KERSHAW COUNTY, S.C. — As classroom sizes grow in Kershaw County, it’s left the district looking for ways to expand. Now, school leaders think they’ve found the answer with a new school.
"This is just looking to the future and making sure we’re staying proactive,” said Kershaw County School District Superintendent Dr. Harrison Goodwin.
Goodwin says the time has come to address growth in the area, and the new elementary school will be located on the corner of Highway Church Road and Steven Campbell Road.
“We're growing between 250 to 300 students a year in the district, and most of that growth is in West Wateree," Goodwin said.
Chief Operations Officer Billy Smith said the state-of-the-art facility will hold around 700 students, helping to alleviate the 4 elementary schools in the Elgin and Lugoff areas.
“Right now, Blaney is the tightest, and then Wateree Elementary is the next, but we have housing developments popping up all around Lugoff-Elementary, all around those two schools, and all around Doby Mill, so what we would do is redraw all of those lines and even out all of those attendance areas,” Smith said.
While the design plan is complete and the land has been purchased, it will take several years to complete, along with a careful examination of how to even out the classrooms.
“The next steps obviously are funding plans to pay for the school itself, which is also a process we have to go through," Goodwin said. "So we’re not looking at next year to build this school. This is a 3-5 year out project.”
The district says they eventually will have to do something regarding middle and high school seats, but they have to examine if they can do additions or if they need to build new facilities.