What the $829 million Wake bonds would build in eastern Wake

Wake County voters will decide two bond questions on November 3, 2026: $680 million for the Wake County Public School System and $149.1 million for Wake Tech. The school money would at least partly pay for three new elementary schools, two of them in the Wendell and Zebulon area, and eight major renovations that include Wendell Elementary and East Wake High in Wendell, according to The News & Observer. None of the three new schools or the eight major renovations is in Wake Forest or Rolesville.

The school board voted on April 7, 2026 to ask the county for the $680 million, WUNC reported. The Wake County Board of Commissioners held public hearings and adopted both bond orders on July 6, 2026, putting the two questions on the fall ballot, according to Holly Springs Update. The two bonds total $829.1 million.

What the school bond would build in eastern Wake

The school system’s plan runs to $832.3 million over the 2027-28 and 2028-29 fiscal years, according to the WCPSS bond page. The bond covers $680 million of that, and the county would pay the other $152.3 million in cash. The News & Observer broke the plan into three parts:

• The three new elementary schools would get $143.2 million.
• The eight major renovations would get $329.7 million.
• The remaining $359.4 million, which the district calls program requirements, would pay for smaller renovation projects, furniture and equipment.

Two of the three new schools sit east of Knightdale. Marshburn Road Elementary is planned for the Lizard Lick community outside Wendell, on a site at 2621 N.C. 97 that WRAL reported in February 2025. The school board picked the Marshburn Road name on March 4, 2025 over Lizard Lick, which 52 percent of 380 survey respondents had preferred, according to WRAL. Little Creek Elementary is planned for 2200 Old Bunn Road in Zebulon, with a target opening in 2029, WRAL reported when the board approved that name on February 19, 2025. The third new school, Poole Road Elementary, is planned for 6120 Poole Road in southeast Raleigh, according to The News & Observer, which called it long delayed.

The eight schools on the major renovation list, per The News & Observer, are:

• Wendell Elementary in Wendell.
• East Wake High in Wendell.
• Athens Drive High in Raleigh.
• Ligon Middle in Raleigh, the most expensive of the eight, where the existing building would be demolished.
• Washington Elementary in Raleigh.
• Briarcliff Elementary in Cary.
• Cary High in Cary.
• East Garner Middle in Garner.

The WCPSS bond page says about 77 schools would get some work under the program, counting smaller items such as roofing, HVAC, fire alarms, intercoms, elevators, parking, security and athletic facilities. The district projects 2,633 more students over the next decade, The News & Observer reported, and the 2022 school bond of $530.7 million passed with 71 percent of the vote.

Wake Tech’s $149.1 million and the Wendell campus

Wake Tech calls its question the 2026 Workforce Forward Bond. Its bond page splits the $149.1 million three ways: $41 million to expand workforce programs, $65 million to renovate several buildings at the Southern Wake Campus in Raleigh, and $43.1 million for collegewide renewal, which is $20.4 million for building systems such as HVAC, elevators, roofing and security and $22.7 million for servers, networking, cybersecurity, vehicles and simulation labs.

The largest single workforce item is in eastern Wake. Wake Tech would spend $20 million to finish the Fire and Rescue Training Center at its Eastern Wake Campus, adding classrooms, simulation and decontamination labs, flexible training space, equipment and an apparatus bay, according to the bond page. The campus, which Wake Tech calls Wake Tech East, opened in Wendell off Rolesville Road at Interstate 87 in 2024, according to Wake Tech. The college broke ground on the training complex on September 10, 2024, with a six-story live-fire tower and a five-story rescue tower. The bond page says the center has been underway since 2020 and that the new money builds on the previous Wake Tech bond.

The other workforce items are $12 million for welding, electrical and HVAC labs at the Southern Wake Campus, $5 million to expand the Hendrick Center for automotive programs at the Scott Northern Wake Campus, $2 million for the dental hygiene program at the Perry Health Sciences Campus and $2 million in planning for the Conlon Western Wake Campus, according to the bond page.

Tax impact and how to vote

Both bonds together would raise the county property tax rate by half a cent per $100 of assessed value, or $22.50 a year on a home assessed at $450,000, The News & Observer reported. The increase would begin in fiscal year 2028, according to Holly Springs Update, which also reported the county’s estimate of total repayment with interest: about $1.04 billion for the school bond and about $228.8 million for the Wake Tech bond. Wake County’s current rate is $0.5171 per $100, the third lowest among North Carolina’s five largest counties, according to the WCPSS bond page.

Early voting runs October 15 through October 31, 2026, according to the Wake County Board of Elections, with these hours at all 18 sites:

• Weekdays run 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
• Saturdays run 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
• Sundays run 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.

The closest early-voting sites are Joyner Park Community Center at 701 Harris Road in Wake Forest, which is new this year, the Knightdale Recreation Center at 102 Lawson Ridge Road in Knightdale, and the Wendell Community Center at 601 W. Third Street in Wendell. Same-day registration is available during early voting, and voters must show photo ID. The regular registration deadline is October 9, 2026 at 5 p.m., and polls on November 3 are open 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., according to the State Board of Elections.