Coats-Erwin Middle School opened to students in grades 6 - 8 on Monday, September 13, 1999. The new facility was built on property which was formerly the site of one of the original "field schools" named Turlington Field Schools. These small schools were called field schools because they were built to serve students living with families in the rural community. The new school was designed specifically to meet the instructional needs of students at the middle school level. The concept was to have a "house" for 6th, 7th, and 8th grades. Each house was  designed to contain eight standard classrooms, two science lecture/labs, a science preparation room, two flex classrooms, a large teacher's workroom, a storage room, and bathrooms for students and staff.

Coats-Erwin Middle School contains 135,715 square feet of floor space.The school has 39 standard classrooms plus spaces for 8 exceptional children's rooms. It also includes an area for cultural arts, which has a visual arts room, a band room with a locker room for instruments, two music rooms, and an auditorium. Coats-Erwin Middle School's gymnasium will seat 800, and the guidance suite has five rooms to serve students. The cafeteria has three double-sided self-serving lines and seats 300 people. The Media Center has over 7,000 titles with a growing audiobook collection of more than150 titles. The media center collaborates with the Harnett County Library system with inter-library loans.The technology department has a full-time technology facilitator who is responsible for  all 8th grade  students showing proficiency in technology, providing staff development, and collaborating with teachers to promote the integration of technology inclassrooms.  The administrative suite houses the principal, assistant principal,  administrative assistant, data manager, receptionist, and nurse.