Johnston County Board of Commissioners to Review School Board Request for $129 Million to Rebuild Clayton High School
For Immediate Release: November 3, 2025
Smithfield, NC - Today, the Johnston County Board of Commissioners heard a $129 million request from the Board of Education to rebuild Clayton High School on its existing campus between Fayetteville and Robertson streets. "The community of Clayton wanted the school to stay on that site," said Board of Education Chairwoman Lyn Andrews ahead of Monday's meeting. "They wanted to keep it as part of the town."
Building on an existing campus is not unprecedented. The school board did the same many years ago when fire destroyed much of the Four Oaks Elementary School campus. Since then, the Board of Education has rebuilt Princeton High and Wilson’s Mills Elementary on their existing campuses. A plan the school board endorsed on Oct. 28 will keep Clayton High students on campus throughout the build, attending classes in the old building while the new one is under construction.
The project would take place in phases. Starting next month, Barnhill Contracting Co. would begin razing the grandstand on the home side of the football stadium. The idea is to have a new one ready in time for graduation next spring.
At the same time, the contractor would begin work on the new school — a main building with an auditorium, main and auxiliary gyms, administrative offices, a cafeteria and media center, and then a three-story classroom building.
That work should wrap up nearly two years later, by November 1, 2027. The school board would then hire a company to move teachers into the new building over the winter break, and classes there would start in the new year. In phase 2, Barnhill would raze the existing main gym and put temporary parking in its place. That work would begin on March 1 of next year and end by July 31. Much later — from January through July of 2028 — the contractor would raze the existing school and replace it with a softball diamond with press box, tennis courts, and a multipurpose field. Clayton High’s existing basefield field, shared soccer and lacrosse field, football stadium and football fieldhouse will remain.
The County would borrow the money for the new school through limited obligation bonds. That wouldn't require voter approval, but the borrowing would benefit from Johnston’s AAA bond rating, meaning the County would pay a favorable interest rate.
Johnston County doesn’t usually borrow money for a new school outside of voter-approved bond issues. But Clayton High is an unusual case. Plans for the new school have evolved over time. An early idea was to house Clayton High students at the new Wilson’s Mill High during construction in Clayton. Another idea, the one that eventually prevailed, was to keep Clayton students on their current campus while building a new school. But County Commissioners wanted assurances that would work, explained Commissioners Chairman Butch Lawter. “We didn’t want to get halfway into the project and find out it couldn’t be done,” he said in advance of Monday’s meeting. That’s one reason why Commissioners pulled Clayton High from the bond issue Johnston voters approved last fall.
In all, a new Clayton High would cost $134 million, a price that includes demolition of existing buildings. Commissioners previously gave the school board $5 million for design work. Andrews, the school board chairwoman, argued that the price would have been higher had her board had to look elsewhere for land. Any tract large enough to accommodate a high school would be not only expensive but far removed from the heart of the Clayton community, Andrews said. “We just felt like this was the better plan."
Commissioners will formally vote on the borrowing at their November 17 meeting. In the meantime, County staff will run the financing plan by the state’s Local Government Commission, which approves all county and town borrowing in North Carolina.
This rendering shows the layout of a new Clayton High School on the existing campus. At top right (1) are the new main building and three-story classroom tower. Also new are a multipurpose field (8), softball diamond (7), softball press box (12), tennis courts (6) and parking for staff (2), visitors (3), students (4) and buses (5).
Johnston County Public Information Office
P.O. Box 1049
207 E. Johnston St.
Smithfield, N.C. 27577
Phone: (919) 938-6427