Bladen Community College Reopens Century-Old School for Education and Child Care Programs

Bladen Community College now leads Booker T. Washington School in Clarkton. The building now serves as a center for learning and child care. Officials at Bladen County Schools handed over the keys at no charge during a period stretching from September 2023 through March 2024.

A ribbon-cutting took place Sept. 23, 2025. After years of vacancy dating back to 2018, the building buzzed with life again. Bladen Smart Start placed its headquarters there. Culinary and agribusiness programs moved in.

Dr. Amanda Lee leads the college. She first toured the empty campus in September 2023 while hunting for space to grow programs. The building stopped serving as a public school back in June 2016.

"The condition of the buildings was so much better than what we had anticipated," Lee said, according to EdNC. "We had really been prepared that they probably were not salvageable."

Dr. Jason Atkinson runs Bladen County Schools. He explained that student numbers had plummeted to around 120 by 2016. The district shut the school that year.

The Bladen County Board of Commissioners greenlit an opening annual budget of $150,000 for the campus. Lee reported that money saved in other parts of the college's budget has paid for expenses so far.

The college pulled in almost $50,000 from the Preschool Development Grant Birth-Through Five to launch child care academies in 2026. Another $285,000 grant from the NC Tobacco Trust Fund Commission will fund the agribusiness program.

Next semester, the college will run Bladen Together, a course for working parents on Tuesday nights from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Kids will help cook dinner in the kitchen while parents attend class, then families will share a meal before parents head back for a second session.