Hundreds of Ligon school alumni and community members have been asked to weigh in on the school's rebuild.
It's a part of preserving the school's legacy as its original building is set to be torn down in 2030 and replaced with a new one that same year. The entire project is slated to be completed in 2031.
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Originally opening in 1953 as Raleigh's only Black high school, Ligon is now a middle school with an arts magnet program. It's located off of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard just southeast of downtown.
Researcher Carmen Cauthen and intern Kayla Sparks have been collecting history of the school, researching old school board meeting minutes, yearbooks, newspapers and other documents. They've contacted hundreds of alumni, attempting to create oral histories, and are collecting artifacts.
So far, the community has said they want Ligon's long history of educational excellence and rigor to be central to the school's ongoing legacy, a rigor that Cauthen noted still exists at the school. Arts and culture are another historical emphasis that the community wants to keep around.
"They are a hallmark of Ligon today," Cauthen told the Wake school board's facilities committee Tuesday.
Community members also said they want people to remember the sense of community and collective identity the school created.
"There was a collective identity," Cauthen said. "When you say 'Ligon,' people have a feeling."
The school's final design is ongoing, but the contractor is planning a "legacy" entrance highlighting the school's history off of Haywood Street, favored by the school board earlier this year. The contractor presented a preliminary illustration of what that would look like Tuesday.
School Board Chairman Tyler Swanson said he's impressed with the work and hopes parents will walk into the new school and see both the past and the future.
"I hope this is a model we can look at it the future as we look at future renovations and projects," he said.
Building designers also planning an amphitheater that can also be used for outdoor classrooms.
One thing they can't fit: A full-size regulation track. There's not enough room between Haywood and Church streets to put a track. It will still have regulation lines that will allow some track and field events, such as a straightaway 100-meter dash and field events, but it would not be full-size. The track will go around a field that will be used for soccer and football, too.
Students have been using the track at nearby Chavis Park, which is also not regulation, consisting only of two lanes.
The school will otherwise have a softball field and basketball courts.
The school has 17 acres of land to use, so it has size limitations compared to other Wake middle schools, which today are built on 24-acre sites.