[Nancy Reynolds] School is deemed unfixable

Stokes school board says rebuilding it a bad option

WESTFIELD (By Kim Underwood, Winston-Salem Journal) - It would be impossible to renovate Nancy Reynolds Elementary School, members of the Stokes County Board of Education told community members during a meeting Monday night.

The historic school, which the Reynolds tobacco family built and gave to the community in 1923, has serious structural problems. At one point, three possibilities were being discussed -- renovate the existing building, demolish the building and build another elsewhere on the site, or start fresh on another site and turn the old building over to a community group.

Over the years, the school has become the hub of the community, and those who came to the school board's first community meeting in September were almost unanimous in expressing their desire to have the school renovated. With that in mind, board members asked architects to delve more deeply into what a renovation would require.

The news they brought back to the community was not heartening.