COLUMBIA, S.C. — Liberty STEAM Charter School celebrated the groundbreaking of its new expansion at the Sumter Mall, aiming to accommodate more students and grow its impact in the community.
The public charter school, which currently serves students in second through fourth grade at its Sumter Mall location, plans to expand by adding fifth through eighth grades. The addition will allow the school to continue its mission of providing quality education to more students in the area.
“We have a waitlist right now of 1,489 scholars that did not get a seat in this past year’s lottery cycle,” said Trevor Ivey, Liberty’s executive director. “Each year, our enrollment expansion allows us to admit 150 new students into our kindergarten class.”
As the only public charter school in Sumter County, Liberty is planning to welcome its first fifth-grade class as early as August 2025.
“We will be ready to immediately occupy two-thirds of the renovated space on August 1 of next year,” Ivey explained. “This is more than enough space for our fifth graders to move into the junior academy.”
The expansion has garnered support from the mall's property owners at the Hull Property Group according to their vice president of government relations, John Mulherin.
“It’s going to help not only the property remain viable but help our existing tenants become that much more successful,” Mulherin said. “This kind of economic activity and this kind of investment into the property is only going to bode well for everyone.”
Chris Neeley, superintendent of South Carolina’s Public Charter School District, also voiced his support, especially given the challenges charter schools face with funding.
“We don’t get funding for facilities in South Carolina for charter schools, and we are public schools,” Neeley said. “We don’t tax the taxpayers, we don’t have bonding authority, so for us, we have to be very creative and innovative about our facility solutions.”
According to Ivey, the expansion project is being made possible through the support of generous donors. “They are our visionaries, they are the ones funding the gap we need because we don’t get the same funding that traditional charter schools receive,” he said.
The project is still in the design phase and awaits approval from the Office of School Facilities at the State Department of Education. While the total cost is yet to be determined, Ivey estimated the expansion will add nearly 90,000 square feet over the next three years to accommodate the new grade levels.
Liberty STEAM will open its lottery enrollment for the 2025-26 academic year on October 1. More information can be found on the school’s website.