Wake County school leaders are deliberating three different proposals to rehabilitate historic Ligon Middle School, including two that would demolish the current building.

The project has raised concerns in the community about preserving the historic Southeast Raleigh school while addressing clear problems.

They presented the options to the school board’s facilities committee on Tuesday. The school system will host community and stakeholder meetings on the project early next year, and the school board could vote on an option next spring, as soon as February.

Many alumni have opposed tearing down the building, which was originally slated for a renovation. In 2022, Wake County voters approved a bond issue to fund an infrastructure plan that included a planning phase for the project, anticipated at that time to be a renovation.

Rebuilding the school would be more expensive than renovating it, according to district cost estimates, though at least one rebuild option would fall under the $140 million budget for the project.

On Monday, the school system posted a video on its YouTube page explaining the project, including challenges with broken or damaged infrastructure at the school and the too-small size of the school. The school has struggled with damaged plumbing, along with HVAC and electrical issues.

Board Member Sam Hershey, who chairs the board’s facilities committee, encouraged community members on Tuesday to look at the facilities’ documents and to watch the video. He said board members “are going to get every opportunity” to ask questions and pick apart the proposals.

The next community meeting on the project will be Jan. 8, with details yet to be set.

Many alumni want to preserve the history of the school, including its architecture, and are frustrated that a rebuild is now in the works when many alumni say they were repeatedly told by system officials that a rebuild would not be in the works. That change of course drew criticism from former board Chairman Chris Heagarty, who felt he’d been hoodwinked into repeating that same claim — that rebuild wasn’t on the table — only to find out that it was.

At board meetings this fall, Ligon alumni have called for better community engagement and to keep the things that they are proud of, such as the school being at the top of a hill.

“We’re asking for support to try to preserve history that is continuing to be erased in the Black community,” Carol Gartrell told the board during an October meeting.

It’s a tense issue at a historic school that now finds itself in a fast-gentrifying part of Raleigh, as luxury condominiums are set to be constructed just across the street.

“It’s a delicate balance,” Superintendent Robert Taylor said. He believes each option has merit, but that each one would leave some people upset. “How do we preserve the legacy of the Ligon school? Is it through an existing building? Is it through a future building?”

Ligon was built in 1953, replacing Washington High as Raleigh’s only all-Black high school during a time of segregated schooling, back when Raleigh City Schools was independent from the suburban Wake school district, according to a history on the school’s website..

The high school was desegregated in 1971, before the city and county school systems merged, and converted into a junior high school.

After the merger, in 1982, Ligon became a magnet school, part of a system of magnet schools designed to lure white students from the suburbs to the urban schools in Raleigh to help further desegregation efforts.

The building has been added to over the years to accommodate growth.

Taylor said it was built when standards for classroom size were smaller.

Now in 2025, the school building is showing its age and requires three trailers to accommodate enrollment that’s slightly above building capacity.

A 2021 Facility Condition Assessment, conducted by inspection specialist company Bureau Veritas, labeled numerous parts of the school buildings in “poor” or “failing” condition, recommending replacement that year. That included exterior walls, windows, plumbing, sinks, outdoor tennis and basketball courts, electric cooktops, floors and HVAC.

Many of the deficiencies were graded as such for being outdated, but some were noted for failing to perform, including appliances in cooking classrooms and outdoor tennis courts that are unusable.

The school system now lists three options to fix up the school, all of which would be significant changes to the school.

The budget for the project is about $140 million. Here are the options:

• The first option would be to move students to a new temporary campus on the current site of the school’s ballfields, while the system renovates the existing building. The cost of the project would be $102.3 million, and the project would take 51 months. That option wouldn’t meet certain goals that system officials have, which include expanding the size of the building and classrooms and expanding space for traffic to queue before and after school.

• The second option would be to move students to a new temporary campus on the current site of the school’s ballfields, while the system demolishes the current building and builds a new one. The cost of the project would be $148 million, and the project would take 56 months. That option would accomplish the goals that the first project would not be able to, and system officials say they could preserve the history and legacy of the original school through design elements on the new building. It would, however, be overbudget, take the longest and disrupt learning with the temporary school building, officials note.

• The third option would be to keep students in the current building while the system builds a new school on the site of the ballfields. The cost of the project would be $121.8 million, and the project would take 45 months. That option would also meet the goals that the first option would not be able to. It would move the campus from the top of the hill, which alumni say they prefer, to the back of the property, lower down. The new building would be elevated to address that concern. With this option, system officials say they also could preserve the history and legacy of the original school through design elements on the new building.

The school system doesn’t list a preferred option, but they have no qualms with the third option, as they noted with the first two.

Taylor said there will be more feedback opportunities after the Jan. 8 meeting and that he plans to meet with staff, students and alumni going back decades.

In February, he plans to gather feedback from the community on a proper tribute or recognition for Ligon’s history, regardless of which project the board chooses.