OCS is the 11th largest district in the state of North Carolina with over 27,000 students currently enrolled. The district has 40 educational facilities, including 21 elementary schools, 8 middle schools, 7 high schools, an early college high school, an early childhood development center, an alternative learning program, and the Eastern North Carolina Regional Skills Center. Additionally, the Onslow K-12 Virtual School (OVS) provides families with an alternative to in-person learning. On average, our district has increased by over 300 students per year.
The relocation of MARSOC West to our community, combined with increased civilian development, has brought increased population growth to our county, especially and most recently, to the Sneads Ferry and Holly Ridge areas. While this growth is very beneficial to our community, it presents unique challenges to the school system in the form of capacity issues at our schools. Dixon High School is a good example of this.
Dixon High School was originally built in 1967, and has been expanded numerous times since then, most recently in 2008. With the addition of the annex from the old Dixon Middle School, the capacity of the high school was increased to 957 students. Dixon High School's current population is well above that number. The most responsible course of action to ease capacity issues at Dixon High School would be to use available seats in surrounding districts when it is deemed feasible to do so. To help alleviate the capacity issues at Dixon High School, staff is proposing a potential redistricting between Dixon High School and Southwest High School. This would mean some students who currently attend Dixon High School would be redistricted to Southwest High School, which is below its capacity of 1016.
