Wedgefield residents divided on plans for new K-8 public school

Hundreds of residents attended a community meeting Tuesday evening to discuss a planned K-8 public school in the rural Wedgefield community of Orange County.

Residents are divided about the proposed school that would be off Bancroft Boulevard between Ortega and Paddock streets.

Those in favor of the plans believe a school in Wedgefield is inevitable and necessary for the children who live in the area. Some of those students currently have an hour-long bus ride to other schools that officials said are overcrowded.

"You've moved into an area that had hundreds and hundreds of children," said one resident.

Residents who are against the proposed school worry it will bring too much noise and traffic to the rural community.

"A structure of that magnitude does not fit, it does not fit into this surrounding," said Wedgefield resident Sonja Spradling.

"We all moved to Wedgefield for one reason, because it's remote," said another resident.

But Orange County school district leaders said they considered other options and the community is in need of the school, which would handle more than 1,000 students.

"We are reacting to the fact that there are children that live in Wedgefeild," said school board member Joie Cadle. "As long as new houses go up we are going to have to locate schools somewhere."

Cadle said the school would relieve overcrowding at Columbia Elementary and Corner Lake Middle School.

The county is still in the process of rezoning the property in order to build the school. Commissioner Ted Edwards, who represents the area, admitted Tuesday that the county likely didn't send out enough notices to residents when the land was initially purchased.

Tuesday's discussion was the first of additional meeting that will be held in the future.