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Tuesday, 24 March 2026
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Written by Paul Woolverton, CityView Today
Cumberland County Board of Commissioners Chair Kirk deViere on March 17 announced Vision 2030—his plan to transform the community for the better.
“Tonight, we’re putting a stake in the ground, and by 2030, Cumberland County will be recognized as a national model for military-connected community development,” deViere said during his second annual State of the County Address.
Cumberland County will be a place where education, workforce development, and economic development “are seamlessly connected,” he said. “Where every home has clean water. Where mental health is treated with the same urgency as physical safety. Where our military families choose to stay and build. And where innovation and opportunity grow side by side.
“That is Vision 2030. And that is not a dream. That is a plan,” he said.
DeViere spoke before about 100 members of the public plus county staff and other commissioners in the 1926 Historic Courthouse on Gillespie Street downtown. DeViere was interrupted with applause several times. In addition to interested residents, the crowd included elected officials from Fayetteville, Spring Lake, Hope Mills, Falcon, the Cumberland County Board of Education, and Fort Bragg garrison commander Col. Chad Mixon.
Although deViere put a name to his initiatives on March 17, in many ways Vision 2030 has been underway since he took office 15 months ago and snatched the board chair position from its old guard in a 4-3 vote. For example, he quickly pursued efforts to expand public water and boost support for the county’s public schools.
Some of the goals and objectives that deViere highlighted:
A New Children’s Museum
Downtown Fayetteville has a small children’s museum called Fascinate-U in the old City Hall on Green Street. The community should have something much more, deViere said.
“We’re talking with Fascinate-U, our local children’s museum, to explore what it would take to build a facility worthy of the children in this community—the best in the southeast—because our kids deserve nothing less,” he said.
In fall 2023 The Fayetteville Observer reported that Fascinate-U’s executive director said the museum planned to expand within its existing building, where it occupies the first floor and part of the second floor. There was no mention of building a new facility. The media outlet reported that Fascinate-U opened in 1995 in a community center off Ramsey Street and moved into the former City Hall in 1998.
Aquatic Center and Crown Entertainment Campus
The county is advancing on several fronts with quality-of-life amenities, deViere said.
“We’re building a community where people want to be—not just where they work, but where they choose to spend their time,” he said.
These include construction of a regional aquatic center, which is still in the planning phase.
“We are moving forward with a regional aquatic center unlike anything in the region,” deViere said. “A state of the art facility designed for collegiate and high school competitions, community recreation and advanced human performance training.”
He also addressed plans to revitalize the late 1960s-era Crown Theatre and Crown Arena next to the 1990s-built Crown Coliseum on U.S. 301.
“At the Crown Complex, we’re investing in a world-class entertainment campus,” deViere said. “We’re upgrading the theater for concerts and performing arts, and we’re modernizing our arena for sports and events. These improvements will help make our complex a year round regional destination.”
DeViere led the county commissioners’ controversial decision in June 2025 to cancel construction of the Crown Event Center in downtown Fayetteville. The center had been years in the making, and it was intended to replace the Crown Theatre and Crown Arena. Construction got underway in October 2024 before being abruptly paused in March 2025 and canceled in June.
Resources are instead being directed to the theater and arena.
Clean Drinking Water
The county is aggressively seeking to bring public water to the whole county, deViere said. “This county will not rest until every one of our families has clean, safe drinking water,” he said.
In this board’s first 100 days, he said, the commissioners directed the installation of water filters in two elementary schools in Gray’s Creek whose well water had been contaminated by industrial chemicals called PFAS and GenX, from a nearby Chemours Co. chemical plant. Since 2017, the schools had used bottled water.
In addition to providing filters to the schools, “we accelerated the construction of a water system in the most contaminated neighborhoods in Gray’s Creek. We committed more than $260 million to clean, safe, state-regulated drinking water and secured the largest water infrastructure allocation of any county in this state,” he said.
Further, deViere said, Cumberland County residents rallied to protest an effort by the Town of Fuquay-Varina in Wake County to extract more than 6 million gallons of water a day from the Cape Fear River, which serves as Cumberland County’s primary water source.
Economic Development, 911 Center, and Homelessness
Other points from deViere’s speech:
“We will develop economic corridors around the Fayetteville Regional Airport and the Crown Complex to attract private investment, create jobs and transform some of our strongest assets into engines for growth.”
The community has a metaphorical “innovation corridor. It brings Fort Bragg, our educational institutions, and our private sector partners together in one regional network for defense technology, cyber security, artificial intelligence and next generation workforce development.”
The county continues to work with the City of Fayetteville on an effort to combine their separate 911 call centers into one 911 center. Previous efforts failed amid disputes over control of a jointly operated center. “We will break that cycle,” deViere said.
While the county has more to do to help homeless people, it worked with nonprofit organizations to provide more than 100 beds for cold weather shelter, and more than 70 beds for people in emergency situations. “No one should sleep in their car in Cumberland County. And while we still have more work to do, we are no longer just talking about homelessness, we’re doing something about it.”
Mental health services have been expanded, and the county plans to integrate mental health professionals into its 911 response “so that when somebody calls in crisis, that a trained professional will be there. Help, not handcuffs.”
For the Next Generation
In announcing his plans, deViere recalled a similar initiative from 25 years ago, called the Greater Fayetteville Futures Project, and cited Tony Chavonne, who was one of that effort’s organizers. Chavonne at the time was the general manager of The Fayetteville Observer. He later served four terms as mayor, and after that was the publisher of CityView until 2024. Chavonne now serves on the board of the News Foundation of Greater Fayetteville, which is a nonprofit that financially supports CityView.
The Greater Fayetteville Chamber last year published a plan named Vision 2030 on its website. Its goals are similar to what deViere outlined, but there are differences. The chamber’s version was developed by a working group to set goals for 2030 and 2050, Nat Robertson, the chamber’s president, told CityView. A conversation in May 2025 between deViere, Robertson, and Fayetteville Mayor Mitch Colvin led to the development of the chamber’s plan, Robertson said.
As deViere outlined his ambitions for Cumberland County on Tuesday, he pointed out his 9-year-old son, Grey, who was in the audience with deViere’s family.
“Every decision I make as your chairman, I think about the county that he’s gonna grow up in,” deViere said.
“Will the water be clean? Will the schools be strong? Will there be opportunities for him and his friends when they’re ready to build their lives?” deViere said. “I want Grey to grow up in a community that never stops fighting for its future. And I know every parent and grandparent in this room feels the exact same way about their child or grandchild.”
(Photo: Kirk deViere, far right, speaks with a member of the community during the State of the County Address, March 17. deViere announced his "Vision 2030" plan for Cumberland County. Photo courtesy of Cumberland County, NC Government)
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Tuesday, 17 March 2026
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Written by Dasia Williams, CityView Today
The Cumberland County Board of Education voted March 10 to rescind several student reassignment and facility decisions it approved on Feb. 9, reversing course after weeks of criticism from parents, educators, and community leaders.
Board members rescinded votes affecting Ramsey Street High School and Alger B. Wilkins High School, while also approving recommendations to reverse a planned calendar change for E.E. Miller Elementary School and halt the demolition and property transfer of the former Pauline Jones Elementary School campus.
The decision means E.E. Miller Elementary School will remain on its current year-round calendar rather than transitioning to a traditional schedule before the 2027–28 school year. The board also approved rescinding its decision to demolish the Pauline Jones buildings and transfer the property to Cumberland County. That means the campus will continue to be used by the district.
Several of the reversals followed recommendations from the board’s Auxiliary Services Committee, which unanimously voted on March 3 to ask the full board to reconsider the February decisions after hearing concerns from parents and community members.
Outside the board meeting at South View High School, residents, students, and parents gathered holding handmade signs and wearing school pride T-shirts representing several affected campuses. Some students held posters reading “We’re Here to Protect the Nest” and “Byrd Is Not the Alternative.”
In recent weeks, community members organized meetings and public comment campaigns across the county in response to the district’s proposals to close or consolidate schools, including gatherings in Spring Lake opposing the possible closure of Manchester Elementary School.
Also March 10, the board approved revisions to the district’s 2026–27 school calendars, including updates to the traditional, year-round and Cumberland Polytechnic High School calendars.
Board Reverses Ramsey Street Relocation
In one vote on March 10, the board rescinded its Feb. 9 decision to reassign and rename Ramsey Street High School to the Douglas Byrd Middle North building before the start of the 2026-27 school year.
Instead, the board approved relocating Ramsey Street High School to the former Pauline Jones Elementary School campus.
The motion passed 6-3. Board members Jacquelyn Brown, Greg West, Susan Williams, Terra Jordan, Delores Bell, and Jackie Warner voted in favor. Deanna Jones, Judy Musgrave, and Mary Hales voted against the motion.
Before the vote, Musgrave said she opposed the change based on feedback from the community.
“Well, the only thing that I say about it is that the teachers, the students, the community—they don’t want that,” Musgrave said. “And so my vote would be a no for that.”
Alger B. Wilkins Reassignment Revised
The board also voted 6-3 to rescind its February 9 approval to relocate Alger B. Wilkins High School to available space within Douglas Byrd High School.
Under the revised plan approved Tuesday, Alger B. Wilkins High School will instead be reassigned to the Douglas Byrd Middle North building.
Board members Brown, West, Williams, Jordan, Bell, Warner voted in favor with Jones, Musgrave, and Hales opposing.
Jones said she opposed the move because she does not believe Alger B. Wilkins should be relocated at all, adding that the board had not fully considered the potential impact on students.
“I don’t think Alger B. Wilkins needs to move at all,” Jones said. “With that special group of kids, they need to be where they’re at. We’re not looking at what the consequences are, including mental health and we always talk about the mental health of the students.”
Hales also raised concerns about the move, describing the school as a supportive environment for many students.
“Alger B. Wilkins is a safe haven for a number of our students,” Hales said. “When we talk about our children and their successes, it should include every single student in the Cumberland County school system.”
Jordan, who supported the revised plan, said she recommended the alternative relocation over concerns that Alger B. Wilkins students would struggle sharing space inside Douglas Byrd High School.
“I knew they could not go into Douglas Byrd High School and be successful in that building,” Jordan said.
Moving the program to the Douglas Byrd North building, she said, would allow students to maintain “their own identity” and provide “a safe space for our children to be in.”
‘This Decision Is Not About Buildings’
Several teachers who spoke during public comment—many wearing shirts representing their schools—urged the board to consider the academic and emotional impact of school closings and consolidations on students already facing significant challenges.
Brianna Grullon, an English teacher at Douglas Byrd High School, said the district should carefully examine the equity implications of combining schools that already serve high concentrations of students of color and economically disadvantaged students.
“This decision is not about buildings,” Grullon said. “It is about fairness. It is about opportunity.”
“When schools that are already majority-minority and overwhelmingly economically disadvantaged are combined, the result is deeper concentration and greater isolation,” she added.
Nicole Rivers, an English teacher at Douglas Byrd High School and a 2021 Sandhills Regional Teacher of the Year finalist, said the proposal would place additional strain on students already facing economic challenges.
“Our students should not have to carry the weight of a decision that tells them their needs and potential come second to somebody’s budget,” Rivers said.
“Alger B. Wilkins is not just a school, but a carefully constructed community meant to support students who would otherwise fall through the cracks,” she added.
Gabriel Stumbaugh, a seventh-grade social studies teacher at Anne Chesnutt Middle School, said closing schools because of aging facilities ignores years of delayed maintenance decisions.
“I don’t believe this is truly just a funding issue,” Stumbaugh said. “It is a management issue.”
“If maintenance wasn’t addressed proactively in the past, the solution shouldn’t be closing the school and disrupting the lives of the people who learn and work there every day,” he said.
Melissa Henecke, a counselor with Cumberland Academy 6-12, the district’s virtual school, urged the board not to relocate the school’s in-person hub to a traditional high school campus.
“The building is not just an address,” Henecke said. “It is the anchor of our program’s identity and community.”
“For a virtual school, in-person touch points are everything,” she added. “Many families chose this program specifically because their children struggle in large traditional school environments.”
Tamika Kelly, president of the North Carolina Association of Educators and a longtime Cumberland County educator, said consolidation decisions can have ripple effects across school communities.
“These decisions have impacts that are beyond financial,” Kelly said. “They are disruptive.”
“They are disruptive to the learning journeys of the students, especially those with the most needs,” she added.
‘This Is a System Failure’
Several elected officials and community leaders also addressed the board, raising concerns about the broader impact school closures and relocations could have across Cumberland County.
Spring Lake Mayor Kia Anthony spoke in opposition to the proposed closure of Manchester Elementary School, calling it part of a pattern of disinvestment affecting the town.
“This is not a failure of our children, our families, or our community,” Anthony said. “This is a system failure.”
“Communities do not grow stronger by losing schools,” she added. “Families do not move to towns that keep losing neighborhood schools and calling it progress.”
Former Cumberland County Commissioner Charles Evans also urged the board to reconsider school closures in what he described as a majority-minority district.
“Closing public schools in a majority-minority district risks increasing inequity, disrupting learning, and destabilizing communities,” Evans said.
“Public schools are more than classrooms,” he added. “They are safe spaces, meal providers, meeting centers and sources of pride in many neighborhoods.”
Rev. Mary Owens, a retired educator and alumna of Anne Chesnutt High School before it became a middle school, spoke about the school’s historical significance.
“The legacy of Anne Chesnutt High School should not die,” Owens said.
“When we were there, it was separate, but it was never equal,” she added. “But those teachers gave us the audacity to dream.”
Board Members Defend Consolidation Effort
Following the votes, several board members addressed the district’s broader facilities plan and the criticism it has generated in recent weeks. West defended the initiative, saying the district’s recommendations were based on two independent facility studies conducted over three years at a cost of about $1.2 million.
West also pushed back against claims that the proposals were motivated by race.
“Race was not used or mentioned in the facility reports, nor should it have been,” West said. “The analysis focused on the age, condition and efficiency of the buildings.”
West said the goal of the plan is to move students and staff out of aging facilities and into newer learning environments while reducing long-term maintenance costs.
“No child—regardless of race—should be expected to learn in 1950s-era buildings that require millions of dollars in repairs when better options are available,” West said.
West said the broader initiative could eliminate more than $31 million in deferred maintenance and generate millions of dollars in annual operating savings that could be reinvested in students and teachers.
But other board members questioned both the pace and the priorities of the consolidation effort. Jones said the district should focus more attention on academic performance before pursuing major structural changes.
“We need to be concerned about 27 low-performing schools,” Jones said. “That’s where our focus needs to be.”
Hales said the district must also consider how past maintenance decisions contributed to the current situation.
“Our structures were not taken care of down through the years like they should have been,” Hales said. “And the majority of those structures were housing minority students.”
Hales said the district should focus on supporting students and communities rather than closing schools.
“We do not need to move these schools,” she said. “We need to be concerned about the success of our children.”
Musgrave said she believes the board must keep its focus on students and the district’s legal obligation to provide a sound basic education.
“I want to keep the main thing the main thing,” Musgrave said. “And that’s children first.”
The next Cumberland County Board of Education meeting is scheduled for April 14.
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