By PAMELA JOHNSON

For the Washington Daily News

Washington Montessori Public Charter School is nearing completion on a new middle school building, the second phase of a project that started with construction of its high school building. The school is growing, but not in the traditional sense.

“WMPCS is growing in the sense that we accept more students in kindergarten than graduate each year. Due to natural attrition throughout the K-12 years, fewer students leave the school by graduating than are accepted in kindergarten. Our total student population has been between 400 and 430 for the last several years; currently, our plan is to maintain that number,” said Darla Prescott, WMPCS director of academics and education.

WMPCS is constructing the new building to accommodate between 60 and 80 middle school students — adolescents in a developmental stage defined by critical thinking and exploring deeper moral and social values, according to Montessori founder, Dr. Maria Montessori. With four large classrooms, a central gathering space, kitchen, offices and other multi-use spaces, the building represents another step toward permanency, rather than an intent to increase student numbers.

“The building is a natural progression of the school moving from modular structures to permanent structures. There is no plan to increase the capacity of the school, nor will it be required to continue the operation of the school. We believe that we have reached the local market cap for families that want to pursue a K-12 Montessori education and have no plans to increase our student numbers,” said Austin Smigel, WMPCS director of administration and finance.

As North Carolina charter schools do not receive capital funding from the state, the building is being funded by a USDA guaranteed loan through Select Bank, funds raised through a capital campaign, reserved funds from the Charter School Sugar Creek Settlement in 2012-2013 and saving local funds as the school’s budget permits, according to Smigel.

Construction of the new building has been part of the school’s long term strategic plan created more than eight years and has been in the works since completion of the high school building in 2015.

“The project budget is $1.8 million and Stocks and Taylor was selected based on their experience and previous work with the design and construction of the high school building,” Smigel said. “The initial bid by Stocks and Taylor was under our proposed budget and allowed the school to add much needed additional parking to this phase.”

Building started this summer and is expected to be completed in late winter or early spring, according to Smigel.

WMPCS currently has 402 kindergarten through 12^th-grade students from five counties: Beaufort, Pitt, Washington, Martin and Craven.