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Districts face up-hill battle
Counties cannot build schools fast enough to accommodate growth
By Rachel Pleasant
Staff Writer
It is difficult, if not impossible, to escape the residential development occurring in every corner of the tri-county area.
Every day, hammers are swung and nails are driven into hundreds of new homes in Dorchester, Berkeley and Charleston counties.
The buyers of those homes are looking for many things—a place to retreat after a hard day’s work, a place to retire and, in many cases, a place to raise their children.
The latter proves troublesome for the area’s school districts and taxing to already strained buildings and budgets.
The pace of student population growth is overwhelming, forcing schools to add portables, realign attendance boundaries and, as funding allows, build new facilities. Although new schools will only provide immediate relief and are not a long-term resolution, it is a start.
To pay for this growth, districts are looking at alternative means to raise cash, such as impact fees on new construction and establishing nonprofit entities to sell bonds for construction.
For a look at how the area’s three largest school districts are being impacted by unprecedented growth in the area—and how they are coping—the Business Journal visited each school district.
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