IRMO, S.C. — Lexington-Richland School District 5 is looking at its landscape. It comes as they are hoping to improve the district through its 5-year master plan.
Superintendent Dr. Akil Ross says back in 2013, 25% of their students were in the Chapin area and the largest number of students were in the Dutch Fork area. Now, in 2023, he says that's reversed, which has left district officials trying to decide whether to build more buildings or use existing ones. Ross said he thinks using the current ones will be better for the district.
"I think it's definitely a great idea," said parent Kyndall Davis when finding out her kids who live in Chapin will see changes to their schools in an effort to keep up with growth.
"It takes care of the existing issues we have with growth," Ross said.
Ross said the first step is simplifying the structure of the district. Currently, students go through intermediate schools between elementary and middle. The new plan gets rid of intermediate and would allow re-purposing of those current buildings.
"We can bring all of the elementary schools to K-5, have 5 middle schools 6-8, and then move into our 3 zoned high schools with one magnet high school," Ross said.
That change means Crossroads Intermediate School would become a new middle school, Chapin Intermediate School would turn into Chapin Middle and the old Chapin Middle building would turn into Spring Hill Middle School.
"This will allow us to flatten out and to reduce the population of the overcrowded buildings in Chapin, and that way we use our existing buildings to handle our existing growth," Ross said.
The changes mean the district will have to build at least one new school.
"With this plan, I have programs in Spring Hill High School: The Academy for Success, Irmo High School Adult ED, and our virtual program the Administrative Offices are housed in Pineywood, so I need those programs out of those buildings to use every inch of space," Ross said. "So, I've put together options so we can be a special program building, and if we have special programs building, that will allow this plan to work, or a new Dutch Fork Elementary School. So, it will require a referendum for all of this to happen."
All of this still has to be approved by the district's school board.
District officials welcome public input before mid-May. You can send it your input to the district by email at 5yearplan@lexrich5.org.