ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — Asheville City Schools hopes to leverage the site of a former school to get a pre-K facility built at another campus.

When Asheville Primary School closed in 2022, Buncombe County officials began looking at the property to meet its needs on the west side of Asheville. County officials were interested in using the site for a regional EMS base and a library.

“When they were doing their feasibility study, they asked us what were some things we’d like them to consider,” Asheville City Schools Chief of Staff Dr. Kimberly Dechant said.

Asheville City Schools officials asked about putting operations/maintenance and preschool facilities at the site.

The study showed the operations/maintenance facility was a fit, but pre-K classrooms were not.

“They’re going to demo the existing building,” Dechant said of the former Asheville Primary School facility. ‘Essentially, they would clear that site and start from scratch. The rough schematic showed that by the time they add a library, add an EMS building, add a building for operations and maintenance, there is not enough space to add classrooms.”

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ADW Architects, whom the county contracted with for the feasibility study, created a new proposal for a pre-K facility — build it at Hall Fletcher Elementary School.

The total cost of the pre-K facility at Hall Fletcher would be about $20.4 million, according to county documents. That includes a 29,000-square-foot building with 18 classrooms and the capacity for 268 students.

“This is a beautiful concept,” Dechant said. “But we don’t have the money to build that. But since they want to use our land, there might be some kind of financial gain for us in building a pre-K facility.”

The Buncombe County Board of Commissioners voted Tuesday to move forward with due diligence to understand the operational and financial impacts of the projects.

According to county documents, the next steps include:

  • Present to Asheville City School Board for concept approval.
  • Upon approval of the study by both boards, develop a construction phasing plan and budget funding year plan.
  • Contract with design firms to complete construction documents.
  • Bid and construct funded projects.

County Communications Manager Kassi Day said the work was preliminary.

“As we are in the very early stages of this particular project, it is far too preliminary to identify project funding sources,” Day said.