Proposed changes to AAST, Scholars Academy draws parent, student ire at HCS meeting
Parents and students packed the room during Monday’s Horry County Schools board meeting to voice their concerns about proposed changes to the Academy for the Arts, Science, and Technology and Scholars Academy.
The school board is considering a recommendation from its newly created Curriculum and Instruction Committee to eliminate freshman and sophomore grades within AAST’s STEM program and turn the Scholars Academy into a stand-alone school.
The hope is that the changes will provide more opportunities for students throughout the district, which implemented a district-wide K-12 STEM program this year, but those involved with the schools are worried about adverse effects.
At most board meetings, only a handful of people sign up for public comment, but board chairman Ken Richardson said 25 people signed up this time, most of whom wanted to discuss the proposed changes.
Those speaking on behalf of Scholars Academy often pointed to the school’s noncompetitive, collaborative environment and how turning it into a stand-alone school would take that away.
One student mentioned a scholarship that’s only available to the top 6 percent of each school’s students and how this change would mean less students at the academy would be able to earn it.
No vote was taken Monday, but if the plan is approved, AAST would expand career technology and STEM major programs beginning in 2020 for juniors and seniors, while those opportunities for freshmen and sophomores would be provided at students’ base high schools.
This means the 2019 freshman class enrolled in AAST’s STEM program would be the last to enter at the school for a four-year program and would be allowed to continue if desired.
Board member Sherrie Todd, who chairs the Curriculum Committee, noted that the school was initially created just for juniors and seniors, and this plan would allow AAST to accept twice as many students into the two-year STEM program.
Board member Ray Winters said he’d prefer to wait to cut grades from AAST until STEM programming at the other schools in the district is better established. His suggestion was met with loud applause.
Also under the plan, the Scholars Academy would become a stand-alone school beginning in 2020, and students enrolled there currently would have the option to return to their base schools.
The Scholars Academy was established in 2003 and currently has about 200 students enrolled each year.
Students would still be allowed to play sports and participate in extracurricular activities at their base schools, but they would only be eligible for valedictorian and salutatorian honors at the academy.
Richardson addressed the audience after the rest of board had concluded its discussion, noting that he doesn’t have a vote on this issue, but he did want everyone to understand that he’s responsible for acting in the best interest of the more than 45,000 students in the district, most of whom don’t attend AAST or Scholars Academy.
This story was originally published September 23, 2019 at 10:10 PM.
