STEAM school - Lee County Schools Accountability Coordinator Wendy Carlyle

W.B. Wicker Elementary School Project Timeline - Architect Jimmy Hite

County of Lee, North Carolina Elementary School Facility Capital Project Budget Ordinance

Lee County, NC Limited Obligation Bond(s), Series 2018 - Financing Calendar

May 9, 2017

Fully Executed Agreement Between the Lee County Board of Education and Hite Associates, P.C.

November 2015

The Lee County Board of Education and the Lee County Board of Commissioners have selected the former W.B. Wicker School site, located at 900 S. Vance Street in Sanford, as the location for the county’s newest elementary school.  The school will open in August 2019.

W.B. Wicker School was built in 1927, and its hallways were filled with children until its closing in 1990. The school was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000. (See more information below on the school’s nomination to the National Register.)

As envisioned, the school will serve approximately 1,000 children in Pre-kindergarten through fifth grade.  A plan to incorporate both an attendance zone and a school-of-choice model is being considered.

A STEAM curriculum (science, technology, engineering, arts and math), along with support services and strong community involvement, will give students attending the new school a solid foundation for their education and their future.

The Lee County Training School, better known as W.B. Wicker School, served as Sanford and Lee County’s African American high school from construction in 1927 until it was decommissioned as a high school in 1969. The one-story brick building, characterized by large windows alternating with pilasters, was renamed in 1954 after its first principal, William Bartelle Wicker, and it was built by contractor A.L. “Link” Boykin, a leading member of Sanford’s black community. Additions were made to the building in 1934 and 1949, and the campus was enlarged by the construction of other buildings from the 1930s through the 1960s.

Construction funds were provided in part by the Rosenwald Fund, conceived in the 1910s by Southern black leader and educator Booker T. Washington.

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United States Department of the Interior

National Park Service

National Register of Historic Places

See the full Registration Form - National Register of Historic Places