Schools bursting at the seams
Until new facilities are built, district to rely heavily on mobile classrooms
Published on 03/28/05
BY SEANNA ADCOX
Of The Post and Courier Staff
(excerpts...)

............Earlier this year, district building director Bill Lewis presented county school board members with an inch-thick study of the district's building needs for 2005-09. The study, which included options and recommendations, addressed issues in each of Charleston County's eight constituent districts. Funding all projects on the list would cost at least $615 million.

The school board must pick and choose what it can realistically fund for the 2005-09 plan. How the district will fund it remains undetermined.

Officials say the Mount Pleasant and West Ashley constituent districts are particularly needy. There, the district needs to replace or renovate 50-year-old schools and deal with an ever-increasing population.

Mobile classrooms already dot the landscape of schools in those areas. But the district can't just build schools with enough square footage to get rid of mobiles. The student population is expected to grow up to 4 percent yearly through 2010 in both West Ashley and Mount Pleasant, based on building permits and Census data, Lewis said.

"Other districts don't have that double-edged sword," he said.  "If we don't hit these two hard, we're just continuing to push the problem out.  It's a big bullet to bite, but if we don't, it will cost us more in the future."


.........WEST ASHLEY

The 2000-04 building program gave West Ashley a new high school, middle school and intermediate school, and converted Drayton Hall Middle into an elementary school. Now the district wants to focus on the area's other elementary schools.

Moving all West Ashley fifth graders to the new West Ashley Intermediate, a school converted from the former St. Andrews High, relieved some of the overcrowding at the elementary schools. But the K-4 campuses still rely on mobiles.

The district always meant the move to be temporary. Officials hope to move fifth graders back to their neighborhood schools in the 2005-09 building program.

Except for Drayton Hall, all West Ashley elementary schools are "at the end of their useable life and over capacity," according to Lewis' study. "These schools were poorly constructed and have many problems such as inadequate site drainage, mold and mildew..."

Board members must decide whether to renovate the half-century-old schools, or tear them down and rebuild. Renovating a school would add 15 years to its usability, Lewis said.

"When you renovate and expand, the older part will last 15 years, but the new part will last 50, so 15 years from now, what do you do, when half is brand new and half is 65 years old?" Lewis asked. "That will be the dialogue."

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