The Durham school board is moving ahead ahead with plans for a magnet school program, including a new arts magnet on the Chewning Middle campus.

The first phase of the year-round Creative Studies Academy for grades 6-12 would begin with 200 seats for school year 2013-14 for sixth- and seventh-graders. A lottery open to all district students would fill the school, with preference given to rising sixth-graders from Holt and Easley year-round schools.

The school’s arts and design program with an emphasis on media and communication arts and graphic and architectural design would be distinct from the curriculum Durham School of the Arts offers.

The system has estimated a cost of $125,000 for student transportation.

Chewning, at 5001 Red Mill Road, is to be closed at the end of this school year.

Before voting for the proposed magnet, board member Natalie Beyer said she wished the school could be moved from its location in northeastern Durham County to a spot closer to downtown.

“There is an element of, ‘If you build it, they (the students) will come,’ ” Beyer said of the magnet proposals.

Smaller programs

Also included in the magnet proposal are four smaller programs within existing schools, including a language program and three STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) concentrations.

The language academy at Holt Elementary would begin with 80 seats in 2013-14. The school would offer at least two languages – Spanish and Mandarin Chinese. Instruction at least three days a week would be designed to give students a conversational grasp by the end of fifth grade.

The seats will be filled with a lottery open to all district students, with preference given to students within the Holt region. Students outside of the Holt region would have to provide their own transportation.

The STEM programs would be at Neal Middle, with a focus on math and science; Lowes Grove Middle, with a focus on technology; and Southern High, with a focus on energy and sustainability.

There would be 60 spots at Neal, 120 at Lowes Grove and 240 at Southern. These spots would be filled with a lottery open to all district students. Transportation would be provided to all students, at an estimated cost of $34,000 at Neal, $68,000 at Lowes Grove and $136,000 at Southern.

Board member Minnie Forte-Brown said she has heard even from parents outside the state who are excited about the program.

Board Chairwoman Heidi Carter said the magnet program would help enrollment, attract new families and improve learning in the system.

Beyer praised the system’s staff for coming up with a proposal that reflects concerns coming from inside the school system and not imposing a “top down” program.

The total estimated cost of the program is $933,000, with transportation costs making up $363,000 of that, and personnel, training, curriculum development and instructional and marketing resources the other $570,000.

The proposal also includes mention of the system’s middle schools where magnet programs would not be added: Brogden, Carrington, Githens and Lucas. The plan calls for adopting an interdisciplinary instructional focus at those schools, with project-based learning used as a basis.

Carter said she hoped the non-magnet portion of the proposal will receive as much attention as the magnet portion.

“I just want us to minimize our risk of hurting our other middle schools,” Carter said.

Beyer echoed that sentiment, taking issue with the the “not applicable” the staff has proposed for the cost of the proposals at the non-magnet schools.