Long-awaited project will provide modern workspace to support transportation operations, employees, and student safety
SANFORD, N.C. - Lee County Schools officially broke ground today on a new Transportation Facility, marking the beginning of a long-awaited project designed to better support the employees and infrastructure responsible for safely transporting more than half of the district’s students across the county each day.
District leaders, members of the Lee County Board of Education and Lee County Board of Commissioners came together with transportation employees, architects and contractors in a field just behind the district’s current Bus Garage off Cox Maddox Road to break ground and celebrate the start of the project.
For more than 50 years, Lee County Schools transportation employees have worked from the Bus Garage facility that was constructed in the 1970’s, adapting to the limited and outdated space available as the district’s bus fleet - as well as the requirements to keep them up to standard daily - expanded significantly.
“Today represents more than the start of construction of a new building,” said Superintendent Dr. Chris Dossenbach. “It represents an investment in the people and infrastructure that make it possible for Lee County Schools to serve our students each and every day.”
The new facility will provide the Transportation Department with modern space and resources designed specifically for its operations. The project is expected to improve the district’s ability to maintain its fleet, increase operational efficiency, and provide employees with a better working environment to fill the needs of maintaining a modern bus fleet.
Lee County Board of Education Chair Sherry Lynn Womack reflected on the conditions transportation employees have worked through for decades and the significance of finally providing a facility designed around their needs.
“For more than 50 years, our transportation staff has made it work,” Womack said. “They have made do with limited space, worked around outdated facilities, and they have found places to put buses, vehicles, equipment, and supplies along with everything else that comes with operating a school system.”
Womack said the project represents much more than a new building.
“This is not simply a new bus garage,” she said. “This is an investment in the people who get our children to and from school every day. It’s an investment in the mechanics who keep those buses running. It’s an investment in the infrastructure that allows our schools and our classrooms to function.”
Transportation plays an integral role in the district’s daily operations. Transportation Director Justin Covert noted during the ceremony that with more than half of the district’s total student population riding buses each day, classrooms and campuses across the county would look very different without buses on the road each day.
“There would be a lot of kids that wouldn’t make it to school. They just couldn’t get there without the transportation department doing what they do to make it happen,” he explained.
“As long as there are buses on the road, there are repairs to be made, and we are going to do our best to make that happen each day,” Covert smiled. “School buses are one of the safest modes of transportation available, and my team and I intend to keep it that way. This new facility will certainly help us complete that task.”
The project is the result of years of cooperation among Lee County Schools, the Board of Education, Lee County Government and project partners. CRA Associates, Inc. is serving as the architects for this project with Daniels and Daniels Construction Company leading the construction team.
Jeremiah Daniels from Daniels and Daniels said that the company views the project as an opportunity to solve a problem. “We get to be the problem solvers. Besides just building a building, we are helping a community with a need that they have. We are excited to be helping Lee County Schools with this much needed project.”
Over the next 400 days, the new facility will take shape, and is expected to be commissioned officially in the latter part of 2027.
“Our transportation team deserves a modern, state-of-the-art facility that reflects the value of their work and provides them with the tools, the space, and the working conditions necessary to serve our students at the highest level,” explained Dr. Dossenbach. “I’m incredibly excited that beginning today, that facility is becoming a reality.”
