The Bladen County Board of Education voted Tuesday, March 17 to close East Arcadia School effective June 30, 2026.
The special called meeting was necessitated after the board voted 5-4 on Monday, March 9 to close the school, but was not able to agree when the school should be shuttered.
Under the plan, East Arcadia students will be sent to Clarkton School of Discovery.
At the Tuesday, March 17 meeting, Anthony Thomas made a motion to close the school at the end of the 2026-27 school year, telling the board it would give the school system more time to prepare Clarkton School of Discovery for the additional students. The motion failed 6-3 with Gary Rhoda, Harfel Davis and Thomas voting in favor.
A motion was then made to close East Arcadia effective June 30, 2026. It passed 6-3 with Mackie Singletary, Tim Benton, Chris Clark, Aaron Russ, Dennis Edwards and Steve Kwiatkowski voting in favor.
The Tuesday, March 17 meeting lasted less than 10 minutes.
The initial motion to close the school passed March 9 by a 5-4 vote with Benton, Clark, Edwards, Russ and Singletary voting in favor. Board members opposed to closing the school were Davis, Kwiatkowski, Rhoda and Thomas.
In spite of three votes to close the school in June 2026 and two votes to close in June 2027 during the March 9 meeting, none of the motions passed.
Currently, East Arcadia School has 58 students in kindergarten through fifth grade. Superintendent Dr. Jason Atkinson told the board that number is projected to drop to 43 for the 2026-27 school year.
Columbus County Schools is building a new school in nearby Acme-Delco. Singletary told the board March 9 that school is projected to open in October 2027.
Since East Arcadia School has fewer than 100 students the state does not pay for administrators. According to a report from Bladen County Schools, since 2018, the system has paid $535,000 in salary and benefits for Principal David Wimert
The report also said it would cost nearly $2 million to renovate the facility with a new septic system, new windows, floors and HVAC systems.
East Arcadia School began as Rosenwald School for Black students in the late 1920s.
Leave a Reply