The Guilford County (North Carolina) district has opened a performing arts elementary school in Greensboro that takes the place of two campuses heavily damaged in a 2018 tornado.
EdNC reports that the Peeler-Hampton Visual and Performing Arts Elementary School has been built on the site of the former Peeler Open Elementary School. That school and Hampton Elementary were demolished after each sustained significant damage when a tornado touched down in 2018 in the northeastern section of Greensboro.
District voters approved a school bond referendum to pay for construction of the school.
Peeler-Hampton is a county-wide magnet school. This year, it will enroll up to 410 students.
The school was named for two Black leaders in Greensboro history. Dr. William Hampton, was a doctor from New Jersey who came to North Carolina in the 1930s. He became Greensboro’s first Black city councilman in 1951.
The school’s other namesake is Rev. Silas Peeler, who served as the president of Bennett Seminary, now Bennett College, from 1905 to 1913.
